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