In this weeks share, for all shares:
Strawberries! We picked our strawberries for the first time last week, and I was surprised how many we got...it's always tricky to judge, but it looks like we should have even more this week and I'm hopeful we'll have enough to get a pint in each share. Small shares might get a "scant" pint (a little less full). I brought home some extras last week and made some strawberry blintzes for breakfast.
Lettuce- In spite of the coolest Spring we've had since I've been farming on South Whidbey, we've had a wonderful first planting of lettuce....the first planting has often been pretty unimpressive in years past. We have some beautiful heads of red romaine and green leaf lettuce that we'll be picking this week. Lettuce salads are great this time of year!
Spinach- Great spinach so far this year too, and we are now going into a beautiful new bed of it after tilling in our first seeding. Spinach is easy to use up- especially at the size of these plants, which are small enough to be great raw in a salad, but big enough to cook too, like in an omelette. Or this more daring recipe with your radishes:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/spinach-radish-slaw-with-crispy-chiles-and-pepitas-350816
Radish- Radishes are a farmer's dream...you plant some seeds and water them, (we cover our radish beds with floating row cover, too, the white sheets you may have seen in the field, to protect them from pests) and then three weeks later, voila, radishes. These are a French Breakfast type radish that has a nice mild flavor with a tiny bit of spice.
Fresh garlic- These garlic plants we leav in the ground will soon be creating a bulb at their base which will turn into the familiar heads of garlic by early Summer. In the meantime, though, they are delicious fresh and actually even easier to use. If you trim off the base with the roots and chop off the leafy green tops, the entire stalk is edible and tasty, with a mild garlic flavor. One whole stalk has only the potency of a few cloves of cured garlic, so you can be heavy handed with it. Fresh garlic is great in stir fry, salad dressings or minced on salads...anything you would use scallions in you can substitute fresh garlic and add a little more flavor.
Red Russian Kale- While our first planting of Lacinato kale (dinosaur kale) completely bit the dust and has since been tilled in, our Russian kale is growing like a weed and doing great. Broccoli season will be starting soon, so have to sneak a bunch of kale into the share first, because I feel like putting both in the same share is a little redundant... kale is great because, unlike broccoli which only creates one big edible bud (and then maybe a few smaller sideshoots) we can keep picking off the same kale plants successively for many weeks throughout the season.
And for large shares only:
Baby pac choi- Large shares are getting some stir fry components this week, beginning with a bunch of our "Shuko" baby pac choi. These lovely tender heads are super easy to chop up and toss in a wok or pan, and they are cooked and tender in just a few minutes. I like the smaller pac choi heads that aren't the daunting big size that some larger varieties reach.
https://www.thespruce.com/stir-fry-baby-bok-choy-recipe-695307
Garlic scapes- Garlic scapes, while mostly unknown here in the U.S., are a true delicacy. There are two major classes of garlic, softneck and hardneck, and only hardneck varieties produce a scape, or flowering stalk. Almost all the garlic grown commercially here in the States is softneck, so it never even makes a scape. But we grow a few hardneck varieties in the Spring, and so get to pick the scapes in the Spring. Unlike the fresh garlic, scapes pack a bit of a bunch, with more spice and garlicy flavor. Eating them raw is not for the faint of heart. But they are easy to chop up and saute or stir fry, and like other garlic the flavor mellows pretty quickly with cooking. They are also my favorite thing in the world for pickling! You could try quick pickling a jar in the fridge.
http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/pickled-garlic-scapes-make-ahead-monday/
Hakurei turnips- Farm share members from years past may remember these delicious Japanese salad turnips. They are similar to a radish, but less spicy and a sweeter, juicier crunch. I love them raw, in a salad, sandwich, or alone with or without a dip. But they are also great in a stir fry, to continue the theme...just don't throw them in until the last minute and they'll maintain a most of their crunch and flavor.
Well, it's a new season on the farm and quite a bit is different. My two trusty farm hands from the last several seasons, Jack and Whitney, have both moved on to greener pastures; Jack to become a math teacher, and Whitney to go do a bit more exploring I think. We have a new crew in their place, who hopefully you'll get a chance to meet this season; Jess, who's been farming for several years up in Coupeville at Prairie Bottom farm, is working with me three days a week this year. Brian, who is helping out one day a week with harvest and field work, has a bunch of farm experience, is a busy musician, and runs his own small farm, Do Re Mi, here on South Whidbey. And Max and Angela are up for a few months this Summer from Los Angelos to be farm apprentices.
As for our family, not too much is new, I am happy to be back on the farm and glad the weather has finally improved since the cold and wet early Spring. Bobbie is doing gardening around South Whidbey as well as helping out with the occasional farm project, and our daughter Nico turned two in March and is growing up quick.
After several years of doing the blog in basically the same format each week, I am hoping to change it up a tiny bit this year. I will put the crops and the recipes up top, rather than at the bottom, which will hopefully make it easier to read and find info. And I'm thinking about ways to write about crops and farm projects a little differently, with a slightly more personal take on things.
Finally, if you haven't already, I definitely encourage you to check out the Orchard Kitchen restaurant at some point this season! Vincent and Tyla, apart from being our wonderful farm landlords, turn our humble produce into amazing creations every weekend in their beautiful kitchen. I just heard that they'll be gone for a few weeks in late June, and I'm sure they'll be super busy when they come back, so try to get a spot sometime if you can.
Thanks for supporting our family farm! Hope we see a bunch of you Wednesday night for our party at the first farm share pickup!
Blake
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