Hi folks,
The final farm share week has arrived. With the colder weather and shorter days, it feels like the right time...
The share will be almost double in size this week, so pack your muscles when you come to pick it up! There won't be too many more items than usual, just larger amounts. All the produce this time of year will hold for quite a while in the fridge (or, for the winter squash, onions and garlic, in a dry room temperature spot) so hopefully this share should load you up with veggies to last beyond this week.
The small shares will be packed into our blue bags and will be about the size of a normal large share...the large shares will be packed into wax boxes as I anticipate they'll be too big for the bags!
We may put out some extra winter squash to take if you want, apart from what's already packed into your shares, so keep an eye out for that.
I'm not even 100% sure what will be in the final share, but there will be a whole lot of stuff. We have a lot of food still on the farm and I want to put it together to make the best final share possible. But it will definitely include some of the following:
Winter squash and pumpkins- We have a whole lot of winter squash left, and a bunch of different varieties. As mentioned above, I may put out some extras for any real squash lovers looking for a bit extra.
Onions- Lots of onions and shallots still in storage, too. Especially our copra storage onions, which we have only recently started dipping into.
Garlic- Jess and Brian got all our seed garlic planted! There will be plenty of garlic growing for 2018. It also means we can give out more of our 2017 garlic without worries, as our need to save heads for seed has passed.
Kale- The Fall kale and chard continues to grow and do beautifully. This is the best time of year for kale!
Carrots- I think the carrots I've eaten over the past few weeks have been some of the tastiest I've ever had from the farm. Small, but so sweet! We will probably top them so they take up less space, but we'll give you a whole lot.
Beets- The beets are also abundant and delicious, and will also probably be topped in the bottom of your bag or box to save some space.
Brassicas- Some more brussels sprouts, plus some cabbage or broccoli if it survived the freeze and thaw!
Radishes/hakurei turnips- I am hoping these survived the cold weather, too! It didn't actually get that cold, but they can be pretty tender.
Braising mix- We've got a lot of nice braising greens growing, like tatsoi, mustards, mizunas, that make a great stir fry mix.
Other winter roots- Like our Black Spanish Radishes and winter turnips...
Greens- Lots of other greens still growing, like some radicchio, escarole, parsley, spinach, chard, collards, arugula, and mustards, so large shares will have an extra green.
If you didn't see in the email, this will be the farm's final share as Ebb Tide Produce, and the last time for me running the farm. I am taking a day off from the day job to pick and pack the final share with Jess and Brian. Vincent and Tyla Nattress will be taking the reins of the farm and incorporating into their business with the Orchard Kitchen, and I couldn't be happier to see the farm continuing on in their hands. It has been a truly great time running the farm and growing food for all you wonderful people. I will really miss it I'm sure, but I'm excited to be moving on to new adventures, too!
Thanks you so much to all of you. It has been great getting to know you, and I really, truly appreciate your support of the farm.
Second to last farm share
Hi guys,
This farm share may be second to last, but I assure you it's second to none.
Here's what it is:
Apples- We bought some beautiful Fall fuji apples through Georgie up at Willowood Farm to round out the shares this week. It's so nice to have a bit of fruit in the shares.
Spinach- We have some really nice spinach, but it is kind of in between bunching size and baby size, with nice sized leaves but not very long stems....so it may be a smaller bunch in the shares this week.
Delicata squash- We have piles more of our delicata squash in storage. These squash have nice thin edible skins, so no need to peel them!
Shallots- A bunch more of our delicious red shallots. I've been putting these in just about everything I cook recently.
Hakurei turnips- These Japanese turnips are very sensitive to cold weather, so usually they would have been frost killed by now....luckily, the weather has been mild so we still have a bunch of em!
Carrots- The carrot train keeps on rolling, with more nice medium sized Hilmar carrots.
Rutabega- "Swedish turnips" or "Swedes", these big old winter roots are great for roasting, steaming, pureeing or mashing with potatoes.
And in large shares:
Cauliflower- Better late than never...I thought our fall cauliflower would be ready a few weeks ago but it keeps delaying...finally, it seems like there are enough heads ready out in the field to put them in the large shares.
Swiss Chard- A bunch of colorful Swiss chard to add a bit more braising greens to the large shares...
Leeks- We are sadly getting to the end of our leeks. It seemed like we had so many just a few months ago, but we have managed to pick them all! Still enough to make another bunch for all the large shares though..
What a nice Fall we've been having. It is starting to get colder now, but we still haven't really had a hard frost on the farm, and we have a lot of food still that we normally would have lost by now. I am seeing some rain in the forecast for tomorrow, but some more dry days after that.
This week's share will be the normal size, but next week's will be a big share to finish of the year and stock up the pantry!
This farm share may be second to last, but I assure you it's second to none.
Here's what it is:
Apples- We bought some beautiful Fall fuji apples through Georgie up at Willowood Farm to round out the shares this week. It's so nice to have a bit of fruit in the shares.
Spinach- We have some really nice spinach, but it is kind of in between bunching size and baby size, with nice sized leaves but not very long stems....so it may be a smaller bunch in the shares this week.
Delicata squash- We have piles more of our delicata squash in storage. These squash have nice thin edible skins, so no need to peel them!
Shallots- A bunch more of our delicious red shallots. I've been putting these in just about everything I cook recently.
Hakurei turnips- These Japanese turnips are very sensitive to cold weather, so usually they would have been frost killed by now....luckily, the weather has been mild so we still have a bunch of em!
Carrots- The carrot train keeps on rolling, with more nice medium sized Hilmar carrots.
Rutabega- "Swedish turnips" or "Swedes", these big old winter roots are great for roasting, steaming, pureeing or mashing with potatoes.
And in large shares:
Cauliflower- Better late than never...I thought our fall cauliflower would be ready a few weeks ago but it keeps delaying...finally, it seems like there are enough heads ready out in the field to put them in the large shares.
Swiss Chard- A bunch of colorful Swiss chard to add a bit more braising greens to the large shares...
Leeks- We are sadly getting to the end of our leeks. It seemed like we had so many just a few months ago, but we have managed to pick them all! Still enough to make another bunch for all the large shares though..
What a nice Fall we've been having. It is starting to get colder now, but we still haven't really had a hard frost on the farm, and we have a lot of food still that we normally would have lost by now. I am seeing some rain in the forecast for tomorrow, but some more dry days after that.
This week's share will be the normal size, but next week's will be a big share to finish of the year and stock up the pantry!
Happy Halloween!
What's in the shares this week.....
Escarole- This will be mostly frisee, a nice mild flavored escarole. This is in the lettuce family, but with thicker leaves and a slightly more bitter flavor, it holds up to cooking unlike lettuce. Here is a nice recipe Bobbi found that will also use up some of the beets and potatoes in your share:
http://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/two-potato-beet-hash-with-poached-eggs-greens
Broccoli- Our Fall brassicas are all coming on a bit later than I wanted....I was hoping we would have cauliflower for the shares this week, but I don't think enough of it is ready quite yet. We have quite a bit of broccoli still coming on, though, and I bought a bit of extra from Georgie at Willowood Farm just in case we were short....
Carrots- As you probably noticed last week, we are into a new bed of carrots where the roots are not as big, so we are back to the more modest sized carrots which are nice. Still the delicious Hilmar variety that we've been picking all season though.
http://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/balsamic-onion-thyme-carrots
http://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/vegan-carrot-cake-truffles
Beets- A big bunch of mixed beets with red and chioggia and maybe some gold beets. See the recipe above for the hash!
Kale- Our fall kale is really kicking butt. It rebounded from some dry late Summer struggles to be truly abundant, and delicious.
Copra onions- These are our yellow storage onions, which are a bit less sweet and a bit more pungent, and store much better that the sweet yellow onions. We had all our onions drying in the greenhouse through September, but then we moved them out to make room for all the winter squash, so now they are in storage in our shed and should hopefully be good for many more weeks or months.
Potatoes- The last of our potatoes! I decided to plant fewer potatoes this year, thinking that it would be an easy way to downsize the planted space on the farm a bit, and an easy crop to buy from other farmers. I planted as many as I thought we would need in the Summer. But thanks to good yields and not starting to dig them too early this year, they lasted much further into the season than I expected! I have bought some from Georgie for the stand already, and will mix in a bit of hers to make sure we have enough for all the shares. Again, see the hash recipe above!
And in large shares only....
Kabocha buttercup squash- These green kabocha squash have always done amazing on the farm in past years, but for some mysterious reason they really underperformed this year with lower yields, so we don't have a ton of them. They are a really nice winter squash, with dry almost crumbly orange flesh that is really flavorful....a Japanese squash closely related to the Red Kuri, even though they look nothing alike.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11783-winter-squash-and-pork-stir-fry
Peppers- Maybe the last of the peppers! I love it when the peppers go til Halloween and beyond!
Tomato- And the final tomatoes too. We haven't had tomatoes til this late in the Season for many years on the farm, if we ever have. In a greenhouse it is easy to have tomatoes til late in the Fall, because they stay dry, but our outside tomatoes are usually too susceptible to disease to make it this late. Hurray! I am trying to enjoy them while they last, because it will be many months before we have nice home grown tomatoes again.
Parsley/herbs- A nice bunch of fresh parsley or another herb to add to your fall recipes...
I am trying to keep up, but feeling very out of touch with what's going on at the farm these days. I've been working Monday through Friday and stopping by the farm on the evenings on the way home....I had planned to spend some time on the farm on Saturday, but then the weather was so gross I lost all motivation, sadly. It is so nice to now have an extended dry period in the forecast though! When it got so wintery I was sure that our dry season was long gone, but there may be a little bit left in the tank.
Bobbi and I are excited going into the holidays this year that Nico will be old enough to understand and be interested and excited about stuff like Halloween, Santa Claus and all that stuff for the first time. It should be sweet to see her learning about Thanksgiving and Christmas and seeing how it all works now that she's really interested in trying to figure things out.
Escarole- This will be mostly frisee, a nice mild flavored escarole. This is in the lettuce family, but with thicker leaves and a slightly more bitter flavor, it holds up to cooking unlike lettuce. Here is a nice recipe Bobbi found that will also use up some of the beets and potatoes in your share:
http://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/two-potato-beet-hash-with-poached-eggs-greens
Broccoli- Our Fall brassicas are all coming on a bit later than I wanted....I was hoping we would have cauliflower for the shares this week, but I don't think enough of it is ready quite yet. We have quite a bit of broccoli still coming on, though, and I bought a bit of extra from Georgie at Willowood Farm just in case we were short....
Carrots- As you probably noticed last week, we are into a new bed of carrots where the roots are not as big, so we are back to the more modest sized carrots which are nice. Still the delicious Hilmar variety that we've been picking all season though.
http://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/balsamic-onion-thyme-carrots
http://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/vegan-carrot-cake-truffles
Beets- A big bunch of mixed beets with red and chioggia and maybe some gold beets. See the recipe above for the hash!
Kale- Our fall kale is really kicking butt. It rebounded from some dry late Summer struggles to be truly abundant, and delicious.
Copra onions- These are our yellow storage onions, which are a bit less sweet and a bit more pungent, and store much better that the sweet yellow onions. We had all our onions drying in the greenhouse through September, but then we moved them out to make room for all the winter squash, so now they are in storage in our shed and should hopefully be good for many more weeks or months.
Potatoes- The last of our potatoes! I decided to plant fewer potatoes this year, thinking that it would be an easy way to downsize the planted space on the farm a bit, and an easy crop to buy from other farmers. I planted as many as I thought we would need in the Summer. But thanks to good yields and not starting to dig them too early this year, they lasted much further into the season than I expected! I have bought some from Georgie for the stand already, and will mix in a bit of hers to make sure we have enough for all the shares. Again, see the hash recipe above!
And in large shares only....
Kabocha buttercup squash- These green kabocha squash have always done amazing on the farm in past years, but for some mysterious reason they really underperformed this year with lower yields, so we don't have a ton of them. They are a really nice winter squash, with dry almost crumbly orange flesh that is really flavorful....a Japanese squash closely related to the Red Kuri, even though they look nothing alike.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11783-winter-squash-and-pork-stir-fry
Peppers- Maybe the last of the peppers! I love it when the peppers go til Halloween and beyond!
Tomato- And the final tomatoes too. We haven't had tomatoes til this late in the Season for many years on the farm, if we ever have. In a greenhouse it is easy to have tomatoes til late in the Fall, because they stay dry, but our outside tomatoes are usually too susceptible to disease to make it this late. Hurray! I am trying to enjoy them while they last, because it will be many months before we have nice home grown tomatoes again.
Parsley/herbs- A nice bunch of fresh parsley or another herb to add to your fall recipes...
I am trying to keep up, but feeling very out of touch with what's going on at the farm these days. I've been working Monday through Friday and stopping by the farm on the evenings on the way home....I had planned to spend some time on the farm on Saturday, but then the weather was so gross I lost all motivation, sadly. It is so nice to now have an extended dry period in the forecast though! When it got so wintery I was sure that our dry season was long gone, but there may be a little bit left in the tank.
Bobbi and I are excited going into the holidays this year that Nico will be old enough to understand and be interested and excited about stuff like Halloween, Santa Claus and all that stuff for the first time. It should be sweet to see her learning about Thanksgiving and Christmas and seeing how it all works now that she's really interested in trying to figure things out.
Fall farm blog
Things are definitely winding down on the farm, as you can see if you take a look at the fields from up at the farm stand or the road. But there is still plenty of food to be had....
In the shares this week:
Arugula- https://www.thespruce.com/persimmon-arugula-salad-2217111
https://minimalistbaker.com/apple-pecan-arugula-salad/
Brussels sprouts- https://www.marthastewart.com/316075/sauteed-brussels-sprouts
Leek- https://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/23-favorite-leek-recipes-like-onions
Red kuri squash- http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/red-kuri-squash-soup
Radish- https://naturallyella.com/buttered-radishes-with-a-poached-egg/
Carrots- http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/devour/recipes/2014/11/fall-fest-carrot-recipes-to-covet
Tomato/eggplant/peppers- https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/ratatouille
And in large shares only:
Green tomatoes- http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/fried-green-tomatoes-1
Collard greens/kale- http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/southern-style-collard-greens
Garlic- http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roasted_garlic/
I'm not feeling very verbal today after a day of fighting a stomach bug...so I will let the recipes do the talkin' this week. Hope everyone's cooking and eating their veggies and not getting blown away in this crazy wind!
In the shares this week:
Arugula- https://www.thespruce.com/persimmon-arugula-salad-2217111
https://minimalistbaker.com/apple-pecan-arugula-salad/
Brussels sprouts- https://www.marthastewart.com/316075/sauteed-brussels-sprouts
Leek- https://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/23-favorite-leek-recipes-like-onions
Red kuri squash- http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/red-kuri-squash-soup
Radish- https://naturallyella.com/buttered-radishes-with-a-poached-egg/
Carrots- http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/devour/recipes/2014/11/fall-fest-carrot-recipes-to-covet
Tomato/eggplant/peppers- https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/ratatouille
And in large shares only:
Green tomatoes- http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/fried-green-tomatoes-1
Collard greens/kale- http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/southern-style-collard-greens
Garlic- http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roasted_garlic/
I'm not feeling very verbal today after a day of fighting a stomach bug...so I will let the recipes do the talkin' this week. Hope everyone's cooking and eating their veggies and not getting blown away in this crazy wind!
Pumpkin season....
In all shares this week:
Lettuce- Yes, lettuce is back for one last time! It hasn't gotten too cold yet to bother the lettuce, and since we covered the last beds up with floating row cover the deer stopped bothering it. So we can get a nice mix of different types of head lettuce into the shares this week. A few more lettuce salads before winter...
Pumpkin- These "Winter luxury" pumpkins are the best. Great flavored flesh, and beautiful netted skin. http://www.delish.com/cooking/g1770/best-pumpkin-recipes/
I love pumpkin curry: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7732/pumpkin-curry-with-chickpeas
Carrots- No surprise, more carrots in the share this week.
Yellow onions- We may be starting to dip into our yellow "Copra" storage onions if we run out of walla wallas. They can be used interchangeably as yellow onions though, the wallas are just a bit more sweet.
Swiss chard- A nice bunch of beautiful, colorful Swiss chard. Our summer chard went down hard, but is actually springing back to life now....but our Fall chard is in midseason form.
