Fruits (and vegetables) of our labor (this week)

As you may have heard... it has been a challenging year for farming. Of course, it is worthwhile for us to take a minute to appreciate the bounty of each share as we assemble them. It's been hard work but we've obviously done a good job keeping the plants going during this hot, dry spell because we think you'll enjoy what's in the box this week!

From the upper left - clockwise: Lettuce (whatever is left), herbs (dill/basil), onions, zuchs, cukes, kohlrabi, tomatoes, (buried pepper), turnip

Tomatoes- first of the season!  You'll see a variety this week.  Most of them are Early girl variety but we've also thrown in some of our yellow tomatoes (Taxi) and some of the early Roma's.  BLT's anyone?!
Onions- some more bunching onions are ready again this week.  Tomatoes, onions, green peppers and some lime juice tossed together makes for a quick, fresh salsa!
Green pepper-enjoy in a salad or as part of a grilled veggie dish.
Lettuce- this is a red romaine- its a different, more mild variety of red leaf lettuce than in previous weeks.  You may not be aware that lettuce typically does not do well in such warm, dry conditions. We are pretty proud that were able to keep our lettuce going and include it this week in your share!
Cucumbers- enjoy sliced on your fresh salad.  We have a variety of cucumbers that we grow.  This week you will most of them are the larger Marketmore variety. We served some of our sliced cucumber with sour cream and dill over grilled salmon this past week- so good! What is your favorite way to enjoy fresh cucumbers?
Zucchini - You have the dark green or italian striped varieties of zucchini this week. You have to love zucchini bread and you may not know that you can freeze an entire loaf to enjoy later.  We wrap a loaf in foil and freeze the entire thing. It is great to pull out and enjoy when it's cold and snowy! We also make zucchini/ blueberry muffins (it is blueberry season - support some local blueberry farmers!)  Just follow your favorite  zucchini bread recipe (there are many healthier versions out there), add in blueberries and place in a muffin pan rather than a bread pan.
Kohlrabi - one more kohlrabi for the season- yours will either be light green or purple- we grow two varieties.  We hope you gave it a chance.  Many people are unfamiliar with kohlrabi but if you search out recipes or try the ones we recommended, you will be pleasantly surprised.  Also, kohlrabi stores well wrapped in a bag in the crisper drawer if up you don't get to use it right away.  Really not sure what to do with it - peel it and slice the white flesh - enjoy raw!
Turnip - some people have never tried turnip or are not sure if they'll like it.  That was the case in our house in the past until we started roasting it.  Its easy to roast- peel the turnip with a vegetable peeler, toss with olive oil, spread on a cookie sheet and add salt and pepper.  Place in the oven at about 375 degrees until the turnip is tender.  You can add in other vegetables as well including some of your zucchini.  The vegetables have such a sweet flavor when roasted this way!
Herb bundle- italian flat leaf parsley, dill and basil- sprinkle some of these herbs over your roasted turnip or grilled vegetables.  If you're not going to cook with then right away, place the herbs in a glass of water and enjoy their aroma in the kitchen.

Lettuce Celebrate the 4th of July

With an eye on the 4th - we thought this third share (which was going to be the first share, by the way and 3+1=4) should be dedicated to making your 4th of July celebrations easy and healthy.  So here's to our hero of the holiday!  The Admiral of the Angiosperms...  The epitome of Eudicots!  We pledge our allegiance to you -  Lactuca sativa. We Salute Salad!

Flavor Fireworks!

As Spring quickly fades into summer - the Spring Raab is still producing - so there's more leaves and florets for you to experiment with in this share.  We are going to join the taste testing this week with a variation (using milk and cheese) of this recipe here.

Grilled garlic scape toast and local grass fed porkchops

More green curly things - those yummy garlic scapes.  This week they come from a faster maturing variety of garlic so you will want to trim off the tougher sections of the straight part of the stalk...  unless you are looking for extra fiber.  This week we made a simple spread, put it on some fresh bread and quickly crisped things up on the grill.  The super simple less than 5 minute recipe is below.

The round red things are NOT tomatoes - they are radishes.  Champion to be specific.  Mmm - these are fresh, crispy and AWESOME!  Add them to a salad, eta them whole with a little salt or follow our super simple recipe below for radish sandwiches and be the talk of the 4th of July party (with almost no work!)

The centerpiece of the share might be the 3 tremendous heads of lettuce: a red leaf, a Butter Head, and a tennis ball (that's lettuce - not a real ball).  You will notice a very distinct flavor and texture between the 3 different varieties.  Enjoy in seclusion - or mixed...  but I do have to say for a very special treat make sure you try the Tennis Ball variety (light green color) by itself.  It has VERY delicate leaves and is something special to enjoy.  There's a reason why you have never seen a lettuce quite like this in the industrial food chain on your grocers shelves - recognize and savor this first Ark of Taste offering in the CSA this year. (Ark of Taste definition)

In a fitting tribute to Americas original pre-super her0, there's a bag of the dark green leaves - it's Spinach.  The variety is Tyee.  Serve it with a little Olive Oyl and say it with me - "I yam what I yam, and that's all what I yam".

