It is a beautiful Sunday morning as I'm writing this. We have lots of new crops beginning to come on...for the first few shares, it's sometimes a challenge to come up with enough variety of crops, as there just aren't too many things ready to harvest and so many of them are greens. As we get into Summer, the challenge becomes deciding what NOT to put in the shares because there is so much food to harvest!
We (mostly Jack) made a big push on irrigation, and got a ton of watering done this past week. I'm glad we did, because the forecast was making it look like we would get some rain, and while it did drizzle a bit it didn't amount to much. While it gets hotter and drier in July and August, by then we have already gotten quite a few crops out of the ground; the early greens, peas, and broccoli, the garlic and early onions....and other crops, like the potatoes, winter squash, tomatoes, and storage onions, we are beginning to cut off water to encourage curing or fruiting. So, really, this time of year is peak irrigation season for us, and it can be quite a challenge to keep up with it all.
Hope you're enjoying your farm shares, we have lots more good stuff on the way for you!
ALL SHARES:
Carrots- We started digging up some carrots (the only way to really tell if they are ready) and they are sizing up quickly! We will be able to get everyone a bunch this week. They are still on the small side, so they are a great size for snacking. Carrots are a real staple of the farm share, so we will try to keep them coming throughout the entire year with many successive plantings.
Peas- We are quickly getting into peak pea season, so the peas will make another appearance in the share this week. They are so sweet and tasty! While it takes quite a bit of work in the Spring to trellis the tall pea vines, it starts paying off this time of year, as we don't have to bend down to pick all the peas. I like to harness a bucket around my neck so I can go down the rows and pick with both hands free. I think the peas are best raw, but last night I chopped some up and put them in a pasta sauce. Below is a recipe for sautéing them. Baby Nico is loving her some snap peas these days.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/sauteed-sugar-snap-peas-recipe.html
Spinach- Yum! Spinach is making its first appearance in the share. After two weeks of gigantic lettuce heads, I thought it was time for a break from lettuce. If you want to keep the salad train going, this spinach is young, sweet and tender, perfect for spinach salad. If you've had enough salad to last a while (or you're still working on the lettuce), then try cooking your spinach.
Martha has lots of nice recipes:
http://www.marthastewart.com/274254/spinach-recipes#340110
Or I was thinking a spinach dip would be great for dipping snap peas, carrots, broccoli, and turnips in....
http://www.chowhound.com/recipes/fresh-spinach-dip-30667
Walla walla sweet onions- We transplanted these early onions way back in the early Spring. They are sizing up fast now with the long day length! These sweet onions are juicy and mild, without much of the pungent bite of storage onions. They are great for eating raw in salads or sandwiches, or cooking up to use in any onion-y dish.
Broccoli- Lots more nice broccoli still coming on from our first planting, and the next succession is already starting to head up. Unfortunately, our napa cabbage planting all bolted (started flowering) before it formed heads, so no napa cabbage in the Spring shares! Small shares will have a small head of broccoli this week, with more broccoli in the full shares. Also:
Kale- A bunch of kale in the small shares this week! Full shares got kale last week. If you haven't tried making kale chips, it is simple to do and makes for easy healthy snacking:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/crispy-kale-chips-recipe.html
LARGE SHARES:
Garlic- We'll put a head of our first (mostly) dried garlic. This is one of my favorite varieties, "Xian", with beautiful purple stripes on the skin. As an Asiatic variety, it is always the first garlic we grow to be harvested. We brought all the Xian in a few weeks ago and hung it to dry...most of our garlic varieties are still out in the field, but we will be bringing them in one by one over the coming weeks to hang in the barn. Xian has a mild sweet taste and large, easy to peel cloves.
Hakurei Turnip- These delicious white roots are mild and juicy with just a tiny bit of spice. Last night I put some sliced up roots in a salad, and sautéed the greens in a pasta sauce with albacore tuna, snap peas, garlic, scallion, olive oil and white wine.
Salad Mix- A bag of our salad mix, which is composed of baby lettuces, spinach, arugula and mesclun mix. Instant easy salads, just add some crumbled cheese and dressing!
Zucchini- The Summer squash plants are just getting going, but we need to pick the first fruits to encourage the plants to keep growing and fruiting. In no time at all we should be harvesting piles of beautiful summer squash for all the shares...for this week, I'm hoping we can get one zucchini each for the large shares. Fingers crossed!
Love all the greens from the first two weeks!
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