Tomatoes and peppers- Hopefully one or two of each, the plants are still producing, but probably not for too much longer! There were a few patches of frost in the field last week, but not enough to bother the crops...the forecast continues to say lows in the 40s, but all it takes is one cooler night now to really stop these crops in their tracks!!
Large Shares only! Fall root crop bonanza...
Hakurei turnips- Nice little mild and juicy salad turnips, and don't forget the greens are great too!
Black spanish radishes- These are a more unusual vegetable, nothing like your normal radish. Try slicing them very thin or grating them and serving raw, or otherwise roast them like a turnip! They have a bit of spice and a firm crispy texture. Another farm share's blog did a better job than I could at writing them up (with recipes): https://ukcsa.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/black-spanish-radishes-a-primer/
Parsnips- Some beautiful parsnips from our friends at Kettle's Edge Farm up in Coupeville! I decided not to grow parsnips this year after having germination struggles over the last several years...
This recipe is a great description of how I like to use winter squash, potatoes, carrots, and other roots like black radishes, parsnips, beets....all in one dish.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/roasted-root-vegetables-recipe-1927925
Last week was spent bringing all of our winter squash in from the field, a very fun once-a-year project that involves lots of throwing and catching to get the squashes in and out of the truck. One of my favorite times on the farm, and we had gorgeous weather for it.
With most work on the farm done for the season, I have already launched into my winter career of carpentry beginning this week, so Jess and Brian will be in charge of packing farm shares! I will be at the farm for part of pickup, though, after about 4:30, so maybe I will still see you. I'm very happy with all the crops we still have on the farm right now.
Lettuce- Yes, lettuce is back for one last time! It hasn't gotten too cold yet to bother the lettuce, and since we covered the last beds up with floating row cover the deer stopped bothering it. So we can get a nice mix of different types of head lettuce into the shares this week. A few more lettuce salads before winter...
Pumpkin- These "Winter luxury" pumpkins are the best. Great flavored flesh, and beautiful netted skin. http://www.delish.com/cooking/g1770/best-pumpkin-recipes/
I love pumpkin curry: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7732/pumpkin-curry-with-chickpeas
Carrots- No surprise, more carrots in the share this week.
Yellow onions- We may be starting to dip into our yellow "Copra" storage onions if we run out of walla wallas. They can be used interchangeably as yellow onions though, the wallas are just a bit more sweet.
Swiss chard- A nice bunch of beautiful, colorful Swiss chard. Our summer chard went down hard, but is actually springing back to life now....but our Fall chard is in midseason form.
Tomatoes and peppers- Hopefully one or two of each, the plants are still producing, but probably not for too much longer! There were a few patches of frost in the field last week, but not enough to bother the crops...the forecast continues to say lows in the 40s, but all it takes is one cooler night now to really stop these crops in their tracks!!
Large Shares only! Fall root crop bonanza...
Hakurei turnips- Nice little mild and juicy salad turnips, and don't forget the greens are great too!
Black spanish radishes- These are a more unusual vegetable, nothing like your normal radish. Try slicing them very thin or grating them and serving raw, or otherwise roast them like a turnip! They have a bit of spice and a firm crispy texture. Another farm share's blog did a better job than I could at writing them up (with recipes): https://ukcsa.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/black-spanish-radishes-a-primer/
Parsnips- Some beautiful parsnips from our friends at Kettle's Edge Farm up in Coupeville! I decided not to grow parsnips this year after having germination struggles over the last several years...
This recipe is a great description of how I like to use winter squash, potatoes, carrots, and other roots like black radishes, parsnips, beets....all in one dish.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/roasted-root-vegetables-recipe-1927925
Last week was spent bringing all of our winter squash in from the field, a very fun once-a-year project that involves lots of throwing and catching to get the squashes in and out of the truck. One of my favorite times on the farm, and we had gorgeous weather for it.
With most work on the farm done for the season, I have already launched into my winter career of carpentry beginning this week, so Jess and Brian will be in charge of packing farm shares! I will be at the farm for part of pickup, though, after about 4:30, so maybe I will still see you. I'm very happy with all the crops we still have on the farm right now.
It's October!
It's October....but no pumpkins in the share until next week!
Here's what is in your share this week....
Apples! I picked these apples from some apple trees on the property Bobbie and I used to live at in Greenbank. They are mixed varieties, all very tasty! Some may be a bit underripe and could benefit from being kept at room temperature for few more days.
Broccoli- Broccoli is back on, at long last! We've got some beautiful heads forming, in spite of the fact that the pesky deer nibbled on some of the leaves a few weeks ago. Fall broccoli is the best!
Spinach- Some nice sweet spinach....another crop that I think is best this time of year. We haven't had spinach in the share since back in June, I think, so enjoy.
Garlic- We've now sorted all of our garlic to make sure we keep enough for seed, so we have lots of nice food garlic to give out in farm shares!
Blue potatoes- These blue spuds have been in your shares a few times now as a mix with yellow and reds, but this week if we have enough we'll give you just straight blues. Potatoes instead of winter squash this week, to give you a little squash hiatus.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/blue-potatoes-mashed-with-roasted-garlic-recipe-1911752
Beets- More sweet red, gold, and chioggia beets. We have lots and lots of beets left in the field still, so they will make a few more appearances in the farm shares.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nancy-fuller/roasted-beet-salad-with-walnuts-and-goat-cheese-2383008
Solana- This is a term for the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. The plants keep chugging along in spite of some cooler nights, but they are slowing down a bit, so i'm not certain we'll have enough of any one to put in all shares. Let me know if you have a strong preference for tomatoes, peppers, or eggplants....no guarantee, but I can try to get you your preferred one if you let me know!
And also in large shares:
Leeks- Lots of beautiful leeks still out in the field.
Scarlet Runner beans- These are fresh shelling beans, in the pod, so I hope you're up for a small project! The beans are large and pretty easy to shell, but it takes a bit of time to pop them out of the pods. Then you can cook them similar to a dry bean, but as they are not fully dried, they don't need to be presoaked, and only need to boil in water for a half hour or so. They are beautiful and delicious!
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/scarlet-runner-beans-bacon-52837131
Carrots- No surprise here...these are coming from a new bed of carrots, but they are the same variety, Hilmar.
Cabbage- I hope we have enough of these beautiful green smooth leaf cabbages to put one in each of the large shares this week.
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/cabbage-stir-fry-with-coconut-and-lemon
As summer turns to Fall on the farm, we begin the field cleanup....bringing in the hoses, drip tape and sprinklers now that irrigation season is over, taking down the t posts and twine of trellis and row cover and mulch that has served as crop protection....and begin mowing things down, tilling them in, and planting cover crop to grow through the winter months.
The remaining potatoes and winter squash come into the barn for Fall storage, and the tractors and implements get stored out in the field until the farm reawakens in the Spring.
It has been a great Season! Some strange weather at times, and a bit of confusing crop behavior, but on the whole I am really happy with how things have turned out this year. Last week I went through my annual process of stressing out about not having planted enough food -for no particular reason- but then after we put together what I thought was a great farm share, packed a nice order for the Orchard Kitchen, and packed the farm stand to the gills with produce, I realized I was being insane.
It is always a challenge for me to stay busy and earn income in the Winter months, and this year I have gotten a great opportunity to do carpentry with Heggenes Construction. I'll be beginning that gig soon, so Brian and Jess will be doing extra work around the farm to keep the farm share going. I will still be around and seeing many of you at farm share pickup on Thursday evenings. And I haven't forgotten about getting a light in the farm stand!
Here's what is in your share this week....
Apples! I picked these apples from some apple trees on the property Bobbie and I used to live at in Greenbank. They are mixed varieties, all very tasty! Some may be a bit underripe and could benefit from being kept at room temperature for few more days.
Broccoli- Broccoli is back on, at long last! We've got some beautiful heads forming, in spite of the fact that the pesky deer nibbled on some of the leaves a few weeks ago. Fall broccoli is the best!
Spinach- Some nice sweet spinach....another crop that I think is best this time of year. We haven't had spinach in the share since back in June, I think, so enjoy.
Garlic- We've now sorted all of our garlic to make sure we keep enough for seed, so we have lots of nice food garlic to give out in farm shares!
Blue potatoes- These blue spuds have been in your shares a few times now as a mix with yellow and reds, but this week if we have enough we'll give you just straight blues. Potatoes instead of winter squash this week, to give you a little squash hiatus.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/blue-potatoes-mashed-with-roasted-garlic-recipe-1911752
Beets- More sweet red, gold, and chioggia beets. We have lots and lots of beets left in the field still, so they will make a few more appearances in the farm shares.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nancy-fuller/roasted-beet-salad-with-walnuts-and-goat-cheese-2383008
Solana- This is a term for the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. The plants keep chugging along in spite of some cooler nights, but they are slowing down a bit, so i'm not certain we'll have enough of any one to put in all shares. Let me know if you have a strong preference for tomatoes, peppers, or eggplants....no guarantee, but I can try to get you your preferred one if you let me know!
And also in large shares:
Leeks- Lots of beautiful leeks still out in the field.
Scarlet Runner beans- These are fresh shelling beans, in the pod, so I hope you're up for a small project! The beans are large and pretty easy to shell, but it takes a bit of time to pop them out of the pods. Then you can cook them similar to a dry bean, but as they are not fully dried, they don't need to be presoaked, and only need to boil in water for a half hour or so. They are beautiful and delicious!
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/scarlet-runner-beans-bacon-52837131
Carrots- No surprise here...these are coming from a new bed of carrots, but they are the same variety, Hilmar.
Cabbage- I hope we have enough of these beautiful green smooth leaf cabbages to put one in each of the large shares this week.
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/cabbage-stir-fry-with-coconut-and-lemon
As summer turns to Fall on the farm, we begin the field cleanup....bringing in the hoses, drip tape and sprinklers now that irrigation season is over, taking down the t posts and twine of trellis and row cover and mulch that has served as crop protection....and begin mowing things down, tilling them in, and planting cover crop to grow through the winter months.
The remaining potatoes and winter squash come into the barn for Fall storage, and the tractors and implements get stored out in the field until the farm reawakens in the Spring.
It has been a great Season! Some strange weather at times, and a bit of confusing crop behavior, but on the whole I am really happy with how things have turned out this year. Last week I went through my annual process of stressing out about not having planted enough food -for no particular reason- but then after we put together what I thought was a great farm share, packed a nice order for the Orchard Kitchen, and packed the farm stand to the gills with produce, I realized I was being insane.
It is always a challenge for me to stay busy and earn income in the Winter months, and this year I have gotten a great opportunity to do carpentry with Heggenes Construction. I'll be beginning that gig soon, so Brian and Jess will be doing extra work around the farm to keep the farm share going. I will still be around and seeing many of you at farm share pickup on Thursday evenings. And I haven't forgotten about getting a light in the farm stand!
September 28th Farm Share
Bobbie has agreed to be a guest blogger this week! She’s written everything below:
In all shares:
Acorn squash- One of the earliest types of winter squash.
These can sit out on your counter for another month before you need to cook it.
Always a bonus in our house! If you’re not ready for it to be falls (or
winter!) try this squash recipe from Smitten kitchen
https://smittenkitchen.com/2006/10/unflinchingly-good-things/
Carrots-We’ve been eating a lot of carrots. A lot. Nico
doesn’t sit long for meals days and I try to have lots of cut of veggies (and a
tempting dip) on hand for after school. One of my favorites is Deborah
Madison’s recipe for tofu mayonnaise from Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone (a
bible in our home). https://www.cookstr.com/recipes/tofu-mayonnaise-deborah-madison
Kale- Kale…The winter zucchini. The gift that keeps on
giving. What can be said about kale that hasn’t been said before? Next food
prep session I suggest listening to John Cale’s Paris 1919. There.
Tomatoes- There won’t be tomatoes for too much longer. Im hoping to do some roasting soon and stash
a few ziploc’s away to enjoy later in the winter.
Sweet pepper-Another easy veggie to just serve raw. Were still so busy these days that it’s easy
to just cave to the simplest preparation.
These have been so abundant this year and have made it into most of our
meals. Recently I made ground turkey and white bean chili with sweet peppers.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy, plus left overs for lunch (always a winner in my
book)
http://www.marthastewart.com/314655/turkey-and-white-bean-chili
Small shares only:
Radishes {because
last week after saying there would be radishes in all shares we decided to put
the last sweet corn in the small shares instead}-
Large shares only:
Bunching onion {green scallion or red apache} - My best
friend Kylie and I often make these savory Japanese pancakes, called
Okonomiyaki. The best parts of this (and any meal) are the condiments. Often we
will soak scallions in tamari or soy sauce while we prep and ladle them on top
of the cakes with Siracha and mayo. https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/okonomiyaki
Napa cabbage- A favorite of mine. If you haven’t tried an
Asian style peanut salad with Napa cabbage yet, put it on your bucket list.
Zucchini- Ah, the versatile beast… I love adding zucchini
where I can in cooking. Pancakes, muffins, scrambled eggs… the key is to
squeeze, press or blot any excess water out of your zucchini before adding it
to your meal.
Parsley- Gremolata is one of the easiest ways to brighten
practically any meal (and look fancy at the same time). The ingredients are simple (parsley, garlic,
and lemon), and usually on hand.
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-gremolata-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-193008
{More tomatoes, acorn squash, and peppers in the large
shares}
Kitchen gadgets
Life with a toddler and two working parents can be hectic.
Eating (and preparing) healthy foods can be challenging- even when you have all
the nice, pretty, organic vegetables in the world sitting on the kitchen
counter. Here are a couple of ways I’ve
been coping. What are you doing to stay committed to healthy eating?
In an attempt to prepare and eat more vegetables (yes we
have that problem too), I bought a spiralizer. For those of you who are
unfamiliar with this kitchen gadget, it’s basically takes your average
root vegetable and cranks it into a fun
spiral that is somehow more appealing to eat than a basic matchstick or
julienned carrot. This has made most potluck and side dishes a breeze to prep
and I’m enjoying being able to bring gluten free, Vegan dishes to gatherings-
even if our household doesn’t have dietary restrictions.
Immersion blender. I use this baby several times
a week, mostly to make healthy dips and dressings, sauces and condiments. I
find I can include a lot more raw food this way, and also be more simplistic at
the same time. The texture from this type of blender tends to be finer than my
basic (probably really dull) food processor, and the cleanup is incredibly
easier.
First Fall Share
Our first sour hare of the Autumn, and with this week's weather it feels about right. The produce in your shares will be starting to shift in the coming weeks, and this week we have some of the first Fall veggies. Here's what's in all shares this week:
Delicata squash! The first winter squash of the year, these smaller squash are the most popular variety to grow. They have great flavor, and are really easy to use....the skin is thin and edible, so no need to peel them, just cut them in half longwise, scoop out the seeds, add some butter, oil, or salt, and bake them in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes or so.
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/maple-roasted-delicata-squash-with-red-onion-51258430
Walla walla onions- We have a greenhouse chock full of onions, shallots and garlic right now, so no shortage on any of those for the coming months. Onions are a great start to a nice Fall soup, or use these in place of red onions in the recipe above.
Sweet peppers- More of our sweet Gypsy and Carmen peppers. Both are ripening quickly and add a great sweet flavor all kinds of dishes. Here is a recipe for roasted red peppers:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-red-peppers-recipe-1923836
Carrots- The carrots are better than ever, but their tops are getting a bit weaker, so I think we will pack the carrots into your shares without tops this week. They will still be freshly dug and delicious, and if it is still this chilly out it will save us the unpleasant job of wrangling twist ties with cold muddy fingers!
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/carrot-soup-with-ginger-and-lemon-4083
Radishes- A nice small bunch of radishes...we are back to our French Breakfast type radishes that we grow in the cooler months of Spring and Fall.
Arugula- A peppery bunch of arugula for a salad, or cook it lightly if the flavor is too strong for you raw.
Tomatoes- Keep your fingers crossed that our plants make it through this wet spell, as it looks like there is at least a bit more dry weather on the way...
Large Shares only:
Sweet corn- I was hoping we'd have corn in all shares one more time, but I decided to play it safe and put it in large shares only, as it's hard to tell how much corn is still out in the field right now until I start picking it. We haven't put it in the farm stand over the last several days to hang on to it for your shares!
