Summer CSA Week 4

Great rain, great sun, so now summer vegetable plants--tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, cucumbers--are finally showing signs of life.  Soon they'll be in the share.  Well, in a few weeks, anyway...

Potato crop looks fantastic, garlic will be amazing, we're transitioning form the last of the spring lettuce to the first of the summer.

In the meantime, a fine share this week:

1.5 lbs March tomatoes
1 lb. sweet cherries from upstate NY
12 Garlic scapes (that's the absolute last of them until next year!!!)
1 bag delicious microgreens mix (pea shoots, radish, amaranth, pac choi)
1 head of lettuce
Choice of bag of kale or swiss chard

Swap for anything but dairy.

Speaking of kale, here's an amazing video about why you should eat your greens, kale especially.  My father suffered from MS, and I so wish we had seen this video:

Eat your kale!

At the stand this week, in addition to the usual suspects, we have raspberries, yogurt smoothies from the same dairy that makes the butter (still out of production, sadly), kohlrabi, beets, chives, and Appleridge Chickens.

Enjoy!

Week 3, 2012 summer

Meet Matilda, the new Garden Dog!

Whew.  Tough week.  Had to cut harvest day short today--greens won't keep well if picked when the temperature is too high...looks like a 5 a.m. out in the field kind of day tomorrow!!!

This heat will finish the early strawberries--always the most tender of the season--so we're including a full quart in this weeks share.  Later strawberries have good flavor, too, but they're never as succulent.  Enjoy!

Northern orchards were hit hard by frosts this spring after the early heat accelerated growth.  Cherries will be in extremely short supply this year, and the price is high.  Part of Red Jacket's cherry orchard was spared a frost when the trees were in flower, and they have some cherries, and now we have them.   They are delicious.  They are not in the share, but are available for sale.  If you're a cherry lover, strike now!

Out kale crop is beautiful this year, and we offer a healthy bunch in this week's share.

This week and next will be the last for garlic scapes...then we wait until mid-summer for the garlic itself.

This is true transitional mode in the garden--spring crops are finishing, summer crops are finally getting going.  Just sowed some heat tolerant lettuce, more turnips, beets, and lots of micro-greens.

Stay cool...well, try anyway.

In this week's share:

1 quart strawberries
1.5 lb tomatoes
15 garlic scapes
kale
choice of romaine lettuce, swiss chard, mustard greens, komatsuna, or salad mix

Greetings!  More gentle, soaking rain this week.  Potatoes and garlic love it!  Tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers...not so much.

In this weeks share:

Bigger bunches of turnips
2 lbs. of delicious March Farm Tomatoes
15!!! garlic scapes
Head of lettuce
1 pint of Red Jacket Orchard strawberries (eat them soon---these babies don't keep long!)
Gator Swiss Chard: here's a simple, yummy recipe (you can use the garlic scapes in place of the shallots and garlic)  Swiss chard recipe

Feel free to swap out for more garlic scapes (if you want to make lots of pesto to freeze--next week will be the last week for them), salad mix, mustard greens, or kale (our first batch).

Please don't take extra strawberries or turnips--I've got just about the right amount.

Take time to walk the garden tomorrow if you can--lush doesn't describe it.

Summer CSA Week 1!!!

Greetings to all!

Tomorrow is the first week of the summer CSA share.  It's still early in the season, so the greens are still in fine form.

Please check your name off of the list when you come.  Check the chalkboard for what's in the share.  Items will be in the double fridge or on the counter by the chalkboard.

 Tomorrow's share will consist of:

Garlic scapes
Baby turnips
Mustard Greens
Pea Shoots
Salad Mix
2 heads of lettuce
1 tomato

Garlic scapes: yippee!!!  These are the flowering stalks of garlic that must be harvested so that the garlic bulbs can continue growing.  Only recently have they become a gourmet item, and deservedly so.  This page: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/the-crisper-whisperer-what-to-do-with-garlic-scapes-recipe.html has some wonderful ideas for the scapes.  I use them in everything these days--salads, soups, pestos, eggs, risottos..they are not here for long...perhaps the next 3 or 4 shares.  Enjoy them while we have them!

I like to cook simply with all greens.  Here's the perfect mustard greens recipe:  http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/mustard_greens/

Keep the baby turnips simple: slice the leaves and turnips thinly; saute in a LIBERAL amount of melted butter with pepper and salt until just tender.  Eat!

Pea shoots taste just like peas!  Eat them raw, add to salads, or chop and cook like the turnips and cook over very good pasta.

1 measly tomato!  March Farm in Bethlehem, grower of these fine June tomatoes, has been feeling the effects of cloudy days...they'll be much more in next week's share.

See you tomorrow!