Well, this is quite the little heat wave we are having. Jack is down in Portland where it is supposed to hit 100 degrees, and Whitney is up in the mountains hiking, where it is hopefully quite a bit cooler. This warm weather really dries everything out quickly, which makes me grateful that the cool wet weather of the last week or so allowed us to get all caught up on irrigation.
Aside from a few pest issues, which seem to always rear their ugly heads around this time of year, everything is going great at the farm. We have been able to improve our deer fencing and our irrigation system, get a working fridge going in the farm stand, and get all our plantings in so far this Spring. If the weather stays warm, and we're able to keep up with watering everything, we are primed to have a really great growing season.
I forgot to mention last week, I try to include a few recipes in the blog each week, but there are a few go-to websites that are great if you're struggling to figure out what to do with a new vegetable. The first is www.epicurious.com, where you can even type in several ingredients and find recipes that include both, i.e. cucumber fennel, or lettuce parsley, etc. As anyone who used the blog last year knows, I became a devotee of www.marthastewart.com over the course of the year. Searching for an ingredient on Martha's website brings up a whole trove of info about how to store, clean, and prepare different ingredients, plus tons of great recipes. Although I'm sad to report that there seem to be a lot more adds on both sites than ever before!
Here's what's in your share this week:
Strawberries- Well, it is always hard to see into the future and know how quickly the strawberries will ripen, but I am hopeful that we'll have enough strawberries to give everyone a pint of them this week. They have been growing sweeter every week and we are selling them fast in the farm stand. Enjoy them!
Lettuce- You might be relieved to hear that the lettuce in your share this week will not be as big as last week's! This is a different variety, a red romaine named "Majestic", which does not achieve quite the same gigantic proportions as the green leaf lettuce. It is very pretty though, and delicious.
Broccoli- This is the very first broccoli of 2016...I actually haven't even harvested a head of it yet as I'm writing this. If the weather stays warm, we'll be picking the broccoli first thing in the morning as it tends to get a bit bitter and doesn't hold up as well if it's picked in the heat of the day. Here is a slideshow you can scroll through to look for a broccoli recipe that sounds good-
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/14-broccoli-recipes-youll-want-make-tonight
Scallions- These green onions are doing great this Spring. They are great for a whole variety of uses...in salads and dressings, chopped up as a garnish or topping, in lots of Asian recipes like stir fries....here's a whole web article about it:
http://www.finecooking.com/articles/scallions-more-than-garnish.aspx
Hakurei Turnips- These will be in the small shares this week, and in the large shares the following week. They are a really delicious Asian vegetable that is super easy to eat. They are best raw, or very lightly cooked, like adding them to a stir fry at the last minute or steaming them very lightly. My favorite way to eat them is to chop them up and dip them in a creamy dressing or dip. The greens are also really nice lightly cooked, similar to mustard greens or pac choi. I think stir fry is the theme this week. With broccoli, scallions, turnips and turnip greens, all you need is some rice or noodles, some meat or tofu, and some seasonings.
In the LARGE share this week-
Beets- As mentioned above, the large shares will get hakurei turnips NEXT week, because you'll be getting our first beets of the season this week. These are growing quickly and should be a good size. The greens are also edible and similar to Swiss chard. I know there are some people out there who don't like beets...my mom was one of them until my dad finally wore her down (I think mostly because he was able to grow beets with great success). So I searched for how to cook beets for people who think they don't like beets, and found this blog post by "alpha mom"-
http://alphamom.com/family-fun/best-beet-recipe-with-onions-goat-cheese-pecans/
Snap peas- Snap peas are one of the most popular Spring vegetables we grow. It seems like we can never have too many of them. Our Super Sugar Snap peas are grown on t-post trellis and sometimes get over 6' tall. Adding more strings to the trellis is a frequent project this time of year. The plants are flowering like crazy, but this will be our very first time picking peas this year!
Garlic scapes- Garlic scapes are mostly unknown in these parts...they are the flowering stalk that grows out of all hardneck garlic plants. The scape is picked many weeks before the garlic bulb is harvested and eaten fresh, unlike most garlic which is dried. Most grocery store garlic is a softneck variety, so those plants never produce scapes. Georgie Smith, my onetime employer at Willowood Farm in Coupeville, told us that in China the scapes are much more prized than the bulb of garlic! They are also excellent in a stir fry, or quick pickled in some vinegar, or added to a appetizer plate. They have a mild garlicy flavor. One of my favorite Spring veggies!
http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/garlic-scapes
Kale- The kale has been selling from the farm stand so quickly that our first planting has been picked down to where it's barely there...fortunately, the second planting is coming on strong and ready to harvest! Once upon a time kale was a vegetable that we had to explain to people....now with the great kale renaissance I think most people have a few kale recipes up their sleeve. Here's a few just in case though..
http://www.marthastewart.com/286367/kale-recipes
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