Time for a Spring Cleanse

By Carolyn Twesten, Weaver Street Market Produce Merchandiser

Spring is here! Time to shake off the stagnant winter energy and come alive again. Time to take advantage of the beautiful weather and all of the fun events and activities that come with it.

Cleansing, Inside and Out

Sometimes, though, that winter energy can stick around in our bodies after the weather warms up (oh, and not to mention the spring pollen!). That’s why now is a great time to do a little spring cleaning in our internal environment as well as in our external environment!

What do I mean by that? In many cultures, spring is a traditional time of cleansing the body to flush out built-up toxins as the weather warms up. I’m not suggesting anything radical, just a little clean-up of one’s diet. Now could be a great time to cut down on fast food, sugars, and processed foods, while increasing your intake of leafy greens (bitter greens especially!), non-starchy vegetables, water, herbal teas, and broth.

It’s no coincidence that the veggies that we should ideally be nourishing our bodies with right now are also the most plentiful seasonal veggies available! Leafy greens like lettuce, kale, chard, and arugula, crunchy radishes and bok choy, succulent asparagus… The possibilities for delicious recipes are endless!

Veggies on the Way!

Some of our local produce suppliers are a little behind in their production this year due to the extremely wet winter we had. Waterlogged fields prevent farmers from being able to turn the soil for planting. Luckily we have more and more farmers that are planting their over-winter and early season crops in hoophouses–unheated greenhouses that protect plants from harsh winter temps, wind, and excessive snow and rainfall. Here is some of what we have in stock right now:

Clamshell Salads and Microgreens from Red Hawk Farm

Red Hawk Farm in Hurdle Mills is an impressive year-round salad greens operation, with three 200 foot unheated hoophouses and a fourth planned for this year, as well as a heated propagation house and several acres of field production. Individual crops are seeded every two weeks for a continuous supply of salad greens. Owner Brett Evans started his farming career at the Piedmont Biofarm in Pittsboro, before moving his operation northward to Hurdle Mills in 2017. Weaver Street Market carries his salads year round as availability allows. Our favorite is the delicate, mildly spicy arugula.

Radishes and Bok Choy from Red’s Quality Acre

Radishes and bok choy are two of my personal favorite spring veggies. One, because they add crunch and color to the plate, and two, they are some of the earliest and easiest spring veggies to grow. Red’s Quality Acre was started in 2015 on an acre of land by fellow redheads Dave Henderson and Caitlin Law. Since they started selling to Weaver Street Market in 2015 they have almost doubled their acreage from one acre to almost two. In addition to growing the size of their farm, they have also been developing techniques for maximizing output on their still relatively small farm. Adding hoophouses for season extension and tools and supplies for weed control, narrowing down the crop list, and most importantly adding employees has dramatically helped them grow more produce with less work.

Green and Lacinato Kale from Cottle Organics, via Eastern Carolina Organics

Herbie Cottle of Cottle Organics is one of the founding members of Eastern Carolina Organics, a local produce aggregator that distributes food grown and produced all over the Carolinas and Virginia to businesses in the Triangle and Triad. Herbie transitioned from growing tobacco to vegetables in the early 2000s, and now has over 300 acres of certified organic crop production. Cottle Organics provides us with strawberries, greens, corn, and more! (We visited them last spring—read more here.) https://www.weaverstreetmarket.coop/eco-farmer-cottle-organics/