Week 6

I saw my friend Melissa at Newaukum Valley Farm posted a picture of their first ripe slicing tomato and I also noticed that Puddleton Farm is selling tomatoes to the Co-op.  Dang, I am jealous.  I spent way too much time yesterday looking for a tomato at our place.  We have a few handfuls of ripe cherries and few big tomatoes that are blushing.  The good news is we have tomato ripening weather forecasted for the week.  Hopefully there is a tomato sandwich in all our futures soon.

I am including a recipe for swiss chard fritters from the cookbook Jerusalum.  I don't often make it to the library in the summer but since I had been on the waiting list for the book for a couple months I made an exception.  It is a beautiful cookbook and I loved the stuff I made out it.  We had the fritters with some home made falafel and grilled zucchini a couple weeks ago.  I told Kelly that I had finally found a way to love swiss chard and he told me not to fool myself.  He responded that what I really like is feta cheese.  Perhaps, but I do think I made a discovery.  The recipe has you boil the chard and while I don't normally boil vegetables it made the chard a lot milder and more spinach like which I preferred.

One thing you will notice you don't have in your box is garlic and unfortunately you will be noticing that all season.  We lost our entire crop to a grey mold.  Usually when we have a crop failure it isn't that noticeable because it may not affect all varieties or we have another planting that makes up for it.  We only plant garlic once and we are always paranoid about disease.  This year our paranoia was actually warranted.  In addition to not having garlic and loosing money to labor it also means that we need to buy garlic seed this year.  We try our hardest to insure success in the garden but if there is one thing I have learned is that there will always be good and bad in the garden no matter how hard we try.  There are just too many factors we can't control.  The first summer I farmed with Kelly I went home twice because I was so distraught that things weren't perfect.  I have learned to live with a little imperfection and while both Kelly and I were very upset about the garlic we realized that all we can do is try to learn from it and focus on the rest of the garden and the rest of the garden looks good!  We both apologize that your boxes will be garlic free this season.

However you choose to cook your vegetables I hope you have many delicious meals this week.

Lettuce - We are back to regular head lettuce this week.  I am curious to know if you enjoyed the mini heads you had last week.
Carrots
Zucchini/Summer Squash Mix
Mixed Herb Bunch
Swiss Chard
Potatoes
Raspberries
Napa Cabbage - Small Only
Green Beans - Large Only - the first picking
Scallions - Large Only

Swiss Chard Fritters adapted from the cookbook Jerusalum 

I considered not blending all the ingredients and adding a few chopped stems for texture but in the end I decided to just trust the authors.  The one thing I did omit was grated nutmeg.  Kelly and I both liked the herby green flavor these had.

1 bunch swiss chard leaves, stalks removed

Flat leaf parsley

Cilantro

Dill

1/2 tsp sugar

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 eggs

3oz feta, crumbled

olive oil

Lemon wedges, for serving

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add chard and simmer for 5 minutes.  Drain, let cool and then squeeze excess liquid from the chard.  

Place chard and all other ingredients except the feta, olive oil and lemon in a food processor or immersion blender cup and blend.  Fold the feta into the mixture. 

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of the batter for each fritter. Press down gently on the fritter to flatten it. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes per side, until golden brown.  Remove & keep warm while you fry the rest of the fritters in batches. 

Serve warm, with lemon wedges.

Don't feel like making fritters.  Any of your herbs would be good in the below salad. 

Warm Grilled Zucchini/Summer Squash Salad

Heat grill.

Slice the squash long ways into 1/4 inch slices.

Brush with oil and season with salt and pepper.

Grill until each piece has nice grill marks and is tender when pierced with a fork.

Remove from grill and cut into smaller pieces.

Toss with vinaigrette made from 2 parts olive oil, 1 part lemon juice and just a touch of dijon mustard.  Garnish with some freshly chopped parsley, mint, dill or cilantro or a mix of herbs.  A little feta cheese won't hurt this recipe either!  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Week 5

We pulled our first baby onions out of the field this morning.  Another week or two and we will have some beautiful pearl onions.  The peppers look fantastic and we should begin harvesting those soon as well.  Kelly did an awesome job of keeping up while I was gone.  I don't think he slept much but the farm looks great.  Of course there are a couple things that should have been done earlier but our list always has things on it that should have been done already!  

I liked sending out the produce list early last week and will try to do that more often in the future so you can plan your meals for the week a little easier.

Lettuce - a mix of small leaf head lettuces
Carrots
Beets -  bunched with greens
Cucumber
Snap Peas 
Summer Turnip
Scallions
Raspberry 
Napa Cabbage - Large shares this week and small shares next week.  
Fava Beans - Large Only 

Korean Scallion Pancakes

A woman Kelly worked with in Maine use to make these for every farm get together.  They are simple and really delicious.

