What’s In The Box? January 14-20

Winter Warmth
As the cold continues to prevail outdoors, the kitchen often provides the warmest, coziest way to combat the winter chill. Thus, this week’s box stars a bevy of seasonal ingredients to help get things cooking—from imported Corona beans to pan-fry and top with bright kale-lemon pesto to a plethora of vegetables like winter squash, Bolero carrots and leeks, plus our housemade chicken stock, to incorporate into rich, hearty soup. Also included: A crisp Italian wine, garlic fougasse bread and our own signature apple crisp topping to help bake a warm, fragrant tart for dessert.

Here’s what you’ll find in your box this week:

Italian Corona Beans

These popular, oversized beans from the Piedmont region of Italy possess a beautifully-creamy texture, lending themselves well to soup and salad preparations, or even eaten alone drizzled with high-quality olive oil, fresh herbs and a few shavings of Parmesan. This week, try these meaty beans pan-fried and topped with a wintery kale-lemon pesto—see recipes for details.

Scorzonera

Originating from the Mediterranean region, this uniquely-flavored root vegetable was foraged and used by the ancient Romans as well as the Greeks, and has long been thought to have medicinal and healing properties as well as culinary uses. Reminiscent in taste to oysters (hence its sometime nickname, the “black oyster plant”) with sepia-hued skin, it is delicious peeled and roasted alongside other root vegetables such as parsnips and carrots, or in this week’s recipe for Scorzonera fritters.

Housemade Chicken Stock

Made from roasted Bella Luna chickens, our flavorful stock is simmered slowly for hours with carrots, onions and celery and seasoned with a dash of sea salt and black pepper.

Garlic Fougasse Bread

Baked just for us by our favorite bakery in nearby Snohomish, this rustic flatbread is ideal for sharing. Similar in style to traditional Italian foccacia, the pull-apart loaf is studded with flavorful roasted garlic cloves—tear off a piece and dip it in your favorite olive oil, or top with fresh cheese.

Felline Vermentino

Aged in steel tanks at the Felline family estate in Puglia, Italy, this crisp, white Vermentino made from the grape of the same name boasts sweet notes of peach and minerals on the nose, pairing well with appetizers, salads and sides such as this week’s pan-fried Corona beans.

Farm Fresh Eggs

As they spend more time snug in their coop during the cold, blustery winter months, our heritage breed laying hens are enjoying an extra helping of grain to supplement their diet, in turn supplying us with eggs in beautiful shades of brown, blue and green.

Grana-Style Cheese

Made in our farmstead creamery, this hard Grana-style cheese is crafted from part-skim cow’s milk to allow for longer aging of 24 months or more. Ideal for grating over soups, pastas or even roasted veggies, the drum-shaped cheese is turned and rubbed with olive oil during aging to create a smooth, golden rind.

Apple Crisp Topping

Wonderful paired with this week’s selection of Candy Crisp apples, our signature fruit crisp topping is crafted from organic brown sugar, sweet butter, fragrant cinnamon, dried cherries and toasted pecans.

Orchard Apples

Fresh Candy Crisp apples from Tonnemaker Family Orchard, plus Meyer lemons.

Seasonal Organic Fruits & Vegetables

This week’s produce selection also includes baby Bolero carrots, Austrian Crescent fingerling potatoes, leeks, January King Savoy cabbage, Tuscan black kale, yellow Cipollini onions, cauliflower and mixed winter squash—Thelma Saunders, Delicata, Winter Density, Acorn or Red Kuri.

Seasonal Organic Greens

Fresh, iron-rich baby spinach greens.

Fresh Garden Herbs

Fresh Italian parsley, red shallots, hardneck garlic, French thyme and rosemary from the Walled Garden at Bella Luna.