- Lettuce(butter, romaine, leaf mix it up and enjoy salad every day)
- Sugar snap peas ( We just snapped the ends off, sauteed them in a little olive oil and that fresh mild garlic, YUM!)
- Zucchini (just a little taste of what is to come)
- Dill or cilantro
- Kale
- Fennel (shaved or sliced thin in salad add a very unique flavor to your salads)
- Garlic (still early garlic, mild and should be used fresh)
- Carrots or beets (eat those beet greens, don’t toss them out)
- Cabbage or broccoli or cauliflower (major brassica crop failure we will be sharing the small harvest for the next few weeks)
- Radish or turnip or kohlrabi – smile, add them shaved to salads, make a slaw, hurray for root crops, watch out for the small bugs, just cut them away.(The greens are also great in that radish top soup!)
- Green onions (you might be tired of these but included are some recipes that will stimulate your taste buds and you can use several weeks worth of them at once!)
I mentioned in the email that this week has been dominated by tying up tomatoes, cukes, beans and harvesting tons of garlic from a cement like soil. We are burning the midnight oil and working until the sun sets to get crops out of the field and new crops planted.
The garlic is some of the best we have grown in years. We learned many things this year that seemed to make a difference:
1) Weed the garlic!! It makes a huge difference
2) Allow enough room between the garlic seed to weed and encourage growth
3) Pull the garlic scape early – those heads that got the scape pulled on week #1 or #2 made larger heads than those that got pulled on week #3 or #4
4) Don’t water the garlic – rain is the only water it every received.
5) Ask mother nature to give us a dry spring for garlic and wet one for brassicas (broccoli and cabbage family)
As I mentioned above the brassicas hated this spring. It seems to be multifactorial, but it does not look good. Possibly they were planted too early in soil worked too wet, it did not like the weekly downpours and the super- hot days. Farming is a lot of skill and a lot of luck, kind of like raising kids. You feel so proud when your kids eat all sorts of foods, they have great vocabularies and they are good at something (a sport or music or art etc.). Then you realize that some of that was parenting (nuture) and a lot of that was what they came with (nature or luck). We love to take credit for something that worked really well and blame the weather or bugs etc. for something that did not go well. As with parenting, we do the best we can and we keep on learning and hopefully do better with next year or the second child.
We look forward to preparing the beds that held the garlic and transforming the cement into fertile soil for the Brussels sprouts. This has worked in the past, but we’ll see how it goes this year. Many of the original crops in the hoop houses are coming out too. The Chinese broccoli is gone and peppers and beets will replace them. We hope to get a few melons planted as well as the main crop potatoes.
The battle with the cucumber beetles is on. We have much of the squash planted, both summer and winter. We experimented with covering some of the squash in remay (agricultural fabric) and leaving some to fend for itself. The covered squash grew twice as big! The cucumber beetles demolished some of the uncovered squash, did not take any interest in my “trap plants” and found places to hide in the soil just below the squash. Juvencio is out there trying to get them with pyrethrum as often as is practical. I think we need a few good hunters to gather them in jars and remove them! Volunteers?
Have a great week, don’t forget to sign up to help harvest.
Cannellini Beans with Tarragon and Roasted Fennel || from Chef Jonathan Miller
I make some variation on this very often, as it can be made year round here. Some of you may recognize the flavor combination here from very similar recipes I’ve posted before in the Ladybug Postcard. I also made a version of this salad with raw fennel and grilled radicchio quarters and it worked very well. Kids love this bean salad because of its licorice overtones and the cheese.
1 c cannellini beans, soaked overnight in cold water
2 fennel bulbs, halved, cored, and thinly sliced crosswise
1 bunch tarragon, chopped
1/2 t fennel seeds, ground
4 T sherry vinegar
4 t Dijon
6 T crème fraiche
12 T olive oil
4 T parsley, chopped
8 oz Italian fontina, diced
Drain the beans and put into a pot with cold water to cover by at least 2 inches. Bring to a boil, skim any foam off the top, then lower the heat, add a generous amount of salt the pot, cover, and simmer slowly until the beans are soft, but not mushy, about 45-60 minutes. Drain.
While the beans cook, heat the oven to 400 and toss the sliced fennel with some olive oil and salt. Roast until colored and softened, and sweet, about 25-30 minutes.
Combine 2 T of the chopped tarragon, the fennel seeds, sherry vinegar, Dijon, and crème fraiche in a bowl. Whisk well. Add the olive oil and continue whisking until emulsified.
When the beans are cooked and drained, fold in the dressing, mixing thoroughly, but gently. Stir in the roasted fennel, the parsley, the cheese, and the remaining chopped tarragon. Taste to make sure you like it, and serve room temperature.