Fall braising mix- A little bag of our new fall kales, mustards, and chards make a nice braising mix to cook up with some onion and garlic, or add to a stir fry or stew.
Eggplant- The eggplants should keep producing for many weeks. The fruits this year are small but extra tasty.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/241990/roasted-baby-eggplant-tomato-and-zucchini/ ...you could preroast the delicata a bit and use it in place of zucchini...
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/spiced-baby-eggplants
Garlic- Maybe as part of the project of packing the garlic for the shares, we will soon begin to set aside the largest heads of garlic for seed to be planted in October for next year's garlic.
[and more onions and carrots]
Delicata squash! The first winter squash of the year, these smaller squash are the most popular variety to grow. They have great flavor, and are really easy to use....the skin is thin and edible, so no need to peel them, just cut them in half longwise, scoop out the seeds, add some butter, oil, or salt, and bake them in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes or so.
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/maple-roasted-delicata-squash-with-red-onion-51258430
Walla walla onions- We have a greenhouse chock full of onions, shallots and garlic right now, so no shortage on any of those for the coming months. Onions are a great start to a nice Fall soup, or use these in place of red onions in the recipe above.
Sweet peppers- More of our sweet Gypsy and Carmen peppers. Both are ripening quickly and add a great sweet flavor all kinds of dishes. Here is a recipe for roasted red peppers:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-red-peppers-recipe-1923836
Carrots- The carrots are better than ever, but their tops are getting a bit weaker, so I think we will pack the carrots into your shares without tops this week. They will still be freshly dug and delicious, and if it is still this chilly out it will save us the unpleasant job of wrangling twist ties with cold muddy fingers!
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/carrot-soup-with-ginger-and-lemon-4083
Radishes- A nice small bunch of radishes...we are back to our French Breakfast type radishes that we grow in the cooler months of Spring and Fall.
Arugula- A peppery bunch of arugula for a salad, or cook it lightly if the flavor is too strong for you raw.
Tomatoes- Keep your fingers crossed that our plants make it through this wet spell, as it looks like there is at least a bit more dry weather on the way...
Large Shares only:
Sweet corn- I was hoping we'd have corn in all shares one more time, but I decided to play it safe and put it in large shares only, as it's hard to tell how much corn is still out in the field right now until I start picking it. We haven't put it in the farm stand over the last several days to hang on to it for your shares!
Fall braising mix- A little bag of our new fall kales, mustards, and chards make a nice braising mix to cook up with some onion and garlic, or add to a stir fry or stew.
Eggplant- The eggplants should keep producing for many weeks. The fruits this year are small but extra tasty.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/241990/roasted-baby-eggplant-tomato-and-zucchini/ ...you could preroast the delicata a bit and use it in place of zucchini...
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/spiced-baby-eggplants
Garlic- Maybe as part of the project of packing the garlic for the shares, we will soon begin to set aside the largest heads of garlic for seed to be planted in October for next year's garlic.
[and more onions and carrots]
Nearing the End of Summer...
In all shares this week:
Beets- This time last year we were running low on Fall beets and I was wishing I'd seeded more. This year is another story....so many beets I don't know what to do with them all.
Sweet corn- Wow, the corn is a few weeks later this year than it was last year, but really productive and nice. I gave the plants a bit more space and maybe a bit more water, and it seems to be paying off with more cobs of sweet corn!
Tomatoes- Hoping last weekend's rain showers don't negatively impact the tomatoes...they are still looking healthy and strong, but I have been a bit lazy about removing all the older leaves on the plants that can be vectors for Late blight in wet weather. With any luck we should have lots more tomatoes in the coming weeks.
Summer squash- This might be the last time Summer squash is in the share...last chance Summer dance! The plants are getting a bit tired and seem to be slowing down, although you never know, they may continue to produce a bit more for a while. In any case, we have lots of nice Winter squash coming ripe that will be soon taking its place in your shares.
Basil- I'm hoping to give everyone a nice big bag of basil this week, as I'm thinking the basil won't be able to keep going for too much longer.
Lettuce- We have experienced our typical late Summer deer attack, and we lost quite a bit of head lettuce, sadly. So many of these heads will actually be coming from our friend Georgie Smith of Willowood Farm. We will have another bed of lettuce coming on soon, plus lots of other Fall greens on the way.
Small shares only:
Eggplant- Large shares have already gotten some eggplant, but small shares have not, so it's your turn! Time for some delicious eggplant curry, or grilled eggplant, or eggplant parmesan....homegrown eggplant is one of my favorite things!
Large shares only:
Pac choi- We'll have broccoli, cauliflower, romanesco, brussels sprouts, and more in the coming weeks, but for now we have a beautiful little plot of pac choi as a nice braising brassica.
Sweet peppers- The pepper plants are really producing, and this week I'll try to get some "Carmen" peppers into the shares. It is a large, bright red bull's horn type pepper that is really delicious.
Shallots- Shallots are a delicious onion-family vegetable that is kind of like a cross between onion and garlic. Slice it and use it as you would onion, but it has a different flavor prized in both French and Asian cooking. Great in sauces and dressings, with seafood and other vegetables!
Cucumber- As with the Summer squash, the cukes are beginning to slow down and some of the vines are dying back a bit. Not too many fresh cucumber salads left!
It is transition time on the farm, as many of the Summer crops are winding down and we prepare to switch over to the Fall crops. That said, many things like the eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes, should continue for many weeks, and there is still a lot of corn to be picked. This is my favorite time of year, with less traffic on the island, shorter but still beautiful days with a little chill sometimes, lots of delicious vegetables, and a little less racing around to keep up with the to do list on the farm.
It's also the time of year when I start thinking a lot about next years' plan, which I'm in the middle of now.
Don't forget to pick up your share on THURSDAY evening this week!!!
Thanks!
ETP
Beets- This time last year we were running low on Fall beets and I was wishing I'd seeded more. This year is another story....so many beets I don't know what to do with them all.
Sweet corn- Wow, the corn is a few weeks later this year than it was last year, but really productive and nice. I gave the plants a bit more space and maybe a bit more water, and it seems to be paying off with more cobs of sweet corn!
Tomatoes- Hoping last weekend's rain showers don't negatively impact the tomatoes...they are still looking healthy and strong, but I have been a bit lazy about removing all the older leaves on the plants that can be vectors for Late blight in wet weather. With any luck we should have lots more tomatoes in the coming weeks.
Summer squash- This might be the last time Summer squash is in the share...last chance Summer dance! The plants are getting a bit tired and seem to be slowing down, although you never know, they may continue to produce a bit more for a while. In any case, we have lots of nice Winter squash coming ripe that will be soon taking its place in your shares.
Basil- I'm hoping to give everyone a nice big bag of basil this week, as I'm thinking the basil won't be able to keep going for too much longer.
Lettuce- We have experienced our typical late Summer deer attack, and we lost quite a bit of head lettuce, sadly. So many of these heads will actually be coming from our friend Georgie Smith of Willowood Farm. We will have another bed of lettuce coming on soon, plus lots of other Fall greens on the way.
Small shares only:
Eggplant- Large shares have already gotten some eggplant, but small shares have not, so it's your turn! Time for some delicious eggplant curry, or grilled eggplant, or eggplant parmesan....homegrown eggplant is one of my favorite things!
Large shares only:
Pac choi- We'll have broccoli, cauliflower, romanesco, brussels sprouts, and more in the coming weeks, but for now we have a beautiful little plot of pac choi as a nice braising brassica.
Sweet peppers- The pepper plants are really producing, and this week I'll try to get some "Carmen" peppers into the shares. It is a large, bright red bull's horn type pepper that is really delicious.
Shallots- Shallots are a delicious onion-family vegetable that is kind of like a cross between onion and garlic. Slice it and use it as you would onion, but it has a different flavor prized in both French and Asian cooking. Great in sauces and dressings, with seafood and other vegetables!
Cucumber- As with the Summer squash, the cukes are beginning to slow down and some of the vines are dying back a bit. Not too many fresh cucumber salads left!
It is transition time on the farm, as many of the Summer crops are winding down and we prepare to switch over to the Fall crops. That said, many things like the eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes, should continue for many weeks, and there is still a lot of corn to be picked. This is my favorite time of year, with less traffic on the island, shorter but still beautiful days with a little chill sometimes, lots of delicious vegetables, and a little less racing around to keep up with the to do list on the farm.
It's also the time of year when I start thinking a lot about next years' plan, which I'm in the middle of now.
Don't forget to pick up your share on THURSDAY evening this week!!!
Thanks!
ETP
Farm Share Number 14...
Here's what's in the shares....
Sweet corn- We have a lot more sweet corn coming no in the next few weeks, and a lot of it is just starting to ripen. I'm hoping to get at least 3 ears in all shares this week! The corn has been great so far but with a slower start it's been hard to keep up with demand...
Tomatoes- The tomatoes are starting to really hit their stride and produce more ripe fruit every week...this time of year I begin to anxiously watch the weather forecast, as a heavy rain can spread disease quickly. It looked like we might get rain later this week, but now the forecast seems to be getting drier...
Gypsy peppers- These are a wonderful, coral colored sweet pepper with a sweet, tart flavor and a great crunchy texture. They are awesome raw, in a salad, on a sandwich, or with a dip, but also great cooked up with other veggies to add a bit of sweetness. They start out a yellowish green and ripe to a pinkish color...leave them out at room temperature with the tomatoes to allow them to continue ripening.
Carrots- No surprise here, the carrots continue to go strong. Here's a new carrot recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-carrots-recipe-1940444
Potatoes- Potatoes are back in the share, they are now beginning to "cure", or transition from being new potatoes to being storage potatoes, so they are bigger, a bit drier, and have slightly thicker skins. The flavor will be a bit stronger, and they should keep well for quite a long time in a cool, dry spot.
Leeks- Some nice Fall leeks in the share this week, a great pairing with potatoes. Leeks are a very old vegetable, eaten at least since the ancient Egyptians! They are the symbol of Wales, and used in a lot of European cooking; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leek
http://www.marthastewart.com/274312/leek-recipes?slide=3402629 (hit the little arrow on the pictures to scroll through these recipes)
In large shares:
Baby braising mix- Our Fall kale and swiss chard are beginning to grow fast, and looking beautiful. We're also a bit thin on other greens right now, so we thought the first pick of these would be a nice addition to the large shares!
Cauliflower- The first of our Fall cauliflower beds are beginning to produce, planted among the Brussels sprouts, Fall cabbage, and romanesco plants that are still not close to being ready, I was surprised to find some cauliflower in our new brassica field!
Fennel- These fennel bulbs are not huge, but a nice size to use in a recipe with other things, and the greens from the tops can be used as a delicious anise-y herb. Great on pizza or pasta!
Crazy morning today, with ash falling from the sky and the sun blood red. And it's supposed to be very hot this afternoon! What a strange, surreal day.
After kind of a stressful July, with the strawberries being mysteriously unproductive among other things, we have made it through and are having a great late Summer on the farm. I'm being a bit more laissez-faire with the weeds this year, which is great now but I may come to regret in the future if the weed pressure goes way up next year as a result of more weed seeds. Part of it is that I have been avoiding rototilling, though, as the soil is so dry from a complete lack of rain. Tilling when it is this dry creates a lot of dust and is just unpleasant, as well as not being great for the health of the soil. With most of the onions out of the field and all of the garlic cut down, we still have to bring in our storage potatoes and winter squash, but we are getting through the Summer projects!
Sweet corn- We have a lot more sweet corn coming no in the next few weeks, and a lot of it is just starting to ripen. I'm hoping to get at least 3 ears in all shares this week! The corn has been great so far but with a slower start it's been hard to keep up with demand...
Tomatoes- The tomatoes are starting to really hit their stride and produce more ripe fruit every week...this time of year I begin to anxiously watch the weather forecast, as a heavy rain can spread disease quickly. It looked like we might get rain later this week, but now the forecast seems to be getting drier...
Gypsy peppers- These are a wonderful, coral colored sweet pepper with a sweet, tart flavor and a great crunchy texture. They are awesome raw, in a salad, on a sandwich, or with a dip, but also great cooked up with other veggies to add a bit of sweetness. They start out a yellowish green and ripe to a pinkish color...leave them out at room temperature with the tomatoes to allow them to continue ripening.
Carrots- No surprise here, the carrots continue to go strong. Here's a new carrot recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-carrots-recipe-1940444
Potatoes- Potatoes are back in the share, they are now beginning to "cure", or transition from being new potatoes to being storage potatoes, so they are bigger, a bit drier, and have slightly thicker skins. The flavor will be a bit stronger, and they should keep well for quite a long time in a cool, dry spot.
Leeks- Some nice Fall leeks in the share this week, a great pairing with potatoes. Leeks are a very old vegetable, eaten at least since the ancient Egyptians! They are the symbol of Wales, and used in a lot of European cooking; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leek
http://www.marthastewart.com/274312/leek-recipes?slide=3402629 (hit the little arrow on the pictures to scroll through these recipes)
In large shares:
Baby braising mix- Our Fall kale and swiss chard are beginning to grow fast, and looking beautiful. We're also a bit thin on other greens right now, so we thought the first pick of these would be a nice addition to the large shares!
Cauliflower- The first of our Fall cauliflower beds are beginning to produce, planted among the Brussels sprouts, Fall cabbage, and romanesco plants that are still not close to being ready, I was surprised to find some cauliflower in our new brassica field!
Fennel- These fennel bulbs are not huge, but a nice size to use in a recipe with other things, and the greens from the tops can be used as a delicious anise-y herb. Great on pizza or pasta!
Crazy morning today, with ash falling from the sky and the sun blood red. And it's supposed to be very hot this afternoon! What a strange, surreal day.
After kind of a stressful July, with the strawberries being mysteriously unproductive among other things, we have made it through and are having a great late Summer on the farm. I'm being a bit more laissez-faire with the weeds this year, which is great now but I may come to regret in the future if the weed pressure goes way up next year as a result of more weed seeds. Part of it is that I have been avoiding rototilling, though, as the soil is so dry from a complete lack of rain. Tilling when it is this dry creates a lot of dust and is just unpleasant, as well as not being great for the health of the soil. With most of the onions out of the field and all of the garlic cut down, we still have to bring in our storage potatoes and winter squash, but we are getting through the Summer projects!
Last August share...
In all shares:
Sweet corn- Sweet corn is a grass...a very strange grass cultivated in complex and amazing ways by the Southwest American Indians to produce its large cobs. The last few years of intensive modern breeding have led to much, much sweeter varieties of corn that no longer need to be cooked to be sweet and tender...lots of older recipes call for cooking corn for much longer than is necessary with modern varieties. These modern hybrids shouldn't be confused with GMO -genetically modified- corn, which is primarily in field corn and not as far as I know in sweet corn as of yet...although it's probably only a matter of time. Unlike genetic modification, hybridized crops have existed for decades and are merely the result of crossing two different varieties....in the case of sweet corn, the pollen from the tassels of the "male" plants fertilize the silks of the "female" cobs of a different corn variety.
Tomatoes- Unlike sweet corn, which modern breeding has arguably improved, modern science seems to only be interested in producing watery and flavorless supermarket tomatoes. Most of the tomatoes we grow on the farm are "heirlooms", meaning they are not hybrids, and existed before the middle of the last century when hybridization really took off. Heirloom tomatoes tend to have much better flavor, but have a shorter storage life, less disease resistance and oftentimes look a little funny as they are less cosmetically uniform.
Green beans- Beans are the third crop here that we have courtesy of American Indians, and along with corn and squash were the "three sisters" that made up a large part of the Southwest Indian diet. Beans are in the legume family along with peas, lentils, clover, alfalfa, and peanuts...all these crops are able to "fix" nitrogen in the soil, meaning they have root nodules that house bacteria that are able to take nitrogen out of the air and transform it into a form that the plants can use. Nitrogen is a primary nutrient for plants, and so legumes have long been used to restore the fertility of nitrogen depleted soils.
Carrots- Finally a crop from the old world...carrots are in the family Umbelliferae, meaning umbrella like for the shape of their seed head. This family includes a lot of herbs and aromatic vegetables, like celery, parsnip, fennel, parsley, coriander/cilantro, dill, cumin, and many more. They were cultivated from wild carrots that grow throughout Europe and west Asia, probably first in the Middle East.
