Week 7

There was lots of talk of last week's heat at market this week.  Pretty much every farm took some sort of hit, from shellfish to berries.  In retrospect I made a poor decision to transplant out some cabbages, kale and broccoli mid week, about 1200 plants.  They were in small plug flats, 128 to a tray.  The greenhouse that we keep our seedlings in has no climate control, poor ventilation and even with the shade cloth on it is stuffy and hot.  At a little over three weeks from seeding they were more than ready to go out.  I doubted hanging onto them for another week would do them any favors.  The cauliflower, which seems to be the most sensitive to transplant, we held on to and didn't transplant.  I thought if we just watered the heck out of them they would do better in the ground than the start house.  I was wrong.  The cauliflower, while a little long in the tooth was fine, but we lost a lot of the stuff we transplanted, probably more than half.  We won't feel that loss until the very end of August and September.  We have another planting seeded three weeks after that one that typically would overlap slightly so we should be able to weather it okay.  

On the happy side of things I ate my first Sungold cherry tomato this week.  

Carrots

Lettuce 

Collards

Cucumbers 

Potatoes - True new potatoes with super thin skins and creamy flesh.  They won't keep long, refrigerate if you aren't going to eat them ASAP.  

Scallions - Small Only

Cauliflower - Large Only

Mystery Item - Large Only

Week 6

I am winging this list a little.  I usually walk around the farm on Sunday after market and confirm that everything I am thinking of putting in the boxes looks good and there is enough of each item - still a bit of a guessing game sometimes.  We got a lot of good stuff done this morning on the farm with Sunday market being cancelled but since lunch I have been hiding in my house.  Kelly just went  back out to turn on water, our only strategy at keeping stuff happy, but I decided to just stay put.  

I am hoping there are snap peas but they don't like the heat and this weather is unprecedented so I have no idea what to expect.  

Lettuce

Zucchini - I just can't get enough of these right now.  Hopefully you feel the same way.  When I pulled up the cauliflower taco recipe mentioned below I noticed this zucchini pasta recipe and that sent me down a rabbit hole of looking on the internet and also in my cookbooks for the Julia Child recipe found here.  We are going to have some sort of mashup of the two on pasta tonight.  I have some of the pearl onions you got last week in my fridge so I am going to include those but love the idea of not squeezing the zucchini in Deb's version. 

Green Stem Cauliflower - A new variety for us.  It has a green stem and is also known as flowering cauliflower.  It is widely grown in Asian countries.  It is said to be sweeter.  I am unsure if it is, but it is early and it is delicious.  It is also a bit unusual looking.  It starts out looking kind of like a normal cauliflower except it isn't self blanched with its own leaves so it isn't bright white. The curds also start to separate pretty early on.  If you have grown cauliflower it is best described as looking like cauliflower that didn't get picked in time.  You can pick it at that point but typically you wait a little longer and let it stretch and spread more.  This is the only planting we have of it and I want to make sure everyone gets one so it will be in slightly various degrees of maturity.  I talked about these cauliflower tacos last year.  It is what we made with the one I harvested Friday.  I loved how easy it was to chop - minor thing but still a bonus.  

Fennel

Garlic - This has not dried down at all.  You can use it right away but store it in open air so the moisture has somewhere to go.

Snap Peas or Something else.  

Scallions - Large Only

 Week 5

Pushed up start time this morning and we are hoping to beat the heat.  Kelly said last night that maybe we should leave when the crew leaves today....ummm, you bet.  Seems like a good afternoon for a little paperwork!  Love the little onions that are in your shares this week.  They are called purplette.  We planted them at a close spacing for bunching and I am really happy with how they turned out.  There is quite a bit of size variation.  The idea was to bunch them at pearl onion size but some are a bit bigger and some are barely there.  

With all the heat, I thought we might be able to do zucchinis and a cucumber but it looks pretty tight so it may be one or the other. 

All our heat loving crops, like tomatoes, peppers, melons, winter squash should have nice root systems and be able to put on a lot of growth this week with the warm weather and long days.  Hope you all are able to make the most of the summer days as well.  

Lettuce

Beets

Carrots

Zucchini or Cucumbers or maybe both

Bunched Baby Onions

Broccoli - Large Only

Basil - Large Only

 Week 4

We always try to give a round of spinach in the spring and in the fall.  We managed to get the large shares earlier and this week the small shares will receive some.  Large shares will get spinach's colorful cousin swiss chard.  