Fennel, Orange & Caper Salad
Note from Julia: I made this and it’s REALLY good. It’s pictured above. In the photo, I used kalamata olives instead of the capers.
2 bulbs fennel
1 Tablespoon cabers, drained
1 Tablespoon dill or chervil, fresh, chopped
Dressing
1/2 orange, seeded
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons sugar (I often omit this)
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons olive oil
Trim the stalks from the fennel, cut the bulb in half lengthwise; then cut crosswise into very thin slices. Place in a large bowl with the capers and the dill.. Make the dressing. Cut the quarter orange in small pieces and place in the work bowl of a food processor with the vinegar, mustard, and sugar and salt. .Process until smooth. With the motor running slowly, pour in the olive oil. Pour over the fennel, toss well and serve
Spring Onion Sandwiches
from Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters
Onion Sandwiches were an old favorite of James Beard’s. These are best made in may when onions are very sweet. Trim the crusts off thin slices of good white bread. Spread two slices of bread with mayonnaise, on one side. Slice fresh onion very thinly and make a layer of onion slices on one slice of bread. Top that with the other slice of bread. Dip the four side edges of the sandwich into thin mayonnaise and then into chopped parsley.
from Marcella, a CSA member:
One of our favorite ways to enjoy scallions is as a vegetable side dish.
Scallions and Carrots
1 bunch scallions, roots trimmed and white part cut into a 4″ length
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
1/4 t sugar
2 T soy sauce
Saute the scallions in the olive oil for 3 minutes. Add the carrots and continue to cook until vegetables begin to soften and turn golden. Add butter, soy sauce and sugar and cook 30 seconds more.
Milanese-Style Chard
from Recipes from a Kitchen Garden by Shepherd and Raboff
1 bunch Swiss Chard
1 Tablespoons olive oil
2 stalks green garlic, chopped
6 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped basil
pinch nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped prosciutto or ham
2 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese
salt and pepper to taste
garnish: toasted pine nuts or walnuts
Trim the chard, discarding tough stems, and coarsely chop.
In a large, deep skillet, heat olive oil, add garlic and scallions and saute until softened and fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Add chard, parsley, basil, nutmeg, prosciutto or ham and mix well together. Cover the skillet and cook over medium heat until tender and wilted, 3 to 5 minutes. Mix in Parmesan Cheese and then add salt and pepper to taste. Serve garnished with pine nuts or walnuts.
Chinese Scallion Pancakes
recipe by Elsa Chen
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour, plus more for flouring the rolling surface
1 cup water
2 teaspoons oil
A bunch of green onions, green and white parts, chopped medium-fine
A few tablespoons of oil to brush on pancakes (a mix of canola or corn oil and sesame oil is good) some salt A few tablespoons sesame seeds (optional)
Directions:
Mix together the first three ingredients by hand or in a food processor. Flour a surface and knead the dough. Let it rest for 20-30 minutes before continuing.
With a rolling pin, roll the dough out on a well-floured surface into a big, flat square or rectangle 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.
Brush the pancake with a bit of oil, and sprinkle with spring onion pieces and a little salt. Starting at one short end, roll up the dough tightly, jelly-roll style, so you have a “snake.”
Cut the “snake” crosswise into 8 – 10 pieces. Then flatten each piece again gently with your palm and rolling pin to make a little rectangle. Don’t flatten it too firmly, because you want a little air to remain trapped between the layers of the pancakes so they’ll puff up a bit between the layers and be lighter.
Press one or both sides in sesame seeds (optional).
Heat a tablespoon or two of oil in a large skillet. Shallow fry the pancakes until both sides are golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels.
Serve plain or with dipping sauce. An easy sauce can be made by mixing soy sauce with a little minced garlic, scallion, and rice vinegar.
Green Onion Pancake by Stella Fong
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup cold water
vegetable oil spray
1/2 cup minced green onions
Mix together flour and boiling water. Add 1/3 cup cold water and knead until dough is smooth and elastic. Add more water if necessary. Cover and let dough rest for about 15 minutes. In a small bowl, combine sesame oil, salt and green onions. Set aside. Divide dough into 10 pieces. Flatten each piece in the palm of your hand. Then roll out into a 6-inch circle. Spread each piece with the green onion mixture.
Roll up dough into a jellyroll. Then wind up into a snail shape. Flatten slightly; roll on lightly floured surface to 5-inch circle. Spray pan with vegetable oil spray. Heat over medium-high heat. Fry pancake until golden brown, about 2 minutes, turn and cook other side. Serve hot. Makes 10 pancakes