Westfield Area CSA

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Category: Featured Produce

Summer Squash

Featured Produce

30 Jun, 2025

Summer Squash

Welcome to Summer Squash season!  As you may have noticed already, summer squash appears in a variety of shapes and colors, the most prevalent being the well-known green zucchini, the straight or crooked necked yellow squash, and the round, flat, often scalloped edge, patty pan squash.  All these varieties are tender, warm-season vegetables that differ from their fall and winter cousins in that they are selected to be harvested while still immature.  Thus, the entire vegetable, rind, flesh, and seeds, can be eaten. (more…)

Garlic Scapes

Featured Produce

23 Jun, 2025

Garlic Scapes

For those of you familiar with the CSA, these curly beauties are a welcome friend.  For those new to the CSA experience, this may be one of your first “experimental” vegetables.

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Hakurei turnips

Featured Produce

16 Jun, 2025

Hakurei Salad Turnips

Hakurei turnips are a Japanese salad turnip.  They are sweet and much softer than a regular turnip, and rarely need to be peeled; just wash and trim the root ends.  The leaves are also edible but should be eaten within 1-2 days.  Wrapped tightly in plastic, the turnips can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. (more…)

Lettuce

Featured Produce

9 Jun, 2025

Lettuce

It is true, eating all that salad is good for you!  While the nutritional value of lettuce varies with the variety, the following excerpt from the University of Illinois website sets the record straight:  Lettuce in general provides small amounts of dietary fiber, some carbohydrates, a little protein and a trace of fat. Its most important nutrients are vitamin A and potassium.   (more…)

Sunchokes

Featured Produce

18 Nov, 2024

Sunchokes (aka Jerusalem Artichokes)

Sunchokes, of the sunflower family, are native to North America where the natives called them “sun roots” before European settlers arrived. Samuel Champlain, a French explorer found them in Cape Cod in 1605 and pronounced them similar in taste to artichokes. But why “Jerusalem artichokes”? They don’t come from Jerusalem nor do they look like artichokes. There are a few theories: (more…)

Winter Squash

Featured Produce

11 Nov, 2024

Winter Squash

Winter squash is really a misnomer, as these delicious treats are grown in the summer. They are edible well into the winter, however, thanks to their ability to last for months in storage.  First, be sure to check for any soft spots. If there are any, cook that squash right away. Soft spots can easily be cut out and the rest of the squash is usually fine. (more…)

Rutabagas

Featured Produce

4 Nov, 2024

Rutabagas

Rutabagas are only called rutabagas in the U.S. Throughout the rest of the world, they’re known as swedes. This ordinary root vegetable is thought to have originated in Bohemia in the 17th century as a hybrid between the turnip and wild cabbage.

Members of the cabbage family, rutabagas are often confused with turnips, although there are noticeable differences. Rutabagas are larger, part white and part purple, with creamy orange flesh and ribs near the stem, and with a nutty, sweet flavor when roasted. Meanwhile, turnips are white with a purple-red top and a peppery taste. (more…)

Bok Choy

Featured Produce

4 Nov, 2024

Bok Choy

Bok Choy is technically a Chinese cabbage. But until you cook with bok choy, you cannot appreciate how special it is. It has a mellow taste compared to some of the other asian greens such as tatsoi. (more…)

Parsnips

Featured Produce

28 Oct, 2024

Parsnips

The parsnip is a root vegetable related to the carrot, but white or cream colored and sweeter. Up until the potato arrived from the New World, its place in dishes was occupied by the parsnip and other root vegetables such as the turnip. (more…)

Sweet Potatoes

Featured Produce

21 Oct, 2024

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are native to Central and South America and are one of the oldest vegetables known to man.  They have been consumed since prehistoric times as evidenced by sweet potato relics dating back 10,000 years that have been discovered in Peruvian caves. (more…)