Wednesday, June 24, 2015

June 24 or 27


Harvest of the storage onions has begun
Small boxes:  1 pound green beans, 1 head of purple cabbage, 1 bunch of sweet onions, 1 pound of zucchini, 2 cucumbers, 1 pound of white carrots, 1 head of celery.
Regular boxes:  all the above and 1 pint of blueberries, 1 head of romaine, 1 bunch of parsley, 2 fennel bulbs, 2 white cucumbers.

Storage:  everything will keep best in refrigeration.  Celery needs to be wrapped in a damp cloth or kept in a bag with the air squeezed out.

The celery is different than what you buy in the store.  It is more flavorful and much smaller.  A little bit goes a long way.  Use the leaves as well as the stalk.  It is great added to potato salad, egg salad, pasta sauce, soup. 
The white carrots were harvested yesterday.  We cut the tops because the greens aren't very pretty now.  Use the same as you use orange carrots.
The sweet onions are very mild.  I think they are best used raw in salads.  We've been eating a lot of coleslaw made with purple cabbage and sweet onions.  Delicious!
Loading the onions into the barn loft

Paul in motion

The onions will sit with a fan blowing on them for a few weeks and then we'll cut the tops off and begin eating them.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

June17 or 20

Small boxes:  2 green cucumbers, 1 yellow cucumber, 1/2 pound spinach, 1 bunch of red scallions, 2 fennel bulbs, 1 bunch of basil, 1 pound patty pan squash, 1 pound new potatoes.
Regular boxes:  4 green cucumbers, 3 yellow cucumbers, 1 head of red butterhead lettuce, 1 head of treviso radicchio, 1 bunch of red scallions, 2 fennel bulbs, 1 bunch of basil, 1 pound of patty pan squash, 1 pound of zucchini, 1 pound of cauliflower, 2 1/2 pound new potatoes.


 Storage:  all the vegetables this week need to be kept in the refrigerator drawers.  We did not wash the basil because it tends to turn black under refrigeration when wet.  I suggest washing it, letting it drip dry awhile and storing in a paper bag or towel in the fridge.

Zucchini

Fennel and Potato Gratin
(from Farmer John's cookbook) serves 4 to 6
butter for greasing the baking dish
2 small fennel bulbs, cut crosswise into 1/8 inch thick slices
2 cups thinly sliced potatoes
salt and pepper
2 cups half- and -half
2 T butter
1. preheat oven to 350 F.  Lightly coat a shallow 2 quart baking dish with butter.
2. cover bottom of dish with a layer of fennel slices.  cover with half the potato slices.  sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.  repeat with layers until all slices are used.
3.  bring half-and-half to a gentle boil over medium-high heat.  pour over fennel and potatoes.
4.  press down on top layer until submerged.  dot with butter.  bake until potatoes are tender and top is golden, about 1 hour.

The potato digger in action

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

June 10 or 13


Freshly harvested onions heading back to wash shed to be cleaned
Small Boxes:  1 bunch of purple carrots, 1 large red beet, 1 head of romaine, 1 bunch of swiss chard, 1 green garlic, 1 bunch of cipollini onions, 1 pint of snow peas, 2 zucchini and 2 yellow squash.
Regular Boxes:  1 bunch of purple carrots, 2 large beets, 1 head of romaine, 1 bunch of swiss chard, 1 green garlic, 1 bunch of sweet onions, 2 pints of snow peas, 1 red cabbage, 1 bunch of komatsuna, 2 zucchini and 2 yellow squash.

Storage:
carrots and beets:  cut tops off and keep in a cloth or plastic bag in refrigerator drawer.  (use tops in a soup stock or compost)
onions, romaine, komatsuna and chard:  store in a cloth or plastic bag with the air squeezed out in fridge drawer.
snow peas:  eat right away or keep in a bag.  (they will become less crisp in storage but are still good to eat!)
garlic:  use this week.  fresh garlic doesn't keep well.  we keep it in our fridge just on the shelf but you may want to enclose it to keep it from flavoring everything in the fridge.
cabbage:  store in drawer of fridge uncovered.
squash:  in fridge drawer uncovered or in cloth or paper bag.  (plastic will make them rot sooner)

Purple carrots!  Their flavor is strong and less sweet when eaten raw.  Roasted, they become much sweeter.

The beets are giant but still very good.  I cut ours in quarters and boiled until tender, slipped the skin off with my fingers, dressed with a little bit of red wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and added to a lettuce salad.

Swiss chard is good all the way spinach is good (they are family members).  I like to add it to pasta while the pasta is still warm enough to wilt it and then add sauce.

Cipollini onions are on the sweet side of the onion spectrum.  Use them fresh or in cooking.

I love to stir fry snow peas with fresh garlic, salt and pepper and eat by themselves.

The small boxes all have 1 dark green zucchini and 1 lighter green with ribs.  The lighter one is an heirloom variety with a great, nutty flavor.  All the zucchini and squash are good sauteed with garlic, onion, salt and pepper.

Komatsuna is an Asian green, similar to tatsoi and bok choi in flavor.  It is good lightly sauteed.  It would be good with the snow peas.

There is a Carolina Wren nesting in a box on a high shelf in our wash shed.  I peeked in the nest weeks ago and saw that it was lined with a shed snake skin.  The eggs have just hatched and all day yesterday while we cleaned vegetables we saw the parents coming with spiders, worms, beetles to feed the babies.  It was cool!



Directions for transplanting the winter squash

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

June! 3 or 6

Small boxes:  1 head of napa cabbage, 1 head of green bibb lettuce, 1 bunch of scallions, 1 bunch of garlic scapes, 1 head of frisee, 1 kohlrabi, 1 bunch of dill, 1 # of corn grits!
Regular boxes:  1 bunch of carrots, 1 # of sugar snap peas, 1# of small zephyr squash, all the same stuff in the small boxes except napa cabbage.

Grits! grits! grits!  We hope you are as excited about the grits as we are!  This a dream realized that we can put them in your box.  We grew this corn, a strain of "Trucker's Favorite", last summer, dried it in our greenhouse for the fall, and traded half of it with Farm and Sparrow Bakery so that they would mill the other half for us to put in CSA boxes!  It needs to be stored in your freezer and the sooner you use it, the more of a treat it is.  Freshly milled grain is more flavorful.  The proportions for grits are 4 to 1 water to grits. 

Kohlrabi Slaw
1/2 half a napa cabbage, cut into thin strips
1 kohlrabi, peeled and shredded
2 scallions, green part too, cut in thin rounds
1 bunch of dill, chopped small
juice of 1/2 lemon
1-3 T of mayonnaise
1/2 - 1 T mustard
salt and pepper to taste

If you make this an hour or 2 in advance, it is more flavorful

Napa cabbage is also good as a cooked green.  We like it sauteed with onions and garlic and white beans and served with crushed red pepper and romano cheese on top.

Garlic Scapes:
We are at the point in the season where we need to remove all the remaining garlic scapes from the plants in a day.  It is more than we know what to do with.  We extend the invitation to you to try pickling some.  If you're interested, let us know by email or at market how many you want and we'll give them to you!

Kohlrabi in the field