• Chinese Broccoli (delicious broccoli eat the whole stem, leaves and tuft of broccoli)
• Kale (make crispy kale if you have not already)
• Spinach or chard (eat your greens! They cook down to almost nothing and are so good for you)
• Lettuce (Little Gem, Flashy Troutback, Rutile and Kirabati)
• Cilantro or arugula
• Radishes
• Turnips or Bok Choy
• Shallots

The spring is green and so is your share this week. Lots of lush leaves to enjoy with your family. Salad greens, stir fry greens, sauteed greens. Sugar snap peas are surging up the trellises and they are starting to bloom. This means that we will have peas in 3 weeks! The transformation on the farm is in full swing. Greenhouse #1 has gone from winter greens to tomatoes, peppers and basil. Greenhouse #2 featured in the photo is so packed you can hardly walk through it. The zucchini is close to flowering. The potatoes will be in bloom soon and ready to harvest those first new potatoes. The Chinese broccoli is debuting today as one of our signature vegetables for early spring. This unique broccoli is so tender you eat it all! See multiple recipes below.

Greenhouse #3 is actually just hoops and is full of flowers. Greenhouse #4 is next on the docket to shift from spinach, radishes, turnips to cucumbers and eggplant. Greenhouse #5 has been cleared of the Calcots and planted with tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and a row of cucumbers. Greenhouse #6 has the overwintered onions, garlic and a row of early crops like lettuce, kale, chard and bok choy. The tomatoes planted just 10 days ago have doubled in size. The high tunnel, our longest hoop house, has chinese broccoli, sugar snap peas and the lettuce you have been enjoying these first few weeks. Lettuce will come out this week and peppers will go in.

The fields are about half way planted. We have beds of broccoli, onions, and shallots. We have lettuce, spinach, fennel, kohlrabi,parsley and more. Zucchini, cabbage, potatoes and more radish are also in the ground. The warm weather crops will be planted over the next week or so as we head into Mother’s Day weekend.

Next weekend we celebrate my mom turning 90. She will welcome many of her Canadian cousins as well as family from California. We expect over 80 people to participate. We are trying to stay on top of farm maintenance along with the planting, weeding and harvesting of our vegetables.

If you are planning a home garden to supplement your Finquita CSA share look no further. We have tons of veggie and flower starts available every Saturday at the Beaverton Farmers Market from 8:30-1:30. If you want us to have your veggie starts here at the farm just order and  pick up with your share: https://pumpkinridgegardens.square.site/s/shop?page=1&limit=30&sort_by=name&sort_order=asc&item_status=in_stock. Make sure to note you want pick up at the farm.

Stir-Fried Chinese Broccoli

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, smashed
2 lb Chinese broccoli (sometimes known as Chinese kale), ends of stems trimmed and broccoli cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup Thai chicken stock or canned chicken broth
2 tablespoons Thai yellow bean sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons sugar

Special equipment: a large (6-qt) wok

Heat oil in wok over high heat until hot but not smoking, then stir-fry garlic until pale golden, 10 to 15 seconds. Add broccoli and stock and stir-fry 2 minutes. Add bean sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar and stir-fry until broccoli is crisp-tender, 4 to 5 minutes.

Cooks’ note:
Broccoli can be trimmed and cut 6 hours ahead and chilled in a sealed plastic bag

Gourmet
May 2004

Chinese Broccoli (Lyn’s quick stir fry)

1 bunch Chinese Broccoli (flower, stem and leaves) – remove any hard end of the stem

2-4 cloves of garlic minced

1 – 2 tablespoon soy sauce

¼ cup water

Olive oil

Heat a wok or frying pan and add 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. Add minced garlic until aromatic (about 1 minute) then add the broccoli and toss to coat with oil and garlic for about 1 minute. Add soy sauce and coat then add the water and cover for 3-5 minutes until tender and still bright green. Serve by itself or over rice. . . YUM!

Swiss Chard Stem “Baba Ganoush”

Reserve greens for another use (think anything you would do with spinach except better!) trim dry ends of the stems,  then cut into 2” pieces.  Boil in water until tender (?about 15 minutes?) then drain well.

In a food processor or blender,  puree 1-2 cloves garlic,  then add cooked chard stalks, juice of 1 lemon, and 2-3 Tbs tahini.  Buzz until smooth,  then adjust seasonings to taste 

Grilled chard stems

Reserve leaves for another use and trim ends.  Steam until tender but not mushy and pat dry.  Brusl lightly with oil and salt and pepper,  garlic if you’d like,  and grill until starting to blister.

Martha Steward’s Swiss Chard Tzatziki: https://www.marthastewart.com/1134875/swiss-chard-tzatziki

Baked Crispy Kale Recipe
Servings: 4 as snack Prep Time: 5 Cook Time: 20
The biggest secret to getting the kale super-crisp is to dry them in a salad spinner. If there is moisture on the leaves, the kale will steam, not crisp. Also, do not salt the kale until after they have come out of the oven. If you salt beforehand, the salt will just cause the kale to release moisture…thus steaming instead of crisping. I’ve also found that the convection setting on my oven works really well too – I set the convection on 325F and bake for about 10-15 minutes. Have fun with this recipe, I sometimes mix the salt with Cajun or Creole seasoning.
 
Ingredients:
4 giant handfuls of kale, torn into bite-sized pieces and tough stems removed (about 1/3 pound)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt or kosher salt
 
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
 
2. Place the kale leaves into a salad spinner and spin all of the water out of the kale. Dump the water and repeat one or two times more just to make sure that the kale is extra dizzy and dry. Use a towel to blot any extra water on the leaves. Place the kale on the baking sheet.
 
3. Drizzle olive oil over the kale leaves and use your hands to toss and coat the leaves. Bake in the oven for 12-20 minutes until leaves are crisp. Take a peek at the 12 minute mark – the timing all depends on how much olive oil you use. Just use a spatula or tongs to touch the leaves, if they are paper-thin crackly, the kale is done. If the leaves are still a bit soft, leave them in for another 2 minutes. Do not let the leaves turn brown (they’ll be burnt and bitter) Remove from oven, sprinkle with salt and serve.