In the Share: Week 6

GARLIC: See below. The garlic harvest has been like no other so far this year. This fresh garlic slips right out of the skin.

LETTUCE X 3: We are piling on the lettuce this week as the heat is bringing them to maturity quickly. Everyone will get a range of butterhead and red leaf, romaines and crispheads.

CARROTS: First digging of the season. Nothing like a freshly dug carrot.

BEETS: They are perfectly big and beautiful. We cooked them tonight, see below for recipe.

SUMMER SQUASH: Zucchinis and yellow squash are finally starting.

KALE OR SWISS CHARD: These spring crops continue to produce. Some of the best stuff we grow on the farm, enjoy these greens while we still can.

SPROUTING BROCCOLI: The broccoli too keeps going strong too.

BASIL: Treat your basil like a bouquet of flowers on your countertop. It will turn black if refrigerated. In a glass of water it will keep at least a week.

RECIPE:  Pan-Cooked Beets
This year we have some of the nicest spring beets in a long time. Root, stem and tops are all fresh, tender and ready for cooking.

Cut the tops off the beet bunch, then cut the stems, and finally peel any rough spots off the beet. Heat a pan with cooking oil, chop the stems and a clove of garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Cut the beet into matchsticks and add to the pan. Add ½ cup of water or cooking liquid (I used some ferment juice). Bring to boil and then simmer for 3 minutes. Cut beet tops into strips and add to the pan. Add1/4 cup more liquid, 2 tbsp butter, salt and pepper. Simmer with lid on for 3 to 5 minutes or until desired tenderness

FARM REPORT:
It had been a stormy Spring and Summer arrived with more. Last weekend 4.5 inches of rain fell with heavy storms.

Mostly we fared fine, just a bit of hail damage. Thanks to the soggy weather, your farmers got a break. Normally it takes a fork and some muscle to get the garlic out of the ground. This year they pulled right out. We were able to get the entire hardneck crop out in part of an afternoon. That’s 1,500 heads pulled, sorted and strung up to cure in the barn.

And, just this week we got the news that our sauerkraut is back in another recipe at Black Dirt restaurant. Chef Jonathan Justus has included it in his classic Rueben sandwich along with beef from our neighbors, Barham Family Farm. We love a good Rueben and the folks at Black Dirt undoubtedly know what they are about!  We are excited to get down there and try it ourselves.

Fair Share Farm CSA---Week 5

BUTTERHEAD LETTUCE: These beauties are the payoff for all worry of a Spring lettuce crop amid hailstorms and more. We are finally into the lettuces that never bore the brunt of the May storms. They don't call them butterhead for nothing.
RED LEAF LETTUCE: Our versatile red leaf is great in a chef's salad piled high with cheese, meat, nuts, fruit, or whatever else you desire.
STRAWBERRIES: As the harvest wains, the berries get smaller. But they are a perfect size to fit into a pint container, giving us pickers satisfaction as we fill the boxes.
GREENS CHOICE: The kale and chard are giving out some leaves and the beets need thinning, so you get a choice.
SPROUTING BROCCOLI: One of our favorite vegetables, we suggest pairing it with one of our ferments or ferment juices to take the flavor up a notch.
GREEN ONIONS: First onions of the year!
PARSLEY: A farm fresh garnish for any dish.

The last two weeks we have been a part of several wonderful culinary events. On the 2^nd we were a part of a Fence Stile Winery Sunday dinner. Chef Pete Dulin prepared some wonderful dishes which included our ingredients. One was a vegetarian adaptation of Thai green papaya salad that included carrot, tomato. long bean, red cabbage, onion, and some pickled lemongrass daikon from Fair Share Farm. It was as delicious as it sounds.

The following Saturday we were a part of Meet the Makers. This was a filmed event by the PBS series TasteMAKERS. We were thrilled to be considered a KC Tastemaker, and enjoyed talking with folks and meeting other local makers.

FARM REPORT: 

It’s winding down now, but the 2019 strawberry crop was epic!! Thank you to all the folks who trekked out to the farm to u-pick berries.  You gave your farmers a weekend free of crawling through the patch, and looked like you had fun doing it. 

That’s CSAers on their farm shifts weeding the garlic Saturday morning, while the u-pickers pulled over 100 pounds out of the patch.

Meanwhile, the weather turned dry.  After all the flooding this Spring, it’s hard to believe.  Our ground has changed from soup to a brick with cracks running through it.  Mulching and watering help tremendously.   

The tomatoes are starting to look pretty perky considering where they were a few weeks ago.  The peppers on the left side of the photo are still a bit off, but are starting to green up. 

We may pick the first squash this week out of this out of this planting.Cucumbers are a couple of weeks away but the plants are improving, so fingers crossed.

Probably the happiest crop on the farm at the moment is the carrots.They are starting to size up and we should have them in the shares next week.It is a testament to the practice of planting a diversity of crops.No matter the weather you will have some that thrive under those conditions and others not so much. Overall, we all still get to eat well.