Week 4
The beginning of summer was marked on our farm by the appearance of the first ripe Sungold tomato. It will be a while before there are lots of cherry tomatoes, but it is still positive sign. They are in a greenhouse (all our houses are unheated and plants are grown in the ground) which has in past years produced nice tomatoes for us, but you just never know. In my opinion we have to have to grow under plastic. We can't be a competitive farm without greenhouses. We typically get a good round, sometimes a round and a half of early spring crops out of them and then plant them with a summer crop. This is why our tomatoes are staggered. Ideally they would all go in around April 15th or so but on April 15th we still have a lot of spring crops that need the protection and we need to have a consistent supply of spring veggies from the time we begin selling until we start selling field grown spring crops. The houses that got the first round of cukes and tomatoes also get planted with some fall salad and lettuce. Making green house maps/production plans/spread sheets is one of my favorite winter activities. It is always fun to dream of summer.
Lettuce
Carrots
Zucchini
Potatoes - These are the same variety you got last time. Caribe has a purple skin and a white flesh.
Broccoli
Snow Peas
Garlic
Baby Fennel - Large Only
I made one and a half recipes from the cookbook I mentioned last week. One was fantastic. It was a pasta with snap peas. You will have snap peas again in your boxes next week as we are having an incredible pea year. I don't usually cook snap peas but I realize I have been missing out. It really brings out the sweetness in the pod. I won't go into the one that I only managed to make half of it but perhaps I will fully execute it this coming week!
Pasta with Slivered Snap Peas
The recipe calls for a compound butter of black pepper, Parmesan and Romano cheeses. I added all the ingredients of it without making the butter because of time and it turned out great.
Here is a snow pea recipe that I have never made but looked good. You have a generous amount of snow peas in your boxes and I thought you might need a little encouragement.
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Week 3
Last winter I put my name on the wait list at the library for the cookbook Six Seasons. I waited and waited and read some more about what a great book it was and waited a bit longer. Months went by and I slowly moved up the list. I try really hard not to buy cookbooks. I am not against the idea of buying a cookbook, I am just against the idea of finding a spot in my house for another cookbook. I was so sure that I would love it. I ended up buying it and here it is two months later and I have only made one thing out of it. Anyway, my goal for the week is to make at least one dish from it. Hopefully it is a winner and I will give you a link next week. It can be hard when our days are so full to prepare a new dish. Instead we fall back on old favorites. I am sure you can relate. I love Vietnamese Bun, rice noodle dishes with veggies and lots of herbs. I am including a recipe for a shrimp one that is perfect for the warm weather this week. I make the dressing in this recipe, but I use more more rice noodles and typically put carrots in it and this time of year I would add snap peas as well. It is great/better with all the herbs but also good with just cilantro. We do the same dish subbing lemongrass marinated grilled pork chops and that is delicious too. There is also a link below for recipe for Strawberry Horchata. I made that out of the cookbook Nopolito (great and it doesn't have 5000 other people on a list hoping to check it out) in early spring with some of last year's frozen strawberries. I am hoping to make it again this week with fresh berries. It involves a little planning but the active time preparing it is minimal.
Lettuce
Carrots
Beets
Scallions
Snap Peas
Strawberries
Cabbage - Large Only
Additional Item - Large Only I am not sure what this will be...snow peas, baby fennel and zucchinis are all in the running.
Vietnamese Shrimp Bun
Strawberry Horchata
Last winter I put my name on the wait list at the library for the cookbook Six Seasons. I waited and waited and read some more about what a great book it was and waited a bit longer. Months went by and I slowly moved up the list. I try really hard not to buy cookbooks. I am not against the idea of buying a cookbook, I am just against the idea of finding a spot in my house for another cookbook. I was so sure that I would love it. I ended up buying it and here it is two months later and I have only made one thing out of it. Anyway, my goal for the week is to make at least one dish from it. Hopefully it is a winner and I will give you a link next week. It can be hard when our days are so full to prepare a new dish. Instead we fall back on old favorites. I am sure you can relate. I love Vietnamese Bun, rice noodle dishes with veggies and lots of herbs. I am including a recipe for a shrimp one that is perfect for the warm weather this week. I make the dressing in this recipe, but I use more more rice noodles and typically put carrots in it and this time of year I would add snap peas as well. It is great/better with all the herbs but also good with just cilantro. We do the same dish subbing lemongrass marinated grilled pork chops and that is delicious too. There is also a link below for recipe for Strawberry Horchata. I made that out of the cookbook Nopolito (great and it doesn't have 5000 other people on a list hoping to check it out) in early spring with some of last year's frozen strawberries. I am hoping to make it again this week with fresh berries. It involves a little planning but the active time preparing it is minimal.