Walla walla onions- Technically, it is illegal for me to call these Walla walla onions, as the city of Walla Walla, Washington has gotten a legal Appellation, much like the champagne region of France, which means that only onions grown within a certain area can be marketed as Walla wallas...but it is also the name of the variety that I grow, and rather that call them "sweet yellow onions of the Walla walla type" it is easier to just use the shorthand and hope their lawyers aren't reading my farm blog!
Parsley- As mentioned above, parsley is in the same family as carrots, and makes a great fresh herb garnish to finish a meal.
In large shares:
Sweet pepper- Another Southwestern crop, of course, sweet peppers and hot peppers are basically the same species, but bred for different levels of the capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their heat. These sweet peppers have basically none, but a great crunch and sweet flavor. Our peppers usually produce until the beginning of November, so they will be a regular in the second half of the farm share hopefully!
Summer squash- The third of the three sisters, although my understanding is that the Indians were primarily growing more what we would think of as Winter squash as a storage crop. Much like with the peppers, Summer and Winter squash are the exact same species, with different varieties just bred for different purposes; Summer squash for mild, juicy fruits produced over a long period in the Summer, and Winter squash bred to produce fewer but larger and much more nutrient dense fruits which can be stored and eaten through the Fall and Winter.
Garlic- Our garlic is all cut down and looking beautiful. Garlic is in the Allium family, along with onions, shallots, and leeks, but it is the only allium that we grow as a biennial in our climate, meaning we plant it in the Fall and don't harvest it until the following Summer. We will be getting ready to plant garlic soon, separating our own seed garlic from the garlic we can sell or give to you.
Summer keeps trucking along, although it's back to school season now, farming goes more by the true seasonal schedule, with Summer lasting until late September. That said, some Fall crops will be starting to appear in the shares over the coming weeks. Thanks!
Halfway point!
I believe this is the twelfth share, so the halfway point in our season long journey! Crazy, huh? Lots of late Summer and Fall shares still to come.
In all shares this week:
Lettuce- Head lettuce is back in the shares this week, after escaping deer predation for a few weeks we have a nice new planting on! It's back!
Chard- We have the nicest planting of Swiss chard we've ever had this time of year. Usually as the weather gets really hot and dry the leaves get smaller and less vibrant, but they're still super nice right now somehow in spite of the driest Summer ever.
Strawberries- After packing the shares on Wednesday of last week, we picked the berries again on Thursday, and the fruit was suddenly just bigger, shinier, juicier and sweeter than it had been just a few days before...I don't know why, the berries are a total mystery to me this year. But it made me feel like we should have waited a week! Then I thought, what the heck, no one will mind getting strawberries two weeks in a row. And we suddenly have so many!
http://www.food.com/recipe/simple-strawberry-sorbet-236642
Tomatoes- The tomatoes have definitely been a bit slower to hit their peak this year than in the past few seasons, but they are really starting to produce heavily and ripen more quickly now. We should have some really nice ones for the shares this week.
Apache bunch onions- These are the red bunching onions that were in your share back in the late Spring, but this is a new bed that was direct sewn, so the onions are a bit smaller but really delicious, like big sweet red scallions.
Radishes- Radishes haven't been in all shares for a good long time, so here they come.
Summer squash- Just one or two squashes to round out this week's share. Bobbie wants to get a spiralizer after we had some delicious zucchini pasta at a friend's house last weekend:
http://inspiralized.com/the-three-best-ways-to-cook-spiralized-zucchini-noodles/
You can do a version of this with just a peeler, too.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-to-make-zucchini-noodles-with-or-without-a-spiralizer/
Large shares only:
Beets- A handful of topped mixed beets in the large shares...use your beets, radishes, and chard in a flash:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/roasted-beet-salad-with-flash-pickled-radishes-and-chard-56389491
Sweet corn- Our earliest beds are still going, but the newer beds haven't started, so we still don't have tons of corn on yet.
Lemon cucumber- A few more of our little round yellow lemon cukes. Great for snacking.
Well, Max and Angela have headed South, but I'm so happy that Jack is back for a few weeks to help us get through the rest of the Summer! Jack has been working with me at Ebb Tide for four years now, but left this season to pursue a career teaching high school math...about as far from farming as you can imagine! Fortunately for me, he has some time to kill before beginning his classroom observation requirement in mid September, and decided to spend it on a working holiday back on beautiful Whidbey Island. By the time he has to leave in September I'm hoping that things will have slowed down a bit and we will be caught up on some big harvest projects to get by with just myself, Jess and Brian.
The warm dry weather continues, but it is great for all of our fruiting crops right now. I am preparing for the first signs of Fall and trying to enjoy the last bit of high Summer!
In all shares this week:
Lettuce- Head lettuce is back in the shares this week, after escaping deer predation for a few weeks we have a nice new planting on! It's back!
Chard- We have the nicest planting of Swiss chard we've ever had this time of year. Usually as the weather gets really hot and dry the leaves get smaller and less vibrant, but they're still super nice right now somehow in spite of the driest Summer ever.
Strawberries- After packing the shares on Wednesday of last week, we picked the berries again on Thursday, and the fruit was suddenly just bigger, shinier, juicier and sweeter than it had been just a few days before...I don't know why, the berries are a total mystery to me this year. But it made me feel like we should have waited a week! Then I thought, what the heck, no one will mind getting strawberries two weeks in a row. And we suddenly have so many!
http://www.food.com/recipe/simple-strawberry-sorbet-236642
Tomatoes- The tomatoes have definitely been a bit slower to hit their peak this year than in the past few seasons, but they are really starting to produce heavily and ripen more quickly now. We should have some really nice ones for the shares this week.
Apache bunch onions- These are the red bunching onions that were in your share back in the late Spring, but this is a new bed that was direct sewn, so the onions are a bit smaller but really delicious, like big sweet red scallions.
Radishes- Radishes haven't been in all shares for a good long time, so here they come.
Summer squash- Just one or two squashes to round out this week's share. Bobbie wants to get a spiralizer after we had some delicious zucchini pasta at a friend's house last weekend:
http://inspiralized.com/the-three-best-ways-to-cook-spiralized-zucchini-noodles/
You can do a version of this with just a peeler, too.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-to-make-zucchini-noodles-with-or-without-a-spiralizer/
Large shares only:
Beets- A handful of topped mixed beets in the large shares...use your beets, radishes, and chard in a flash:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/roasted-beet-salad-with-flash-pickled-radishes-and-chard-56389491
Sweet corn- Our earliest beds are still going, but the newer beds haven't started, so we still don't have tons of corn on yet.
Lemon cucumber- A few more of our little round yellow lemon cukes. Great for snacking.
Well, Max and Angela have headed South, but I'm so happy that Jack is back for a few weeks to help us get through the rest of the Summer! Jack has been working with me at Ebb Tide for four years now, but left this season to pursue a career teaching high school math...about as far from farming as you can imagine! Fortunately for me, he has some time to kill before beginning his classroom observation requirement in mid September, and decided to spend it on a working holiday back on beautiful Whidbey Island. By the time he has to leave in September I'm hoping that things will have slowed down a bit and we will be caught up on some big harvest projects to get by with just myself, Jess and Brian.
The warm dry weather continues, but it is great for all of our fruiting crops right now. I am preparing for the first signs of Fall and trying to enjoy the last bit of high Summer!
Farm share for August 16...
Well, the smoke has mostly cleared and after a pretty inconsequential amount of rainfall, the dry warm weather continues. Lots of crops still in the field, but we are beginning the late Summer project of bringing in storage crops, with the first onions coming out of the field yesterday.
Here's what's in all of this week's shares:
Strawberries! Thank goodness, they are finally back. We have picked a lot of berries over the past week so I think we can finally get them back in the share for the first time in weeks!
Carrots- So many carrots! I thought I was planting less carrots than last year, but it seems like we have more than ever. I don't quite understand how this happened. It's nice to have lots of delicious carrots though!
Fresh beans- It is peak bean season now, and the plants are loaded with them. They take a while to pick, but are otherwise fun and easy to grow. This week you'll get a mix of green and purple beans.
Use this recipe for your carrots, beans, cucumbers, cauliflower...whatever you want...
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-quick-pickle-any-vegetable-233882
Garlic- All of our garlic varieties should now be dry and ready to eat, so it's time to start cutting them all down. What better time to put some more garlic in the farm share...
Sweet corn!! Our first planting of sweet corn has a lot of ears that are veeery close, but I think there are enough ripe ones to put two ears in each share. More corn to come! Hoping to have it in the shares pretty regularly over the next month.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/222352/jamies-sweet-and-easy-corn-on-the-cob/
Cucumbers- It feels like the cucumbers have been producing forever, but they will begin to slow down soon. It really isn't a super long season, starting at the end of June or early July, and then petering out through September, so enjoy them while they're still around!
https://www.gardendesign.com/recipes/spicy-cucumber-salad.html
Dill- A bunch of nice fresh dill to go with the fresh beans, cucumbers, or both...it's up to you.
And in large shares:
Tomatoes- After the cooler weekend we actually don't seem to have as many ripe tomatoes as last week, but I'm guessing it's the calm before the storm, as there are tons of green tomatoes on the vines, and I'm hoping that the return of the sun means we should have lots and lots of tomatoes after this short lull.
Cauliflower- This is the last of the Summer cauliflower! Our whole Summer brassica field is slowly emptying out...they are planted way down at the bottom of the property with the onions, which will also be quickly winding down and will soon be brought into the barn, leaving a big empty field with nothing but scallions and leeks! It's time to start planning to put in cover crop for the Fall and Winter already....we will have more Fall brassicas later on that are planted in a different spot.
Sweet onions- These are the onions mentioned above that are the first to be brought out of the lower field. They were planted earlier and so are a bit ahead of our other long storage onions and shallots, which we'll probably be bringing in a few weeks from now.
Sadly, this is the last farm share pick day for our interns, Max and Angela. They are headed back South, first to see the eclipse in Oregon and then Angela will return to school in Los Angelos later this month. They have been a huge help on the farm this year, arriving at the end of May and getting us through our busiest season in June and July.
Many small to medium sized vegetable farms now rely on interns like Max and Ang to provide affordable seasonal labor. The farm gets help with planting, weeding and harvesting during the busy Summer months, and the interns in turn get housing and fresh food, a modest living stipend, and most importantly experience and education on a working farm. This was basically how I started my career in farming back in 2007 at Sauvie Island Organics, a few miles outside of Portland, Oregon.
Many farm interns go on to start their own operations, so this is really a key part of the growth in small organic farm operations all over the U.S. Max and Ang have been hard workers with a great attitude all Summer long....they will be missed!
Here's what's in all of this week's shares:
Strawberries! Thank goodness, they are finally back. We have picked a lot of berries over the past week so I think we can finally get them back in the share for the first time in weeks!
Carrots- So many carrots! I thought I was planting less carrots than last year, but it seems like we have more than ever. I don't quite understand how this happened. It's nice to have lots of delicious carrots though!
Fresh beans- It is peak bean season now, and the plants are loaded with them. They take a while to pick, but are otherwise fun and easy to grow. This week you'll get a mix of green and purple beans.
Use this recipe for your carrots, beans, cucumbers, cauliflower...whatever you want...
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-quick-pickle-any-vegetable-233882
Garlic- All of our garlic varieties should now be dry and ready to eat, so it's time to start cutting them all down. What better time to put some more garlic in the farm share...
Sweet corn!! Our first planting of sweet corn has a lot of ears that are veeery close, but I think there are enough ripe ones to put two ears in each share. More corn to come! Hoping to have it in the shares pretty regularly over the next month.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/222352/jamies-sweet-and-easy-corn-on-the-cob/
Cucumbers- It feels like the cucumbers have been producing forever, but they will begin to slow down soon. It really isn't a super long season, starting at the end of June or early July, and then petering out through September, so enjoy them while they're still around!
https://www.gardendesign.com/recipes/spicy-cucumber-salad.html
Dill- A bunch of nice fresh dill to go with the fresh beans, cucumbers, or both...it's up to you.
And in large shares:
Tomatoes- After the cooler weekend we actually don't seem to have as many ripe tomatoes as last week, but I'm guessing it's the calm before the storm, as there are tons of green tomatoes on the vines, and I'm hoping that the return of the sun means we should have lots and lots of tomatoes after this short lull.
Cauliflower- This is the last of the Summer cauliflower! Our whole Summer brassica field is slowly emptying out...they are planted way down at the bottom of the property with the onions, which will also be quickly winding down and will soon be brought into the barn, leaving a big empty field with nothing but scallions and leeks! It's time to start planning to put in cover crop for the Fall and Winter already....we will have more Fall brassicas later on that are planted in a different spot.
Sweet onions- These are the onions mentioned above that are the first to be brought out of the lower field. They were planted earlier and so are a bit ahead of our other long storage onions and shallots, which we'll probably be bringing in a few weeks from now.
Sadly, this is the last farm share pick day for our interns, Max and Angela. They are headed back South, first to see the eclipse in Oregon and then Angela will return to school in Los Angelos later this month. They have been a huge help on the farm this year, arriving at the end of May and getting us through our busiest season in June and July.
Many small to medium sized vegetable farms now rely on interns like Max and Ang to provide affordable seasonal labor. The farm gets help with planting, weeding and harvesting during the busy Summer months, and the interns in turn get housing and fresh food, a modest living stipend, and most importantly experience and education on a working farm. This was basically how I started my career in farming back in 2007 at Sauvie Island Organics, a few miles outside of Portland, Oregon.
Many farm interns go on to start their own operations, so this is really a key part of the growth in small organic farm operations all over the U.S. Max and Ang have been hard workers with a great attitude all Summer long....they will be missed!
Warm smoky Summer
All Shares:
Beets- It's been a while since beets were in the farm share, and we've got a lot of them, so we'll give you a mix of our red, gold, and chioggia beets this week. If you still have some carrots in the fridge:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/beet-and-carrot-salad-with-curry-dressing-and-pistachios
Lettuce- After a few weeks of lettuce hiatus, it's back in the farm share....hopefully the deer don't get into the field to chomp it down before we can pick it. Our high fence lines do a pretty good job of keeping the deer out through the growing season, but when it gets this dry and all their other food sources start to peter out, they get very motivated!
Tomatoes- The tomatoes are ramping up, we seem to get a little more each time we pick them. Just this week we topped the plants to encourage them to set and ripen more fruit, and stopped watering them, which should encourage ripening and make the fruit more flavorful. If you have tomatoes in pots or in a super dry spot in your garden you wouldn't want to do this, but their roots go incredibly deep by the time the plants get mature, so ours should have no problem finding plenty of water deep down in the soil.
I love to have toast or a bagel with cream cheese and tomato slices, salt and pepper when the tomatoes are in season. And we've got a long ways to go, knock on wood...hopefully several months of tomatoes in our future.
Melons- Melon time! Very exciting. Our melons came on very early and very suddenly this season, so I think we should be able to put a full melon in each share! Most will be "Visa", our green fleshed Galia melons that are a bit earlier, but there will be a few Charentais french cantaloupes and maybe a few other cantaloupes mixed in too. A great breakfast or dessert this time of year!
Melons are fun and challenging to pick, usually they change colors a bit when they are ready, but then a gently tug on the vine reveals whether or not they "slip", or release when they are fully ripe. They make for heavy crates though, and heavy farm shares.
http://www.marthastewart.com/search/results?keys=melon%20recipe
Summer squash- Still chugging along, the summer squash show no sign of stopping yet. If you're sick of grilled or sauteed squash, you could try doing a quick pickle for something different.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nancy-fuller/quick-pickled-zucchini-3539077
Scallions- These scallions were direct sewn in the Spring, rather than transplanting starts, and they have grown up beautifully and are the perfect size right now.
Small Shares:
Cauliflower-Large shares just got cauliflower last week, so I thought we'd just put it in the small shares this week....lots of cauliflower in the field right now!
Large Shares:
Carrots- It is not such a bad thing to have too many carrots, as they hold well in the ground until it's time to dig them up. But boy, we have a lot of carrots in the ground right now! See the recipe above for beets and carrot salad...
