Category Archives: hakurei turnip

In the Share: Week 5

csa harvest, hakurei turnip, swiss chard

HAKUREI TURNIPS F/P  If you don’t know what these are, prepared to be pleasantly suprised.  Eat them raw like an apple or slice and lightly salt for snacking.  The greens are nice too.

RED LEAF LETTUCE F/P  Depite the heat, the red leaf lettuce is going strong.

BUTTERHEAD OR ROMAINE LETTUCE F  Wednesday shares get a choice of butterheads and romaines.  By Saturday and Monday distributions, it will be all romaine.  So long, butterhead, until fall.

BROCCOLI F/P  Nice heads from the last plants to mature in the patch.  We’ll bring the broccoli back in the fall too.

SUGARSNAP PEAS F/P  Oh boy, we hope some of you are coming to help us pick in the morning.  The pea fences are loaded with fruit.  To eat: pinch the top, pull off the string and pop it in your mouth!

SNOW PEAS F  More will be coming to the partials next week.  Good for raw eating or stir frying.

HERB CHOICE F/P  Cilantro, dill or parsley

BEETS W/GREENS F  The first harvest.  The greens are in nice shape too.

BOK CHOY OR CHARD P  The last of the Asian greens are coming in from the field this week.

TAT SOI OR KALE F  The chard and kale should continue in the shares through June.

NEXT WEEK:  Lettuce, greens, roots, peas, turnips and cabbage.

FARM REPORT:
Wow!  What beautiful farming weather we have had this Spring!  Lots of sunshine, moderate temperatures and (dare I say it) rain just when we need it.  I feel like I am tempting fate, but those who lived through 2015 with the farm can’t help but celebrate.  For those who weren’t in the CSA last year (or for those who enjoy re-living miserable events!) go here to the blog from a year ago this week to get some perspective on the awesome-ness that is Spring 2016.

Mostly, the crops are enjoying the conditions as much as the farmers.  The greens have been especially nice.

turnip tops and chard looking radiant

The CSA harvesters have it good too.  We’ve had mostly blue sky and sunshine for the Wednesday and Saturday mornings during the farm shifts.

CSA harvesters picking chard on Saturday

One season down, another coming right behind it.  The summer crops are filling the far field and getting established in their new homes.  1200 sweet potatoes were planted yesterday.  We are starting to irrigate now with the normal (not 2015!) decrease in rain as summer approaches.  Here’s hoping for as nice of a Summer as we have had a Spring!

In the Share – Week 15

carrots, hakurei turnip, late summer, lettuce, peppers

colorful carrots

TOMATOES (F/P) Everyone will either get a few slicers or a quart of cherry tomatoes. The slicers are ripening slowly so give them a few days on your counter before attempting to eat them.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH (F/P) Yes, it is a bit out of season but we have no choice. The pests killed off the plants before the fruit fully ripened. They are still good, but they won’t keep long. See Tom’s post for a recipe.

COLORFUL CARROTS (F/P) We finished the harvest of the spring plantings. The carrots are quite crisp and tender despite the arid weather.  We  are looking forward to having them in the shares for several weeks now.

RED ONIONS (F/P)  everyone gets a quart.

SWEET PEPPERS (F) I like to eat the small ones for a snack. The red-horn shaped ones are especially sweet.

HOT PEPPERS, OKRA OR SALSA PACK (F) Take your pick. We are hopeful that the okra will kick in as it usually does in August. So far it has been shy about giving up its fruit.

HERB CHOICE (F/P) Basil, sage or a dried herb.

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, carrots, peppers and okra. Potatoes, garlic and beets return.