Lettuce
Carrots
Beets
Scallions
Snap Peas
Strawberries
Cabbage - Large Only
Additional Item - Large Only I am not sure what this will be...snow peas, baby fennel and zucchinis are all in the running.
Vietnamese Shrimp Bun
Strawberry Horchata
Sunday, June 10, 2018
Week 2
We hope you all enjoyed your first week of the farm share. This week's box is filled with lots of spring veggie candy - baby carrots, snap peas and strawberries, oh my.
Friday's rain was much needed and we even fired up the wood stove for what I suspect will be the last time and ate take-out on the couch. It was a very relaxing end to what was a very busy week. It feels pretty good to be on our full summer schedule with the gardens really starting to produce loads of veggies. I am thankful that we have a great crew and even with all the additional harvest last week, we got a lot of weeding and transplanting done as well.
There are lots of good meals to be had in your boxes this week.
Oak Leaf Lettuce - This lettuce has the slippery texture of butter lettuce. Some of you will get the green which is a pretty lime color and others will get the red which is also beautiful with its dark outer leaves and green core.
Carrots
Snap Peas - You can eat the whole thing.
New Potatoes - Super creamy - these will cook more quickly than you are probably use to. Because they have thin skins they need to be eaten soon. They will not store like later season potatoes.
Turnips - This planting got big on us. Don't be afraid of the larger size. They don't get woody or pithy like a radish. They actually get juicier. I like them sliced raw but you can also briefly sautee them or they make a great pickle.
Strawberries - The only thing on the farm that wasn't thrilled with the rain.
Arugula - Large Only
Garlic - Large Only - Basque, our earliest garlic. It is not dried down. We will be digging it tomorrow. It should either be kept out with good air flow on the counter or stored in the fridge.
We hope you all enjoyed your first week of the farm share. This week's box is filled with lots of spring veggie candy - baby carrots, snap peas and strawberries, oh my.
Friday's rain was much needed and we even fired up the wood stove for what I suspect will be the last time and ate take-out on the couch. It was a very relaxing end to what was a very busy week. It feels pretty good to be on our full summer schedule with the gardens really starting to produce loads of veggies. I am thankful that we have a great crew and even with all the additional harvest last week, we got a lot of weeding and transplanting done as well.
There are lots of good meals to be had in your boxes this week.
Oak Leaf Lettuce - This lettuce has the slippery texture of butter lettuce. Some of you will get the green which is a pretty lime color and others will get the red which is also beautiful with its dark outer leaves and green core.
Carrots
Snap Peas - You can eat the whole thing.
New Potatoes - Super creamy - these will cook more quickly than you are probably use to. Because they have thin skins they need to be eaten soon. They will not store like later season potatoes.
Turnips - This planting got big on us. Don't be afraid of the larger size. They don't get woody or pithy like a radish. They actually get juicier. I like them sliced raw but you can also briefly sautee them or they make a great pickle.
Strawberries - The only thing on the farm that wasn't thrilled with the rain.
Arugula - Large Only
Garlic - Large Only - Basque, our earliest garlic. It is not dried down. We will be digging it tomorrow. It should either be kept out with good air flow on the counter or stored in the fridge.
Sunday, June 3, 2018
Week 1
Talk to me for 10 minutes and I think my motivation for farming is fairly obvious - I love food. I love reading about, talking about it, preparing it and just simply admiring it. Yesterday Kelly had some new potatoes at Oly market. The only thing more special to me than a new potato is a perfect pink tomato. We don't usually have new potatoes this early. We took a day trip to Ellensburg at the end of February to pick up some potato seed and got them in the ground in early March. I was pretty excited to dig and eat them, but I don't think most of the people who bought them understood they were special. One person who did was Mike, the chef from Our Table, who now has a food cart at the market. Around 11am I received a text from Kelly with a picture of a beautiful salad that featured sliced early tomatoes from Humble Stump's heated greenhouse, sliced apricots from Eastern Washington, mint, cucumbers and raw new potatoes from us. It was so beautiful. We don't focus on selling to restaurants, but working with Mike is great. He also loves food and we love having food vendor at market who uses so much local produce. His food cart is worth going to the market for even if you need nothing else.
