WEEK NINE

The growing season continues to chug along, and I am very happy with how everything is growing these days.  The crops are looking happy and growing fast, and it looks like there is a lot of food in our future.  The tomatoes are getting going and will make their first appearance in the large shares this week, but with lots more to come.  Strawberries are super abundant right now, with the new beds that we planted this Spring beginning to yield heavily, and the older beds from last year still going strong.  The late Summer crops, like melons, peppers, and eggplants, all of which had a few struggles early on in times of cool wet weather, are now looking great and should be yielding before too long.  And the potato and winter squash field, in our new acreage at the bottom of the property, is just unbelievable. 
I am also very happy because we are soon reaching the end of the ultra busy season for us farmers....early Spring takes a lot of planning and thinking, but not too much work, with planting and seeding and weeding to do, but not much harvest....late Summer and early Fall are pretty busy, but we're mostly just harvesting all the time, so while it can be tiring, we're basically on auto pilot and just getting through the pick list every day.  It is primarily June and July that can be pretty stressful and crazy, with so much to harvest that the work can never end, but still lots of planning and thinking to do for seeding schedules, weeding, planting, tractoring, watering, and everything else.  August and September are a very happy time, when we have lots of food, a lot of work to do, but time to enjoy the Summer too before it's over.
This coming weekend marks Bobbi and my six month wedding anniversary, which we are going to celebrate by going on a float trip down the Nooksack river (in Whatcom county) with a bunch of friends, including Jack and Whitney.
Here is what's in your share for this week:
Strawberries!  As mentioned above, lots of strawberries right now.  Keeps us busy, as they are pretty time consuming to pick, but delicious to eat! 
New potatoes-  Our potato field is really rockin' right now, and we are digging up some very pretty tubers.  I was going to make steamed potatoes and pan fried fish for dinner tonight, but by the time I got home Bobbie and I were both too tired to cook or bother with dinner!  I don't think I used this recipe before for oven roasted new potatoes, right?
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roasted_new_potatoes/
Beets-   Beets are a tricky veggie to decide when to put in the share.  Most people love beets, and I'd say they're one of the more popular things we grow...but there are those folks who are beet haters and would rather never have beets in their share.  I try to find a balance and not put them in the share too often.  If you are a beet hater, keep trying a new recipe every now and then!  Maybe you'll find one you love...it happened that way with my mom.  This week's bunch has red beets and Chioggia, the pink candy striped beet with a really sweet flavor.
Ailsa crag onions-  These gigantic onions are really great...they aren't quite as sweet and juicy as the walla wallas, but they keep better, and have a bit more onion flavor so they are a great all purpose onion.  And as you will see, they have grown to an amazing size this year!
Red Russian Kale-  We have heaps of summer kale that we grew hoping to wholesale to Georgie Smith at Willowod Farm.  Her kale always gets pretty cruddy in the summer time, between dry windy conditions on the prairie and pest issues.  So we planted tons of kale for her, and lo and behold this year her kale is growing great through the Summer.  You win some, you lose some...anyone want a 50 lb case of kale?
 http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-favorites/popular-ingredients/
Zucchini-  The squash is really going full speed now, and we are struggling to keep up with harvest!  That is just how it always goes with summer squash this time of year though....
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/photos/our-best-zucchini-recipes.page-5.html
And in the LARGE shares only-
Cauliflower-  Some nice summer cauliflower to go in the large shares. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/54675/roasted-garlic-cauliflower/
Tomatoes!!  Our very first heirloom tomatoes of the year...we just harvested today and they look beautiful.  Like many of the crops, they start at a slow trickle and then quickly build steam....so hopefully we will have enough tomatoes to put in all the shares next week!
This week the large shares will get more potatoes, onions, and zucchini than the smaller shares!

