Week 4

How does that heat feel?  Yikes.

Your box has some summer in it today.  We thought cabbage and potatoes both seemed like good July 4th food (cole slaw, potato salad).  New potatoes are always a special treat for us.  Many people have come to associate new potatoes with the small red potatoes in the grocery store but a real new potato is a freshly dug immature potato.  Size is irrelevant although there will always be more small potatoes than big ones in the potato hills this time of year.  The skin should be so thin you easily rub it off with you thumb.  They should be creamy and extra yummy.

Have a wonderful 4th of July.

Head Lettuce
Carrots
Green Cabbage
New Potatoes
Basil
Summer Squash
Cilantro - Large Only
Snow Peas - Large Only

New Potatoes

We always eat our first potatoes of the year the same way.  Some of your potatoes might be big enough that you want to quarter them although I do this with larger new potatoes too.

Slice the potatoes in half and steam until just tender.  Pull them out of the steamer and allow the potatoes to dry a little.  Heat a generous amount of oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.  Place the potatoes cut side down and cook until they are crispy.  If the heat is too high they will brown without getting a nice crust on them.  I usually salt and pepper them twice, once while cooking and once after I remove them from the pan.

Week 3

When we bought our house last fall one of the first things we noticed was that the pasture was over grazed.  We thought it would be good to see how the ground handled the the winter, get a good feel for where the wet areas were and then just let it rest for a season while we put some thought into the best way to use our new land. Well as it turns out that was a very, very bad idea for two people with horrible grass and weed allergies!  This afternoon (Sunday) when it started to rain I headed inside to do some paperwork and Kelly popped a couple benadryl and hopped on the tractor to mow.  Who mows when it is raining?  People with allergies that is who!  The good thing is we are beginning to have a vision for the land.  We bought some piglets a couple weeks ago, have chickens for meat arriving soon and hope to plow a small amount of land in the fall and begin to transition some of the tired pasture into veggie ground.  It will be a process but we look forward to the change and the reduced pollen count!

The strawberries are fading but Kelly said he ate so many raspberries this morning it filled him up.  I think that means you can expect to see some raspberries in your box soon along with new potatoes.

In your box this week:

Carrots
Salad Mix - After having a difficult salad year last year we decided to try something new this year.  Some of you will have our traditional salad mix and others will have some of the new experimental mix.
Broccoli
Scallions
Strawberries
Dill 
Snap Peas 
Head Lettuce - Large Only
Pac Choi - Large Only - We seeded this choi too close together.  Instead of a nice compact vase shape it is a bit leggy but it still tastes great.

Hope you all are enjoying the rain.

Have a great week.

Week 2

We hope everyone enjoyed the first week of the farm share.   Yesterday I realized that our fields on Shincke Road are almost full.  The only empty spot is a field we plowed in the spring for fall carrots and a small piece of ground we are leaving fallow for the year.

We pulled the white floating row cover we use(sometimes for pest protection, sometimes for weather protection) off the tomatoes and the summer squash last week.  Those things both look great.  The tomatoes are still a ways out but we should be harvesting summer squash soon.

We have peas and strawberries again this week and everybody's favorite (or least favorite) vegetable - beets!  Have a great week.


Carrots
Romaine Lettuce
Snap Peas
Strawberries
Beets
Cilantro
Radishes
Kale - Large Only

Eat well!

Week 1

How did we end up being farmers?  Why do we farm?  These are questions we are often asked but rarely have a good answer for because it can be hard to put into words.  Yesterday my response was that I don't have a good short answer followed by awkward silence(I was really tired).  Fortunately Kelly chimed in to say we both love food and that is what brought us both to farming.  Obviously we both continue to do it because we like it and enjoy working together. There are many small things that bring me joy in the garden.  Few things make me happier in the spring than a beautiful bed of butter lettuce.  Besides being gorgeous to look at they are tasty.  We had some great lettuce wraps last week and last night we had some of the tender inner leaves with just a little oil, vinegar and pepper.  I don't expect you to get as excited about the vegetables as I do nor do I expect you to spend hours day dreaming about them the way I do.   That said, I do hope that you will occasionally find yourself admiring how beautiful something in your box is or find yourself eating an entire pint of cherry tomatoes in the car on the way home because they are just so dang good.  We are excited to have many you back for another year and are also looking forward to seeing some new faces on Mondays as well.

Have a great week.

Butter Lettuce - Red or Green- Great for lettuce wraps along with sliced snap peas, summer turnips and carrots.
Summer Turnips - I know some of you are really excited about these!
Garlic Scapes - These have a mild garlic flavor.  They can be minced and used as seasoning or eaten on their own.  Cooking them will really mellow their flavor.
Snap Peas - Today will be our first picking of the season!
Spinach 
Carrots
Strawberries
Rhubarb - Large Only - This is the first year we have had rhubarb when we have strawberries.
Salad Mix- Large Only

Garlic Scape Recipe

Roasted Garlic Scapes

These can also be done on the grill.  I managed to burn the outsides without cooking the insides the other night so I am back to roasting!

You don't usually eat the bulbous part but I think it looks neat so I just leave them on when I cook them.  If the bottoms (the other end) of your scapes seem a little tough you can trim them like you would asparagus.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Toss your scapes in a bowl,  drizzle with oil and add some salt and pepper.
Spread on a cookies sheet.  Move them around/ turn after they start to soften and cook until they have a bit of brown on them and are tender.