Green peppers- The first pick from our pepper plants...these green peppers will eventually turn red if left on the plants, except the plants set so many fruits early in the season that they have trouble ripening them all. By thinning for some green peppers it actually can help the plants a bit, and you get some delicious green peppers to show for it.
Basil- Bobbi made a delicious and simple basil dip this week by just blending up some basil, yogurt, salt and pepper and i think olive oil and garlic in the blender. It was great with raw veggies like carrots, cauliflower, beans and cucumber.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/basil-flatbread-with-roasted-tomatoes-and-basil-oil-5710
Kale- We haven't had as many braising greens as usual in the large shares of late, so I figured some Lacinato kale would be nice.
In the heart of the farming season now, and I think everyone is having a great time. It has been a bit warm and muggy, and of course very smoky at times out in the field lately...but mostly it just makes me grateful to be farming here on Whidbey and not somewhere that experiences real Summer heat. Angela, our farm intern, is from Las Vegas, where it was recently 116 degrees or something crazy like that. I can't imagine. I actually enjoy warm and even humid weather for the most part, but I would not enjoy farming in it, not to mention all the bugs!
It is great to get a few weeks of warmer Summer weather, to help ripen the tomatoes, corn, and peppers and melons, to feel motivated to go jump in Goss Lake as much as possible, and we have been taking longer lunch breaks to be in the shade for a bit. But after being impatient for the Summer to come throughout our cool Spring, I'm usually starting to look forward to the Fall by the time September rolls around.
Beets- It's been a while since beets were in the farm share, and we've got a lot of them, so we'll give you a mix of our red, gold, and chioggia beets this week. If you still have some carrots in the fridge:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/beet-and-carrot-salad-with-curry-dressing-and-pistachios
Lettuce- After a few weeks of lettuce hiatus, it's back in the farm share....hopefully the deer don't get into the field to chomp it down before we can pick it. Our high fence lines do a pretty good job of keeping the deer out through the growing season, but when it gets this dry and all their other food sources start to peter out, they get very motivated!
Tomatoes- The tomatoes are ramping up, we seem to get a little more each time we pick them. Just this week we topped the plants to encourage them to set and ripen more fruit, and stopped watering them, which should encourage ripening and make the fruit more flavorful. If you have tomatoes in pots or in a super dry spot in your garden you wouldn't want to do this, but their roots go incredibly deep by the time the plants get mature, so ours should have no problem finding plenty of water deep down in the soil.
I love to have toast or a bagel with cream cheese and tomato slices, salt and pepper when the tomatoes are in season. And we've got a long ways to go, knock on wood...hopefully several months of tomatoes in our future.
Melons- Melon time! Very exciting. Our melons came on very early and very suddenly this season, so I think we should be able to put a full melon in each share! Most will be "Visa", our green fleshed Galia melons that are a bit earlier, but there will be a few Charentais french cantaloupes and maybe a few other cantaloupes mixed in too. A great breakfast or dessert this time of year!
Melons are fun and challenging to pick, usually they change colors a bit when they are ready, but then a gently tug on the vine reveals whether or not they "slip", or release when they are fully ripe. They make for heavy crates though, and heavy farm shares.
http://www.marthastewart.com/search/results?keys=melon%20recipe
Summer squash- Still chugging along, the summer squash show no sign of stopping yet. If you're sick of grilled or sauteed squash, you could try doing a quick pickle for something different.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nancy-fuller/quick-pickled-zucchini-3539077
Scallions- These scallions were direct sewn in the Spring, rather than transplanting starts, and they have grown up beautifully and are the perfect size right now.
Small Shares:
Cauliflower-Large shares just got cauliflower last week, so I thought we'd just put it in the small shares this week....lots of cauliflower in the field right now!
Large Shares:
Carrots- It is not such a bad thing to have too many carrots, as they hold well in the ground until it's time to dig them up. But boy, we have a lot of carrots in the ground right now! See the recipe above for beets and carrot salad...
Green peppers- The first pick from our pepper plants...these green peppers will eventually turn red if left on the plants, except the plants set so many fruits early in the season that they have trouble ripening them all. By thinning for some green peppers it actually can help the plants a bit, and you get some delicious green peppers to show for it.
Basil- Bobbi made a delicious and simple basil dip this week by just blending up some basil, yogurt, salt and pepper and i think olive oil and garlic in the blender. It was great with raw veggies like carrots, cauliflower, beans and cucumber.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/basil-flatbread-with-roasted-tomatoes-and-basil-oil-5710
Kale- We haven't had as many braising greens as usual in the large shares of late, so I figured some Lacinato kale would be nice.
In the heart of the farming season now, and I think everyone is having a great time. It has been a bit warm and muggy, and of course very smoky at times out in the field lately...but mostly it just makes me grateful to be farming here on Whidbey and not somewhere that experiences real Summer heat. Angela, our farm intern, is from Las Vegas, where it was recently 116 degrees or something crazy like that. I can't imagine. I actually enjoy warm and even humid weather for the most part, but I would not enjoy farming in it, not to mention all the bugs!
It is great to get a few weeks of warmer Summer weather, to help ripen the tomatoes, corn, and peppers and melons, to feel motivated to go jump in Goss Lake as much as possible, and we have been taking longer lunch breaks to be in the shade for a bit. But after being impatient for the Summer to come throughout our cool Spring, I'm usually starting to look forward to the Fall by the time September rolls around.
Ninth Farm Share This Week!
Our first August share, and I'm happy to report I think we will have enough tomatoes to put a little bit in each share. Here's what all you can look forward to:
Arugula- Try as I might, we always seem to hit a little gap in the head lettuce at some point in mid Summer. This year looks like it might be no exception...although we do have quite a bit of our big green leaf lettuce, "Bergam's", we're running thin on red lettuce just for a short time. Fortunately, we have lots of nice bunching sized arugula that makes for a nice, slightly spicy Summer salad.
Carrots- Into a new bed of carrots, but they are just as big and beautiful as our earlier planting. Really nice carrots this year!
Fresh beans- Round two of fresh beans in the share this week...the purple beans aren't producing as much this time around, but we should have plenty of green and yellow beans...
Cilantro- I haven't gotten cilantro in the share yet, because it's hard to time it right before it bolts to seed. But we have a nice little patch of cilantro that is still a bit small, but should be great tasting, and with the first tomatoes in the share this week, maybe it the cilantro was destined for salsa season.
Tomato- The plants are loaded with green fruit, but it has been surprisingly slow to start ripening, in spite of this warm weather. That said, I think we should have enough to put a few slicer tomatoes in the large shares, and a half pint of cherry tomatoes in small shares. We will flip it around for next week, so if you get cherry tomatoes now you'll get some slicers soon and vice versa.
Walla walla onion- Another critical salsa component....the sweet onions keep getting bigger and better. The tops are starting to dry back now, so soon we will be bringing them out of the field to dry down all the way in the greenhouse.
Cucumber- Our first cucumber plants are starting to slow down, but the lemon cukes, which were planted a bit later and take a bit longer to produce, are just getting going, so there may be some more lemon cucumbers in the farm shares this week.
Large Shares only:
Shelling peas!- Unlike the snap peas, these peas need to be removed from their hulls, so it takes a little bit of prep work, but is well worth it for the delicious fresh peas. The hulls are great for adding a pea flavor to vegetable stocks or sauces, too.
Cauliflower- After the huge heads of cauliflower in the large shares a few weeks ago, these ones will be a bit puny in comparison, but still very tasty....and your farm share bag shouldn't weigh 30 lbs, which is nice!
Radishes- A bunch of our Summer "Rudy" radishes, another good addition for salsa or tacos! We've really got a theme this week.
I have finally gotten through the "denial" phase of our strawberry problem this year and reached "acceptance"....there is definitely something wrong with the strawberry plants! We were speculating about maybe pollination being an issue, but there seem to be lots of bees buzzing around and even green fruit that never seems to be reaching ripeness. I don't get it. It's very frustrating. I may have to try to contact WSU or some ag specialist who can help me figure out what's going on....but I'm sorry there haven't been more berries in your shares or in the stand this Summer!
But aside from that downer note, everything on the farm is going great. We planted many of the Fall crops yesterday, like Fall lettuce, endive and radicchio, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and more...
I enlisted the help of the other half of our intern duo, Max, to write something for the blog this week, and here is his brilliant submission:
Every day as I arrive at Ebb Tide I say, “Hello Farm,” and every
day as I leave I say, “Goodbye Farm.” This very well may sound like a load of
new age woo-woo hippiespeak, but it’s something I stand by wholeheartedly. One
of the things that has always attracted me to farming is the fact that, unlike
many other jobs, you are nearly constantly surrounded by a living, breathing
environment. It is not an office, with filtered air and sterilized keyboards.
It is not a restaurant, with grease traps and processed foods. It is not a
construction site, full of smelted metals and sliced up trees. The farm is
alive, and it buzzes with life. As you walk through rows of corn or
strawberries or cucumbers each plant is an entity, constantly changing –
photosynthesizing, vegetating, blooming, fruiting, dying – in response to
outside stimuli. Row after row of living breathing beings (who, I believe, you
can get to know as much or as little as you want) make up the Farm, the super
organism, the Mega Mama, the Forest to our Doug Firs, the Ocean to our Useless
Bay, the Milky Way to our Solar System.
And for such reasons, I feel a simple “Hello” in the morning is
the least I can do.
Of course, as a farmer, there is as much death in any season as
there is life (which gives rise to the ever-looming goodbye). Any seed started
guarantees an inevitable uprooting and destruction. Any harvest guarantees a
clutch of “culls” – fruit and veggies that are deemed unsellable and proceed to
sit in crates, scalding in the sun, wilting in the rain, maybe perhaps getting
taken home by a farmer whose fridge is already stocked with its own batch of
decaying veggies but are more realistically fated to the compost pit, haven of
garden snakes, earthworms, and little bits of “Whidbey Island Grown” twist ties
that always slip through. Even the act of harvest is, in itself, a major part
of the Yang – Shiva the Destroyer sitting down in the carrot patch, saying
“This will be my dinner, and this will be my snack!”
It is amazing to me, when I think about it, how much of a
culmination every weekly blue Ebb Tide CSA bag really is. Not only is it the
culmination of the physical energies of Blake, Jess, Brian, Sequoia, Angela,
and I, but it is also the culmination of all the growth (and sometimes even the
entire life) of whatever vegetables may wander into the share that week. It is
the culmination of all the rain, wind, and solar radiation we’ve had for the
past five months. It is the culmination of the eons of geologic time since
glacier seepage left this bit of sand here, this bit of clay there, this bit of
boulder over yonder. It’s the culmination of however much you want it to be.
A not-so-wise man once told me, “Some can read the whole
Bhagavad Gita and think it was just a nice story, others read the back of a
milk carton and find all of enlightenment.” So who knows what it really is.
Maybe it’s just a sack of veggies – proteins, carbs, and so on. Alls I know is,
it sure was a grand old time grabbin’ it out the field for ya.
Happy August!
Max
Off-Brand Croc Specialist
July 26th already
Jeez, the Summer is flying by. I can't believe next week is already August. Here's what's in this week's share:
Spinach- Spinach is back! The spinach is kind of impossible to grow right around the Summer solstice, as the long days cause it to bolt, or go to seed. This planting got in just late enough to have produced nice sized plants with no bolting. We don't have a ton, so it might be a smaller bunch size.
Snap peas- Real 100% snap peas! I did the final planting of the Spring with last year's seed, which didn't have the snow pea mix up that the new seed had. So we have some nice fat normal snap peas at last! The snap peas go downhill fast in August, so this will probably be the last time for them!
Broccoli- Mid summer broccoli. The heads form a bit differently and don't get quite as big as the early Summer stuff, but it's still delicious. Most of the U.S. is too hot to grow broccoli this time of year, but with our cooler maritime climate the broccoli is happy as a clam.
http://www.marthastewart.com/1011281/broccoli-recipes
Basil- We have had the best season for basil in years...The last few years the basil was succumbing early to some kind of disease...this season I tried to plan for that by doing numerous smaller plantings, but as it turns out our earliest basil planting is still doing great and going strong.
http://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/7-ways-with/recipes-using-fresh-basil
Summer squash- I took a hoe and chopped down some gigantic summer squash plants yesterday, cutting them down in their prime. It felt wrong, but at the same time we are overwhelmed with squash (as we always are this time of year) and it's pointless to spend tons of time picking plants if we don't need them. I try to avoid having way too much, but as you all probably know from gardening experience, it can be easier said than done.
Potatoes- Wow, our potato crop is really looking great. We are all done with the French fingerlings that were in the shares a few weeks ago, and into our main planting of spuds. I think this week we'll be digging Desiree potatoes, a beautiful pink potato with a yellow interior bred in the Netherlands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9sir%C3%A9e_(potato)
Garlic- With the garlic all hung and drying in the barn, all that remains to do is to cut it down once it's fully dried and store it until it sells or is used for seed.
Large shares only:
Leeks- This will be our first harvest of Summer leeks, and they are really looking good and sizing up quickly. These leeks should stand in the field until they are harvested, and hopefully should last through the late Summer and early Fall. Vichyssoise is a famous cold Summer soup of potatoes and leeks, perfect for this farm share:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/13205/vichyssoise/
Cucumbers- Not much to left to say on the cucumbers, they keep on pumping out fruit. Might not be long before I'm forced to take a hoe to a few of these plants as well....
More Potatoes, garlic, and broccoli....
Another warm week on the farm after a cooler weekend, and not a drop of rain in well over a month! The vegetables are thriving with the help of Max, who is in charge of irrigation duty this year. It is a big job to keep everything watered sufficiently in June and July when the weather is driest and the fields are at their fullest. We water almost everything off of a domestic well, with limited water flow and pressure, so the weekly irrigation can really be a puzzle as far as figuring out how to get it all done with only so many hours in the day.
That said, it is already starting to get easier. By August, we are tilling in a lot of our early beds that are finished producing, and while we are continuing to plant a few more things for Fall, that still helps. At the same time, many storage crops like potatoes and onions are being cut off of watering to encourage them to dry down and improve storability. Every week the puzzle gets easier.
Spinach- Spinach is back! The spinach is kind of impossible to grow right around the Summer solstice, as the long days cause it to bolt, or go to seed. This planting got in just late enough to have produced nice sized plants with no bolting. We don't have a ton, so it might be a smaller bunch size.
Snap peas- Real 100% snap peas! I did the final planting of the Spring with last year's seed, which didn't have the snow pea mix up that the new seed had. So we have some nice fat normal snap peas at last! The snap peas go downhill fast in August, so this will probably be the last time for them!
Broccoli- Mid summer broccoli. The heads form a bit differently and don't get quite as big as the early Summer stuff, but it's still delicious. Most of the U.S. is too hot to grow broccoli this time of year, but with our cooler maritime climate the broccoli is happy as a clam.
http://www.marthastewart.com/1011281/broccoli-recipes
Basil- We have had the best season for basil in years...The last few years the basil was succumbing early to some kind of disease...this season I tried to plan for that by doing numerous smaller plantings, but as it turns out our earliest basil planting is still doing great and going strong.
http://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/7-ways-with/recipes-using-fresh-basil
Summer squash- I took a hoe and chopped down some gigantic summer squash plants yesterday, cutting them down in their prime. It felt wrong, but at the same time we are overwhelmed with squash (as we always are this time of year) and it's pointless to spend tons of time picking plants if we don't need them. I try to avoid having way too much, but as you all probably know from gardening experience, it can be easier said than done.
Potatoes- Wow, our potato crop is really looking great. We are all done with the French fingerlings that were in the shares a few weeks ago, and into our main planting of spuds. I think this week we'll be digging Desiree potatoes, a beautiful pink potato with a yellow interior bred in the Netherlands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9sir%C3%A9e_(potato)
Garlic- With the garlic all hung and drying in the barn, all that remains to do is to cut it down once it's fully dried and store it until it sells or is used for seed.
Large shares only:
Leeks- This will be our first harvest of Summer leeks, and they are really looking good and sizing up quickly. These leeks should stand in the field until they are harvested, and hopefully should last through the late Summer and early Fall. Vichyssoise is a famous cold Summer soup of potatoes and leeks, perfect for this farm share:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/13205/vichyssoise/
Cucumbers- Not much to left to say on the cucumbers, they keep on pumping out fruit. Might not be long before I'm forced to take a hoe to a few of these plants as well....
