Pictured above: Dorr Farms’ heirloom shishito peppers
Hey chefs,
We’ve got a lot of exciting new crops coming in this week, all updated in the availability list below. Over the next month, we’ll also begin harvesting some truly exceptional ingredients, many of which are featured in the Coming Soon section. These include rare heirloom varieties that were once prized by chefs but have all but disappeared from modern kitchens.
In this week’s highlights, we’re exploring why summer Wakefield cabbage offers an opportunity to surprise guests with an unexpected seasonal dish, introducing heirloom shishito peppers, and sharing the story of a forgotten Southern tender green that was once a staple on fine dining tables—including at Monticello, where it was prepared by Thomas Jefferson’s French-trained chefs.
As always, if there’s anything you’d like us to trial, grow, or source for your menu, we’d love to hear from you.
COMING SOON
- Green apple eggplant (Lao Green Stripe Heirloom)
- White queen heirloom tomato (white skin/ white flesh)
- Plate de Haiti heirloom tomato (red)
- Amish paste tomato (heirloom, SlowFood Ark of Taste)
- African “Big Toe” Cantaloupe - Bradford Farm (heirloom)
- Fish peppers (heirloom, Slow Food AOT)
- Heirloom Ground Cherries - Bradford
- Ozette potatoes - Fry Farm
- Sungold tomatoes - Wild Hope Farm
- Baby Davidson River red beets - Clem’s
- Davidson River red beets - Clem’s
SPECIAL REQUEST: We kindly urge you to consider adding at least one of our own Bradford Farm grown crops to your weekly orders. We are working with quite a number of other farms to bring you the best access to regional flavor that we possibly can, but the heartbeat of our farm is our homegrown crops. We can’t exist without moving our own crops too. So please review the crops we offer under Bradford Farm Crops below and consider adding one or more of them. It helps us a ton.
Important Info
- PROMOTION! Charleston Wakefield Cabbage - Bradford Farm
- PROMO Bradford okra
-
NEW Baby Badger Flame beets - Fry Farm
- NEW Upstate Abundance New potatoes - Fry Farm
- NEW Petite new potatoes, mixed - Fry Farm
⚠️ **Highlights of the week**⚠️
Charleston Wakefield Cabbage - Bradford
(Dish by Eli Hayes at Jolie in Raleigh, NC)
Summer isn’t traditionally thought of as cabbage season—but that’s exactly why Wakefield cabbage deserves a place on your menu.
Unlike dense winter storage cabbages, Wakefield is tender, sweet, and delicately crisp, making it perfectly suited for warm-weather cooking. Its pointed heads and thin leaves require little preparation and shine both raw and cooked.
Think beyond coleslaw:
- Shaved into bright summer salads with peaches, herbs, and toasted nuts.
- Charred on the grill and finished with cultured butter, lemon, and flaky salt.
- Wrapped around fresh seafood or local pork as delicate cabbage rolls.
- Lightly braised with sweet corn, new potatoes, and fresh shell beans.
- Folded into tacos, sandwiches, and burgers for cool crunch.
- Fermented into quick summer krauts that add acidity to seasonal dishes.
Wakefield cabbage bridges the gap between spring greens and hearty fall brassicas. It brings freshness, texture, and subtle sweetness to the height of summer, proving that cabbage isn’t just a cold-weather ingredient—it’s a versatile staple for the entire growing season.
Give your guests the opportunity to be surprised by Wakefield Cabbage this summer.
See “promotions” for our summer Wakefield cabbage deals.
Heirloom Shishito Peppers - Dorr Farms
Beautiful heirloom shishitos from Dorr Farms are starting to produce heavier quantities now. Most varieties of shishito peppers grown by farmers for chefs aren’t heirloom varieties - you lose something that’s difficult to explain when you compromise flavor for yield.
The shishito has become a staple in restaurants over the last decade, but these aren’t just another box of shishitos. Dorr is growing heirloom selections that bring back some of the qualities that made the pepper so beloved before modern breeding focused on perfect uniformity.
