The Produce Box

What a sweeeet time of year Spring is! We love those local, fresh, delicious berries. Berries are great on their own, but don’t always last long in your fridge. We’ve put together some tips on how to freeze your berries so you can enjoy them year-round.  And even better, we're letting one of our TPB Kids, Isaac P., tell you all about it!  Grab YOUR TPB kid and get some help getting those berries in the freezer today! Quick tips on freezing berries: Wash your berries just before you are ready to eat or freeze them. Dry them quickly and thoroughly by patting them with a paper towel so they don’t absorb the water. Too much water makes them mushy! Freeze them whole. Remove the strawberry cap, removing as little as possible of the strawberry. Place the berries on a cookie sheet or flat pan, making sure they do not touch each other -- otherwise they will freeze together. Put the pan in the freezer until the strawberries are completely frozen. Store your strawberries ...

Cabbage and squash are veggies that can be hard to create an original dish. So we talked to our friends at Whisk and asked them for their go-to to recipes for these veggies that are a little more unique. Now grab these fresh ingredients from your Boxes, get in the kitchen, and start cooking! CABBAGE: One of the best ways to incorporate cabbage into your meals is to get inspired by cultural dishes from around the world. Here are some of Whisk’s takes on ways to use this versatile veggie. (Click the links to get delicious recipes from Whisk!) Cabbage Rolls : A delicious and lighter take on Polish food, these are great when you want a modern twist on Eastern European comfort food. Whisk stuffs theirs with wild mushrooms. Yum! Kimchi : A spicy and fun Korean dish to use the cabbage from your Box. Whisk recommends using it as a side dish or a condiment to add a tangy twist to your meal. Irish Colcannon : A buttery and savory side dish that uses potatoes and kale in addition to ...

It’s ​always fun to talk to our farmers as they come in on Tuesday and Thursday with their harvests...and fun to tell YOU about the day-to-day processes they use to get that work done! As you open your box every few weeks (or in the case of some members: every week!) to see what the farms are providing,, know that ​ the produce in there reflects work done and decisions made 90 to 120 days ago. O​ur partners have been doing loads of seeding both in the propagation greenhouses and in the field tunnels. Everyone is busy this week transplanting and planting for spring Boxes. The break from a wet January has them all in the fields, tilling in weeds and some of their cover crops while they set up our work and harvest schedule for the spring. The produce that you are receiving in your Boxes NOW was generally planted as seed last November. Growing slowly in the late fall and cold winter, it gathers strength as the days lengthen and average temperatures warm up. Farmers do gamble a ...

We’re excited to introduce you to Firsthand Foods, a Durham-based meat business that works with small-scale farmers throughout central and eastern North Carolina to source their tasty pork and beef products. In today’s economy, it can be hard to raise livestock on a small-scale and stay in business.  Most buyers who are committed to local sourcing, like The Produce Box, need more volume than individual farmers can provide.  That’s the value of Firsthand Foods to the farming community.  They meet the demand for volume by focusing on marketing and distribution which allows their farmers to stay small and focus on what they do best – humane care for their animals and sustainable management of their pastures.   Firsthand Foods works with more than 60 small-scale farmers all of whom raise their animals outdoors, on pasture, without growth-promoting antibiotics, added hormones or animal by-products. Meet Wade Cole, one of Firsthand Foods’ pasture-raised pork producer...

We have gathered our best tips and tricks to show you how to make use of all the juicy citrus in your Boxes – although just eating them whole is never a bad option! First up is zesting, which is grating the outer layer of citrus skin into small strips or “dust.” Zest can be used to add flavor to a lot of things and the citrus remains unharmed for you to use in the same dish or with something else. Add zest to beverages, baked goods, or cooking for a punch of citrus flavor, or candy the peel for a sweet and tangy treat. Our video will show you how to properly zest citrus so you can get the best flavor to go with your culinary creations. Make sure to follow our Blog to see more produce ideas, tips and tricks. Our next how to citrus video will be on supreming citrus (a process that cuts the membrane away from the fruit so you can get the perfect segments)! Steps to getting the perfect zest from your citrus: Wash and dry your fruit thoroughly. A clean fruit/vegetable...

Sourdough, croissants and quiche, oh my! Meet Night Kitchen Bakery and Café! Night Kitchen got its name from a children’s storybook, and opened a café in Seaboard Station in Raleigh just over a year ago. Since then, Helen and her team have been providing tasty breads and pastries to the public. The café, open daily, serves up delicious sandwiches, soups, salads and quiches in addition to the bagels and yummy baked goods.  For Night Kitchen the business depends on the regulars who stop by often for a breakfast bagel or loaf of bread for dinner. “We depend so much on their business and their loyalty is so important to us,” Helen says. Helen loves the all of the offerings in the café, but her heart is in baking bread. When she opened Night Kitchen, she made sure to get equipment for bulk orders to make wholesale bread orders a reality. From the beginning of the business plan, she saw bread as the cornerstone of her baking, and that’s why The Produce Box has been able to hel...

When you bite into the juicy red tomatoes in your Boxes this spring, we want you to know exactly where they came from. Meet LL Urban Farms! This is definitely not your typical farm. You won’t find any expansive cornfields here. The farm is a series of hydroponic greenhouses! Hydroponic growing is a way of planting things in a growing medium other than soil such as rocks or nutrient solutions, as well as in water; studies have shown that this type of growing results in faster growing, healthier plants because the roots do not have to search through soil in order to get the nutrients they need.  LL Urban Farms uses a “coconut coir” farming method to grow delicious tomatoes. Coconut coir is a growing technique that uses the outside husk fibers of coconuts. Yes, we did say coconuts, ya'll! The coconut coir is reusable, completely compostable and great for growing in greenhouses because it retains water well. In this method, the coconut fibers are the soil replacement in the h...