More Potatoes, garlic, and broccoli....
Another warm week on the farm after a cooler weekend, and not a drop of rain in well over a month! The vegetables are thriving with the help of Max, who is in charge of irrigation duty this year. It is a big job to keep everything watered sufficiently in June and July when the weather is driest and the fields are at their fullest. We water almost everything off of a domestic well, with limited water flow and pressure, so the weekly irrigation can really be a puzzle as far as figuring out how to get it all done with only so many hours in the day.
That said, it is already starting to get easier. By August, we are tilling in a lot of our early beds that are finished producing, and while we are continuing to plant a few more things for Fall, that still helps. At the same time, many storage crops like potatoes and onions are being cut off of watering to encourage them to dry down and improve storability. Every week the puzzle gets easier.
New Farm Share
A nice mid Summer share for you all this week, all shares will be getting:
Fresh beans- This will be our first pick on the bean plants this year. We are growing a mix of green, yellow, and purple beans, and if they are all producing we'll put a mix of colors in your shares. Our first bean seeding germinated a little poorly because the soil was still so cool in early May, but the plants are so productive we should still have plenty of fresh beans.
Cauliflower- Our first cauliflower planting is on, and it is a beautiful crop of nice sized heads. Cauliflower takes longer to head up than broccoli, and is much more sensitive to the vagaries of weather and pests in the early Spring, so I tend to plant it out a bit later in order to have it in July. We have quite a few later plantings in for the rest of the Summer and Fall, too, so you should see it a few more times in your shares! I guess this is a vegan blog, but the recipes look great:
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/cauliflower-recipes/
Carrots- We finally finished picking out of our first carrot planting yesterday, which was right up by the farm stand. The carrots continued to get bigger and bigger as weeks went on, so when we cleared the last of them we got some beauties to put in the fridge and pack into your shares tomorrow.
Lettuce- We'll pick a mix of different lettuces to go into shares tomorrow, so it will be a bit of a grab bag with green romaines, mini red romaines, red leafs, and green butters all a possibility in your share...
Cucumber- Lots of cucumbers coming on, and they are at their best right now. The cukes should hopefully continue through the rest of the Summer, but right now in mid July is really their time.
http://www.marthastewart.com/274508/cucumber-recipes
Walla walla onion- These sweet yellow onions keep getting bigger and juicier out in the field....soon they will complete their growth cycle and we will stop watering them so they can begin to dry down and be brought into the barn for storage. These sweet onions don't store nearly as long as storage varieties, but they can still be doing great in storage into the early Fall.
Parsley- A nice fresh bunch of Italian parsley, which is a great herb for livening up the flavor of so many vegetables. It can be chopped in a salad or in blended in a dressing, or sprinkled over almost any vegetable dish.
And in the large shares:
Zucchini- The summer squash plants keep on producing. The plants themselves are starting to reach pretty epic size, probably over three feet tall and four feet wide, and they are still pumping out lots more fruit and flowers.
Broccoli- So much nice broccoli right now! It came on very suddenly, and sooner than I expected, which tends to be what happens with the broccoli this time of year. We'll try to get broccoli in all shares next week.
Pea vines- Just a little bit of pea vines, a nice green treat. They are good raw, or very lightly sauteed or stir fried. Something new to try!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/26/pea-shoots_n_1451984.html
And larger amounts of beans, onion, and carrots.
Tomatoes, eggplants and melons are all just a few weeks out! Sweet corn and peppers not too far behind! And boy, I hope we get some more strawberries again soon, the drought continues. As soon as we get a decent amount they'll be back in the share.
Fresh beans- This will be our first pick on the bean plants this year. We are growing a mix of green, yellow, and purple beans, and if they are all producing we'll put a mix of colors in your shares. Our first bean seeding germinated a little poorly because the soil was still so cool in early May, but the plants are so productive we should still have plenty of fresh beans.
Cauliflower- Our first cauliflower planting is on, and it is a beautiful crop of nice sized heads. Cauliflower takes longer to head up than broccoli, and is much more sensitive to the vagaries of weather and pests in the early Spring, so I tend to plant it out a bit later in order to have it in July. We have quite a few later plantings in for the rest of the Summer and Fall, too, so you should see it a few more times in your shares! I guess this is a vegan blog, but the recipes look great:
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/cauliflower-recipes/
Carrots- We finally finished picking out of our first carrot planting yesterday, which was right up by the farm stand. The carrots continued to get bigger and bigger as weeks went on, so when we cleared the last of them we got some beauties to put in the fridge and pack into your shares tomorrow.
Lettuce- We'll pick a mix of different lettuces to go into shares tomorrow, so it will be a bit of a grab bag with green romaines, mini red romaines, red leafs, and green butters all a possibility in your share...
Cucumber- Lots of cucumbers coming on, and they are at their best right now. The cukes should hopefully continue through the rest of the Summer, but right now in mid July is really their time.
http://www.marthastewart.com/274508/cucumber-recipes
Walla walla onion- These sweet yellow onions keep getting bigger and juicier out in the field....soon they will complete their growth cycle and we will stop watering them so they can begin to dry down and be brought into the barn for storage. These sweet onions don't store nearly as long as storage varieties, but they can still be doing great in storage into the early Fall.
Parsley- A nice fresh bunch of Italian parsley, which is a great herb for livening up the flavor of so many vegetables. It can be chopped in a salad or in blended in a dressing, or sprinkled over almost any vegetable dish.
And in the large shares:
Zucchini- The summer squash plants keep on producing. The plants themselves are starting to reach pretty epic size, probably over three feet tall and four feet wide, and they are still pumping out lots more fruit and flowers.
Broccoli- So much nice broccoli right now! It came on very suddenly, and sooner than I expected, which tends to be what happens with the broccoli this time of year. We'll try to get broccoli in all shares next week.
Pea vines- Just a little bit of pea vines, a nice green treat. They are good raw, or very lightly sauteed or stir fried. Something new to try!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/26/pea-shoots_n_1451984.html
And larger amounts of beans, onion, and carrots.
Tomatoes, eggplants and melons are all just a few weeks out! Sweet corn and peppers not too far behind! And boy, I hope we get some more strawberries again soon, the drought continues. As soon as we get a decent amount they'll be back in the share.
It's mid July....
It's mid July and here's what's in this week's share..
All shares are getting:
Carrots- A BIG bunch of carrots in the share this week, as we have so many carrots right now we're drowning in them. Carrots everywhere you look.
Snap peas- We have adjusted the pea pick a bit with our challenging mixed pea seed situation, and it has made the harvest go a tiny bit faster and the quality of the peas improve too. We're just skipping a lot of the non sugar snap peas in the row and going for the really pretty ones. The yield goes way down, but the speed and quality goes up!
Red bunch onions- We have two different fresh red bunching onions this year, and you'll get one or the other in your share...the "Torpedo Red Bottle" are a wine bottle shaped fresh Italian heirloom onion with a super mild flavor. The "Apaches" are a red bunching onion that has a straighter neck, is not quite as big as the torpedoes, and has a sweeter and stronger taste.
Arugula- I'm not sure we've put arugula in the shares yet this year, partly because we've had so much nice spinach and head lettuce. It's nice to get some arugula in the shares, though. It has a nice lemony, peppery flavor that is great in a summer salad. If it's a bit too spicy for you raw, if you saute it for just a few seconds, or even just toss it with other veggies that are hot (like sauteed zucchini and onion) it mellows out almost immediately and loses most of the zing.
http://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/arugula-salad-with-shaved-parmesan-lemon-olive-oil.html
Summer squash- We are entering peak summer squash season now, when it is a challenge to keep up with the loads of fruit. We pick our plants three times a week and try not to let any grow to gigantic sizes.
Cucumber- Not quite at peak cuke season yet, but on our way there. Last season we trellised our cucumber, which is a bit of a pain in the neck to accomplish in the Spring but does make the harvest quite a bit easier come Summer. This year I didn't really make up my mind whether it was worth it so I ended up just letting the vines run wild on the ground...it'll be a bit of a treasure hunt finding them all, as the plants are starting to get so big and crazy.
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/cucumber-recipes
Cabbage- Small shares will get a cute little head of green or purple cabbage. Large shares will get a bigger head of Napa, or Chinese cabbage. Either one is nice for a cabbage salad, or can be roasted, sauteed, stir fried or steamed. Or even grilled! I've never done this, but want to try it now:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/157836/summer-grilled-cabbage/
Enjoy!
Large shares only:
Celery bunch- I take a silly amount of pride in the celery we grow, because it is a bit challenging to grow (needing lots of water and fertility) and I think homegrown celery is so much better than the grocery store stuff. I have never been more proud, as this year's celery is earlier and nicer than any I think we've ever had on the farm! Beautiful stuff...you can halve this recipe...
http://www.marthastewart.com/1133552/braised-celery
Garlic- This will be a larger head of our early California White garlic, a softneck variety that is widely grown commercially. I am so happy we have managed to harvest and hang all of our garlic for the year! We just finished the last varieties yesterday afternoon, and thus finished up one of the bigger and sometimes more stressful early Summer projects. Garlic is fairly labor intensive, as it needs to be lifted out of the ground, cleaned, brought into the barn, tied into bundles and hung to dry so that it will last into the Fall. Happy to have the 2017 harvest in the books, and to see that it is looking like a beautiful crop this year!
Basil- You know it's mid Summer when the basil is growing like a weed and hard to keep up with. The tomatoes are beginning to color up, so hopefully we'll have some in your share soon to go with the basil.
plus some extra squash and cukes!
I enlisted the help of our interns to provide a different perspective to the blog write up, so the following was written by Ms. Angela Brittain, half of our two person intern team:
All shares are getting:
Carrots- A BIG bunch of carrots in the share this week, as we have so many carrots right now we're drowning in them. Carrots everywhere you look.
Snap peas- We have adjusted the pea pick a bit with our challenging mixed pea seed situation, and it has made the harvest go a tiny bit faster and the quality of the peas improve too. We're just skipping a lot of the non sugar snap peas in the row and going for the really pretty ones. The yield goes way down, but the speed and quality goes up!
Red bunch onions- We have two different fresh red bunching onions this year, and you'll get one or the other in your share...the "Torpedo Red Bottle" are a wine bottle shaped fresh Italian heirloom onion with a super mild flavor. The "Apaches" are a red bunching onion that has a straighter neck, is not quite as big as the torpedoes, and has a sweeter and stronger taste.
Arugula- I'm not sure we've put arugula in the shares yet this year, partly because we've had so much nice spinach and head lettuce. It's nice to get some arugula in the shares, though. It has a nice lemony, peppery flavor that is great in a summer salad. If it's a bit too spicy for you raw, if you saute it for just a few seconds, or even just toss it with other veggies that are hot (like sauteed zucchini and onion) it mellows out almost immediately and loses most of the zing.
http://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/arugula-salad-with-shaved-parmesan-lemon-olive-oil.html
Summer squash- We are entering peak summer squash season now, when it is a challenge to keep up with the loads of fruit. We pick our plants three times a week and try not to let any grow to gigantic sizes.
Cucumber- Not quite at peak cuke season yet, but on our way there. Last season we trellised our cucumber, which is a bit of a pain in the neck to accomplish in the Spring but does make the harvest quite a bit easier come Summer. This year I didn't really make up my mind whether it was worth it so I ended up just letting the vines run wild on the ground...it'll be a bit of a treasure hunt finding them all, as the plants are starting to get so big and crazy.
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/cucumber-recipes
Cabbage- Small shares will get a cute little head of green or purple cabbage. Large shares will get a bigger head of Napa, or Chinese cabbage. Either one is nice for a cabbage salad, or can be roasted, sauteed, stir fried or steamed. Or even grilled! I've never done this, but want to try it now:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/157836/summer-grilled-cabbage/
Enjoy!
Large shares only:
Celery bunch- I take a silly amount of pride in the celery we grow, because it is a bit challenging to grow (needing lots of water and fertility) and I think homegrown celery is so much better than the grocery store stuff. I have never been more proud, as this year's celery is earlier and nicer than any I think we've ever had on the farm! Beautiful stuff...you can halve this recipe...
http://www.marthastewart.com/1133552/braised-celery
Garlic- This will be a larger head of our early California White garlic, a softneck variety that is widely grown commercially. I am so happy we have managed to harvest and hang all of our garlic for the year! We just finished the last varieties yesterday afternoon, and thus finished up one of the bigger and sometimes more stressful early Summer projects. Garlic is fairly labor intensive, as it needs to be lifted out of the ground, cleaned, brought into the barn, tied into bundles and hung to dry so that it will last into the Fall. Happy to have the 2017 harvest in the books, and to see that it is looking like a beautiful crop this year!
Basil- You know it's mid Summer when the basil is growing like a weed and hard to keep up with. The tomatoes are beginning to color up, so hopefully we'll have some in your share soon to go with the basil.
plus some extra squash and cukes!
I enlisted the help of our interns to provide a different perspective to the blog write up, so the following was written by Ms. Angela Brittain, half of our two person intern team:
When I came to Whidbey Island they told me that summer began on July 5th. Seemingly, accurate. This week has been the hottest of the season, and we at Ebb Tide are all getting deep into summer mode. For some, visions of said summer mode might involve sipping on something cool while allowing the mind and body to relax into the warmth of the weather. The reality for farmers is much different:
You’re out in the field and your snot has turned into crystalized bugs from all the dirt you’re breathing; the everlasting question of is that a shoulder rip or am I just growing a muscle? The sun is bright and you have to acutely maneuver your hands to get these tiny little ties around bunches of wily root vegetables. You anxiously pick through the salad to make sure it’s all gorgeous and weed-free. You watch the barn swallows go from soundless, flightless babies to squawking aviators. There are so many beets, like, so many beets that all are just begging to be prepared, appreciated, given a digestive process to aid. Yes, you want to take home all the misfit beets but you can only eat so many! You pull carrots out of the ground that have grown so thickly intertwined that only the most villainous of knives could part them. You learn quickly the value of stretching to ease awkward weeding positions, which are usually somewhere between an asana and one of those dances the kids are all doing. Every week you watch plants crop up and get tilled in, and before you know it the summer is gone.
I’ve been interning at Ebb Tide for just about a month now, and this is my first season working on a farm. When I left Los Angeles in May, I was maintaining the sort of routine that could easily launch a person into conniption. I wanted to come to Whidbey to get a different sense of what life is in other parts of the country, to have a summer where I could step out of my bubble and try something totally new to me. When the opportunity at Ebb Tide manifested, I felt good about it immediately, went through with it, and here I am.
I can hardly believe a place as idyllic as South Whidbey exists, and I find it amazing that even in our gigantic, foolhardy world we can still run a farm stand on the honor system and perpetuate a chain of positive reactions from the moment the food is seeded, planted, harvested, and given to our customers, who will go on to make something delicious from our veggies. I hope that whoever shops at Ebb Tide realizes what a special operation they’re supporting, for other parts of the country simply don't have the local mentality and sense of community that South Whidbiers are inherently prone to based on the geographic nature of the island. Keep supporting your community and know that your produce is coming from a team who loves you!
Peace + Blessings,
Angela
Appointed Salad Queen
Post for Week 5.
Wow, so many things in the field right now it's hard to decide what to put in the share this week. This is what I think I've settled on...
All Shares:
New Fingerling Potatoes! We hand dug our first new potatoes this week, and they are some real beauties. These new potatoes haven't developed thick skins yet, so they are delicate and a more perishable, but much more delicious. I like to just steam or boil them whole for ten minutes or so, and then toss them in a bit of salt, butter or olive oil, and herbs. So tasty!
Cucumbers! I'll try to give everyone at least one green slicer cuke (either Marketmore, a standard slicer, or Picolino, which has a thinner and smoother green skin) and at least one Boothby's blond, which you may not even recognize as a cucumber at first glance. They are pale yellow and oblong, kind of like an elongated lemon cucumber. The blonds are a really nice cuke with thin skin and firm flesh, great in a cucumber salad.
Kale- With so many Summer crops coming on, have to fit kale into the share one more time before it's too late.
Head lettuce- No surprise here....the small shares had a week off from head lettuce last week, while the large shares got a gigantic head of red crisp, so I may give the larger shares some smaller heads of Pomegranate crunch to avoid overwhelming you with lettuce!
