What to Do With Your Share---Week 6

It's week 6 of the CSA already, and things are slowly changing toward summer type shares. We still have some wonderful Asian greens (keep that wok on the stove), prime Hakurei turnips and the last of the strawberries making it feel like Spring. Some of the delights of Summer are creeping in, with the first of the carrots and onions bulking up the share.

A few notes on these items. The tall, celery size Asian green you may find in the share this week and next is Komatsuna. Treat it as you would bok choi, enjoying the crunchiness of the stem and tenderness of the leaves.

All of you might not be familiar with the herb choices either. Fennel is the ferny herb that looks like dill, but with a slight licorice taste. We use it a lot when making creamy yogurt salad dressings. Tarragon (thin, narrow leaves) has a similar flavor to fennel and is often used to flavor vinegars or for the classic tarragon chicken. Summer savory is similar to thyme in flavor, with a sweet and savory aroma. Use it with meat or vegetables.

Summer savory

Since farming has kept us extra busy this week, there is no from the farm recipe. But... my teaching colleague Emily Akins has written an epic blog on strawberries called Strawberry Weekend. From picking berries at the farm, to teaching a jams and jellies class at the Bad Seed, to preparing strawberry dumplings, it is a flavorful read.

Finally, our heartfelt thanks go out again to Keith Stubblefield who took up his Friday night to help put Grandpa (the tractor) back together. He is officially running again as millions of blades of grass have found out over the last 3 days. Once this rain stops and the beds dry out our next step is to catch up on our tilling and get the remaining summer crops in the ground, followed by our fall plantings.

Keith adjusting the valves