A major distraction

It’s a miracle we harvested your vegetables this week in the midst of a major distraction.  Years ago, a pickup truck died in a far field in late fall and was never revived.  It has become a useless fixture of our farm.  “Remember, you can always take shelter in that truck if there’s lightning.”  Everyone rolls their eyes because the truck is so gross.  What happens if you leave a truck parked in one place long enough?  Nature abhors a vacuum.

Lo and behold, a wild cat had a litter of kittens in the truck. The crew heard them yowling one day.  Simone approached and a kitten immediately crawled out of the truck and into her arms.  Amazing.  We watched for a few days, feeding the kittens and waiting for the mother cat to return.  They became more desperate and eventually Simone took the litter home.  Left in the field, they are easy prey for raccoons.  They are growing quickly and fairing well at Simone’s house.  The crew has dibs on them, but I’ll let you know if any need homes.  They have brightened everyone’s lives this week, especially Simone who recently lost a beloved kitty.   Beth

Photo credits from top, Beth, Andrew, Madeleine, Karen.

Take it with a grain of …

Fennel harvest started on a grumpy note. We planted the fennel in a very fertile field, so it grew lush but unwieldy and brittle.  The crew bushwhacked their way down the field with a sharpened shovel, a favorite tool in this situation.  Then we cut a few fennel bulbs to check the quality.  Just a few bites and, suddenly, it was everyone’s favorite vegetable and the day improved.  Zippy, licorice-y, it is fabulous raw. The discussion segued to trendy, expensive fennel salt, and a new farm motto was born: “Take it with a grain of fennel salt.”  Maggie researched fennel salt and found two intriguing recipes in a Local Kitchen post:

• Fennel frond salt
• Candied fennel stalks

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Maggie plans to make both the salt and the candied stems, Jory and Osha the fennel salt, and Gage has plans for fennel wine.  “OK,” he said after the mixed response, “I won’t make a full six gallons.”

Veggie List and Veggie Notes (July 9/10, 2015, week #8, green EOW)

Fennel, 1 bulb
Cucumbers, about 3
Zucchini/summer squash, 2.5 – 3 lb
Red or green bibb lettuce
Broccoli, 1 medium head
Mustard greens, 1 bunch
Beets, 2 lb
Walla Walla onion, 1 – 2
Bunched scallions OR an extra Walla Walla onion
Parsley, 1 bunch

Next week’s box will probably contain tomato juice, zucchini, Walla Walla onion, cucumbers, broccoli, lacinato kale, green beans or peas, kohlrabi and more.

Fennel (large vegetable with a fat bulb and lacy fronds) – Fennel is a ‘swing vegetable’; it can be used raw or cooked.  Clean well and slice as thinly as possible for use in raw salads.  It is good simply prepared with olive oil, lime or lemon juice, salt and shaved parmesan cheese.  Cooking softens and sweetens fennel, and mellows its anise flavor.  Both the bulb and leaves are edible.  Here are ideas from Alice Water of Chez Panisse about how to use fennel:  ‘It’s strong anise characteristic seems to suit fish particularly well.  … We use fennel all the time.  We add the feathery leaves to marinades for fish and to numerous salads, sauces and soups and we use them as a garnish, too. … The bulbs are sliced and served raw in salads in various combinations with other vegetables, parboiled for pastas; caramelized and served as a side dish; braised whole; or cooked in vegetable broths & fish stocks.”
Lettuce – The lettuce are small this week.  Our peak lettuce season is ending, and we harvested these young to ensure good quality.
Mustard greens (bundle of large green leaves) – Spicy mustard greens are considered one of the most nutritious vegetables.  The flat-leaved variety that we grow is much milder than the traditional curly mustard.  The thin, tender leaves only need brief cooking, about as long as Swiss chard (i.e., longer than spinach but shorter than kale).
Walla Walla onion – Yeah for the first Walla Wallas!  These are sweet onions, crisp and very mild.  Wonderful raw or lightly cooked.  Don’t try to fry these onions – it doesn’t work because of their high water content.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Salad with Caramelized Fennel and Pancetta
Fennel, Kale or Mustard Greens and Pastina Soup
Citrus Rice Salad with Feta, Walla Walla Onions and Cucumbers
Creamy Zucchini and Spaghetti
Roasted Beet, Cucumber and Feta Salad
Southern Braised Mustard Greens with Bacon

Outside the Box Recipes

Fennel and Beet Soup with Kefir
Cucumber Granita
Batter Fried Zucchini Strips
Mustard Greens Pesto with Raisins
Chocolate Beet Cake and Gluten Free Chocolate Beet Cake
Beets with their Greens, in Cumin Garlic Vinaigrette

Kitchen Sink Recipe
Here’s this week’s installment in our “whole box” challenge. You could easily add your fennel (with its fronds), onion and zucchini to this strata. You may want to add a couple more eggs.