Harvested while still young and glossy, the peppers are thin-walled, highly aromatic, and exceptionally tender. Their flavor is far more interesting than simple sweetness — grassy and fresh at first, followed by subtle fruit notes and a gentle smokiness once blistered. Like any true shishito, roughly one in every ten to twenty peppers carries an unexpected kick, making every plate a little different.
Flavor & Texture
- Thin, delicate skin that blisters quickly
- Sweet, grassy flavor with hints of green pepper and citrus
- Tender flesh with very few developed seeds
- Mild heat, with the occasional pleasantly spicy surprise
For the Kitchen
- Blister whole over cast iron or open flame with olive oil and flaky salt
- Grill alongside steaks, fish, or pork as a simple seasonal accompaniment
- Tempura fry and finish with citrus or togarashi
- Char and fold into compound butter or salsa verde
- Serve with aioli, miso, or cultured butter as a shareable appetizer
- Skewer and roast for yakitori or live-fire cooking
The beauty of shishitos is their simplicity. They ask very little of the chef beyond good heat and restraint. A hard blister, good finishing salt, and perhaps a squeeze of lemon is often all they need.
These heirloom selections from Dorr Farms capture exactly what summer peppers should be — fresh, delicate, and deeply flavorful, proving that sometimes the best ingredients are the ones you do the least to.
New! Amaranth Greens - Fry Farm
Before spinach became the world’s most recognized leafy green, much of the world relied on amaranth. Cultivated for thousands of years across Central America, Asia, and Africa, amaranth has long been prized as both a grain and a vegetable. While the grain often gets the attention today, the greens remain one of the finest cooking greens you’ll find.
Matt Fry’s amaranth is harvested while the leaves are still young and succulent, giving them a remarkably tender texture. The leaves are broad and delicate with vibrant green tones and subtle burgundy highlights, cooking down quickly while maintaining their body.
The flavor sits somewhere between spinach and young beet greens—earthy, slightly nutty, with a gentle mineral sweetness and none of the assertive bitterness found in many brassicas. The stems are equally usable, remaining tender and juicy rather than fibrous.
Flavor & Texture
- Tender, succulent leaves
- Mild earthy sweetness with light nuttiness
- Silky when cooked, crisp when young and raw
- Tender stems with excellent eating quality
For the Kitchen
- Quick sauté: Garlic, olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon is often all it needs.
- Braised: Excellent with beans, field peas, or smoked meats.
- Soups & curries: Holds its integrity while enriching broths.
- Raw: Young leaves make an excellent addition to mixed salads.
- Pasta & grains: Fold into risotto, farro, or fresh pasta just before serving.
Unlike spinach, amaranth holds onto more of its texture during cooking, making it especially useful where you want a green that doesn’t simply disappear into the pan.
It’s one of those crops that deserves far more attention than it receives—a traditional food throughout much of the world, thoughtfully grown by Matt Fry, and a reminder that some of the oldest vegetables are still among the very best.
Also see Matt Fry’s New potatoes!
These are his Petite Mixed New potatoes: a red flesh variety, blue flesh variety and Row 7’s upstate abundance white!
Above are Matt’s fingerling potatoes - red flesh and blue flesh varieties.
DISCOUNTS & PROMOTIONS
Bradford Okra
Standing order pricing, weekly (8+ weeks)
Skips and quantity adjustments are allowed.
10lbs - $4.50/lb
20lbs - $4/lb
40lbs - $3.75/lb
60lbs - $3.50/lb
80lbs - $3.25/lb
100lbs - $3/lb
For standing orders over 100lbs per week contact Theron, Nat or Noah. If you want to sign up for a standing order of okra please let either of us know via call or text!
Heirloom tomatoes - mixed flat - Clem’s and Hickory Bluff
Buy 2 flats - $5 off
Buy 4 flats or more - 10% off
Standing orders
- Reference - a la carte price - $55 each
- 1 flat per week - $53
- 2-3 flats per week - $51 each
- 3-5 flats per week - $49 each
- 6+ flats per week - $47 each
Reach out to us if you’d like to get included on this deal!
