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.