Veggie Times Week 3
On the farm
Greetings! We hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July. It's almost always a very busy work weekend for us, but we did manage some beach time and dinner with friends. This week we welcome our 8 week summer shares. If you are into facebook, and want to hear more regularly about farm happenings, please join our private CSA members group. We post pictures almost daily of farm happenings and recipes, and we are loving some of the pictures other folks are posting too. Keep it coming! This year we seem to have no shortage of rain. Luckily we did some grading this spring to certain "wet" areas of the farm so things are staying a little drier than other years, but the heavy rains we had on Thursday saturated even our driest areas. The veggies seem to do fine, and the weeds do too. We seem to always have more important jobs to tackle, but this week we will be doing a lot of weeding to catch up. Another crop that also likes the rain and spring weather is head lettuce. The first few boxes are always heavy on greens and head lettuce, but this will not last forever. Next week we think we will start getting some of our fruiting crops into full shares and some peas into half share boxes and the lettuce will be slowing down. Enjoy the salads now, usually in August our head lettuce isn't quite so abundant! This week we will also be harvesting our 2000+ garlic plants. Everyone is getting fresh garlic this week, then you'll see it again in a few weeks once it's cured. Like everything this season garlic is earlier than usual, which is a good thing! We have also set a date for our first of two farm tours. Sunday, July 24th at 3pm. We will lead a tour followed by some cookies and iced tea. Please RSVP if you plan to attend.
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Recipes
Roasted Radishes
If you aren't a fan of raw radishes (or are getting sick of them!), try roasting or grilling them
Preheat oven to 450F. Trim the top and stem ends off the radishes and slice in half. Toss one bunch with about 1 Tbsp olive oil and salt and pepper. Arrange them cut-side-down on your heaviest, darkest sheet pan (a cast iron skillet works great) Roast for about 10-12 minutes. I'll often roast a couple bunches at a time and use for salads that week.
Quick Sauteed Greens-this works great for any of the greens half shares are getting
Roughly chop up your greens, and separate and chop the stems (if they have any). Heat a pan or wok with an oil that can withstand high heat. Add a clove of garlic, or some chopped garlic scapes and saute until fragrant. Add your greens and cook until just bright green, ( 30 seconds to 2 minutes). Serve immediately. If your greens have a stem that you want to keep on (like chard of bok choy, simply chop this up and saute before the greens for a minute or two.
Kale Chips
Emmett and I made our first batch yesterday and we ate the entire bag in less than four hours. These are that good! If you have dehydrator collecting dust take it out for kale chips this summer. You won't regret it. They will get so much more crispier than your oven (and it's much easier).
1 bunch kale De-stemmed and torn into pieces
1-2 Tbsp olive oil (enough to coat all the leaves)
1/2-2 tsp salt-depending on taste-it will get more concentrated as they cook
2-3 Tbsp nutritional yeast (found in natural food stores)
Preheat your oven to your lowest setting. Usually 170F. In a large bowl toss together your kale and olive oil making sure all your leaves are well coated (they will turn a darker green). Toss in the salt and nutritional yeast and toss until all the leaves are coated. Spread out on a cookie sheet and bake until crispy, checking every 15 minutes. This will take 40-60 minutes.
If you have a dehydrator, follow the directions above but spread the kale on dehydrator trays and dry for about 5 hours on your vegetable setting (if you have one). Store in an airtight container.
Garlic Ginger Stir Fry Sauce
1/2 cup minced garlic or garlic scapes
1/2 cup minced ginger
1 cup scallions, chopped 1/4" thick
1 cup rice wine, or sherry (not cooking sherry)
1/2 cup soy sauce
4 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp sesame oil
canola oil, to cook
salt and pepper to taste
In a wok or saute pan coated lightly with canola oil over medium-high heat, saute the garlic, ginger and scallions until soft, about 2 minutes. De glaze with the wine and reduce by 50 percent. Add soy sauce and chicken stock and reduce by 25 percent. Add sesame oil and when cool, store in a covered jar up to two weeks in the fridge. This is a great stir fry sauce for any meat, and veggies.
Drying Herbs
Some herbs will dry really easily just in your kitchen and you can use all winter. If you find you have an abundance of herbs like parsley, oregano, sage, thyme, or rosemary from us or from your garden, simply hang a bunch in your kitchen until very dry. Remove the big leaves and store in spice jars. I like to crumble them as I use them for the freshest flavor.
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