Blog for Farm Share Week 8

I can tell we are getting into the high Summer season, because it is starting to get difficult to limit the number of items in the shares.  It is great to be able to offer so much stuff in the share this week, and many Summery things (green beans, cucumbers, fresh red onions, basil).
Friday afternoons I walk around the farm and try to come up with an idea of what will be in the share the following week.  For the Thursday shares though, this is trying to look 6 days into the future, which can sometimes be difficult, and sometimes I blow it.  Case in point; the broccoli last week.  I could see that we would have plenty of broccoli for Monday shares, but thought that by Thursday the next beds would be on and ready to harvest.  I was wrong!  We ended up having very little broccoli for Thursday, and I had overpromised it, so we had to make the last minute call to put purple cabbage in the shares instead....unfortunate, because Monday shares had already gotten broccoli....so this week we will try to right our wrongs by giving out more broccoli on Thursday. 
Planning for the farm share, I've found the best approach is to just be a bit flexible and roll with the punches that the weather, the crops, the wholesale orders, and the pests might throw at us.  Thanks for understanding if your bag differs slightly from this blog!
This week's share:
Green beans-  Our first picking of fresh green beans!  These beans are very fresh and tender with a great taste.  Much better than the ones at the grocery store, we promise!  Great just lightly steamed or raw, but here are some recipes just in case:  http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-favorites/popular-ingredients/green-bean-recipes
Cucumbers-  Finally!  After several weeks of waiting, I am hopeful that we'll be picking enough cucumbers to give everyone at least one.  Cucumbers coming on feel like the true beginning of Summer to me.  Easy to throw on a salad or sandwich.  Like, an English tea cucumber sandwich... http://allrecipes.com/recipe/220775/english-tea-cucumber-sandwiches/
Broccoli/ purple cabbage-  As mentioned above, I blew it last week on the broccoli.  Trying to even it up this week, so it will be a bit complicated:  Monday small shares will be getting purple cabbage, Thursday small shares and all large shares will be getting broccoli. 
Lettuce-  Head lettuce is back in the shares.  Bobbi and I just had a lettuce salad for dinner with a nice dressing that Bobbi made.  It had (approximately) a tablespoon of mayonnaise, 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt, 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon of rice vinegar, and some finely chopped fresh herbs; basil, parsley, sage, lovage, and tarragon.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
Torpedo Red Bottle Onions-  These are a really great Italian heirloom sweet onion.  They have a very mild (not too onion-y) flavor that is great raw or lightly grilled.  Named for their bottle like shape...these onions have very nice tops, too that are usable in place of green onions.
Basil-  The basil is really popping off on the farm right now, so we will be giving small shares a generous bunch and large shares a big bag of basil, with enough to make a batch of pesto:  http://damndelicious.net/2014/07/05/easy-homemade-pesto/

IN THE LARGE SHARES>>>!
Strawberries-  Besides getting a big bag of basil for pesto, large shares will also include a pint of strawberries this week!  I believe all shares will have strawberries in them next week...the strawberry plants seem to be heading quickly towards their peak season.  They are really tasty right now...very shiny, red and beautiful.
Napa cabbage-  Our first planting of Napa cabbage all bit the dust before we could even harvest any...it bolted (started flowering) early before heading up.  Our newest planting looks good...the heads seem to be getting tight and should be ready for harvest this week.
Snap peas-  A pint of snap peas in your share this week!  The snap peas go through July, but seem to seldom last very long into August, when conditions just get too hot and dry for them to thrive.  Enjoy them while you can!


WEEK 7!!