This week also brings a greens mix- similar to last weeks Ovations mix but with tatsoi and mizuna added in as well (hey - celebrating the 4th as a melting pot!).  Mix this into your fresh salad or serve some grilled salmon on bed of wilted greens, heck, even grill the greens and put them in a pita!

Bok choy - this is the last of the bok choy for this spring - enjoy now or blanch and freeze to use in soup this winter. (Freezing directions: place bok choy in boiling water for 1-2 minutes- plunge into ice water to cool- wring out excess water and lay leaves flat to dry for an hour.  Place in a freezer bag or vacuum seal bag and place in freezer).

This weeks farm fresh recipes are SIMPLE and quick to you can enjoy the holiday without spending it in the kitchen.

Recipe: Garlic Scape Toast

Start to finish - under 5 minutes.  Go start the grill.  Grab some scapes and chop them up in a food processor our really fine on a cutting board.  To the food processor add some of your best olive oil (as much or as little as you like) - let's say 1-2T.  Add some fresh cracked black pepper and sea salt to taste. (Add anything else you want - like parmesan cheese, pine nuts, oregano, whatever).  Process into chunky paste.  From a fresh loaf of bread cut slices 1/2" - 1" thick.  Slather topside with scape spread/paste.  Place bread on hot grill spread facing up until bottom start to brown.  Then flip and grill until spread starts to char.  Make sure not to loose the spread into the grill when removing.  Serve hot.

Recipe: Radish sandwiches

Get yourself a loaf of fresh baguette bread (or bake your own).  You will need some salt and some good unsalted butter (organic or grass fed is best) and you might as well get one of these too.  Cut the bread into small slices about 1/2? thick, spread the butter on there, sprinkle with salt and top with several thin slices of radish.  Enjoy.

From upper left (clockwise): Radishes, Raab, Tennisball, Red Leaf, Butterhead, Mixed greens, bok choi, Garlic Scapes, Spinach

A CSA share that will make you Green(s) with Envy

A whole lotta farm fresh greens

This weeks "busting at the seams" box is full of lots of seasonal greens... and I mean lots!  The reality is most folks don't know how many different varieties of greens there are out there - the diversity of flavors, textures, colors, it's all pretty amazing!  When grown fresh and local they are an excellent way to get an array of vitamins and minerals.  They are also pretty versatile too.  They can be dedicated to a side dish or incorporated as part of a main dish over pasta or in a stir fry.  Raw or cooked - greens are even better when you bring some of their friends along for a cacophony collaboration of mixed green goodness!  After going to a local Farmers Market this last weekend - those of you out there in the local produce buying scene are fully aware - there's very little to be bought...  well, we decided to buck that trend and overfill this share a full week before we REALLY expected the CSA to start!  So, what's in the box?

Swiss chard- The green that has the colorful stems and looks a little like rhubarb but isn't!  A Swiss chard frittata is one of our favorites, easy to make meals.  Sauté the chard, and combine with eggs, milk  and whatever else you have on hand- cheese, sausage, chicken or even bacon (mmmmm).

2 types of bok choy - larger Joi Choi variety (same as last week) and baby variety of bok choy - called Mei Qing.  The flavors are quite a bit different - awesome in the recipe below!

2 varieties of lettuce - green leaf and red leaf lettuce - fresh and full of flavors.  This is what a salad is SUPPOSED to be made out of...

Greens mix- (Identified by the bunch of different shape, color and textured leaves) This mixture's name is "Ovations".  A great combination of both mild and spicy ingredients greens.  The mix includes Red Mustard, Mizuna, Tatsoi, Kale, and Arugala.  Great for sautéing or adding to a fresh salad for some really interesting flavors (no rules here).

A small bunch of Broccoli Raab or sometimes called Spring Raab because of the little broccoli florets on it (pronounced rob) - This is our first year growing this green and it's got us divided...  some of us like the taste and think it's terrific and some of us think it's got a bit of a bitter aftertaste (which is rumored to go away after cooking).  To find it in your box - Raab looks like turnip greens and may have small broccoli like structures in it.  What are your thoughts on raab? (Information about raab here)

Garlic scapes - These crazy curly looking things are the "flower stalks and stems" off the garlic plant.  Until just a few years ago farms used to cut these off and send them to the compost pile - then someone figured out they are great to cook with and now some people charge $0.25 each!  Purists will argue cutting them off the garlic plant, while it makes the bulbs in the ground larger, takes away from their flavor.  I don't know - it's just too hard to wait another 6 weeks before eating any fresh garlic - so - use scapes for a distinctly garlic like addition to anything you might use a green onion in! (big hit last year)

Even though we have been eating this way for years and years now we're still exploring the best ways to utilize what's available seasonally.  We received this book as a gift this past year and have found it to be a fun resource for different seasonal recipes.  It's also got some cool stories about other small farms that have unique production offerings as well - great to cook from or to read from.  Click on the book or the link to grab your own copy!

