Week 7

On Friday evening we got a text from some friends in Portland asking if we were in the mood for some company on Saturday.  They offered to come a different weekend if that was better.  Honestly, it wasn't a great weekend.  Our house was riding a fine line between not so tidy and embarrassingly messy, well, okay, no it wasn't, it was embarrassingly messy.  I wasn't really sure when we would fine time in less than 24 hours to clean it but sometimes company is good motivation and I love a deadline.  I work myself into a frenzy, spin in circles, get a little irrational and some how in spite of myself, still manage to get stuff done when there is a deadline.  That is also a little how I am feeling about the fun vegetable.  I have had a couple failures, frantically ordered some random seed and am hoping for the best but here we are at week 7 and you folks need some veggies!  It feels a little scattered but I have faith it will work out.   It still feels fun to me to be growing new stuff but I have to admit I am feeling a bit of pressure.   Next week we should have your first installment.  I do hope we get some heat…the lima beans aren't real impressed with what mother nature has dealt them and neither are a couple other heat loving crops.

One thing that is enjoying the cooler weather is the snap peas.  The ones in your boxes are out of the third planting.  The first two plantings typically do pretty well but the third one sometimes barely produces enough to cover the labor of putting up and taking down the trellis.  I am thrilled we are getting some good harvests off it.  People often ask how the weather is affecting the crops.  Most of the time something is happy regardless of whether the temperature is above or below average.   At the moment the peas are happy and the melons are probably going to be later this year than last year.    Regardless of the weather we should have some cherry tomatoes for you next week along with beans and maybe some fresh onions.  There will be a few pints of cherry tomatoes on the trade table this week.

Carrots 
Beets - A farm share member asked about beets last week and I thought you know it is time for beets again.  We haven't eaten any in a while and I am looking forward to having some tomorrow evening.  If the cooking time deters you I would recommend cooking them a night or two before you need them. After dinner give them a quick peel and throw them in the fridge.  Once cooked they also freeze nicely.
Head Lettuce
Japanese Cucumber 
Caribe Potatoes - After not having this variety of potato for a few years I am excited to have it back.  The past couple years we haven't been able to get it and in its place we have grown a potato with a blue skin and a gold flesh called Peter Wilcox.  PW is a nice potato but my heart still belongs to Caribe which has a bright purple skin and a white flesh.  It tastes as good, is early and is gorgeous.  Plus the farm Kelly worked on in Maine grew it when we were there and it has some nostalgia for me.  We roasted some on Saturday when our friends came over and I tossed them for the last couple minutes of cooking with garlic, parsley and scallions.  I should probably move on but I just can't get enough of that combination.
Snap Peas  - later gator - last round.
Cabbage - Last week we decided to for go the cabbage to the large shares in favor of cauliflower.  This week we have cabbage for everyone.
Parsley - Large Only

Week 6

We reached a couple milestones in the season this week.  We pulled most of our garlic and I picked my first cherry tomato of the season.  Just as it seems like it takes forever to get the first ripe tomato, it also seems like forever before we are actually picking pints of cherry tomatoes.  We push to have a lot of things early and strive to be the first among our fellow farmers to have certain vegetables (carrots, cukes, cabbages, peppers).  We do it mainly because we like to have a nice selection but this year it has been to our advantage at farmers market where I think we have gained some customers by having vegetables that other farms don't have yet.  However when it comes to tomatoes we never succeed, mainly because we don't prioritize the space in our greenhouse to starting them early.  I settle for eating my single sungold and admiring the Facebook pages of other farms who are picking a few pints.  Hopefully with our new greenhouse we will be able to change that for next year.  I want to be the first with everything (insert evil laugh here)!

Radish - It is hard to believe that this is the first box where everyone gets radishes since they are usually such a spring staple.  The season got off to a warm start but the weather lately has been very radish friendly.  We don't usually grow summer radishes but thought we would try a little experiment this summer and seed them a few times - so far, so good.
Romaine Lettuce - These have a little sizing up to do - some of you will have two smaller ones.
Zucchini Medley
Garlic
Scallions -  Scallions aren't around long and they look so nice right now that you are getting them two weeks in a row.  That will do it for the season.  I have a scallion dumpling recipe and I am in danger of missing scallion season and not trying it nor have we had scallion pancakes year this year.  I better get cooking.  Bunched onions should only be a couple weeks out.
Carrots
Broccoli - Small Only
Cabbage - Large Only - Most of these are big.  I wish they were smaller, most people like smaller cabbages.  It might be a good time to try making stuffed cabbage rolls.  They work great with the big leaves and are delicious.  Or maybe a small batch of kraut, or maybe now would be a good time to get a pet bunny…just joking.
Summer Turnips - Large Only
Snap Peas or Beans - Large Only, Choose One

