July 21st and 24th

A Tale of Tall Peas

The snap peas are beautiful specimen this year.  The first planting did not germinate, but the 2nd did perfectly.   They have been growing, growing, growing...

 

 

Now, a "tale" usually has an up side and a down.  And so it begins...

 

 

# of times I had to seed the peas (by hand, mind you): 2

# of days the peas have been growing: 70

# of days the catalog says the peas will take to mature: 60

# of row feet: 200

height of peas currently: 8-10 feet

# of times I have trellised the peas, so they stand up: 5

# of times I have had to fix the trellis because it has fallen over: 3

# of peas we have picked thus far: maybe 5

THIS COULD BE THE WEEK!!!!  Hopefully they fatten up to their tasty sweetness and we can enjoy them before this tale takes a turn for the worse : )

PYO Flower Garden is in full swing.  Beautiful.  Good job, Zachy.

This week's BOUNTY!  lettuce, arugula, radish, hakurei turnip, fennel, kohl rabi, broccoli, beet greens, scallions, tat soi, tendersweet cabbage, chinese cabbage, summer squash, zukes, cukes, garlic scapes and herbs  ... eat up!!!!


Recipes:

Fennel: Don't be afraid to try this on sandwiches, in salads, grilled....  It's a lighter flavor than you think!!!

Martha's 25 fennel recipes

• Fennel stalks can take the place of celery in soups and stews, and can be used as a "bed" for roasted chicken and meats.
• Use fronds as a garnish, or chop them and use as you would other herbs, like dill or parsley. Chopped fennel works especially well in Italian tomato sauces, but add it late in the cooking process so the flavor isn't diluted.
• Trim the stalks about an inch above the bulb.
• If you want pieces to stay together for grilling, keep the root end intact. Otherwise, trim about a half inch off the root end before cooking.
• To slice fennel, stand the bulb on the root end and cut vertically.


Chinese Cabbage:  great sliced thin on burritos or as a side salad.  Crispy and light

Tendersweet Cabbage: Tender leaves are very thin, sweet, and crisp - perfect for coleslaw or stir-fries.

Radish: other things to do with radishes...

Roasted Radishes

13 Real Simple Radish Recipes


The Farmer's Table:
*Portland Pie Dough Pizza with dill, parsley and basil pesto and fennel
*Sunnyside chicken baked on top of fennel stalks.  Topped with hakurei turnips and their greens and a lemon from my brothers yard in CA : )
*pulled pork stir fry with haurei turnips and carrots
*leftover pulled pork with pickled hakurei and kohl rabi slaw
*leftover chicken sandwiches with Paul's bread, dill, arugula, mustard and Spring Day Creamery Fromage Blanc
*Saturday snack of sliced radishes and cukes with a Winter Hill Farm yogurt and herb dip
*marinated London Broil (our grass fed beef) with millet, broccoli and sliced radish

...Oh yes, we have it so gooooood!!!!!!!!!!

Shareholder's Table:
A delicious kohlrabi, fennel and apple salad tossed in olive oil and lemon, with a bunch of the fresh herbs. That' was an excellent way to use up some of the fennel!

June 5th and 8th: Rain Gauge

The Rain Gauge 

Okay, well, it's a little wet and sloppy out there.  A mere 7 and 3/4 inches of rain thus far and I only lost my boot once!  I thought I would have to cancel pick up this week, but after walking around a bit, things look better than I had anticipated--whew.  I think the worst of it is over and it is quite surprising how quickly it all drains away as the intensity of the storm lessens.  A few little plants are wading in water, but all in all I am hopeful.

The rain gauge is a helpful tool so I can determine if I need to irrigate crops or not.  Sometimes when it rains, it feels like loads has fallen but in truth it will only be a quarter of an inch.  Many crops, trees and fruits prefer to get an inch of rain every week...so with 8 inches I am all set for the next 2 months right : )

Last week was a rush of work.  With the weather being much nicer than this weekend, I was able to get loads done in the fields.  We planted lots of tomatoes, most of the peppers, hand seeded cucumbers, winter squash and even some corn.  I was just about to put the pumpkin seeds in but realized the soil temps were still a little too cool and wet.  (Hopefully the corn doesn't notice.)  Almost everything is covered in blankets of Remy and Simon ran across only one of them so far.  The ducks have taken a liking to them as well since the slugs make it a highway when it gets wet.  They don't make holes in it and I probably wouldn't even notice that they had been there, except their muddy foot prints give them away : )

Most crops won't mind this deluge of water and they are looking green and growing.  This week will be another fine week of mixed greens and some asparagus.  There may be a few stray carrots left in the winter storage but really now we are into seasonal eating and must wait for things to grow.  Lots of greens until July then we will bust into peas, baby carrots and baby beets.  Oh, but this week you get a sweet taste of summer turnips and turnips greens!!!

This week's harvest: lettuce mix, mustard mix, arugula, head lettuce, chives, sorrel, radish, baby turnips and turnip greens, rhubarb and asparagus

Recipes:

Be sure to visit this great site about greens. I don't grow all of them, but many you will see throughout the season: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/seasonalcooking/farmtotable/visualguidecookinggreens

Mustard mix:  This mix is nice in salads when it is small and tender.  If you find the leaves too spicy or rough, try brazing them. http://www.care2.com/greenliving/simple-braised-greens-garlic.html

Hakurei Turnips:  This guys are crisp and sweet just just a hint of spice.  They are super raw or lightly cooked.

Week 3, June 8th and 11th

Hakurei Turnips

These delightful globes are crunchy, sweet, a tad spicy and fun to grow! They are turnips, but unlike any other you may have tried. They are a "specialty" Japanese turnip--see you don't need to go to the farmer's market to get fancy food : ) You can use them like a radish; on your salad, sliced on your sandwich or cook em up for a slightly sweeter, softer addition to your meal.