Oh and during greens season, you will definitely want a salad spinner for cleaning those greens!   This is the one we've used for years - without it...  washing and drying is slow and tedious... leading to less washing...  leading to "extra protein" in the greens...

This weeks recipe:

Simple Greens and Pasta Sauté

Chop garlic scapes and sauté in olive oil.  Add bok choy stems and sauté until tender.  Then add in chopped greens any or all of the above).  Sauté until slightly wilted.  Season with salt and pepper. We added in leftover cooked chicken (but any thing added is good!) and mushrooms and served over pasta.  We also added in some hot sesame oil for some heat.  You can add in a stir fry sauce or any other favorite spice!  Serve with some soy sauce and chopsticks.  You really can't go wrong with this one.

Upper right - clockwise: Grand Rapids Lettuce, Ovations Green Mix, Raab, Bok Choi (2 kinds), Garlic Scapes, Swiss Chard (middle)

A Farm Filled Fathers Day Weekend

This last weekend was a busy one - lots of work in the gardens, moved the first batch of broilers off to pasture, and had some visitors Sunday afternoon to celebrate Fathers Day. Weekends sometimes are busier than the week as we prepare everything we can from sunrise to sunset to make the week runs smoother. It's hard to believe we are far enough through the summer that we already have little chicks out on pasture. Second batch of day old chicks arrives this Friday.

Happy to be on pasture? You bet! 

Lush lettuce - Green goodness!

Farm Fresh Fathers Day Feast

A hot air balloon passing over the farm

Spring has Sprung (late)

A little lettuce

This is NOT another "how bad is the weather this week" post...  actually, it's a bit of a progress post.  Although the rain is still rather unrelenting in terms of what has fallen and what's likely ahead this week - we have pushed forward after some hardy changes to accommodate this unique season.  First off - we made some big changes to our farm drainage plan.  When we had a little dry out a couple weeks back the plow went on Big Blue and a ditch went in from the back corner of the barn where we get a fair amount of runoff, across a garden, then a sharp turn between the lawn and the pasture running the length of the yard, then another gentle turn and out to the field.  It was in place last week when we had several inches...  the result was astonishing.  Gardens no longer flooded and things were dry enough today (after only a day and half with no rain) to disk some plots and get a bunch of spring greens out of the green house and into the ground!

Permaculture - Pok Choi and Asparagus

We got about 8+ flats of greens into the ground that have been started from seed over the last month.  Everything from lettuce and spinach (lots of different varieties and colors) to cabbage and kohlrabi.  5 different varieties of Pak Choi are happily growing in a pseudo-permacultrue setup - located in the very rich soil between rows of asparagus.  We are thinking the Pak Choi will be a yummy harvested memory before the asparagus becomes tall and ferns out.  We interplanted the kale and swiss chard down last years row of artichokes, at least those that survived.  That should give us a row that will persist all summer along.  Also now in the ground are several varieties of broccoli including the small and ready quickly raab broccoli - with small shoots that are rather sweet.  Yeah - if you are looking for a fresh greens fix - we are getting close...  at least they are in the ground.

The onions and leeks are also doing well.  We got them in the ground several weeks ago and it looks like they have all done well with the rains.  We tried to plant them on a sloping part of a plot to help with the soggy spring and so far they have double in size...  next step for them...  weeding shall commence soon.  Also - their neighbors in that garden are the snap peas.  Unfortunately, we only got snaps in the ground this spring wit hall the rain - and only after 3 replanting do we have a decent amount that has emerged.  The good news is - those that are up are doing great and the folks in the CSA should get to experience the joys of fresh sugar snap peas (but we are not counting pods just yet).

Potatoes that wanted to be planted a month ago!

Todays final task was one of my favorite - but with the REALLY soggy soil...  one of the most physically demanding garden tasks I have EVER undertaken...  but - folks - the 50+ pounds of potatoes are in the ground!  Nearly a full month later than last year but still in time to provide a nice summer harvest.  We have planted everything from a super tasty French fingerling that demands VERY high market prices to a mix of red, white and blue tubers...  and everything in between from the favorite Yukon Gold potato to the slightly earlier and sweeter Gold Rush.  Finally - 3 rows of the Adirondack Blue...  If you took every row we planted today in VERY soggy soil and heavy soil and put them end to end - you could make it past the back line in the end zone of a professional football field...  that's a lot of tubers.

So - spring FINALLY feels like it's here.  We have greens in the ground, taters in the terra, and seeds in the soil!  We are making due with the weather we have been handed as best we can.  Next stop - building a BIG brooder in the barn for the broiler chicks that arrive on Friday.  Suddenly - it seems like summer is almost here!