In the Share: Week 4

FORELLENSCHLUSS LETTUCE  We love this Austrian heirloom which is a romaine but also tender and, as someone said, "appears to have spattered with a good red wine."

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE  glorious softballs of butter!

STRAWBERRIES  precious little pints this week.  Concentrated flavor.

KALE, CHARD OR SPROUTING BROCCOLI

GARLIC SCAPES  This week only.  Get your scape on!

GREEN ONIONS

IN TWO WEEKS:  lettuce, green onions, greens,herbs.

FARM REPORT:
It is starting to feel like summer.  Our little sabbatical tomato patch (200 plants vs. 900 for the last many years) is growing well and just got it's second string.

The farm is definitely more on schedule than ever before.  In the background are the cucumbers under insect barrier to keep away the pesky beetles.  We've missed alot of the storms that have been just south of us at times.  It was dry enough today we were able to hoe around the leeks.

What to Do With Your Share---Week 4

We've been making a lot of strawberry and garlic dressing during this butterhead season. I always look forward to the combination of these three farm products. We have shared it a bit lately and I have been asked about the recipe.

The dressing is best made in a food processor. You can add as little or as much as you want of the garlic and strawberries.

3 to 4 garlic scapes, topped
about 6 medium strawberries
1/3 cup vinegar
1 egg
1 cup oil (we used half EV olive and half safflower)
salt to taste

1. Chop the scapes into 2 inch pieces and add to the food processor. Pulse until well chopped.
2. Add strawberries, vinegar, salt, egg, and a little of the oil.
3. While processing add oil in a steady stream.
4. Process until well mixed.

In the Share: Week 3

STRAWBERRIES

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE

RED LEAF LETTUCE

KALE OR CHARD

SPROUTING BROCCOLI

HINONA TURNIPS  See Tom's post for more on these guys.

CILANTRO AND DILL

IN TWO WEEKS:  strawberries, lettuce, greens, garlic scapes, herbs.

FARM REPORT:

Spring is flying by.  Worries of frost have been replaced by worries of hail storms.  On Wednesday, severe hail was supposedly on its way.  So we rushed around pulling the covers back over the beds of our tenderest crops.

Luckily no hail came, just strong winds and rain.  By Saturday's CSA morning we were back in the fields weeding onions.  We also managed to wash more crates.  We like to give the hundreds of crates we use a good scrub and sanitizing every Spring and periodically throughout the season.  It is just a small part of our farm-wide food safety plan that keeps our produce fresh and healthy.  Washing crates isn't a glamorous job but it is essential.  Thanks to all who pitched in!

What to Do With Your Share---Week 3

It's a hefty share this week, with an extra item. The peaking of so many veggies at once is a wonderful thing that can keep one busy in a good way. While crawling through the strawberry patch get a little old by the third hour, it gives us the opportunity to experience that brief annual time when the strawberries at their best.

We are growing a new item for our fermentation, a Japanese style salad turnip. It keeps a firm texture when fermented and is a good carrot substitute. The flavor is radish, turnip and sweetness all at the same time. We are only handing out a few, so straight into a salad with some lettuce, strawberries and dressing is a great way to go.

What to Do With Your Share---Week 2

It's been an inside/outside kind of day. Much of the morning was spent in the high tunnel, harvesting in its controlled environment. Conditions like that help us grow crops like salad turnips, with a texture that has been described as having an ice cream center. Eat these fresh with your favorite dip or dressing to take advantage of them at their best.

Later it was out to the field, where the kale has been subjected to more natural conditions. This early crop is doing great, well mulched and enjoying the wind and direct sunlight. One great way to enjoy the kale is with some pasta, as in our Kale, Green Onion, Bow Tie Pasta and Goat Cheese recipe from 2014. Use any green onions you may have left from the last share, or use the freshly pulled green garlic.

green garlic

Out in the fallowing fields we have been focusing on weed eradication. This work has caused us to slow down our regular cover cropping plans to work on cultivating the freshly germinated weeds out of the fields every few weeks. Killing weeds when they are in the "thread stage" is a lot easier than when they are full grown.

Thread stage weeds after cultivation

This is called creating a stale seed bed, and helps us reduce the "weed seed bank" in our soil. All part of our sabbatical plans to manage our soil to create the most fertile soils we can.

Freshly cultivated fields

In the Share - Week 2

SALAD TURNIPS

TAT SOI OR SWISS CHARD

KALE

SALAD MIX

ASPARAGUS

GREEN GARLIC

IN TWO WEEKS:  lettuce, greens, strawberries and herbs.

FARM REPORT:
Last week was our first off-week of our alternating week CSA distribution.  While not a typical sabbatical, getting a week's break from the harvest/delivery schedule opened up our days for other projects.  With our extra time we managed to complete some repair to the outside of the farm house and get all of the cabbages mulched before the rains came.

We are lucky that only 2.5 inches of rain fell the last few days.  We know other farmers with flooded fields just a few hours south of us.  The Spring plantings are all in and growing nicely.  We hope with a little warm and dry weather we should be able to start planting the summer crops of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers by later this week.