This is a busy couple weeks for us. In addition to the CSA, the Chehalis market starts on Tuesday. Fingers crossed, peas and field carrots will be ready for harvest at the end of the week (and in your boxes next week). The Wednesday stand will start next week. Those of you who pick up on Wednesday will not see our yellow sign at the end of the road this week, but we will be at the farm with your CSA boxes.
The picking will be slim on the trade table - mostly just more of what is in your boxes. Variety is pretty limited at the moment but more selection is just around the corner.
Red Leaf Lettuce - BIG! This is the best time of year for growing lettuce. The heads are large, beautiful and also tender and sweet. The variety you are getting is also the one we grow for the Olympia Food Co-op. It is the one lettuce that I feel always (well almost, there is no always in farming unless you include that something will always have a bad year at some point) does well for us.
Cucumber - These are out of an unheated greenhouse. Cukes are another much awaited item and I love that we have them super early. I came across a recipe for a brown rice salad with cucumbers and avocado this winter which looked great and I moved the piece of paper with the recipe on it around a 100 times waiting for cucumbers to be ready before I had a chance to make it last week. It was easy and great - the peanuts and lime zest really made it for me.
Radishes
Curly Kale - This is a variety we haven't grown in several years. At some point two kinds of kale seemed to be enough and we dropped curly kale, but enough customers have asked about it that it seemed like it was time to grow it again.
Cabbage - Another veggie I am excited to eat in the spring.
Cilantro/Herb Choice
Garlic Scapes - If you aren't familiar with these they might look intimidating,but they are easy to use. They can be grilled or broiled whole, made into pesto, compound butter, chopped and used like garlic. Raw they have a strong garlic flavor but cooked they are more mild than a head of garlic.
Salad Mix - Large Only
Talk to me for 10 minutes and I think my motivation for farming is fairly obvious - I love food. I love reading about, talking about it, preparing it and just simply admiring it. Yesterday Kelly had some new potatoes at Oly market. The only thing more special to me than a new potato is a perfect pink tomato. We don't usually have new potatoes this early. We took a day trip to Ellensburg at the end of February to pick up some potato seed and got them in the ground in early March. I was pretty excited to dig and eat them, but I don't think most of the people who bought them understood they were special. One person who did was Mike, the chef from Our Table, who now has a food cart at the market. Around 11am I received a text from Kelly with a picture of a beautiful salad that featured sliced early tomatoes from Humble Stump's heated greenhouse, sliced apricots from Eastern Washington, mint, cucumbers and raw new potatoes from us. It was so beautiful. We don't focus on selling to restaurants, but working with Mike is great. He also loves food and we love having food vendor at market who uses so much local produce. His food cart is worth going to the market for even if you need nothing else.
This is a busy couple weeks for us. In addition to the CSA, the Chehalis market starts on Tuesday. Fingers crossed, peas and field carrots will be ready for harvest at the end of the week (and in your boxes next week). The Wednesday stand will start next week. Those of you who pick up on Wednesday will not see our yellow sign at the end of the road this week, but we will be at the farm with your CSA boxes.
The picking will be slim on the trade table - mostly just more of what is in your boxes. Variety is pretty limited at the moment but more selection is just around the corner.
Red Leaf Lettuce - BIG! This is the best time of year for growing lettuce. The heads are large, beautiful and also tender and sweet. The variety you are getting is also the one we grow for the Olympia Food Co-op. It is the one lettuce that I feel always (well almost, there is no always in farming unless you include that something will always have a bad year at some point) does well for us.
Cucumber - These are out of an unheated greenhouse. Cukes are another much awaited item and I love that we have them super early. I came across a recipe for a brown rice salad with cucumbers and avocado this winter which looked great and I moved the piece of paper with the recipe on it around a 100 times waiting for cucumbers to be ready before I had a chance to make it last week. It was easy and great - the peanuts and lime zest really made it for me.
Radishes
Curly Kale - This is a variety we haven't grown in several years. At some point two kinds of kale seemed to be enough and we dropped curly kale, but enough customers have asked about it that it seemed like it was time to grow it again.
Cabbage - Another veggie I am excited to eat in the spring.
Cilantro/Herb Choice
Garlic Scapes - If you aren't familiar with these they might look intimidating,but they are easy to use. They can be grilled or broiled whole, made into pesto, compound butter, chopped and used like garlic. Raw they have a strong garlic flavor but cooked they are more mild than a head of garlic.
Salad Mix - Large Only
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