Week 5

I was about to write that new potatoes are the vegetable I look forward to the most but as I was about to start typing I wondered how many times I have said that about other vegetables.  I am always enamored with whatever I haven't eaten in months.  I am the same with flowers.  Daffodils are my favorite, followed by lilacs and so forth.  However, I think that new potatoes still get me more excited than anything else in the garden.  I even contemplated buying some from another farm a couple weeks ago.  I dug some last week and then we ate them three nights in a row.  One night we had some as an appetizer and then I prepared them a different way with dinner.  I know, I am crazy about potatoes.  In New England new potatoes, peas and salmon are all traditional July 4th foods.  When the Northeast had wild salmon runs and most people had a garden all three timed well with the 4th.  These days it is not as common of a meal but when Kelly and I lived in Maine many folks would search out new potatoes and peas at the farmer's market for the 4th of July.  New potatoes are great steamed and tossed with some butter or olive oil and some fresh herbs. My favorite way to prepare them is to cut them in half, steam them until tender and then pan fry them so the cut side gets nice and crispy.  I usually just season them with salt and pepper but last week I tossed a bunch of chopped parsley and minced garlic in the pan for the last 30 seconds and then placed the potatoes crispy side up on the plate and topped with with parsley and garlic mixture.  Most new potatoes in the store are not really new potatoes.  They are just small potatoes(often red) or a thin skinned variety.  A true new potato can be any color it is just a potato that hasn't fully matured.  As a result it is often smaller, has a barely there skin and tends to be waxier and hold its shape better when cooked.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Carrots
Lettuce
Cucumber - Last week the small shares had a traditional slicing cucumber and the large shares had a slicing cucumber and a Japanese cucumber.  This week you will all have a Japanese style cucumber.  They have a thinner skin, a smaller seed cavity and a crisper flesh.
Scallions 
New Potatoes
Snap Pea - These won't be around much longer.
Broccoli - Large Only
Rainbow Chard - Large Only

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend.

Week 4

What a crazy week.  We had a couple crew members out of town and it has been hard to keep up.  We have been doing a lot of harvesting and not enough weeding.  We capped off our busy week with a wedding yesterday.  It was fun to get out of our everyday clothes and relax a bit.

We filled all the containers we grabbed for pea harvest on Friday and had to go back for more after lunch!

 We have some extra help this week and that should help us get the weeds under control.  Hopefully new potatoes are about ready to be dug…maybe for next week's box (pure speculation).   We did get the peppers uncovered this week and are happy with how they look.  

Box looks like the perfect box for the nice weather that is in store for us.  Enjoy the sunshine and the veggies.

Lettuce - a pretty red oak leaf
Carrots
Snap Peas
Zucchini - green and yellow
Cucumbers
Raspberries - if you didn't get raspberries last week they will be in your box this week.
Spinach - Large Share Only

Week 3

I've noticed in the past few years that food magazines have become much better at focusing on recipes that use vegetables that are in season.  As someone who grows food I really appreciate that.  I looked through a few pages of the new Food & Wine and there were recipes for both kale and snap peas that caught my eye.  A customer asked what I like to do with snap peas on Saturday and I had nothing to say.  I said " I don't know, I usually just eat them raw".  Sure I throw them in salads and spring rolls and maybe chop a few up for a curry or stir fry but I don't have a go to snap pea dish.  In general, the idea of cooking them doesn't really appeal to me.  They just seem so good as they are.  The truth is I hardly even ever take any home - they mostly just serve as farm snacks.  That isn't to say I don't eat my fair share.  I eat a lot them.  There are often a few peas in my pocket!   I am attaching links to the recipes that caught my eye in the magazine.  The kale one is a grilled pesto.  Kale pesto is a winter staple in our house but I imagine blanching the kale and then grilling it (which sounds kind hard) gives it a completely different flavor.  It includes a pasta recipe that I will not be making anytime soon but the way time flies, winter and hours spent cooking are just around the corner.  The other is a snap pea salad that will involve a little adaptation of the recipe as we are done with green garlic.  However, the garlic that is in your boxes today isn't cured down and while it doesn't have the same flavor of green garlic it still has a nice fresh taste and would be a fine substitute.  If you still have your garlic scapes you could do a mix of the two.  I like that it uses dill and mint and raw snap peas.

Last week you had garlic scapes off of our last garlic to send out a scape and the last to mature, Chesnook.  This week you have recently harvested garlic(some last Friday, some Monday) off the the variety that was the first to scape for us, Bangkok Red.  It is one of the prettiest garlics we grow.  There is still a lot of moisture in the head so don't store it in a plastic bag/container.  It will do best just sitting on your counter.

You may have or may not have noticed that this is your second week without head lettuce.  That is pretty unusual.  Lettuce usually falls into an almost every week category when we plan what goes in your box.  The hot weather we had a couple weeks ago caused two lettuce plantings to bolt.  Lettuce doesn't like heat but usually we only see mature lettuce bolt.  I don't know if the plants were a little stressed to begin with but I was surprised to see not just the oldest planting bolt but also a newer planting.   All in all though things look good the fields and we should be back into head lettuce next week.

Carrots
Cilantro
Cabbage
Snap Peas
Kale
Garlic
Salad Mix- Large Only

Grilled Kale Pesto
Snap Pea Salad

Next week we will fully embrace summer with zukes and cukes!

Week 2

It rained!  Last June I would look at the weather and see a chance of rain, I would hope and I would be disappointed.  This year I decided to skip the hope thing and just go straight to pessimism, and everything turned out great.  I don't know if that means I should have a better attitude and not get so down or if being pessimistic sets me up for more joy later.

