In your share this week:
- Salad mix
- Romaine head lettuce
- Pac choi
- Chinese cabbage
- Radishes
- Japanese turnips
- Garlic scapes
We had really hoped the new salad greens growing in our back field would be ready for this week's harvest. Some of it is, but not enough if we want to have a continual, week to week, supply. We took one last careful cutting from the salad growing in our greenhouses before pulling it all up to make room for planting beans, carrots and beets. I'm amazed that just these two early plantings of greens have provided us with 6 weeks of salad mix!
The pac choi and Chinese cabbages in this week's share are from our second planting in greenhouse 3. These are cold weather crops so they are starting to bolt from the heat (yes, occasionally, it has been hot here on the farm). We'll need to get the rest of them out to you as soon as possible, even if the plants are still a little small.
Garlic scpaes are likely a new item for those who are new to our CSA. They are just starting to emerge from our garlic crop. The few you are getting this week are very small, only 3 to 4 inches. Next week they will be bigger starting to curl. The week after that they will be plentiful and very curly. After that, they could be gone. Scapes come on fast and then that's it. The "scape" is the center stalk of a hard neck garlic plant that starts out tender and deliciously edible. In a few short weeks, the flexible curly-Q becomes a hard, straight stalk and eventually the small flower pod on the end blooms to spread it's seeds. We snap off the scapes because they are an early season, garlic-y treat and to divert the plant's energy towards growing a big, beautiful bulb underground.
We've collected many recipes and ideas for using garlic scapes here. Some of the most popular are: in salad dressing, pesto, hummus, pickled, roasted, and chopped up fine on salads or in soups. Last night, Shain chopped some up and added them to his quick veggie stir fry. These have become a trendy, fun attraction at farmers markets so there are an abundance of recipes and pictures on the internet. If you have a favorite idea or recipe, please share!
We've had two nephews with us on the farm for the past 10 days. Farmer Shain taught them the value of good, hard work. They spent several days weeding old compost piles and pulling up old beds of mizuna, arugula and salad. On most days, they were covered head to toe in dirt and/or mud. Then we played! We even converted one of the boys to thinking our plant based diet isn't too bad. He said our EverGreen Farm salad mix is the best he's ever tasted.
Playing around with some new recipes yet? I heard from several folks who made the radish salsa. I was brought this lovely jar of goodness this week. Thanks Katie!
Have a great week and ENJOY your veggies!
Tara
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