Dill- This is just kind of an extra, I decided to throw it in because we have some nice fresh dill, and with cukes and potatoes in the share, the two things fresh dill goes best with (other than fish!) I couldn't resist.
http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/kitchen-assistant/dill-recipes/dill-recipes_5
http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/kitchen-assistant/dill-recipes/view-all
Scallions- Our scallions are doing so great this year. We transplanted these ones out this Spring (planted them out from starts we had grown from seed in the greenhouse), but I also "direct sewed" (meaning put the seed straight into the ground rather than transplanting) some more scallions, bunching onions and leeks for later Summer and they are looking great! I am excited about this, as if it works out I will definitely do it again in future years...it saves a lot of work not having to start them in the greenhouse and plant them out by hand in the field!
Beets- I think we will do a mix of topped beets in the share this week without the greens....these guys take up less space in the bag, and are easy to clean up and steam or roast for a nice Summer side dish or salad.
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beet_hummus/
Large shares only:
Peas- It's easy to get rid of these peas, they are great for snacking on. My daughter Nico loves them, and can put away a pint in no time. If you're wondering why the peas look a little different than in years past, read my description of this year's seed mishap a few paragraphs below...
Broccoli- Some nice broccoli coming out of the field right now, and more on the way for the rest of July.
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/broccoli-recipes
Hakurei turnips- Might be the last time I get the hakurei turnips in the shares for a bit, so enjoy these ones! Really nice sliced thin in a lettuce salad. Don't forget, you can stir fry the greens if you're looking for more braising green materials!
This season, which got off to such a lousy start, has turned into a pretty awesome growing season so far (knock wood). Our early Summer crops like squash, cukes, carrots, beets and sweet onions are doing great and coming out of the field looking beautiful. All of the late Summer crops are looking great too...starting to see the first blush of color on some tomatoes, the green beans are flowering, the corn is growing like a weed and the first planting is well above knee high for the fourth of July. The melon vines are going crazy, and the peppers and eggplant are looking great. No complaints!
Actually, just one. I got a letter from Osborne seed in Mount Vernon (my favorite seed company where I get most of the farm's seed each year) explaining that the Sugar snap pea seed was mixed with off types...some kind of mess up. So while our peas this year are all still delicious, they aren't the consistent, fat sugar snap beauties we normally have. This might also explain why they were later than usual to come on this year. It makes picking peas a lot more cumbersome, and I'm a bit disappointed at not having the consistently beautiful pods...but at least they still taste good and can all be used as you would the normal sugar snap peas.
We are really humming along now, and with the Orchard Kitchen reopening this weekend we definitely have some busy pick days ahead. Fortunately, with the big irrigation projects and weeding now finished, we can spend our time picking and washing the produce, stocking the stand and packing your shares and I won't feel stressed about not getting to other projects!
I got some news that made me very happy, too. Sadly, our wonderful interns Max and Angela will be leaving in August so Angela can get back in time to finish her last quarter of college. Luckily for me, Jack, my long time manager on the farm, just happens to have a few free weeks before he will start his student teaching in late September, so he will be back to help me get through the last crazy push of harvest season at the end of Summer. It really couldn't have lined up any better.
Hope everyone is having a happy 4th! See you tomorrow!
All Shares:
New Fingerling Potatoes! We hand dug our first new potatoes this week, and they are some real beauties. These new potatoes haven't developed thick skins yet, so they are delicate and a more perishable, but much more delicious. I like to just steam or boil them whole for ten minutes or so, and then toss them in a bit of salt, butter or olive oil, and herbs. So tasty!
Cucumbers! I'll try to give everyone at least one green slicer cuke (either Marketmore, a standard slicer, or Picolino, which has a thinner and smoother green skin) and at least one Boothby's blond, which you may not even recognize as a cucumber at first glance. They are pale yellow and oblong, kind of like an elongated lemon cucumber. The blonds are a really nice cuke with thin skin and firm flesh, great in a cucumber salad.
Kale- With so many Summer crops coming on, have to fit kale into the share one more time before it's too late.
Head lettuce- No surprise here....the small shares had a week off from head lettuce last week, while the large shares got a gigantic head of red crisp, so I may give the larger shares some smaller heads of Pomegranate crunch to avoid overwhelming you with lettuce!
Dill- This is just kind of an extra, I decided to throw it in because we have some nice fresh dill, and with cukes and potatoes in the share, the two things fresh dill goes best with (other than fish!) I couldn't resist.
http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/kitchen-assistant/dill-recipes/dill-recipes_5
http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/kitchen-assistant/dill-recipes/view-all
Scallions- Our scallions are doing so great this year. We transplanted these ones out this Spring (planted them out from starts we had grown from seed in the greenhouse), but I also "direct sewed" (meaning put the seed straight into the ground rather than transplanting) some more scallions, bunching onions and leeks for later Summer and they are looking great! I am excited about this, as if it works out I will definitely do it again in future years...it saves a lot of work not having to start them in the greenhouse and plant them out by hand in the field!
Beets- I think we will do a mix of topped beets in the share this week without the greens....these guys take up less space in the bag, and are easy to clean up and steam or roast for a nice Summer side dish or salad.
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beet_hummus/
Large shares only:
Peas- It's easy to get rid of these peas, they are great for snacking on. My daughter Nico loves them, and can put away a pint in no time. If you're wondering why the peas look a little different than in years past, read my description of this year's seed mishap a few paragraphs below...
Broccoli- Some nice broccoli coming out of the field right now, and more on the way for the rest of July.
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/broccoli-recipes
Hakurei turnips- Might be the last time I get the hakurei turnips in the shares for a bit, so enjoy these ones! Really nice sliced thin in a lettuce salad. Don't forget, you can stir fry the greens if you're looking for more braising green materials!
This season, which got off to such a lousy start, has turned into a pretty awesome growing season so far (knock wood). Our early Summer crops like squash, cukes, carrots, beets and sweet onions are doing great and coming out of the field looking beautiful. All of the late Summer crops are looking great too...starting to see the first blush of color on some tomatoes, the green beans are flowering, the corn is growing like a weed and the first planting is well above knee high for the fourth of July. The melon vines are going crazy, and the peppers and eggplant are looking great. No complaints!
Actually, just one. I got a letter from Osborne seed in Mount Vernon (my favorite seed company where I get most of the farm's seed each year) explaining that the Sugar snap pea seed was mixed with off types...some kind of mess up. So while our peas this year are all still delicious, they aren't the consistent, fat sugar snap beauties we normally have. This might also explain why they were later than usual to come on this year. It makes picking peas a lot more cumbersome, and I'm a bit disappointed at not having the consistently beautiful pods...but at least they still taste good and can all be used as you would the normal sugar snap peas.
We are really humming along now, and with the Orchard Kitchen reopening this weekend we definitely have some busy pick days ahead. Fortunately, with the big irrigation projects and weeding now finished, we can spend our time picking and washing the produce, stocking the stand and packing your shares and I won't feel stressed about not getting to other projects!
I got some news that made me very happy, too. Sadly, our wonderful interns Max and Angela will be leaving in August so Angela can get back in time to finish her last quarter of college. Luckily for me, Jack, my long time manager on the farm, just happens to have a few free weeks before he will start his student teaching in late September, so he will be back to help me get through the last crazy push of harvest season at the end of Summer. It really couldn't have lined up any better.
Hope everyone is having a happy 4th! See you tomorrow!
Farm Share Time!
Well hello. The fourth farm share, and we have some good stuff coming online, and all shares this week will be getting:
Sugar snap peas! At long last. Our peas are really late this year, and still not really in full production, but we should have enough to get them in all shares tomorrow, and a lot more are on the way soon. Our peas are one of our signature crops and everyone loves them, especially kids! I am relieved that they are finally producing.
Carrots- A bigger bunch of beautiful orange "Hilmar" carrots in your share. Most modern carrot varieties are hybrids, which means a controlled cross of two different varieties to produce a more uniform, vigorous variety (often with better disease resistance or other desirable qualities), but these Hilmar carrots are "open pollinated", meaning both parents were Hilmar. I find they have almost as good uniformity and vigor as a hybrid, though, and to me the flavor is better.
Zucchini/Summer squash- Our squash are really starting to produce, and we're now picking them three times a week to keep up! A similar mix to what we've grown in years past, with lots of green and golden zucchini with a few patty pan, crookneck, and cocozelle thrown in.
I am reposting Bobbi's peeler recipe here that was in last week's blog as well:
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-the-no-chop-too-lazy-to-really-cook-summer-saute-244665?li_source=LI&li_medium=RelatedRecipes
Basil!! Our basil is suddenly growing like a weed in this warm weather, so we will give everyone a big bouquet of fresh stalks. So awesome to have basil in the farm share before it's even July! It's a mystery to me why many of the heat loving crops are thriving so much in spite of our cool Spring.
Walla walla onions- These are the same sweet onions that were in your share a few weeks ago, but as you'll see they are quickly plumping up, so they should be bigger and juicier. Great on a salad or sandwich because they are pretty mild eaten raw, but they can be used just as you would any onion. They make the best onion rings, too!
Spinach- The spinach is just great this year, with big gorgeous plants that have been surprisingly slow to bolt. Hard to keep up with all of it, so it's back in the shares this week.
http://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/best-spinach-recipes-gallery
Garlic- We are now starting to clean and hang our garlic to dry...I thought we'd give each share a stalk of our "Xi'an" garlic, an Asiatic hardneck. This is my favorite garlic variety, because it is super early and has beautiful purple skin. It is only partially dried, so it can be eaten right away as a semi-fresh garlic, or put it in a dry spot in your kitchen for a week or two if you want to cure it a bit more. The flavor will grow stronger and spicier as it dries down a bit more, but it is delicious fresh too.
In large shares:
Green cabbage- These cute little green "Gonzales" cabbages are great for a summer slaw or stir fry.
Fennel- Fennel is a wonderful vegetable in the carrot family with a tasty anise flavor. It is great eaten raw when it is thinly sliced, and the licorice flavor is stronger. If you chop it and cook it down, much like an onion the flavor will get sweeter and milder the longer it cooks. Great for lots of Italian and French recipes, as well as roasted or in a salad or slaw. Check out Martha's list of awesome recipes: http://www.marthastewart.com/search/results?keys=fennel
Lettuce- With spinach the only salad green in all shares, I figured the large shares could use a head of lettuce as well.
On the farm...
I am happy to say, it feels like we are getting out of our hectic Spring craziness and into the mid Summer flow on the farm already. Irrigation season is in full swing, but we got enough stuff done in advance that it hasn't been too chaotic of a rollout, and we have even had some time to accomplish a few tasks that were on the to-do list all Spring that we never seemed to be getting to.
The strawberries, after setting an enormous first flush, are now between fruit sets so aren't producing a whole lot, but they should be gearing up to set another batch of fruit before long.
I hope you're enjoying your shares! Let me know if you have any questions or feedback.
Sugar snap peas! At long last. Our peas are really late this year, and still not really in full production, but we should have enough to get them in all shares tomorrow, and a lot more are on the way soon. Our peas are one of our signature crops and everyone loves them, especially kids! I am relieved that they are finally producing.
Carrots- A bigger bunch of beautiful orange "Hilmar" carrots in your share. Most modern carrot varieties are hybrids, which means a controlled cross of two different varieties to produce a more uniform, vigorous variety (often with better disease resistance or other desirable qualities), but these Hilmar carrots are "open pollinated", meaning both parents were Hilmar. I find they have almost as good uniformity and vigor as a hybrid, though, and to me the flavor is better.
Zucchini/Summer squash- Our squash are really starting to produce, and we're now picking them three times a week to keep up! A similar mix to what we've grown in years past, with lots of green and golden zucchini with a few patty pan, crookneck, and cocozelle thrown in.
I am reposting Bobbi's peeler recipe here that was in last week's blog as well:
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-the-no-chop-too-lazy-to-really-cook-summer-saute-244665?li_source=LI&li_medium=RelatedRecipes
Basil!! Our basil is suddenly growing like a weed in this warm weather, so we will give everyone a big bouquet of fresh stalks. So awesome to have basil in the farm share before it's even July! It's a mystery to me why many of the heat loving crops are thriving so much in spite of our cool Spring.
Walla walla onions- These are the same sweet onions that were in your share a few weeks ago, but as you'll see they are quickly plumping up, so they should be bigger and juicier. Great on a salad or sandwich because they are pretty mild eaten raw, but they can be used just as you would any onion. They make the best onion rings, too!
Spinach- The spinach is just great this year, with big gorgeous plants that have been surprisingly slow to bolt. Hard to keep up with all of it, so it's back in the shares this week.
http://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/best-spinach-recipes-gallery
Garlic- We are now starting to clean and hang our garlic to dry...I thought we'd give each share a stalk of our "Xi'an" garlic, an Asiatic hardneck. This is my favorite garlic variety, because it is super early and has beautiful purple skin. It is only partially dried, so it can be eaten right away as a semi-fresh garlic, or put it in a dry spot in your kitchen for a week or two if you want to cure it a bit more. The flavor will grow stronger and spicier as it dries down a bit more, but it is delicious fresh too.
In large shares:
Green cabbage- These cute little green "Gonzales" cabbages are great for a summer slaw or stir fry.
Fennel- Fennel is a wonderful vegetable in the carrot family with a tasty anise flavor. It is great eaten raw when it is thinly sliced, and the licorice flavor is stronger. If you chop it and cook it down, much like an onion the flavor will get sweeter and milder the longer it cooks. Great for lots of Italian and French recipes, as well as roasted or in a salad or slaw. Check out Martha's list of awesome recipes: http://www.marthastewart.com/search/results?keys=fennel
Lettuce- With spinach the only salad green in all shares, I figured the large shares could use a head of lettuce as well.
On the farm...
I am happy to say, it feels like we are getting out of our hectic Spring craziness and into the mid Summer flow on the farm already. Irrigation season is in full swing, but we got enough stuff done in advance that it hasn't been too chaotic of a rollout, and we have even had some time to accomplish a few tasks that were on the to-do list all Spring that we never seemed to be getting to.
The strawberries, after setting an enormous first flush, are now between fruit sets so aren't producing a whole lot, but they should be gearing up to set another batch of fruit before long.
I hope you're enjoying your shares! Let me know if you have any questions or feedback.
Farm Share Number Three
In all farm shares this week, we have.....
Lettuce- I think you'll be getting the first head of Bergam's green in the farm shares....our always popular green leaf lettuce. This is just an amazing lettuce, with great flavor, beautiful crinkly green leaves, big heads, and it holds up great in the fridge. I think this is the perfect lettuce!
Swiss Chard- Our second planting of kale and chard is coming on quickly, so we are ready to pick the last of our early Spring planting and move into the new beds. This variety of chard ("Bright Lights" is the name of the Australian variety) produces a beautiful rainbow of different stem colors...red, yellow, pink, white, purple and everything in between. Chard is my favorite braising green for early Summer, as its mild sweet taste is great with a lot of the other crops that are on this time of year...
Carrots- Our Spring carrots are quickly growing to be beautiful full sized roots. Our little babies are all grown up! Well, not quite, many are still a little on the small side, but they now have their delicious main season flavor and crunch. https://www.happyheartedkitchen.com/salads/moroccan-carrot-quinoa-salad
Broccoli- Finally! As I've written, it's been a rough Spring for the broccoli. We are now in the midst of seeding the new starts for Fall broccoli that we will harvest in September and October, and I'm hoping that goes a bit smoother. The good news is, our first big planting is finally on and the heads are beautiful. Hopefully it was worth the wait!
Radishes- Radishes are back in the share this week, but a different variety. These "Rudy" radishes are the more familiar round, pink radish. They are a bit juicier and have a little bit more kick than the French breakfast radishes.. as a farmer, an advantage of these ones is that they hold up a little longer in the field during the long days of early Summer, too. At Prima (where I work sometimes in the evenings when I'm not on the farm) we have been serving radishes like this sliced in half with some nice sea salt and fancy butter. Easy to make at home!
Garlic scapes- Garlic scapes are the flowering stalk of hardneck garlic varieties. Our first scapes were in the large shares a few weeks ago, but now we are in the thick of scape season with several more varieties producing these delicious stalks. The whole scape is edible and delicious...they are easy to chop up and saute with greens (your chard, broccoli, or both) or stir fry with a mix of veggies. Not quite as strong as grocery store garlic, but much more zip than the fresh garlic that was in your first share. Try them out! They are really delicious.