Our first week of the farm share was also our first week of the Chehalis market.  Both went smoothly (I think, correct me if there was a problem with your veggies) and we are off and running.  We are thankful to have one great crew member returning from last year and some new folks who are getting in the swing of things.  We also called in some extra hands this week because we realized that we were getting a little behind.   Ian worked the stand on Wednesdays last year and will again this year but for the most part Kelly and I are the face of the farm and I think it gives people the false impression that we do this all ourselves.  There is no way we could do this without help.  The vegetables in your box were most likely the product of many hands.  Take the bunch of carrots in your box.  Someone did the tractor work to prep that bed which included adding fertilizer, incorporating it into the soil and then making the bed.  That is at least three changes of implements on the back of the tractor and three separate passes through the field to get it ready.  Then the carrots were seeded, covered with the white row cover for a little extra warmth since we seed at the end of February.  The row cover was pulled off in April and they were scuffled (a type of hoe we like to use) and recovered.  A couple weeks later the row cover was removed again and they were hand weeded and thinned on hands and knees and recovered.  They were uncovered one last time and scuffled again.  They were harvested,  and then sorted, sized and bunched.  They were then sprayed down, dunked and packed into a box and put in the walk in.  They were then removed and placed in each of your boxes.  That is a lot of hand labor and we are thankful to have help doing it.  If you would ever like to take a peak at what goes on in our fields you should feel free to walk around when you come to pick up your box.

I think we should have one last round of strawberries for you.  The first planting of peas went by quickly and we will be skipping a week on those but we will be back into plentiful peas next week in the second planting (hopefully).

Carrots
Beets - These beets have gorgeous greens on them.  Don't let them go to waste - they are delicious.  You can cook them however you like to cook spinach, chard or kale.  I like to sauté them with a little onion and garlic and then squeeze a little lemon juice on them at the end.
Broccoli
Summer Turnips - If you aren't familiar with these you are in for a treat.  They are great raw or cooked and you can eat these greens as well.  Sometimes the greens can have a bit of a bite and sometimes they are quite mild.  Don't be afraid to try one raw.  They are nice sliced and added to lettuce in a salad or thrown in soup at the end or you can sautee the turnips and then add the greens at the end. The turnips tend to be mild, juicier than a radish with a little bit of sweetness and just a little sharpness at the end.
Strawberries
Garlic Scapes - The garlic is early this year and we have one last variety that has scapes left on it.  By the time the garlic plant starts to shoot up a scape we are suffering through the end of last years sprouted storage garlic and are so thankful to have them.  They taste just like garlic but with a fresher, greener flavor.  They can be chopped and used like garlic, cut larger and tossed with pasta and other veggies or left whole and grilled or roasted.  The also make a great pesto and are fun to pickle.  They should be stored in a bag in your fridge.  They will keep for at least a couple weeks.
Spinach - Large Only
Scallions - Large Only

See you at the farm stand!

Week 1

I feel like we should have started the farm share about two weeks ago.  In my mind it should be a struggle to fill your boxes the first week or two.  It should be filled with greens and spring treats.  Instead, Kelly and I had a difficult time narrowing it down today.  The warm spring has put the farm into fast forward.  We are already knee deep in strawberries and peas, we have had carrots for a few weeks and we started selling cucumbers and zucchini last week.  At the same time I don't want to cut autumn short (you know you love rutabagas) and I think that 19 weeks is a good amount of time for all of us.  Anyway, that is something to contemplate during winter but if you have an opinion let me know.

We hope we have a great season ahead of us.  As a farm, we made some changes over the winter.  We signed up to go to a farmers market, we certified organic and we added some seed crops.  We are growing a little more ground this year and have a bigger crew.   After a couple years of minimal change - same size, same markets, same labor hours, same crops,  it feels a little uncertain around here.  It isn't that Kelly and I thought to ourselves, "ya know, we have this so dialed in and have so much free time, we should switch things up".  We will never master growing vegetables but things did feel a little routine and the time seemed right to explore some new things.

The beets we are growing for seed just started to pollen.  If you look closely you can see it on my fingers.  It has a strong, floral smell which is hard to miss when you walk by it.  

The second seed crop we are growing is a beautiful purple stemmed kale.  The tops are above our heads and thick with flowers and bees.

Boxes look delicious! 

Carrots

Head Lettuce

Rainbow Chard - Chard can be steamed or sautéed.  The stems and leaves can be eaten. The stems take a little longer to cook.  You can remove the stems and stuff the leaves or add it to soup.  It is related to spinach and beets.  If you pull up a mature plant the root looks like an ugly beet.  If you look at the leaf of a beet you can see the resemblance.  

Snap Peas - plump and sweet - great raw or cooked

Snow Peas - just a few for a stir-fry, curry or a snack.  The one and only planting of snow peas is almost done picking and I wanted to get you a few before they disappeared.  Next year we will have to put an additional round in the second planting of peas. 

Strawberries

Radishes - Large Only

Thanks for being a part of the farm share and supporting local agriculture.  Cheers to a season of good meals.