1 bunch Scallions, sliced. Most people just use the green part but I slice the white part really thin and leave the greens in larger pieces.
1 cup all-purpose flour
1teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 to 3/4 cup ice cold water
1 tsp soy sauce

Gently mix everything together.  The ice cold water will give you a crisp pancake.  If your batter seems thick add more water.
Cook over medium high heat in a well oiled skillet.  Your pancake should be crisp on the outside and a little chewy on the inside.  You can make a large pancake and slice it in wedges to serve or make several smaller pancakes.  There are tons of variations of this recipe - some without egg, some with rice flour.

Dipping Sauce

Mix two parts tamari or soy sauce and one part rice or red wine vinegar.  Add a small amount of sesame oil if you are in the mood.

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.

Week 20

Well, there is no mistaking what time of year it is now, is there?  Our typical wet and cold fall is in full swing.  We experienced a beautiful, mild fall and we are ready for a little rain.

We have three major tasks left on the farm along with a lot of little clean up chores.  Still on the docket are garlic, carrots and dahlias.  Yesterday we sorted through the remaining garlic.  We tossed what was rotten and then divided the rest into garlic to sell and garlic to keep for seed.  In the next week we will divide all the heads up into individual cloves and hopefully plant them the first few days of November.  They will grow very slowly at first, focusing their energy on developing roots and then will begin to grow more noticeably in February.  It will be many months before they shift from growing foliage to developing a head of garlic.

Early November is also when we start digging carrots for storage.  Up until then all the carrots are harvested with in a couple days of selling them.  We grow several successions of carrots but our fall carrot planting is our largest.  We sell 25 pound bags at the stand for our hard core carrot fans and store some for whole sale as well.  Carrots store incredibly well out of the ground.  My birthday is in early April and usually we still have carrots for carrot cake.  We have experimented with leaving them in the ground but have not had much luck.

Dahlias are the last chore.  The tubers are dug, cleaned, divided and stored for the winter.  Planting them and enjoying the flowers are the funnest part of the process.  But, dividing and thinking about how many you might have next year makes the end of year process seem a bit better.

It is hard to believe looking around in the dead of winter that this land produces so much food and is so vibrant with life and color for the better part of the year.  The land needs a bit of rest as do the people who tend it.  Hope you all find a way to enjoy the quiet dark of winter.

Alright, this is it, your last box!

Leeks
Carrots
Butternut Squash - This is not the sweetest squash we grow and that is one of the things I love about it.  It is also easy to peel and cube.  It has a small seed cavity and you get a lot of good squash meat from one squash.  I like to put the roasted squash cubes in lasagna with a cream sauce.  Like many of the things we eat in winter it is really rich.  The roasted cubes are also excellent in risotto.
Bok Choy
Choice of Root Veggie...Turnip, Parsnip or Rutabaga
Butterhead Lettuce
Romenesco - For the couple of you who skipped last week - it is too tasty and too beautiful to miss out on.
Broccoli - For those of you who had Romenesco last week
Coriander - We harvested this coriander from cilantro plants we let go to seed.  You had cilantro in your boxes out of this bed on July 2nd.  Kelly kept threatening to mow it down to prevent any weeds from going to seed but fortunately there is just not enough time in the day to do everything we want to do and the cilantro had a chance to mature and make seed.
Cilantro 
Watermelon Radish - This was our first year growing these and apparently we planted them a bit late. They should be bigger.  When you slice one you will see where they get their name.
Shallots - Large Share Only


Carrot and Corriander Soup

This soup is popular in the UK and is quick and easy to make.

Olive oil or butter
1 medium chopped onion
1 chopped garlic clove
1 pound of sliced carrots
1 tsp coriander seed- toasted then ground
1 quart veggie or chicken stock
S & P
chopped cilantro for garnish

In a dry skillet toast the coriander seed until fragrant.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool then grind.

Heat oil or butter in a pan and then add the garlic, onions, and carrots.  While the veggies are cooking grind your coriander in a pestle or grinder.  Once the veggies have softened add the coriander and salt and pepper.  Stir for a minute and then add the stock.  Cook covered until veggies are soft.  This should take 20 minutes or so depending on how thick your carrot slices are.

Puree with a blender, food processor or immersion blender until smooth.  Garnish with a generous amount of cilantro.


Bok Choy Recipe

This is our favorite way to eat Bok Choy.   I have never included the recipe because it is a little long and calls for ingredients you might not have in your pantry.  But, once you make it a time or two it is very quick and easy.  I buy fermented bean paste at the Halal/South East Asian market on Martin Way but I believe the market on College Street also sells it.  Your best bet is to look for it at a market that specializes in South East Asian goods instead of Korean or Japanese products.  Fresh noodles are great but I almost always use dried because I have them on hand.  I think using stock creates a much tastier dish than water and we often substitute chicken for pork or make it without meat.  It is amazing how everything can be found on the internet.  This recipe is from one of my most treasured cookbooks but I googled the recipe and it popped up on a couple blogs.  Here is a link to the recipe.

Noodles with Greens and Gravy

If you have done any traveling in South East Asia or just enjoy that kind of food you should check out the cookbook the above recipe comes from.  Hot Sour Salty Sweet:  A Culinary Journey through South East Asia is a beautiful book that really captures everything I love about the area.

Have a warm and cozy winter and come see us at the stand.