Week 15

On Sunday nights do ever find it hard to believe that tomorrow is Monday again?  Wasn't it just Monday?  For us, and I imagine for many of you, it means that some of the things you had hoped to get done will have to wait until next Sunday.  I am a little behind getting food put up.  Last Sunday we did tomatoes, roasted and raw peppers and basil.  I had hoped to do more tomatoes and apple sauce today but I spent too much time hanging out with the piglets we picked up last Wednesday.  They are spotted, floppy eared, snorting little guys who love melons.   I can't help but check on them…a lot.  I also got the greenhouse ready for arugula, salad and bok choy transplants.  We are just about done transplanting.  Our last remaining flats to go out in the field are kale that we are planting to harvest raab off of next spring.  It will go out this week and the greenhouse should be filled by the end of next week.  Kelly did a bunch of tractor work and it feels so good to see some of the fields that we were done harvesting out of get mowed and disked.  Our dry beans are about ready to come out and so is the squash.  You can only fight the change of seasons for so long.

We hope to have corn in the boxes next week along with cauliflower.

Sweet Peppers
Lettuce
Japanese Cuke
Green Beans
Slicing Tomatoes
Sweet Onion
Melon
Eggplant - Small Only
Cherry Tomatoes - Large Only
Kohlrabi - Large Only
Yu Choy Sum or Shungiku - Add on Veggie Only - You will get one this week and the other next week.

Yu Choy Sum is an asian green in the same family as kale, cabbage, bok choy, etc.  It is mild - not a bit of bitterness.  I knew I would like it because I like greens but it isn't just a green for green lovers.  It is mild enough to please everyone.  I made Choy Sum with Garlic Sauce.  It was quick and easy and yummy…less than 10 minutes start to finish.

Shungiku or Chrysanthemum Leaves - These are used in many Japanese dishes including shabu shabu, sukiyaki and tempura.  In china the leaves and flowers are used in soups.  They have a distinct flavor and are very aromatic.  We grew a small patch of them last year.  I used them in salads and in chicken broth.  A customer used them to make gomae and brought me some.  The simplest recipe I found here, however in the version I had the sesame seeds were ground into a paste.  There are many recipes for gomae on the internet with lots of different vegetables.  The seeds are traditionally ground with a mortar and pestle but a coffee grinder works great too.  Chrysanthemum cooks very quickly.   You only need to blanch it for a minute.  The raw leaves can be added to salads.