Monthly Archives: June 2010

In the Share – Week 5

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FORELLENSCHLUSS LETTUCE (F/P) The ‘Troutback’ is a prettily-speckled and melt-in-your-mouth tender romaine.

STRAWBERRIES (F/P) As the patch ages, the berries don’t keep as well. Devour these soon after receiving.
SUGARSNAP PEAS (F/P) The first peas from the half of the patch that survived the spring.
BROCCOLI (F) The broccoli is going quick. This is it’s last performance until it’s grand encore in the fall.
TURNIPS, BEETS OR KOHLRABI (F) Partial shares will get this choice next week.
GREENS CHOICE: (F/P) Swiss Chard, Kale, Bok choi or Tatsoi. Full shares get a choice of two, partial shares one.
SCALLIONS OR ARUGULA (F/P) The only arugula of the season is here now and not again til fall.
HERB CHOICE (F/P) Parsley, Dill, Summer savory or a dried herb. New dried herb packages this week will have bay or chili peppers. Read on Farmer Tom’s post for more info.
ALSO THIS WEEK: Bread of Life Bakery shares
The weather continues to give us lots of opportunities for work. Today we focused our attentions on the spring field. Emily and I tied up cherry tomatoes while Matt mowed and Farmer Tom … took photos (!?!)
The spring field is full and growing fast. We all pitched in to add more hay mulch to the no-till potatoes. Here’s farm apprentice, Matt Maes, showing good form.
So far we continue to find much to do even with ‘Grandpa’ the Tractor still out on service. Farmer Tom will fill you in on that one. Luckily, I suppose, much of our work requires us to walk the fields and tend the crops by hand. In the case of our no-till beds, a bit of stoop labor at the start of the season eliminates weeding time later on. Many crops, like potatoes, prefer the environment that the hay mulch provides and yield much better than in the open ground.

In the Share – Week 4

irrigation, solar power, strawberries

morning harvest

BROCCOLI (F/P) Spring broccoli is never a shoe-in, but this week at least it shines.
LETTUCE (F/P) The heat is getting to our some of our lovelies, but most varieties are staying cool under pressure.
STRAWBERRIES (F/P) from the patch that just keeps on giving.
GARLIC SCAPES (F/P) the flower bud from the hardneck garlic patch. Scapes are incredibly tender and delicate – perfect for Farmer Tom’s Garlic Scape and Strawberry Dressing.
RADISHES (F) The last of the spring crop.
ENDIVE (F/P) Something we are starting to experiment growing more of. A pleasingly bitter salad green. Tom paired it with above dressing – yum. Let us know if we should be growing more of it.
HERB CHOICE (F/P) dill, mint, oregano or dried herb

ALSO THIS WEEK: Parker Farms delivery

NEXT WEEK: maybe the first sugarsnap peas, more broccoli, lettuce and strawberries.

This has been a good week for farming. Plenty of sunshine and the return of the warm air has brought lots of plant growth. The cherry tomatoes have begun developing their first green fruit. While the planting continues, we have caught up on the backlog of plants and seeds that had been delayed by the cool, wet weather of the past 2 weeks.
peppers and tomatoes newly planted
A sign of the change is that we fired up the irrigation system. The submersible pump left it’s winter vacation in the greenhouse for it’s summer job floating in the pond. Some minor repair of the floats was necessary due to our pesky muskrat pond-dwellers, but after short work we floated her out, plugged her into the solar panels and flipped the switch. With water now pumping heartily to the fields all that was left to do was roll out the tape along each row. The farm crew has made short work of that so that now all of our summer crops have had a deep watering and are handling the transplant with grace.
water pumping thanks to the sun

What to Do With Your Share—Week 4

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Quite a mix in this week’s share, from broccoli to strawberries. For most all of the ingredients, I’m sure you know what to do. But sometimes, you just have to listen to the share, and come up with something new.

One option is lettuce wraps. A great recipe from our friend Heather Hands is here. We made some for Sunday brunch that was simply leftover stir-fry with some fresh greenery added. Simple.

Another option is this week’s main recipe. I originally wanted to do a garlic scape dressing, and then thought that a few strawberries might be a good addition. I think it was a good idea.

Garlic Scape and Strawberry Dressing (over Endive)
One of the things that made this especially nice was the homemade yogurt. It is also a great dressing on the endive. You can adjust you dressing proportions to suit your taste.

Ingredients
3 garlic scapes
3 strawberries
1 to 1-1/2 cups plain yogurt
1-1/2 tsp sugar or 2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil

Method
Coarsley chop the garlic scapes and place in a food processor or blender. Chop fine. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
Chop endive coarsley and add dressing to consistency of a light slaw. Let site 5 minutes to 1 hour.

As promised in a recent email, here is a great strawberry jam recipe.

Strawberry Jam
5 lbs strawberries
8 to 10 cups sugar or organic evaporated cane juice

– Clean strawberries, removing leaves and white hulls
– Place berries in 6 to 8 quart pot.
– Crush berries with a potato masher (crush in separate layers)
– Add sugar and cook to boiling, stirring often
– Skim occasionally
– Cook until mixture thickens to desired consistency, about 3 to 4 hours over medium heat
– Fill canning jars and process in boiling water bath for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on your elevation.