Dear CSA members,

Today's Hunters' Greens shares should include:

A box of gooseberries, a large red leaf lettuce, a pound of fingerling potatoes, a mixed bunch of kale and collards, and a "stir fry recipe suggestion" kit containing some green onions, baby carrots, broccoli and snap peas.

GOOSEBERRIES. A few  of you may not be familiar with gooseberries.  When properly ripe they taste something like a sweet-tart candy.  When used with sugar in a dessert they result in a very rich sweet and tart flavor that almost demands a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Jim's default dessert is to make a crisp out of just about everything.  The recipe calls for 4 cups of fruit, so you could stretch your two cups of gooseberries with something like apples, or just have a "crispier crisp".

Put fruit in a buttered pie plate or cake pan, sprinkle with a little flour and a little sugar.  Combine a third cup flour, a quarter cup butter, a half cup brown sugar in a bowl, work with a pastry knife or your fingers until granular.  Mix in a cup of oats.  put mixture on top of fruit. Bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

They are also good in a mixed fruit salad.  Jim dresses this with melted vanilla ice cream or peach flavored yoghurt.  Gooseberries particularly complement bananas with the sharp and mellow flavors and different textures playing off each other.

We have heard of them used as a salsa base, and prepared in a syrup as an ice cream topping.

STIR FRY RECIPE SUGGESTION KIT.  We have sometimes remarked that if you don't get very much of something, you can use it with other vegetables in a stir fry.  This week we had lots of little bits of things that seemed like they would go together well.  This suggestion is inspired by the Chinese restaurant dish Moo Goo Gai Pan, which is translated in one cook book as chicken with mushrooms. but Jim remembers it as a medley of vegetables including those included in the kit.  Stir fry a little garlic and ginger if you have it, then the vegetables in the kit, add some chicken, pork or tofu for protein.  When the vegetables are "tender crisp" pour in a mixture of chicken broth and corn starch or flour and heat until the sauce thickens.  We use salty broth, so no additional salt is needed, other wise some salt or soy sauce might be in order.