Week 3: Hi everyone! So they say we are breaking records for heat 5 days of 90 plus weather. Ok 2020 – thanks for keeping us all humble and sweaty. We will just keep on pivoting and watering;) Everything is growing well. Some husbands bring bouquets of flowers to their wives. Farmer Adam brought this farmer a bouquet of zucchini this morning J show me on his farm walk that we could start picking them for you today. I love when he brings me the first of a crop that’s ready or texts me pictures. After 17 years, this does not get old. We both get giddy and smile and our joyous of those first fruits. We have passed this joy to our children, and they too are quick to notice and share the growth of the plants. Just this morning, Sadie shared with us the first two carrots she picked and she showed our crew and then shared them with them. Side note: carrots and beets in about two weeks. Finding Joy in the simple everyday and basking in the wonder of how food grows with a little care, water, and soil.
Ok, so scratching my head – we have zucchini before sugar snap peas. How the heck? First off – the sugar snap peas are coming and they are flowering like crazy and there are baby peas on them – thursday csa might get them this week – maybe. So don’t worry they are coming. Adam is watering like crazy. Second, the curcubit family – zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers – we transplanted 3.5 weeks ago and then covered them with protek net – which is similar to remay in the only way that it protects a crop. This protek net is a spun UV protected strong tiny netting that does not hold in heat like remay (the bok choy and kale were under it) but the holes are tiny enough not to let in flea beetles, cuke beetles, squash bugs, leaf miners – see where I’m going with this. The plants were allowed to grow withOUT the pressure and stress of being attacked by bugs and the disease they bring. The plants during these last 3.5 weeks have grown strong and flowering and because they weren’t under stress have started to produce on time and 100% of the plants made it through. Strong healthy plants can fight off the cucumber beetle – they were flying all over the place this morning – key word – they were flying – not landing so much – the plants are sending off “Im healthy not stressed” hormones and the cuke beetles are hearing it. They were buzzing up by our ears and not landing on the plants. there were a few on the plants but may 1 or 2. Usually we lose anywhere from 10-20% due to stress and bugs. We took the netting off end of last week so the bees could do their work of pollinating the flowers for the fruits. And like magic – we are now in squash season. So thank you, CSA members, we were able to buy this protek net for our crops that will last for 8 to 10 years! vs remay that usually only lasts one season. IF you’d like to see them – let us know and we will walk you out to the field and we will show you the netting. The neighbors up the road use it for their blueberries to keep the SWD fly off their blueberries.
These baby zukes and summer squash are great on the grill and really little baby ones you can eat raw. Some crops we are saying by to this week due to the heat but they will be in your share this week bok choy and spinach. We will see bok choy again in another 6 weeks and spinach we will see again in the fall. Spinach does not like the heat – it starts to bolt and put up a flower stalk and wants to make seeds. Chard will be back next week. Fingers crossed sugar snap peas and salad turnips.
Garlic Scapes! They are the false flower of stiff neck garlic. This is garlic’s answer to green onions. We pick them when they are curly and tender. They are great on the grill, tossed in olive oil- chopped into stirfries, eggs, pizza, mash potatoes, and my absolute favorite pesto! So instead of basil use the scapes. You can also use kale and scapes together to make an amazing pesto.
Ok, well I better go. I need to help with set up for CSA pickup. See you all soon. Thanks for reading.
Thanks for being part of our farm. We look forward to farming with you this season.
Peace, your farmers, Christine, Adam, Sadie, Delia, Claire and Norma
What’s in the share this week:
This list is what is in a full share this week. Things may change between Monday and Thursday and Individual and Salad share will get differing amounts and may not get everything on the list. Lettuce mix, Spinach, Bok Choy, Red Russian Kale, garlic scapes!, the first of zucchini/summer squash, cilantro, dill or parsley
Eggs for sale We have the pretty girls’ eggs for sale – these are free-range, certified organic chicken eggs that are brown eggs– with the brightest yellow/orange yolks you ever seen. The eggs are $6.00 a dozen. $3.00 half dozen
RAW Jersey Milk for Sale: 1/2 gal jars available of Sandy and Skye’s Milk – cream is so creamy and they love all this spring grass. $5 a jar and if you don’t have a half gal jar to swap $3 deposit. Available at on farm pickup on Mondays and Thursdays.
