Spring has felt like it has gone on awhile this year. It is only now really warming up to a point where you break a sweat. With the nighttime temps creeping up to 70, the summer plants are ready to start growing.

Meanwhile we are in the heart of one of our more luscious May’s. The word “greens” is used a lot to talk about the shares, and here in our household we have been taking advantage of the savory dishes we can make with them.




A head of lettuce

While greens on their own with only a little oil, salt and pepper can be quite satisfying, it is when you add some umami that things kick up a notch. This flavor sensation can be added with ingredients such as mushrooms, bacon, fish sauce, seafood, fermented vegetables, toasted nuts, balsamic vinegar, cheese, and more.

My goal today was to make a wilted lettuce salad out of the biggest head of red leaf lettuce that we picked today. Well it turns out that our frying pan was filled before I cleaned the whole head. It tasted great, and a couple of helpings later and the whole thing was gone. It is a great way to eat up your lettuce.

I used the wilted lettuce salad recipe from our June 11, 2013 blog with a few modifications—I used bok choi instead of hakurei turnips, and I only cooked the lettuce on high for 30 seconds and then let it wilt in the hot pan for a few minutes.

Grandpa the tractor with our Tortella spader.

Meanwhile, out in the fields we continue on with the SARE cover crop project. One of our test blocks is shown below. In the right half of the bed we rolled down/crushed the cover crop (rye/vetch) to form a mulch. On the left we mowed and spaded in the crop to incorporate it into the soil. The rye grass did not germinate well and our crop is mainly vetch this year. Lower in biomass but high in nitrogen content. 



SARE cover crop test plot

Things are growing fast out here. The alliums are plumping up, greens are peaking, and the first fruits of the season are here. We like what we see out there right now, and are enjoying the nice harvest.

For the next several weeks it will be stir-fry season. The Asian greens are quite happy with the weather and have sized up as well as they can during spring. So this time of year we like to link you to Twenty Tips for Stir-frying by Rhonda Parkinson. Another suggestion is Stir Fry Soup from our blog five years ago.

Bok choi

Tonight at dinner we made a fried rice with egg and vegetables.  Regularly having cooked rice in the fridge, a boatload of vegetables, and fresh eggs at hand makes this a go-to meal. We cook the veggies first, add several eggs to the middle of the wok to scramble, throw in some rice, stir it together. and cook until the rice crisps up a bit. A hearty meal.

On the way to making fried rice with egg and vegetables

Our recipe above is a little ahead of the harvest curve, with some hakurei turnips and gailan, but it can be made with most any of the roots and greens you have in our share. Short on fresh ginger, we even used crystallized ginger for flavor. What doesn’t get eaten tonight is perfect for lunch.

The CSA season is here, so welcome to week 1. We have been gearing up for this day since the first seeds were planted in the greenhouse back in February. It is time to start harvesting.

We do our best to give you crops are at their peak, and the lettuce could not be better. It is only so often during the year when this salad green is so tender and crisp at the same time. In last week’s blog I recommended focusing on making some good salad dressing for the next month.

If you check out our group page, you find another suggestion, lettuce wraps. Stacy Cook revived a link to our friend Heather Hands’ blog of 2009. The butterhead leaves are especially suitable as wrappers or scoops. You can make whatever filling suits your desires.

The spring herbs are in peak form too. We moved the mint out of the field beds and into our home herb garden. The area they are thriving in has been a repository for greenhouse compost the last 10 years. The mint is the happiest we have ever seen it and the sprigs are first cuttings and fragrant. The chive flowers are at their edible best, with just a little crunch. The slight anise taste of tarragon goes well with fish, chicken, in a salad dressing, or to garnish a slaw.

One item new to our share list this year is field pea shoots. These greens are actually one of our cover crops, and we feel they represent a way to make an important connection between you and our soil.

One of the premises of our farming method is “you are what you eat, so you are what your plants eat.” We feed our vegetables field peas by growing them, turning them into the soil, and letting the life in the soil digest them and release nutrients to the plant.

When we eat pea shoots the same thing happens. Bacteria in our digestive system break the pea shoots down so our body can utilize their nutritional content. It reminds us that our life is reliant on a host of other living things to perform that most important task of eating. It also reminds us that we must treat agriculture as a biological process, and not a chemical one.

The pea shoots are a sweet green for any type of salad. We chop them and use them as an ingredient in just about any type of fresh salad we make.

Things are shifting gears here on the farm. The high tunnel season is over and the field is starting to show its stuff. We are really enjoying the fresh lettuce and other goodness in the share.

And a good lettuce deserves good accompaniments. A creamy, fresh dressing is an excellent match for the butterheads in this week’s share. Their season can be short, so we eat it as much as we can right now.

Our suggestion is to stock the fridge and cupboard with staples like plain yogurt, mayo, eggs, tahini, EV olive oil, citrus, and your favorite vinegars. If you do you can use fresh seasonings from the share like green garlic, chives, dill or cilantro to keep things local in making your dressing.

Butterhead Lettuce Heart Salad with Creamy Garlic Dressing
(dressing modified from The Silver Palate Cookbook)

Ingredients1 egg yolk
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp sugar or honey
1/4 cup chopped green garlic or garlic scapes
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup best-quality olive oil

Method
1. Take outer leaves off lettuce head (save them for another salad or sandwiches) until you are left with the tender heart. You may want 2 lettuce heads per salad. Wash, dry in a salad spinner, and place in salad bowl or individual bowls.
2. Combine egg yolk, vinegar, sugar, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process briefly.
3. With the motor running, slowly dribble in the olive oil.
4. Taste, correct seasoning if necessary, and transfer to storage/serving container.
5. Top salad with the dressing and garnish of choice (we used roasted pumpkin seeds

In the near future we hope to see this recipe be able to include fresh strawberries. We have two patches this year and look forward to the chance to have a good harvest in late-May.

Finally, a little note on the late Rocky. Since he passed in late July we have been taking different opportunities to scatter his ashes on the farm. We reserved some for remembrance and found a beautiful receptacle in a carved Peruvian gourd. Thanks to my sister Cathy for the gift.