Broccoli and Bacon Strata

Quick and Easy Dinner Idea
Feel free to get creative, if you have time, and add caramelized onion, cucumber, parsley…you get the idea!

Salad with Grilled Skirt Steak, Shredded Beets and Blue Cheese

Newest farm hobby

Maggie and Jon suggested I share the latest farm hobby: collecting interesting bugs.  Farmhand Madeleine Wieder is especially taken with the beautiful swallowtail caterpillars.  She’s taken two of them home to pupate in a jar, with names “Lewis” and “Carroll.”   We find swallowtail caterpillars scattered about the farm on plants in the carrot family (carrots, fennel, dill, parsnip, parsley).  Their populations are low so they cause little cumulative damage to our crops.  We appreciate the beauty and interest they add to our lives.  Check out Wisconsin Butterflies for gorgeous photos and basic bios of species found in Wisconsin.  These are probably black swallowtails.  I’ll post more photos once they pupate and emerge as butterflies.

Madeleine holds a swallowtail caterpillar on a fennel frond.

When threatened, the caterpillars unfurl bright orange ‘horns’ and release an incredible stench.  Trust us, they really do stink.

Madeleine has found swallowtails on parsnips growing in our pea field, …

… while bunching parsley (hence the rubber bands), …

… and while weeding carrots.  Lewis and Carroll near pupation size, feeding on carrots leaves.  Madeleine took the last three photos.

Veggie List and Veggie Notes (July 2/3, 2015, purple EOW)

Strawberry season is over.  We expected to pick the final berries this week, but pounding rain on Monday did them in.  We will miss the berries, but our crew is glad to move on to other jobs.

‘Caraflex’ green cabbage, 1
Swiss chard, 1 bunch
Broccoli, 1 or 2 medium heads
Romaine lettuce
Sugar snap peas, 1.4 lb
Zucchini & summer squash, about 3 lb
Rhubarb, 1.5 lb
Garlic scapes, a handful
A few members will get one cucumber.  We’ll have cukes for everyone next week.

Next week’s box will probably contain sweet Walla Walla onions, cucumbers, broccoli, greens, zucchini, herbs and more.

‘Caraflex’ cabbage – This ia a nice salad-type that we grow in summer.  Don’t you love the pointy shape?  It has thinner, more tender leaves than the usual green cabbage.  Great in salads and slaws but can also be cooked.  Here’s the description from the seed catalogue: “Inner leaves are tender, crunchy, and have an excellent, sweet and mild cabbage flavor.  Perfect for summer salads, slaws, or cooked dishes.”
Swiss chard (pretty bundle of green leaves) – This is a close relative of spinach, but requires a bit more cooking.  Use as a substitute in any recipe that calls for spinach, just cook the chard a little longer. Both stems and leaves are delicious. The stems requite longer cooking, so cut them free from the leaves when preparing.  That allows you to cook the stems longer.
Rhubarb – We’re sending rhubarb so you can bake for your holiday parties!
Cucumbers (only a few members this week) – We should have cucumbers for everyone next week.  If you do receive one this week, don’t be surprised if it’s a bit misshapen.  Like zucchini, the first set of cucumbers are often odd.

‘Caraflex’ green cabbage

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Rhubarb Charlotte
Fish and Wilted Swiss Chard Tacos with Shredded Lettuce and Chipotle Cream
Mac and Smoked Gouda with Broccoli
Stir Fry Rice Noodle with Snap Pea and Eggs
Laura’s Zucchini Bread
Napa Cabbage and Chicken Salad

Outside the Box Recipes

Rhubarb Vinaigrette
Greek Swiss Chard and Zucchini Soup
Broccoli and Gorgonzola Polenta
Lettuce Steamed Snap Peas
Zucchini Carpaccio
Cabbage and Shrimp Fritters

Kitchen Sink Recipe
Make a big old salad with any of the box ingredients and add the garlic scape dressing. Imagine the different textures if you grill your romaine and then top with raw, shaved zucchini or broccoli florets, chopped snap peas or sliced Swiss chard.

Grilled Romaine with Garlic Scape Dressing

Quick and Easy Dinner Idea

Grilled Salmon with Summer Squash and Snap Pea Relish

Lucky U-Pick

We had great conditions for our strawberry u-pick last weekend.  The weather stayed dry despite storms in the area, and the picking was easy.

