- Fava Beans (this is the first and last harvest this year of these unique and cumbersome vegetables, see the multitude of recipes below, look up others on the internet, enjoy!)
- Sugar snap peas
- Zucchini
- Broccoli
- Lettuce
- Kale, chard or collards
- Herbs (parsley, basil or dill)
- Garlic
- “Purplette” bunchining onions (you can use both the onion and the green part)
- Cabbage (savoy or “Carafax”)
Not much to report this week. Lots of weeding. We are starting to get in the fall broccoli and other fall brassicas. Pascal managed to harvest all the garlic and tie it up and hang it to cure. It is a very meager crop this year. Small heads are due to the rust that covered the leaves and didn’t allow it to size up as it should have. We are debating saving our own seed as it will be small next year. There are just too many variables in farming.
Jespen was a great help with the mammoth job of weeding. It is really nice to have a few extra hands. He will be with us through August completing his practicum. This is Pascal’s last week with us before he moves on to another farm building cabins. We will truly miss him he has become such a member of the family.
A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of hosting photographer Shawn Linehan on our farm. She is doing a project of documenting family farms and she is an amazing photographer. She really captured the flavor of the farm, the people, the veggies and the animals. You can see her work at http://shawnlinehan.com/finquita/ . When things slow down (December) I will add some of her photos to the website.
The zucchini is really coming on, lots of variety this year; “Costata Romanesco” (light green striped), “Zephyr” yellow with green tip, “Sunburst patty pan” the yellow patty pan , “Raven” stocky dark green, and “Noche” the long dark green queen. The cucumbers are on the verge of exploding and the beans are setting fruit. The favas are few this year, so this is your only week of the cumbersome vegetable, enjoy and let us know if we should grow more next year. The sugar snaps are doing well, but this may be their last week as we head into midsummer we can’t wait for tomatoes and peppers still weeks away!
Lonnie’s chocolate Zucchini Cake
½ c soft butter 1 ½ c sugar (can be cut down) 2 ½ c flour
½ c cooking oil 1 tsp. Vanilla 1 tsp soda
2 eggs ½ c sour milk (buttermilk) ½ t salt
½ c chocolate chips 4 T cocoa ½ tsp. Cinnamon
2 c grated zucchini ¼ c chopped nuts
Mix butter,oil, eggs, sugar, vanilla and milk together. Add cocoa, soda, cinnamon and salt and mix well. Add flour, mix well, add zucchini, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. 13 X 9 inch pan or 2 loaf pans. (Lyn’s note: I always double the recipe it is gobbled up as soon as it comes out of the oven.)
Pureed Fava Bean Ravioli
By Denise Santoro Lincoln and Bay Area Bites
Serves 4-6 people
Ingredients:
2 cups shelled fava beans (just fill up a produce plastic bag with them and you’ll have enough)
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 – 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese (according to taste)
2 Tbsp whole milk
1 Tbsp chopped basil or mint (optional)
1 batch of homemade pasta dough
Preparation:
1. Prepare pasta dough and refrigerate until ready for use.
2. Shell fava beans from pods. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and then drop the beans in. Simmer for 2 minutes and then remove the beans from the pot and rinse with cold water.
3. Gently remove the outer bean casing from the tender inner bean. I usually just separate one side a bit and then gently squeeze the bean into a bowl. Do this for all the beans.
4. In a medium pan, sauté the chopped shallots in the olive oil for about 2 minutes on medium heat. Add in the fava beans and 2 Tbsp butter and cook until the beans are cooked through. Add in salt to taste.
5. Let beans and shallots cool and then pour them in a chopper along with your heavy cream, milk, ricotta, and some freshly ground black pepper. Puree until smooth.
6. If the puree seems too chunky or thick, add more heavy cream or milk as needed. Add in the Parmesan Cheese and any herbs you’re using and then puree further until the mixture is completely smooth has the consistency of thick batter. Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.
7. Roll out your pasta dough so you have long strips 4 inches wide. Spoon about 1 Tbsp puree 1 1/2 inches apart.
8. Brush egg wash on each side and in the strips between the puree and then place a 2nd pasta dough strip on top. Press down on each side in between raviolis so the pasta dough adheres along all sides of the filling and then cut out your raviolis. I like to use a pizza cutter to do this, but if you have a fancy ravioli cutter, go for it.
9. Boil pasta in salted water
Fava Beans with Pancetta
Fava Beans
Garlic 1-3 cloves
3 slices bacon or pancetta
olive oil
Blanch the peeled fava beans in boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Cool immediately and remove the white casing around each bean. Meanwhile sauté 1-2 garlic cloves with 3 slices pancetta or bacon and 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the fava beans and sauté another 3-5 minutes. Serve as a side dish or over pasta.
Braised whole-pod fava beans with dill
Fava beans are a culinary highlight of spring, but double shelling them takes time. Very young favas though can be eaten pod and all.