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/the-crisper-whisperer-what-to-do-with-garlic-scapes-recipe.html
Scallions- I can't believe how fast these scallions grew from their time of planting. Our whole allium field (onions, garlic, leeks and shallots and scallions) is a big success story right now, everything is looking really good. There was a very sweet but annoying Killdeer mother who decided to make a nest in our scallion patch. Killdeers are a black and white wild bird about the size of a robin who for some reason like to make their nests on the ground in farmed land, and then freak out if you come anywhere near the nest. Fortunately, her babies were born and the family has moved on, so we can harvest your scallions without disturbing them.
And in the large shares...
Summer squash- The first zucchini is on! The Orchard Kitchen got the first flush last week, but with Vince and Tyla on vacation this week I will have enough to put some in all the large shares!
Use this recipe for any veggie that you can slice up with a peeler!
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-the-no-chop-too-lazy-to-really-cook-summer-saute-244665?li_source=LI&li_medium=RelatedRecipes
New potatoes- This is exciting....our first potatoes of 2017. They are still very small and very new, so treat the delicate skins carefully! They cook in much less time than larger, cured spuds. We will see how it goes harvesting these and hopefully get more in all shares before too long!
https://www.thespruce.com/what-are-new-potatoes-2216908
More broccoli! Larger heads of broc in the large shares!
Well, I think we have weathered the storm and survived the craziest part of the season. Mid June just gets totally insane, when there are still large plantings that need to go in the ground, plus the weeds are growing out of control along with the grass, irrigation, and then harvest starts! Especially this time of year, with the incredible first flush of strawberries we have had. I don't keep detailed records, but I feel like we were getting many more berries than this month in recent years. This will be the first share without any berries, but don't worry, they'll be back! Our day neutral plants continue to produce well into August.
While this has not been a wonderfully warm Spring as we've had the last two years, it has been nice that we haven't been launched into irrigation quite so suddenly, and the crops all seem to be doing well, if a little behind where they were are this time last year. With some of the big Spring projects now behind us, we will be transitioning into more harvest projects...we may even begin harvesting and drying our earliest garlic varieties later this week!
The farm stand HAS jumped very suddenly out of its winter dormancy and now seems to be hopping all the time. The Orchard Kitchen will be closed for the next two weekends so the Nattresses can celebrate Vincent's upcoming 50th birthday and get some down time now that their girls are out of school. I will be glad to have some extra time to get caught up around the farm, but happy that they'll be back before July for the Summer bounty!
Hope you're enjoying your shares! See you soon!
ETP
Lettuce- I think you'll be getting the first head of Bergam's green in the farm shares....our always popular green leaf lettuce. This is just an amazing lettuce, with great flavor, beautiful crinkly green leaves, big heads, and it holds up great in the fridge. I think this is the perfect lettuce!
Swiss Chard- Our second planting of kale and chard is coming on quickly, so we are ready to pick the last of our early Spring planting and move into the new beds. This variety of chard ("Bright Lights" is the name of the Australian variety) produces a beautiful rainbow of different stem colors...red, yellow, pink, white, purple and everything in between. Chard is my favorite braising green for early Summer, as its mild sweet taste is great with a lot of the other crops that are on this time of year...
Carrots- Our Spring carrots are quickly growing to be beautiful full sized roots. Our little babies are all grown up! Well, not quite, many are still a little on the small side, but they now have their delicious main season flavor and crunch. https://www.happyheartedkitchen.com/salads/moroccan-carrot-quinoa-salad
Broccoli- Finally! As I've written, it's been a rough Spring for the broccoli. We are now in the midst of seeding the new starts for Fall broccoli that we will harvest in September and October, and I'm hoping that goes a bit smoother. The good news is, our first big planting is finally on and the heads are beautiful. Hopefully it was worth the wait!
Radishes- Radishes are back in the share this week, but a different variety. These "Rudy" radishes are the more familiar round, pink radish. They are a bit juicier and have a little bit more kick than the French breakfast radishes.. as a farmer, an advantage of these ones is that they hold up a little longer in the field during the long days of early Summer, too. At Prima (where I work sometimes in the evenings when I'm not on the farm) we have been serving radishes like this sliced in half with some nice sea salt and fancy butter. Easy to make at home!
Garlic scapes- Garlic scapes are the flowering stalk of hardneck garlic varieties. Our first scapes were in the large shares a few weeks ago, but now we are in the thick of scape season with several more varieties producing these delicious stalks. The whole scape is edible and delicious...they are easy to chop up and saute with greens (your chard, broccoli, or both) or stir fry with a mix of veggies. Not quite as strong as grocery store garlic, but much more zip than the fresh garlic that was in your first share. Try them out! They are really delicious.
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/the-crisper-whisperer-what-to-do-with-garlic-scapes-recipe.html
Scallions- I can't believe how fast these scallions grew from their time of planting. Our whole allium field (onions, garlic, leeks and shallots and scallions) is a big success story right now, everything is looking really good. There was a very sweet but annoying Killdeer mother who decided to make a nest in our scallion patch. Killdeers are a black and white wild bird about the size of a robin who for some reason like to make their nests on the ground in farmed land, and then freak out if you come anywhere near the nest. Fortunately, her babies were born and the family has moved on, so we can harvest your scallions without disturbing them.
And in the large shares...
Summer squash- The first zucchini is on! The Orchard Kitchen got the first flush last week, but with Vince and Tyla on vacation this week I will have enough to put some in all the large shares!
Use this recipe for any veggie that you can slice up with a peeler!
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-the-no-chop-too-lazy-to-really-cook-summer-saute-244665?li_source=LI&li_medium=RelatedRecipes
New potatoes- This is exciting....our first potatoes of 2017. They are still very small and very new, so treat the delicate skins carefully! They cook in much less time than larger, cured spuds. We will see how it goes harvesting these and hopefully get more in all shares before too long!
https://www.thespruce.com/what-are-new-potatoes-2216908
More broccoli! Larger heads of broc in the large shares!
Well, I think we have weathered the storm and survived the craziest part of the season. Mid June just gets totally insane, when there are still large plantings that need to go in the ground, plus the weeds are growing out of control along with the grass, irrigation, and then harvest starts! Especially this time of year, with the incredible first flush of strawberries we have had. I don't keep detailed records, but I feel like we were getting many more berries than this month in recent years. This will be the first share without any berries, but don't worry, they'll be back! Our day neutral plants continue to produce well into August.
While this has not been a wonderfully warm Spring as we've had the last two years, it has been nice that we haven't been launched into irrigation quite so suddenly, and the crops all seem to be doing well, if a little behind where they were are this time last year. With some of the big Spring projects now behind us, we will be transitioning into more harvest projects...we may even begin harvesting and drying our earliest garlic varieties later this week!
The farm stand HAS jumped very suddenly out of its winter dormancy and now seems to be hopping all the time. The Orchard Kitchen will be closed for the next two weekends so the Nattresses can celebrate Vincent's upcoming 50th birthday and get some down time now that their girls are out of school. I will be glad to have some extra time to get caught up around the farm, but happy that they'll be back before July for the Summer bounty!
Hope you're enjoying your shares! See you soon!
ETP
Second Farm Share
In all shares:
Buttercrunch bibb lettuce- These heads of bibb lettuce are a little smaller in size, but have a great sweet flavor and soft, tender leaves with a nice dense head. A great all green lettuce for salads and more. Bibb lettuce is great to eat, but of all the lettuces, holds the worst in the field, so when it's ready we need to harvest it in a hurry.
Beet bunches- Getting into the first of our beets, and while the roots aren't quite full sized yet, these smaller roots have really nice flavor and are easy to use...they don't need to be peeled, try just quartering them up before roasting, steaming or sauteing them. The tops are edible too and similar to Swiss chard for use in the onion recipe below!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/roasted-baby-beets-231298
Walla walla sweet onion bunches- A great late Spring crop, fresh sweet onions are juicy and mild. The whole plant is edible once the roots are sliced off, and the tops can be used like scallions as a garnish, put on sandwiches or stir fried.
This recipe sounds delicious, but our onions are still baby sized, so you may need to halve it:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/grilled-onions.html
Strawberries- More of our delicious strawberries in your shares this week! I can't believe how many pints we sold through the weekend...the rain didn't seem to do too much damage last week, fortunately, so we should have more nice fruit this Wednesday with any luck...
Small Shares Only:
Baby pac choi- After putting the last of a previous planting in the large shares last week, we're already into a new bed with some nice baby pac choi, so I figured it was the small shares' turn to get some. Look for the recipe in last week's blog! The pac choi grows and matures so fast, I feel like we just put these plants in the ground a few weeks ago...
Hakurei turnips- Another crop that was in the large shares last week, the small shares will get a bunch of hakurei turnips this week. These turnips are best eaten raw, or ever so lightly cooked. They are sweet and juicy, with a crunch a little like a radish but much less spice. Give them a try!
Large Shares Only:
Broccoli- While our broccoli was set back a bit by cold weather and pest problems, it is finally getting in gear and I'm hoping we'll have our first decent harvest of heads this week. I plan to have broccoli through June and July, mostly take August and early September off when it's really hot and dry, and then Fall broccoli goes from mid September through October, so hopefully there should be much more broccoli to come.
Arugula- A peppery bunch of arugula in the large shares, great for a spicy salad, or the spice quickly vanishes if it's lightly sauteed or blended up into a pesto or dressing.
http://www.foodiecrush.com/how-to-make-arugula-pesto/
Baby carrots- The first carrots are starting, and they are fun and cute at this smaller size. Already sweet and flavorful, but not quite as crunchy as the larger carrots...but this is Vincent's preferred carrot size for the Orchard Kitchen.
Kohlrabi- The vegetable from outer space, kohlrabi bulbs are actually in the brassica family, along with broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, arugula, radish, turnips, pac choi, mustards, and so many other crops we grow on small farms here in the Pacific northwest. None of those others have the sweet crunch of kohlrabi, though! Kohlrabi is almost like a cross between broccoli stems and a juicy apple. Sliced thin and served raw with a dip or dressing, it is refreshing and delicious. Or try putting it in a salad, slaw, or lightly stir fried.
Well, it is surprising and interesting to see how our unusually cold Spring has changed things up a bit. The two crops that seem to be the most set back/delayed from their usual harvest window are not the two I would expect....the peas and broccoli. Normally I think we'd be close to hitting our peak with those crops, and instead we'll just start harvesting them this week. It's odd, because those are cool season crops that I wouldn't have thought would be as affected as the squash, cucumbers, basil, tomatoes....but those crops all seem to be doing great, and the squash and cukes are even ahead of schedule. Go figure. Meanwhile, other things seem to be right on time.
The farm is certainly not a controlled scientific experiment, though, and there are all kinds of variables I can't really take into account...for example, with the broccoli, my favorite Spring variety was backordered with the seed company this Spring, so I tried a new one which seems a bit slower to head up. When my favorite came in ("Castle Dome") I switched to use it instead, but the germination and vigor seem off even now, and I'm just beginning to suspect there could be an issue with the lot of seed, which does happen surprisingly frequently.
It is always interesting to see how everything plays out, though, and one way or another we always seem to have plenty of food. Starting the share a week later than last year is interesting, too...while it's been nice because a lot of the crops have started a little bit late, and it certainly made the Spring planning less stressful, we have now just started the farm share and the early Summer crops are ready or right around the corner! There are many nice Spring crops (like the fresh garlic, pac choi, and kohlrabi) that I like to fit into the early shares before we get into our mid Summer mountains of produce, and it feels like there won't be many chances to do it. Anyways, hope you're enjoying your first of many farm shares now, and looking forward to the second.
Buttercrunch bibb lettuce- These heads of bibb lettuce are a little smaller in size, but have a great sweet flavor and soft, tender leaves with a nice dense head. A great all green lettuce for salads and more. Bibb lettuce is great to eat, but of all the lettuces, holds the worst in the field, so when it's ready we need to harvest it in a hurry.
Beet bunches- Getting into the first of our beets, and while the roots aren't quite full sized yet, these smaller roots have really nice flavor and are easy to use...they don't need to be peeled, try just quartering them up before roasting, steaming or sauteing them. The tops are edible too and similar to Swiss chard for use in the onion recipe below!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/roasted-baby-beets-231298
Walla walla sweet onion bunches- A great late Spring crop, fresh sweet onions are juicy and mild. The whole plant is edible once the roots are sliced off, and the tops can be used like scallions as a garnish, put on sandwiches or stir fried.
This recipe sounds delicious, but our onions are still baby sized, so you may need to halve it:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/grilled-onions.html
Strawberries- More of our delicious strawberries in your shares this week! I can't believe how many pints we sold through the weekend...the rain didn't seem to do too much damage last week, fortunately, so we should have more nice fruit this Wednesday with any luck...
Small Shares Only:
Baby pac choi- After putting the last of a previous planting in the large shares last week, we're already into a new bed with some nice baby pac choi, so I figured it was the small shares' turn to get some. Look for the recipe in last week's blog! The pac choi grows and matures so fast, I feel like we just put these plants in the ground a few weeks ago...
Hakurei turnips- Another crop that was in the large shares last week, the small shares will get a bunch of hakurei turnips this week. These turnips are best eaten raw, or ever so lightly cooked. They are sweet and juicy, with a crunch a little like a radish but much less spice. Give them a try!
Large Shares Only:
Broccoli- While our broccoli was set back a bit by cold weather and pest problems, it is finally getting in gear and I'm hoping we'll have our first decent harvest of heads this week. I plan to have broccoli through June and July, mostly take August and early September off when it's really hot and dry, and then Fall broccoli goes from mid September through October, so hopefully there should be much more broccoli to come.
Arugula- A peppery bunch of arugula in the large shares, great for a spicy salad, or the spice quickly vanishes if it's lightly sauteed or blended up into a pesto or dressing.
http://www.foodiecrush.com/how-to-make-arugula-pesto/
Baby carrots- The first carrots are starting, and they are fun and cute at this smaller size. Already sweet and flavorful, but not quite as crunchy as the larger carrots...but this is Vincent's preferred carrot size for the Orchard Kitchen.
Kohlrabi- The vegetable from outer space, kohlrabi bulbs are actually in the brassica family, along with broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, arugula, radish, turnips, pac choi, mustards, and so many other crops we grow on small farms here in the Pacific northwest. None of those others have the sweet crunch of kohlrabi, though! Kohlrabi is almost like a cross between broccoli stems and a juicy apple. Sliced thin and served raw with a dip or dressing, it is refreshing and delicious. Or try putting it in a salad, slaw, or lightly stir fried.
Well, it is surprising and interesting to see how our unusually cold Spring has changed things up a bit. The two crops that seem to be the most set back/delayed from their usual harvest window are not the two I would expect....the peas and broccoli. Normally I think we'd be close to hitting our peak with those crops, and instead we'll just start harvesting them this week. It's odd, because those are cool season crops that I wouldn't have thought would be as affected as the squash, cucumbers, basil, tomatoes....but those crops all seem to be doing great, and the squash and cukes are even ahead of schedule. Go figure. Meanwhile, other things seem to be right on time.
The farm is certainly not a controlled scientific experiment, though, and there are all kinds of variables I can't really take into account...for example, with the broccoli, my favorite Spring variety was backordered with the seed company this Spring, so I tried a new one which seems a bit slower to head up. When my favorite came in ("Castle Dome") I switched to use it instead, but the germination and vigor seem off even now, and I'm just beginning to suspect there could be an issue with the lot of seed, which does happen surprisingly frequently.
It is always interesting to see how everything plays out, though, and one way or another we always seem to have plenty of food. Starting the share a week later than last year is interesting, too...while it's been nice because a lot of the crops have started a little bit late, and it certainly made the Spring planning less stressful, we have now just started the farm share and the early Summer crops are ready or right around the corner! There are many nice Spring crops (like the fresh garlic, pac choi, and kohlrabi) that I like to fit into the early shares before we get into our mid Summer mountains of produce, and it feels like there won't be many chances to do it. Anyways, hope you're enjoying your first of many farm shares now, and looking forward to the second.
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