"If you tend to run screaming from turnips, then pretty little hakurei turnips just may turn you around."

What is the nutritional value? They are low in calories, high in vitamin C, and fiber.

How can you eat them? raw or cooked
How do you store them? Crisper...we all need just one big crisper in the spring!


These look a little wilty because I took the photo at high noon on a very windy day. (Note to photographer: don't take photos of vegetables at that time.)
Rain!!! Did you ever think I would put three exclamation points after the word "rain" after last year? We were really lucky this weekend and got about 2 inches here and no wind--whew! The plants are all soooo happy. I am supposed to hill the taters at 6 and 12 inches, but they went straight from 2" to 12" in three days! Of course the weeds liked the bit of rain too so this week's list mostly entails weeding, with a little transplanting intermixed.
This week's loot: beet greens, lettuce mix, hakurei turnips with greens, mustard greens, arugula, spinach, tat soi--spring greens baby!
Next week's loot: more greens : )
Sauteed turnips: 2 bunches hakurei turnips with greens
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon butter Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup white wine
Instructions:
Rinse the turnips and greens well. Cut the greens from the turnips and chop into 2-inch pieces. Trim any straggly roots from the turnips and discard. Cut the turnips into quarters or eighths, depending on size. In a sauté pan with a lid, heat the olive oil and butter. Add the turnips, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, and sauté until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Remove the turnips from the pan. Add the greens to the pan, along with any moisture still clinging to the leaves. Cover the pan and allow the greens to cook, stirring once or twice, until just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the white wine and cook until almost all the liquid is gone. Return the turnips to the pan; cook 1 to 2 minutes to heat through. Serve immediately.

Baked Hakurei Turnips

Remove greens from turnips, leaving about one inch of stem attached to the turnip. Wash and place in saucepan. Cover with water and boil until tender. Drain turnips, place in baking pan, drizzle with olive oil and bake at 400 degrees until golden brown. Sprinkle with sea salt and eat the whole turnip, stem and all. The greens can be sautéed.

--From Rosebank Farms

Week 7--The Bad and The Good

Well just when I thought that by the sun coming out, all of our worries would bake away...I discovered we are a victom of the early late blight. Many of you may have heard about this disease that affects potatoes and tomatoes on the news. It is the same fungus that caused the Potato Famine in Ireland in 1845. Luckily we are not as dependant on the potato as those folks were so we shouldn't have mass starvation. However, it is still a terrible disease that can quickly have a devestating affect on our crops and surely affect us economicaly. It is spread by spores that travel on the wind and are extremely active in cool, damp weather. Typically this disease doesn't reach Maine until late in the season, just before the crops are about to be hit by frost. (Frost kills the spores). But this year, the blight hitch hiked on some tomato transplants coming up from the south and in combo with our excessive wet weather the spores spread like crazy. The blight is now widespread throughout the northeast and we are all scrambling to check out our plants daily, remove any plants that are affected, burn them and then spray copper (a natural fungicide) weekly in order to control the spores from spreading---hopefully. So keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't spread throughout our tomatoes and into the potatoes. And that come next month we will be feasting on tastey red fruit!

So with all the craziness that has happened this year, you may wonder what is keeping me going. Well, there are a few things that may only excite a farmer, but that bring a lightness to my step despite the clods of mud that try to weigh me down. Here are a few photos to explain...




This week's Loot: Lettuce, Hakuri Turnips, Baby Carrots, Chinese Cabbage, Chard, Peas, Garlic Scapes, mint
Next Week's Loot: Lettuce, Baby Carrots, Baby Beets?, the last of the peas, green beans?

Washing Tip--I find things like beet greens, leeks, chinese cabbage...that it is easier to cut up the leaves first, then wash in a strainer. That way the soil has more of a chance to wash off rather than to slide into another crack.

Summer Hakuri Turnips!
These beautiful globes may be eaten raw or cooked. They aren't quite as spicey as a radish and have a wonderful crunch.


Shell Peas! These are great raw on salads!
Freeze a quart bag, I promise, you will be sooo happy you did mid winter!
Shell peas, bring water to a boil, put peas in and blanch for 2 minutes, drain and place peas in ice water to stop cooking. Drain again and place in a freezer bag.

Carrot Top Soup

1 bunch carrots, including the greens
1/2 cup brown rice
2 garlic scapes, chopped

6 cups water, light chicken stock, or vegetable stock
thyme, to taste, and whatever other herbs suit your fancy

salt & pepper, to taste

In a small saucepan, bring 3/4 cups water to a boil. Add rice. Simmer until tender, and set aside. While the rice is cooking, chop carrot tops, enough for 2 to 3 cups,loosely packed. Wash thoroughly, then chop finely.

Chop the carrots into fairly small pieces.
Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a soup pot. Add the carrot topsand carrots, garlic and herbs. Cook for a few minutes, turning everything a few times, then add the water or stock, and salt. Bring to a boil, and simmer until the carrots are almost cooked. Add the rice, heat through until the carrots are tender, then taste for salt and season with pepper.

Baby Turnips and Greens

16 turnips with greens

5 Tbs Butter

Salt and Pepper

Cut Leaves from turnips, cut and wash well

Melt 3 Tbs of butter in a sautee pan

Layer sliced turnip in the pan, cook 2-5 minutes so they brown but are still crunchy

Melt in remaining butter and stir in greens

Stir, add salt and enjoy!

Turnip Slaw

1# turnips, grated

1/2 carrots, grated

1/2 pepper, thinly sliced

3/4 c thinly sliced celery

1/4 C diced chives

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 C cider vinegar

1/4 C water

Combine all and let sit to wilt for 30 minutes

Serve over or mix in with lettuce

Add blue cheese or chevre on top