Billy (at right in green jacket) leads members to the berry patch.

Happy members with their berries.

Upcoming final strawberry u-pick

Read our June 24 email for info about the final berry u-pick.

Veggie List and Veggie Notes (June 25/26 2015, week #6, green EOW)

This box is designed for Asian salads or stir-fries, with napa cabbage, daikon, peas, scallions and garlic scapes.

Strawberries, 2 qt
Snap peas, 0.90 lb
Snow peas, 0.25 lb
(Both types of peas are in one bag.)
Napa cabbage
Daikon radish, 1 – 3 by size
Scallions, 1 bunch
Zucchini/summer squash, about 3 lb
Garlic scapes, a handful

Next week’s box will probably contain snap peas, garlic scapes, lettuce, Swiss chard, zucchini, broccoli and more.  We’re not sure yet if there will be more strawberries.

Strawberries – Everyone gets two quarts again this week.  Strawberries are perishable so don’t try to store these for long.  Refrigerate.  Compare the two containers, judge which berries are softer and more ripe, and eat those first.
Napa cabbage (large, pale green cabbage with crinkled leaves) – This is an interesting vegetable, useful for both fresh, raw salads and for cooking.  These napa are large enough to split among several recipes.  Napa’s most famous use is fermented kimchi.  I like to prepare a fresh, unfermented kimchi.  Same seasonings, but it’s ready to eat right away.  You will be amazed at how much shredded napa cabbage shrinks when prepared this way.  See here for an example, but cut the salt in half: Grilled Flank Steak with Kimchi-style Coleslaw.
Storage:  Napa stores very well.  Cut off wedges as needed and keep the rest covered and refrigerated, and it will keep for several weeks.  Peel off the outer layer and it will be ready to use.  Here are a few preparation ideas from the ‘Asparagus to Zucchini’ cookbook.
– Chop raw napa into green salads.
– Substitute napa in traditional coleslaw.
– Chinese cabbage cooks quickly.  Steam 3-5 minutes, or until leaves are wilted down but remain slightly crisp.
– Substitute napa cabbage for common cabbage in recipes, but reduce the cooking time by 2 minutes.
– Napa cabbage is the main ingredient in egg rolls.  Try making an egg roll mixture to eat as a cooked side dish instead of preparing time-consuming egg rolls.
Daikon radish (slender white roots) – These Asian radishes are good cooked or raw.  We often make a sliced radish salad, with Asian-style dressing (rice vinegar, mirin, sesame oil, soy sauce, minced garlic). Even a brief marination mellows the radish’s sharpness.
Garlic scapes (curly green things) – Garlic scapes grow at the top of garlic plants.  They look like flower buds but are actually clusters of tiny bulblets.  We snap off the young scapes to direct the plants’ energy into forming garlic bulbs underground.  Use scapes as a substitute for garlic cloves.  They can be minced, mixed with olive oil, and added to stir fries or simple pasta dishes.  The scapes can be sautéed, but will not brown like garlic cloves.  Expect them to retain their crunch even when cooked, and to be milder than garlic cloves, closer in pungency to the green garlic we’ve sent.  Most of this week’s scapes are from John Hendrickson of Stone Circle Farm who grows organic garlic for our CSA, but some are from our garlic field.

Garlic scapes

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Strawberry Shortbread with Whipped Cream
Smoked Trout Snap Pea Pasta Salad
Napa Cabbage with Coriander Butter
Napa Cabbage with Cannelini Bean and Kielbasa Sauté
Daikon Pickle
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffin

Outside the Box Recipes

Fresh Strawberry Daiquiri
Vegetarian Japanese Snap Pea and Napa Cabbage Soup
Singapore Curried Noodles with Napa Cabbage and Tofu
Kimchi-Style Sautéed Cabbage
Skillet Daikon Radish Fritters
Garlicky Thai Fried Rice with Snap Peas and Summer Squash

Kitchen Sink Recipe
Feel free to serve this over the sautéed napa cabbage or if you like your burger on a bun, tuck in some of the daikon pickles.

Turkey and Zucchini Burgers with Green Onion and Cumin

Quick and Easy Dinner Idea

Grilled Flatbread with Grilled Zucchini or Summer Squash and Snap Pea Puree

Strawberry weeks

This promises to be our best-ever strawberry crop.  Eat ’em, pick ’em, this is the moment.  Tipi members, read our June 17 email about two upcoming u-picks.