RECIPES:
The fresh greens you get in your share this week can be eaten raw and put in a salad.
Bok Choy can be sauteed, grilled or steamed. I like to toss tamari on it in the pan for a quick sautee or split in half and grill it.
You can add fresh greens like kale, spinach, chard on pizza, in eggs, in smoothies. so good and very high in vitamins and minerals.
Garlic scapes are the “flower stalks” of hardneck garlic plants, although they do not produce flowers. These stalks start to appear a month or so after the first leaves. They are usually cut off of the plant, since leaving them on only diverts the plants strength away from forming a plump bulb. If left on, they eventually form small bulbils that can be planted to grow more garlic, but it takes 2–3 years for them to form large bulbs. Along the same lines, young garlic plants that are pulled to thin a row are referred to as “green garlic”. Used in the same manner as green onions, these too make excellent eating. All garlic varieties produce a stem, but it’s the hardneck Rocombole garlics that send out the curling scapes that gave them the nickname ‛serpent garlic’. There are many types of Rocombole and the flavor of the scapes can vary considerably from variety to variety, just as with garlic bulbs. But if you have a favorite variety of garlic that grows well in your garden, you will probably enjoy its scapes. Some of the more popularly grown varieties of Rocombole garlic include: ‘Carpathian’, ‘German Red’ and ‘Spanish Roja’. http://gardening.about.com/od/herbsatoz/a/What-Are-Garlic-Scapes.htm
Top 6 things you can do with Scapes
1. Scape Pesto
Far and away my favorite use for garlic scapes is pesto, either straight-up or mixed with herbs like basil and dill. Pesto showcases raw scapes in all their glory. Scape pesto can be very pungent, but it mellows substantially after a few months in the freezer. I like it best in the middle of winter, but I think that’s one part mellowing and two parts deprivation.
2. Grilled Scapes
Another great, and very different, way to showcase scapes is to grill them, tossed with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, over direct heat for about two minutes. Flip them once, halfway through, and finish with an extra sprinkle of flaky salt and maybe a bit of lemon juice and zest. They’ll be charred in spots and just soft enough, and their flavor will have sweetened and mellowed dramatically. Grilled scapes are surprisingly reminiscent of asparagus, and surprisingly different from raw scapes.
3. Scape Hummus
For the same reason they work well in pesto, scapes are a brilliant swap-in for garlic in your favorite homemade hummus. I think they work especially well in a lemony, tahini-free hummus, which really gives them a chance to shine. Edamame “hummus” with scapes works nicely too, and color coordination is tough to argue with.
4. Scape Compound Butter
Scapes would make a lovely compound butter with a little lemon and maybe some fresh thyme. You could use the butter to make a tarted-up garlic bread, and I can’t think of much (except maybe fruit—I do have some boundaries) that could be tossed on the grill but not finished with a nice slice of this melting goodness.
5. Scapes as aromatic
To take a more utilitarian approach, you can slice scapes to whatever length you like and use them as you would garlic, as an aromatic in a wide variety of recipes. Scapes lose a lot of their bite when sautéed, more so than garlic cloves, so use at least three or four times as much scape-age as you would clove-age.
6.Scapes also work well as a vegetable, cut into lengths and added to stir-fries or blanched and added to salads, much as you might use green beans. They’re chameleons among vegetables, I tell you, though not karma chameleons. Karma-wise, they’re all good.
Kale Chips
Fun for kids and adults, high in vitamins!
Ingredients
· 1 or 2 bunches red or green kale
· 3-4 Tablespoons olive oil
· garlic (scapes or cloves) and/or balsamic vinegar
· sea salt & pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350. Rip up kale (with or without stems) into a mixing bowl (or into a ziplock bag if you want to keep your hands clean).
Add olive oil, then chopped garlic and/or balsamic vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste, then use hands to mix in the bowl (or squeeze the bag). Spread out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and bake 5-10 minutes, watching VERY carefully so they don’t burn. After, keep in a brown paper bag.
Enjoy! Kale chips are a delicious snack and contain tons of vitamins A and C as well as calcium, iron, protein, and fiber. Try making up your own recipe!