Week 5

You have something in your box that is a bit unusual for this time of year - baby beet greens.  Because our seeder drops too many beet seeds per inch we thin every planting of beets we sow.  In order to get them to size up into nice round beets we go through and pull seedlings so that we can fit three fingers between each plant.  In the spring, with the first planting, we will bunch and sell some of the baby greens.  They are delicious. They also are a bit nostalgic for us.  When we lived in Maine they were everywhere in the spring and they were something many Mainers seemed to love.  At market there would be big wooden boxes filled with a mess of tangled greens.  We insist on sizing and bunching them because we can't help ourselves.

We realized last night that about 10 years ago Kelly and I went on our first date.  We grabbed a sandwich from the Belfast, Maine Co-op and ate on the rocks by the water after market.  I am sure you can all relate to the feeling of things seeming like they weren't that long ago.  I must have thought about it three times…could it really be 10 years.  We will be joining you in eating beet greens this week and we will make a toast to the place where we met and that we both have such a fondness for.

Typically we only sell greens from the first planting because we don't have a lot of other variety and we have the time to mess with them but we have a planting of beets at the moment that needs to be thinned and Kelly thinks the greens look awesome.  We are going to take some extra time tomorrow and clean and bunch them for your boxes.  They are a little milder than full sized beet green and if you like beet flavor you can leave the little root on depending on how large it is.  If it is very tiny we just cut the tap root off and then chop up and saute the whole thing at once.  If the beets are a touch larger I will separate them from the green and saute them for a few minutes before I add the greens.   Before you cook them they should be swished around in a big bowl of water to remove any dirt.

We got all the squash uncovered that I mentioned last week.  The stuff on South Bay was removed at the perfect time and looks great.  The squash that was planted the same week but at some land we lease off of 46th was a bit large and the plants came tumbling out when we removed the row cover.  They will be fine but they look a little stressed out.  I am not sure why they are bigger.  Typically I think of that field being a little behind our others.  It doesn't get as much sun and the soil is heavier.  Perhaps those conditions were actually favorable with our hot, dry spring.

Hope you all had a nice 4th of July and have found the elusive secret perfect swimming hole that no one else knows about!

Carrots
Lettuce
Garlic
Scallion
Beet Greens
Broccoli
New Potatoes
Basil - Large Only
Raspberries - Large Only