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