This week you'll be receiving:
- Romaine Salad
- Kale
- Swiss Chard
- Cilantro
- Garlic Scapes
- Napa Cabbage
Shain asked me to explain to our farm CSA members that for this and the next few weeks you will be receiving a lot of greens in your shares. After that we will be moving into some of the other crops you are looking forward to, such as: carrots, beets, peas, etc. Fortunately the weather has been ideal for our greens, not too hot which makes for not too buggy. Enjoy the greens while they are in their prime. They'll be gone soon enough. Everything in it's own season.
This is a picture of some Napa Cabbage we harvested for you today. It is starting to form a nice head inside all those outer leaves. I thought it would be interesting to show you a picture of the Napa Cabbage the way we prepare it for you versus the way you've most likely seen it in the stores. On the left is a washed and cleaned head of Napa Cabbage, only a few of the most damaged outer leaves have been pulled off. The outer leaves do have some holes in them from the bugs, but overall it doesn't look too bad. The size is quite impressive and it made a large contribution to this week's bag of produce. On the right is a Napa Cabbage that has had most of it's outer leaves pulled off. This is basically the inner core of the head. You can see that the size is considerably smaller. Yes, there are now no signs of bugs and the final product is more recongnizable, but we feel it is such a waste to discard so much of the cabbage head only to make it "look better". So we'll leave the choice up to you. If you don't like the outer leaves, take them off. Otherwise, you can enjoy the entire head and have about twice the amount of food.
It seems to me that all the garlic scapes are coming on at once this year. It would be nice if one garlic variety would grow them, and then the next, and so on. Then we could spread out the harvest better, giving you a small bunch each week over a longer period of time. But it doesn't look like that will happen. Garlic scapes are only young and tender for a few weeks at the most. Then the curls gradually straighten out and get more fibrous, making them inedible. It's also important that we remove the scapes off the garlic plants to grow a bigger and better garlic bulb. So, it looks like a big majority of the scapes will be going to the pigs this year (pre-seasoned pork!). If anyone wants some extra garlic scapes, please don't be shy. Come to the farm and pick as many as you'd desire.
Garlic scapes store very well. We've left some out on the counter top before for nearly a week and they remained fine for cooking. I've accidentally left a bunch in my refrigerator crisper drawer (inside a plastic bag) for a month without any change in texture or flavor. However, the best way I've seen to preserve the garlic scapes is to make them into a pesto type paste. This makes an incredible spread for pasta, breads, pizza, crackers, meat and so much more.
Some other ideas for galric scapes are to put them in mashed potatoes, stir fry, sauteed in with your greens, mixed in to a hamburger patty or meatloaf, cooked whole on the grill, sliced into long strips for cooking or eating raw, chopped fine for salads and ommlets, steamed with other vegetables, etc. This is truly a versatile vegetable, despite it's being relatively unknown.
Last Saturday was our first Farmers Market of the season in Jackson Hole. It was a big success and we were very happy to sell 100% of the produce we took up. The Farmers Market is an essential part of our business. It's how we earn money to make our land payment each year. For this reason, there are some crops we work extra hard to grow very early so we can get them to market before other vendors, ensuring extra income. If you ever see us selling something at market which isn't going to the CSA (yet!) don't be too disappointed with us. We are very devoted to our CSA members, but we need to pay the bills.
Have a great week and enjoy your veggies!
Tara

