We received our first CSA box this week from Maple Spring Gardens in Cedar Grove, NC. It came two weeks earlier than they have ever started before, due to the unseasonably warm winter accelerating their growing schedule. It was a good first box with nothing too exotic to start off with. Here’s what we got this week along with some ideas of what we have done or will do to prepare them. I’ll try to link the most interesting and successful ones to separate recipes as we prepare them.

1. Strawberries – We ate these almost as soon as we got home. Too good to resist.
2. Arugula – salad with roasted beets, goat cheese, pistachios and a honey mustard and onion vinaigrette.
3. Spinach - sautéed with toasted coconut and spiced with red chili flakes, mustard and cumin seeds, served inside a thin omelet. Also folded into a sweet potato hash served alongside ancho chili and maple rubbed pork tenderloin.
4. Salad mix – unimaginative but delicious. Topped with veggies and served with a roasted whole chicken.
5. Field onions – oven roasted with balsamic vinegar. Served broiled pork chops.