Hey all,
Last Thursday we got to enjoy an amazing dinner at the Orchard Kitchen.  It was really, really cool to see all of the produce we've worked hard to grow highlighted so amazingly through Vincent's cooking.  We had a risotto with peas and summer squash, a salad with beets, greens, and onions, and some delicious local pork with new potatoes.  And then an almond cake for dessert with local berries, including our strawberries.  It is really a memorable experience to have dinner there, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't checked it out yet!
 This week marks the seventh week of the 2016 farm share.  How time flies!  I feel that this has (so far) been the most successful season we've had on the farm in terms of the amount and quality of the produce, and also with how manageable the work load has been.  The rain has really helped to keep irrigation stress under control, while we've had a few pest issues, nothing heart breaking, we have been wasting less food than ever....the only down side has been a broken down tractor that we will hopefully have fixed in the next few days.  Another huge improvement over years past has been not doing the farmer's market.  While the market was always really great for us, it took a ton of time and effort to pick, store, pack up, sell, break down...every Saturday, which made for a six day work week no matter how I tried to plan it otherwise.  It has definitely made life on the farm a lot easier, and given us a lot more time to do other stuff, by deciding to no longer do the market every weekend.
After a few less-than-sunny weeks, the forecast, while not looking super hot, looks pretty warm and dry coming up.  I am surprised how many of the heat loving crops haven't seemed to mind the sometimes gray and cool weather.  The tomatoes, beans, corn, and peppers are all looking healthy and happy.  The winter squash has really taken off and looks downright amazing!  The only crop that seems to be a bit behind schedule are the cucumbers, which are growing and look fine, but surprisingly just haven't really started fruiting yet.  I was hoping to have cucumbers in the share this week, but aside from a straggler here and there, we just haven't gotten many cukes yet.  Hopefully this week's sunnier weather changes that, as I do love a good cucumber salad.  In the meantime, we have lots of other nice veggies to fill the shares this week. 
In this week's share:
Shelling peas-  These peas, unlike the snap peas, have tough outer pods that aren't very good to eat.  If you peel open the shell, they are filled with tender sweet peas, like the green peas many of us remember from childhood.  These are a real treat...in particular Northern European (from the UK and Scandinavia)  people seem to always be super excited about fresh shelling peas whenever we have them.
The farm manager at Sauvie Island Organics, the first farm I worked at, made an amazing cold soup from fresh shelling peas that was one of the most memorable vegetable soups I've ever had.  It was basically like this recipe:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/95110/fresh-pea-soup/  with one notable difference....after shelling the peas, she would reserve the pods and boil them in water to make a strongly pea flavored broth that she would use in place of the water in this recipe.  It made for a very strong pea flavor that was delicious!
Carrots-  We have had a great crop of carrots so far.  Beautiful roots with strong green tops!  A newer planting had to be recently rescued from the weeds...we have a terrible weedy bunch grass that has begun appearing on parts of the farm and it can completely take over beds!  Fortunately, we caught it just in time to rescue the baby carrots from being overtaken by a grassy jungle.
Herb bunch-  Our new cilantro bed is on, so it is time to right our previous wrongs!  A few weeks ago, Monday pickup folks got cilantro, but we were all out before the Thursday harvest.  This week, we will give parsley bunches out on Monday, and cilantro on Thursday. 
Spinach-  Very nice spinach this year, perfect for bunching.  Here is a recipe for exactly the way I like to make fresh sautéed greens:  http://www.marthastewart.com/1150315/sauteed-fresh-spinach
Broccoli-  Broccoli is back in the share, with new broccoli beds starting to come into production.
http://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/how-to-buy-store-and-eat-your-broccoli-article
Zucchini/Summer Squash-  We planted less summer squash this year than in years past, mostly because when it really gets going in late Summer we have to pick it regularly and end up with so much summer squash.  But in the early Summer, when the plants are just getting going, it means not having quite as much as we could use.  Oh well, it's a trade off.  I'm hoping that this week, for the first time, we'll have enough to give ALL shares a few squash...maybe a bit more in the large shares.
Garlic-  I'm not sure yet which garlic variety we will giving out this week, but probably one of our early softneck varieties that we had planned to use for food garlic (as opposed to saving for seed).  We have so much more garlic this year than ever before, it is great being able to give it out more frequently!
In the LARGE SHARES-
Purple cabbage-  Taco time!  When I was growing up my Dad would make fish tacos with chopped purple cabbage and a creamy dressing.  Sprinkle some cilantro and queso fresco on top....easy dinner.
Radish-  At the Orchard Kitchen, Vincent served a really simple and delicious little hor d'oeuvre...one of our radishes, sliced longwise in half with the greens left on, and a mustardy dressing to dip it it.  He told us to eat the greens, which even I as a vegetable farmer didn't think sounded appealing...but it was delicious!  I wish I had a photo to show the beautiful presentation they used....
Walla walla onions-  This will be the final appearance of our Walla walla onions after a very successful run.  Hopefully by next week the rest of our onions will be sizing up and ready to go into the shares.  No other onion is quite as delicious as onion rings, though....it's hard to make good onion rings at home, but worth a try!  http://www.lifesambrosia.com/buttermilk-walla-walla-onion-rings-recipe/