Strawberry season is a demanding time of year.  Peas and strawberries are ready to harvest and both are time-consuming to pick.  At the same time, we’re still planting and transplanting crops, yet earlier plantings need weeding.  This happens every year.  We’re all pitching in and working long hours as needed.  The extra effort is worth it; the food this time of year is so delicious and the season so short!

Ginger

We doubled our ginger planting this year.  Our small inaugural crop last year was a success.  I ordered twice the amount of ginger ‘seed’ this year, an accomplishment as the seed is always in short supply.  We buy from a farm in Hawaii that produces disease-free organic ginger seed.  They are the only source worldwide right now, so we rarely receive the entire amount we order.  I placed my order this winter minutes after they opened sales.  The ‘seeds’ are just pieces of gingerroot which we plant in potting mix and keep warm until they sprout.  It takes at least 6 weeks before they are ready to plant in the ground in our smallest greenhouse.  It’s a great use for an under-utilized corner of the farm.  We use this greenhouse for just a month in spring to harden off seedlings before they go outside.  After that, it sits empty.  Now we have a new use for it.  We’ll give you an update in October – that’s when the ginger will be ready to harvest.

It’s important to pre-sprout gingerroot to get a jump-start on the long growing season needed to produce a crop.  Planted into potting mix and kept warm, the gingerroot slowly forms buds and roots.

Jory tends young ginger planted in our smallest greenhouse.

Veggie List and Veggie Notes (June 18/19, week #5, purple EOW)

Strawberries, 2+ qt
Asparagus, 0.9 lb
Spinach, 1 bunch
Snap peas, 1.4 lb
Snow peas, 0.25 lb
Both types of peas are in one bag.
Broccoli, 1 medium head
Red bibb lettuce, 1 or 2
Zucchini/summer squash, about 2 lb
Scallions, 1 bunch

Next week’s box will probably contain strawberries, peas, zucchini and summer squash, scallions, garlic scapes and more delightful spring vegetables.

Strawberries! – We’ve been waiting for these.
♦ Ripe strawberries are always perishable but these are especially delicate because of rainy weather earlier this week.  Ripe berries should be eaten immediately, or stored in the refrigerator.  Most berries are quite clean.  If you want to clean your berries, rinse gently.  Don’t soak them, just rinse.  Do not be concerned if you receive a partially-filled container.  Sometimes we fill them partially in order to distribute berries to all the members.
♦ You will receive two or three containers of strawberries.  Compare the containers, judge which berries are softer and more ripe, and eat those first.
♦ Please recycle your strawberry containers.  We no longer collect them for re-use.  Please don’t return them to your pick-up site.
Snap peas (plump pea pods) – These peas should be eaten pod and all.  They are delicious raw, or very lightly cooked or stir-fried.  They might need a quick rinse to remove faded gray blossoms.  Store in the refrigerator.  Here’s how to remove the strings from the snap peas.  Snap off the stem end and pull the string down the concave side of the pod (the inward-curing side).  Throw away the string and eat the pod.
Snow peas (flat pea pods) – These are excellent stir fried or in raw salads. The thicker pea pods will usually have two strings along the edges. Remove them when you snap the stem off.
Zucchini and summer squash – You will receive yellow summer squash or green zucchini.  Some squash are oddly shaped but are fine to eat.  This is typical for the first picking, and reflects that the first squash were not completely pollinated.  The plants were hidden under row covers where pollinators couldn’t find them.  The honeybees settled down to work once we removed the row covers.  The young squash sizing up for the next picking look great.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Broccoli Penne with Spinach Pesto
Salad with Roasted Asparagus, Hard Boiled Eggs, and Chickpeas 
Precious Snap Pea Sauté
Strawberry Dessert Pizza
Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan Dressing
Curried Steak, Radish, Zucchini and Snap Pea Stir Fry on Lettuce

Outside the Box Recipes

Sesame Wilted Spinach
Prosciutto Wrapped Grilled Asparagus with Fig Coulis
Quinoa Salad with Snap Peas
Strawberry Soup
Zucchini and Sugar Snap Pea Vietnamese Salad
Lettuce Pesto

Kitchen Sink Recipe
Some of our members like to make a big vat of something that uses up a lot of their veggies, then eat it all week — With this one, you can add just about any of the veggies in your box.

Pasta e Fagiole with Spinach

Quick and Easy Dinner

Spice Rubbed Zucchini Tacos with Scallions and Grilled Chicken

Always thinking

Fortunately for us, Steve loves tinkering with machinery.  This week’s inspired idea?  He tracked down parts to adapt our old strawberry planter to plant sweet potatoes.  Steve bought the berry planter at a farm auction years ago.  We haul it out of storage to plant strawberries – that’s all it’s been used for.  Adapted with new sprockets to change the spacing, it worked perfectly to plant sweet potato slips.