Looks like Juneuary is almost over.  For the most part we are thankful for the additional rain fall.  It is getting us a bit behind on weeding but hopefully we can make some progress later in the week.  

Salad Mix

Carrots

Turnips

Snap Peas

Spinach - Small Only

Chard - Large Only

Snow Peas - Larges plus maybe some smalls.  It might take us a bit but at some point everyone will get snow peas.  

Little Gem Lettuces - Large Only  

Next week we should have cucumbers for everyone and some pretty pearl onions.  

Week 3

Week 3

Carrots

Lettuce

Green Cabbage

Snap Peas - We had snap peas, burrata and prosciutto on Saturday as an appetizer/post market snack.  I quickly cooked the peas in a very hot skillet until they had a bit of char and were warm but still crunchy.  We were ridiculously hungry which would have made anything delicious but the sweet and salty combo with the burrata was so good, as was the different textures.

Scallions 

Garlic Scapes - These can be made into a pesto, chopped into a stir fry, grilled, roasted and used countless other ways.  They have a fairly pungent garlic flavor if used raw but become quite mild when cooked. 

Beets - Large Only

 Week 2

This Tuesday is opening day of the the Chehalis market.  With a high of 87 predicted it is hard to know what to expect.  Washingtonions can be counted on to come out in some drizzle to get vegetables, but I have a feeling that the afternoon might be pretty quiet on an 87 degree day on a downtown street.   We hope to get peppers in the field on Monday, kill mad weeds on Tuesday while Kelly is at market and then get our winter squash in on Wednesday and Thursday.  The field zucchinis, cucumbers and tomatoes should all handle the heat well and with last weeks rain I am expecting to see lots of growth this week.  Your peas last week were from a hoop house but we should be getting into the field planting this week.  They won't love the heat but it won't be around for long.  

Head Lettuce - Either a red butter lettuce or a green oak leaf - both have a similar texture

Radishes - Don't like radishes?  Consider roasting or sauteing them.  I usually cut them in half or quarters and go about 15 minutes at around 425. They are still pretty firm at that point which is how I like them, but you may wish to cook them several more minutes.

Broccoli

Kale 

Zucchini - These are out of a hoop house and I think with the warm weather we should have enough for everybody.  If not some of Thursdays pick up may get peas instead and zukes next week.

Carrots - Small, but yummy

Salad Mix - Large Only

Cilantro - Large Only

 Week 1

Welcome to our 12th Farm Share season!  We had five members our first year.  We still have one member from that first season and many of you have been with us for close to 10 years.  Wow!  Time flies. 

My love for farming comes from my love of food.  The little things like the first pea of the year still get me excited.  I have an entire meal planned around one cucumber(the lamb shawarma recipe from the Jerusalem cookbook, cucumber salad, pickled turnips and pita) that is growing in a hoop house.  We normally remove the first few fruits from the plant but I left one cucumber on one of the plants so I could have an extra, extra early cucumber.  The plants that were pruned properly should have cucumbers for you all before you know it.  Every time I walk around the farm checking on crops and making harvest lists, I think about the meals I am going to cook.  I hope that you get the same pleasure when you look in your boxes each week and enjoy planning meals around the produce you receive.   

Head Lettuce

Rainbow Chard - Today a customer emailed me a picture of the sushi they had made with the rainbow chard they bought at market yesterday.  It was so beautiful.  They included the stems which made it very colorful.  It appeared to be cooked and I assume seasoned with something.  I am very intrigued.  

Salad Turnips - Often mistaken for white radishes at market, these turnips can be used the same way but are milder and juicier.  They are also great sauteed or roasted.  When we first have them in the spring, I use them for everything, salad, quick pickles, curry, fried rice, soup and so on.  They cook very quickly and I prefer them to be lightly cooked.  Longer cooking seems to bring out a stronger turnip flavor.  They do not need to be peeled.

Bok Choy - Choy is my favorite early spring vegetable.  This is our fifth and final planting of it.  

Kohlrabi - You can peel and slice this and eat this raw.  It has a great crisp texture.  It can also be cooked.  

Snap Peas - Edible pod!!!!!!

Spinach - Large Only

Baby Fennel - Large Only This planting of fennel was an experiment.  I planted it really early and wasn't sure if it would size up or if it would have to be sold as baby fennel before it bolted.  Baby fennel it is!  Like larger fennel, it is great cooked or eaten raw.  

In the next couple weeks you should see carrots, kale, cabbage,broccoli from the field and zucchini from the green house in your boxes.