Recipes and Storage Tips
Beans and Peas
Fava Beans
Fresh fava beans are a special gourmet treat, available for only a very brief window when the weather cooperates in June! Favas require a little more careful preparation than other vegetables, with a multi-step process of removing them from their pods, blanching the beans, and then removing the casing to reveal the small green delicious beans. You can see a video of us preparing them in our own kitchen on Instagram, or check out this article with more tips on how to prepare favas for cooking. If you don't plan to prepare them right away, you can store them unshelled in a paper bag for a week or so.
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Fava beans are delicious in a fresh salad (try this Buttered Fava Bean Salad with Soft-Boiled Eggs recipe if you also get an egg share), dressed in a vinaigrette and mashed on toast, or incorporated into a Spring Vegetable Risotto. Or you can make a fava bean puree and freeze it for later use!
Pea Shoots
Pea shoots are a perfect taste of spring! They are delicious when eaten raw, stems and all, with a grassy, almost sweet flavor and a crisp yet tender crunch that works beautifully in salads, on sandwiches or burgers, or wherever else you want a bite of added freshness. You can also lightly sauté or steam them, but don't cook them too long, they only need a minute or two! You can store them in your fridge much like any other tender greens, but they are best when eaten fresh, so don't wait too long to enjoy them.
Snap Peas
Sugar snap peas are usually only available in our pick-your-own garden (available to all CSA members!), but occasionally we have enough to include them in our CSA shares! We grow both the classic green ones and some gorgeous purple snap peas. The purple snap peas are a little flatter than the plump green snap peas you might be used to — they're more like a snow pea. But both are delicious raw, pods and all! 
Green Beans
Green beans are incredibly labor-intensive to harvest by hand, so we don't grow them ourselves here at Hearty Roots. But once in a while, we bring in some green beans from our friends at Markristo Farm, a nearby certified organic farm. Markristo has a mechanical harvester that allows them to grow 7 acres of beans and still harvest them all in a timely manner when they are at peak quality! They're fresh and crisp, and they don't require much to make them delicious. Lightly blanch or steam them (they only take a few minutes!) and then try quickly sautéing them with some garlic and ginger, or just toss with some olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Edamame
Edamame, like green beans (see above!), are a specialty crop. They are very labor-intensive to harvest and sort, so we don't grown them ourselves at Hearty Roots. Our friends at Markristo Farms (certified organic) have a mechanical harvester that allows them to pick and process them in a timely manner, so occasionally we bring in some of their edamame and add them to your share!
Edamame are fresh, young soybeans in fuzzy green pods. It's easiest to cook them while they're still in their pods (though the outer pods are inedible). Boil, steam, or sauté the pods — this recipe suggests trimming the pods and boiling them in salted water to help season the beans while they cook. Then give them a sprinkle of sea salt and enjoy them as a snack by squeezing the beans straight out of the pods. Or you can shell or squeeze the beans and add them to all sorts of dishes, like salads, rice bowls, risotto, and more!