It’s a cozy garden party on the back of the berry planter.  From left, Madeleine, Lizzy, Kelcie and Billy place sweet potato slips.  Steve drives the tractor.

Rusty but reliable, the planter gets the job done.

This small team finished the sweet potato field in one hour.  Compare with last years effort …

… which took nine people four hours, and was a more difficult, physical job.

Grilled Asparagus

Farming is unpredictable.  There are two farm innovations in this story, one successful, one not.  Steve had a new idea for the asparagus field this spring.  As usual, he mowed down last year’s foliage in April, then shallowly tilled the field to kill off emerging weeds.  Just before the asparagus emerged in late April, Steve tilled the field a second time.  He’s never done this second tilling, but we have a new tiller with excellent depth control, so it seemed a good step to keep ahead of the weeds.  Bad idea!  The second tilling brought up a huge flush of ragweed, a particularly aggressive weed.

The ragweed overwhelmed the asparagus by late May.  If you look closely, you can see a few asparagus spears poking up.  We had to do something drastic or harvests would be finished for this half-acre field.  Hand-weeding was out of the question; hoeing would damage the asparagus tips growing beneath the surface.  Plus, it’s a daunting job to add at a busy time of year.

Steve tried something new.  He mowed down the weeds, then went over the asparagus beds with his LP-fueled flame weeder to scorch the weeds.  We didn’t know if this would work.

Fresh, undamaged asparagus emerged the next day.

One week later, it was clear the flaming worked.  The ragweed in the tractor wheel tracks survived but that’s not a concern.  We will till those weeds after our asparagus harvests are finished.  Steve’s maneuver let us pick asparagus for you for an extra three weeks!

Veggie List and Veggie Notes (June 11/12, 2015, week #4, green EOW)

Asparagus, 1.25 lb
Spinach, 1 bunch
Green leaf lettuce
Green kale, 1 bunch
Scallions, 1 bunch
Kohlrabi, 1
White salad turnip, 1 big
Cilantro
A few of our Thursday sites will get 1 pint strawberries.  We will have berries for everyone next week.

Next week’s box will probably contain strawberries, sugar snap peas, asparagus, spinach, lettuce, scallions, some type of greens and more.  Garlic scapes and daikon might be ready next week.

Spinach (bundle of dark green leaves) – This week’s spinach is from a new planting.  It’s in perfect condition, which made harvest an easy job for the crew.  Good for salads or cooking.
Green kale (bundle of dark green, frilly leaves)  – Super nutritious, this first picking of the year is great cooked or used in raw salads like the one from Local Thyme this week.
Kohlrabi (pale green, round vegetable with thick skin) – Crunchy and sweet, kohlrabi is a great addition to salads.
Storage:  Kohlrabi bulbs will store for a month in the refrigerator.
Uses:  Kohlrabi are good peeled and eaten out of hand, or added to sandwiches.  It is good mixed into salads, or prepared as a salad on it’s own.  You can grate it, slice it, or cut it into matchsticks.  It’s also good cooked.  If you have it, the Asparagus to Zucchini cookbook has a long list of kohlrabi suggestions.
White salad turnip (white, round vegetable with thin skin) – Jon calls these our ‘early watermelons”: sweet, succulent and oddly large.  Our turnips rarely grow to this size while staying such high quality.  We snack on them in the fields, skin and all.  Great for salads too.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Comforting Classics

Raw Kale Salad with Pine Nuts and Currants
Kohlrabi Kimchee
Pinto Bean and Salad Turnip “Macos” or Ground Turkey and Salad Turnip “Macos”
Scallion Vinaigrette
Braised Asparagus with Feta and Lemon
Raw Spinach Wraps with Hummus and Vegetable Sticks

Outside the Box Recipes

Kohlrabi and Salad Turnip Wasabi Salad
Quinoa, Spinach and Egg Breakfast Bake
Curried Kohlrabi and Salad Turnip Rice Pilaf
Greek Kale and Spinach Fritters
Scallion Barlotto (Barley Risotto)
Asparagus Gribiche

Kitchen Sink Recipe
This is a recipe that is very flexible — you can add just about any, or all of the veggies in your box.
Kohlrabi, Kale and Salad Turnip Soup with Kidney Beans

Quick and Easy Dinner Idea

Kale Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken or Chickpeas