Prep time and cook time: 45 minutes
Makes six servings
1/3 cup olive oil
1 sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 ½ pounds fava bean pods, ends trimmed and strings removed
¾ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup dill, plus 1 tablespoon for garnish
Plain whole-milk or greek style yogurt
- Put oil and onion in a large pot over medium-high heat. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add favas, salt, sugar, and ¼ cup water. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes.
- Add ¼ cup dill, cover and cook until fava pods are tender and starting to fall apart, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon dill and serve warm or at room temperature with yogurt on the side.
Fava bean recipes:
Grilled Fava Beans as told to Andy by Bruce Hill of Bix in San Francisco
The easiest way to prepare favas is to grill them. The heat of the coals will pop the pods open and split the hulls that wrap each bean. Remove the beans with your fingers and they’re ready. If there’s a bit of char on your fingers from plucking out the beans from the grilled pods, it only helps the flavor.
Julia’s Desperation Favas
This works best with freshly picked young fava beans.
1. Have children, guests, or domestic partners remove fava beans from pods.
2. After taking the beans out of the pod but BEFORE removing the ‘skin’, sauté the beans with garlic, olive oil and salt. The skins come half off and the whole thing can be eaten hot over rice, noodles, as a side dish or as a salad if chilled. Enjoy!
Our Favorite Fava Beans
from Julia and Andy
These two recipes are similar to the desperation favas, above, but these can also be used with larger fava beans, or ones that have already been stored a few days since harvest.
2 pound favas, taken out of the pods
1-4 cloves of garlic, chopped AND/OR:
1/2 cup onions, chopped
olive oil
S & P The simplest version: sauté the favas with the garlic in the heated oil. the shells will come off in the pan, they are a lighter green, and the whole thing can be eaten like that. (Season with S & P) Version #2: Put the light green favas (that have been removed from the pod) into boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Remove immediately, rinse in cold water. Take the outer shell off each fava bean, so that you have just the bright emerald green bean. Then cook just the inner brighter green beans in the heated oil with the garlic for 2-3 minutes, then eat. We like both versions, and which one we do depends on if we have guests or willing children to help in the extra step of Version #2.
Fava Bean/Couscous Salad (you can adapt the vegetables to whatever you have on hand….)
-1 cup raw couscous (Trader Joe’s has whole wheat…) Cooked according to package intructions. (This is easy! Bring one cup water with a bit of butter or oil and a pinch of salt to a boil. Turn off heat and stir in 1 cup raw couscous and stir up well. Put a lid on and set the timer for 5 minutes. Fluff couscous and you’re ready to go.)
-1 small bowl or more shelled, blanched favas (the bright green ones)
-3 green onions, chopped
-large handful orach leaves, thinly sliced
-Green Garlic Dressing
Mix all ingredients above, making sure you don’t put in too much dressing. Eat!
Green Garlic Dressing
1-3 stalks roughly chopped green garlic, tough end leaves discarded
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1 Tablespoon honey
1/3 cup olive oil
S & P
Whirl all in a blender. Can be used as a salad dressing or marinade.
Fava and Fresh ricotta Bruschetta
Recipe from Lou Bustamonte
All I did was cook the favas in low heat in a tiny bit of water, peeled them, and sprinkled them on top of some olive oil and garlic brushed toasted Acme bread that had a nice helping of farm fresh ricotta. I added a little salt and pepper, and ate. Amazing.
Roman-Style Raw Fava Beans, Scamorza(or Smoked Mozzarella), and Fresh Onion
Antipasto di Fave e Cipolla Fresca
from Verdura by Vivana La Place
A springtime antipasto of raw fava beans and new onions. Eating tender fava beans is a special treat. Eat them unpeeled if you enjoy the refreshing bitter edge of the peel, or peel them first for a sweeter flavor. Serve this dish with crusty breadsticks, a sturdy country loaf, or black pepper taralli, a type of pretzel found in Italian specialty markets, and company with a pitcher of cool dry wine.
2 pounds fava beans, unshelled weight
a few small lettuce leaves
3 scallions or 1 small fresh onion, thinly sliced
1 pound scamorza cheese, sliced (substitute smoked mozzarella)
Basket of bread sticks, black pepper taralli, or bread
Shell the favas and mound in the center of a platter. Surround with the lettuce leaves and scatter the onions over the top. Arrange slices of the cheese around the edge of the platter. Serve with the bread.
Umbrian Fava Bean Stew (Scafata)
This recipe is about as simple as spring cooking gets. It’s adapted from Antonella Santolini’s La Cucina Delle Regioni D’Italia: Umbria The name comes from the Umbrian word for the hull of the beans.
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup shelled fava beans
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped fennel
1 1/2 cups chopped chard leaves
1 1/2 cups chopped, peeled tomatoes
salt, pepper
Cook oil, beans, onion, fennel, carrot and chard over low heat in medium saucepan. When beans are quite tender, after about 45 minutes, add tomatoes and cook for another 25 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.