Blog for Farm Share Week 6

It was great to see some of you at the party last week!  We had nice weather and some good snacks.  I think Jack and I both felt like it was really nice doing the party a month into the share, rather than in May....the fields look great and there are more crops to see, it seemed like more people were able to come, and we had more produce to serve as snacks.  If we can, we'll try to host another get together before the end of the year.
Vincent and Tyla Nattress, who own the property we farm, are taking a well deserved weekend off from the Orchard Kitchen to get off island and celebrate the fourth with their daughters.  They'll be back to serving dinners at the Orchard Kitchen this coming week though, and all of us from Ebb Tide have been invited to eat with them this coming Thursday!  We are very excited.  If you haven't had a chance to eat at the Orchard Kitchen, you should check it out.  They'll be serving dinner Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights for the rest of the Summer.  Here's a link: http://www.orchardkitchen.com/#foodweb
They are also still working to improve the property for their dinners; right now they're building a patio overlooking our crops, and fixing up the old hay barn to use for additional seating!

In all shares this week:
Strawberries-  The berries are back in the share!  It's always hard to anticipate, but it seems like the plants are primed for a big flush of ripe fruit, so I'm thinking we should have plenty of berries to give you all a pint this week.
Arugula-  More lemony, peppery arugula in the shares this week.  Great for a Summer salad.  Bobbi and I just had arugula for dinner with some grilled zucchini and onion. 
Sugar snap peas-  The peas are so great raw and so easy to eat.  If you can avoid snacking on them, though, you could make an easy pasta dish with lots of the stuff in your share:  just sauté some cauliflower and kale in olive oil, add some chopped peas and zucchini, and finish with some basil and arugula, salt and balsamic vinegar.
Basil-  After getting off to a slower start this Spring, all of a sudden the basil has really taken off!  When the basil starts getting big, it needs to be picked hard to encourage it to keep growing, so you all will be the beneficiaries!
Kale-  We planted lots and lots of kale this Spring, hoping to wholesale it to Willowood Farm in Coupeville, as they always get aphid problems in the Summer months and can't meet the demand for kale from all the Seattle restaurants they sell to.  Unfortunately for us, so far they have had no aphid issues and have tons of their own kale...so we are stuck with an enormous kale surplus.  If anyone knows of someone who wants to buy 50 pounds of kale, let me know!
http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults?search=kale
Cauliflower-  Our first cauliflower planting is on, and it is truly beautiful!  Cauliflower is one of my favorite crops to grow;  it is usually pretty difficult, but it loves the soil at Ebb Tide and we usually have no problem producing some really nice cauliflower.  Finding the snow white heads hiding inside the huge plants and cutting them out is kind of like a treasure hunt!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/oven-roasted-cauliflower-with-garlic-olive-oil-and-lemon-juice-recipe.html
http://www.marthastewart.com/275272/cauliflower-recipes#233356

In large shares only:
Fennel-  Fennel bulbs are a great vegetable that a lot of people are less familiar with.  They have a pleasant crunch similar to celery, but with a sweet, anise like taste.  If you love the flavor, it is strongest and crunchiest eaten raw, and is great in a salad, slaw, or sliced for an appetizer plate with a dip. If the flavor is too strong for you raw, try chopping it and sautéing or roasting it as you would an onion for a soup, pasta sauce, or casserole.
http://www.marthastewart.com/286398/fennel-recipes
Zucchini-  More zucchini for the large shares this week.  We have been using our barbeque a lot, so it is always great to have some zucchini around.  It is so easy to slice up, brush with some olive oil and throw on the grill for a few minutes.
Lettuce-  A nice head of (I hope green butter) lettuce to round out the large shares.  Butter lettuce is a great summer treat with its mild, sweet leaves.  It is easy to grow, but doesn't hold for very long, so we need to pick it as soon as it's ready.