FARM REPORT:

In a little under 48 hours the air shifted from sultry heat to cool and almost coastal. The farm crew had to dig to the bottom of their closets to find long pants and sweatshirts for the dewy mornings. Despite almost constant clouds, only a few drizzles have fallen since the “hallelujah” rain of 0.8 inch rain last week (see Tom’s post from then for the beautiful weather that brought the rain to us). With the doubling of our so lar power last year (thank you, federal stimulus!) the panels generate about 400 watts of energy with full cl oud cover. That is at half-strength, but still enough to water a big block of crops. We are already seeing the response of the plants to the decrease in temperatures. Finally after many weeks of worrying over the pole beans, they are beginning to set fruit. Young, green fruit cover many of the pepper and tomato plants.

More fall crops went in the ground this week: lettuce, bulb fennel and more cauliflower.

 We have also been seeding all of the fall roots and greens. Many are up and looking good.

We expect the shares to be light for a few weeks, until the fall roots and greens are ready. We have some room for a light week or two thanks to a warm spring that allowed us to sta rt the CSA season a week early. So, we hope you enjoy the offerings from the tough-as-nails plants that survived Summer 2012. We figure by the middle of September we will be reaping the harvest in the form of lettuce salads and freshly dug turnips.

What to Do With Your Share—Week 3

hakurei turnip, lettuce, strawberries

The Spring lettuces just keep coming this week. You hear some folks say that you can’t grow respectable food using organic methods, but as the leafy greens in your shares have shown they are one crop that grows great, given the weather isn’t too extreme (like the last 7 days).

Being farmers living close to the fields, we get our choice of the extra and less than perfect lettuces. That means we can cut ourselves a couple Regina di Maggio butterheads for a lettuce heart salad this time of year. The center of these lettuces live up to their designation of butteriness (if that’s a word). They are so tender and delicious that they deserve to be a salad all to themselves. They are a five-star treat.

To compliment this salad we recommend the creamy garlic dressing below. You can use green garlic, garlic scapes or bulb garlic for the recipe. This time of year, of course, the fresh garlic choices are the best. Not much else is needed but lettuce hearts and a garnish.

This dressing is bold enough for romaine hearts too. We have lots of large romaines growing right now and you can expect to see a lot of them. Use the outer leaves to top a sandwich, burger or BLT and use the hearts for a nice Caesar salad.

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

Ingredients
1 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).

Strawberries
We have to report that year’s strawberry season is getting off to a tough start. It appears we suffered significant frost damage from the early-May cold spell, and may have other, yet to be determined problems. Of the two patches, the patch planted last year is doing the best. We will be talking to Extension to see what their opinion is. We hope that we will grow out of this slump.

The berries you receive might not have the shine and firmness that you are used to, but based on many samples, we feel that they are flavorful and should be handed out. We encourage you to use them soon, as they are a delicate fruit.

Hakurei Turnips
Everyone likes to be original, so most of our recipes are born of what is at hand and our creative hunger. But the more we search the web for recipes, the more we see that the aptitude of folks to cook fresh vegetables in imaginative ways is growing in leaps and bounds. I realized this as I searched for Hakurei turnip recipes the other day.

We have had an excellent harvest of Hakurei’s this Spring, and hope to have them in your share for a couple weeks. We don’t want to load you with a particular veggie without some cooking suggestions, so I searched for Hakurei turnip recipes, and found a slew of options. The curried Hakurei’s on The Veggie Project blog caught my eye.

The blog is posted as “a group of Boston-area families committed to cooking with local vegetables. During the summer of 2008, we each plan to try new vegetarian recipes with produce from local farms. We will use this blog to share information about the recipes we have cooked, and hope to inspire others to cook more locally.”

Curried Hakurei Turnips
Ingredients
1 chopped onion (you can substitute green onions or green garlic)
2 tablespoons oil
5 or 6 harkurei, sliced thin
2 teaspoons curry powder (makes a hot dish)
1 teaspoon salt
one lemon, cut into wedges

Method
Sauté the onion in the oil for a few minutes until translucent. Add the turnips, the curry powder and salt and cook until everything is tender. Squeeze some lemon juice over the dish before serving and serve with extra lemon wedges.—We used lime. This is an excellent combination of turnips and onions.