Charleston Wakefield Cabbage - Bradford Farm
Standing order prices
- 8 weeks - 1 case (20lbs) - $65 ($3.25/lb)
- 8 weeks - 2+ cases - $60 ($3/lb)
We hope to quickly move through this crop because we honestly have too much to store in our coolers here on the farm. Please reach out to Theron, Noah or Nat to get on board.
Key:
** - limited availability
*OUT- currently out of stock
*OFS- out for season
NEW- recent addition
(SlowFood AOT)- appears on the SlowFood Ark of Taste for its exceptional qualities, flavor, story, and historical significance and/or usage.
✅ Bradford Farm Crops: ✅
-Bradford collards bagged/chopped (spring crop)
-Bradford collards whole plant (spring crop)
-Charleston Wakefield cabbage (SlowFood AOT)
-Hybrid green cabbage
-Purple cabbage
-Shredded hybrid cabbage
-Shredded purple cabbage
-Bradford okra
🤝 Partner Farms: 🤝
-Peaches - McLeod Farms
-Onions, Santee Sweet (dried) - Dorr Farms
-Carrots, Yaya - Wild Hope Farm
-Carrots, Baby bolero - Clem’s
-Carrots, bolero - Clem’s
-Blueberries - Bluefield
-Blackberries - Dorr Farms
-Plums, tart - SC
-Cantaloupe - Dorr
-Watermelon
——red seedless - Dorr
——yellow seedless - Dorr
——orange seedless
-NEW! Amaranth greens (country spinach) - Fry Farm
-Beets, Golden
-Beets, Red
-Beets, Badger Flame - Fry Farm
-Baby beets, Badger Flame - Fry Farm
-Butterbeans and Field Peas - Johnny McNair
——Green butterbeans, fresh
——Speckled butterbeans
——White acre, fresh
——Pinkeye field peas, fresh
-New potatoes
——Red (sizes: A, B, C)
——White (A, B, C)
——Red & white mix (A, B, C)
-NEW! New Potatoes, Fingerling red n purple - Fry Farm
-NEW! New Potatoes, Petite mixed - Fry Farm
-NEW! New Potatoes, Upstate Abundance (Row 7) - Fry Farm
-Potatoes, Adirondack Blue - Dorr Farms
-Potatoes, Adirondack Red - Dorr
-Potatoes, Pontiac (red skin, white flesh) - Dorr Farms
-Radish, purple Daikon - Wild Hope
-Broccoli - Southeast (SC, GA)
-Pecans (fresh, shelled, halved) - Johnny McNair
-Jalapeños - Dorr Farms
-Sweet corn - GA, SC
-Blue Lake Pole Snap Beans
-Summer squash medley - Fry Farm
-Baby squash medley - Fry
-Zucchini - Dorr Farm and others
-Yellow Squash - Dorr Farm and others
-NEW! Patty Pan squash (yellow, green, and swirl mix)
-Italian purple eggplant - Dorr Farms
-Green Bell peppers - Dorr Farms
-Red Bell peppers
-NEW! Heirloom Shishito peppers - Dorr Farms
-Cowhorn peppers - Dorr Farms
-Banana peppers - Dorr Farms
-Cherry tomatoes, heirloom mix - Hickory Bluff Berry Farm
-Heirloom tomatoes, mix - Clem’s and Hickory Bluff
-Grape tomatoes
-Cherry tomatoes - Dorr Farms
-Red round tomatoes - Dorr Farms
-Gold tomatoes
-Roma tomatoes - Dorr Farms
-Tomatillos - Hickory Bluff
-Pee Dee sweet potatoes - Dixon Farms
Coming soon:
- Beets, badger flame - 1 week
- Carrots - 1 week
- Hakurei turnips - 2 weeks
- Appalachain tomatoes - June
- Heirloom cherry tomatoes - 3 weeks
- Rhubarb - late May
- Bradford Okra - 1 week
MORE COMING SOON
….let us know if there is something else you are interested in that isn’t on our list