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Letter from a Farmer,
Garlic is one of the oldest cultivated plants. You can find references to garlic as a medicine and ingredient in recipes in ancient texts in the Middle East, Greece, Rome, Egypt, China, Korea, Japan, and India. France, Italy, and Spain embraced garlic as a key ingredient in their favorite dishes. Native peoples on this continent made use of wild garlic as a medicine and adopted garlic when the Spanish conquistadors landed in Mexico. Garlic traveled the world with traders and explorers as its strong taste masked the flavor of rotten food and its antibacterial properties helped prevent food poisoning.
The English and the Puritans felt less enthusiastic about garlic. Shakespeare and Chaucer used garlic breath in characters to cast them as unlearned peasants. The Puritan influence in the U.S. kept garlic out of most household cookery until the 1950s. Even though Thomas Jeffereson loved all things French including garlic most cookbooks of his time reference garlic's awful odor and lingering taste. Not until Julia Child and her love of French cooking did garlic become popular in U.S. homes. Compared to the Koreans who eat 22 lbs of garlic per person each year on average, Americans still don't love garlic at only 2 lbs of garlic per person per year (although Roxbury CSA members get more than that).
This Saturday we will plant our 500 lbs of garlic seed for next year's garlic crop. Garlic is most often propogated from splitting garlic bulbs into cloves and each clove becomes a new bulb of garlic. In June, you receive scapes in your share. If we don't pick the scapes bright purple bulbils form at the end of the scape. You can plant those and wait for a year or two and a garlic bulb will form. Some garlic breeders have worked for years to develop garlic seed from a few varieites but that is not very common. Growing from seed will increase the genetic diversity in the garlic crop as planting bulbils and cloves are genetic clones of the parent plant.
We plant garlic in the fall because it needs a period of cold to develop into a new garlic bulb. Some people do plant it in early spring but the resulting bulbs are much smaller than fall planted garlic. Or they plant it quite dense and then harvest it as ''green garlic"; garlic you eat fresh and not dried. We dry our garlic for two to three weeks, clean it, sort it by size, keeping the large garlic for next year's seed, and then deliver the rest in the CSA shares.
We know many of you can't get enough garlic but as it is labor intensive and the garlic we grow now already fills our drying space we can't grow much more. Garlic has captured our imagination (think vampires), our herbal medical practices (as an antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and antinflammatory agent), and our cooking since humanity's days of hunting and gathering. It has circled the globe finding its place in the medicine cabinet and kitchen in all cultures. To learn more about the history of garlic and its place in history and mythology check out the book Garlic, An Edible History by Robin Cherry. To get your hands in the dirt and help with next year's garlic crop, join us this Saturday at the South Farm location. Hope to see you at the farm! ~Jody
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Garlic just pulled from the earth.
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Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 head garlic, roasted and pureed
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup of olive oil
Whisk the vinegar, garlic, lime juice, mustard, honey, salt, and pepper together in a bowl or blend them in a mini-food processor. While whisking or with the machine running, gradually add the olive oil and blend the ingredients until the vinaigrette is combined and thickened. Taste and adjust with additional salt and pepper.
The vinaigrette can be prepared up to 2 days in advance. Store it in a covered container in the refrigerator. Shake or whisk the vinaigrette well to recombine before serving.
Garlicky Greens and Beans
1 1/2 lbs of greens, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 slices pancetta, minced
6 garlic cloves minced
1 1/2 cups cooked white beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chicken broth or water
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine oil and pancetta in a saute pan and heat it gently over medium het until the pancetta bits are crisp. Lift the pancetta bits from the oil and set aside. If you prefer a vegetarian dish skip this step and heat oil by itself instead.
Add the garlic to the hot oil and saute, stirring constantly, until the garlic is aromatic, about 1 minute. Add the chopped greens and continue to saute, until greens are coated with oil and garlic. Add the beans and broth or water, and simmer the greens until they are tender and the broth has nearly cooked away. Season with salt and pepper and serve with polenta, grits, or pasta.
both recipes from Garlic, an Edible Biography
Roasted Savoy Cabbage
1 head Savoy cabbage
olive oil for cooking
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 400°F and grease a rimmed baking sheet.
Cut the cabbage into quarters vertically and carve out the core. Cut each quarter in two lengthwise, and slice crosswise thinly.
Place the cabbage on the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and toss to coat.
Insert in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, stirring halfway through, until cooked through and golden brown in places.
Sprinkle with black pepper, dress with a touch of lemon juice, and serve.
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/recipes/vegetables-grains/roasted-savoy-cabbage-recipe/ |
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Garlic beds just after they were mulched with straw.
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COMING NEXT WEEK: broccoli or cabbage, potatoes, turnips, tatsoi, salad mix, head lettuce, beets, black radishes, broccoli rabe, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and peppers.
FRUIT: apples or pears
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GARLIC PLANTING PARTY: Join us on Saturday, October 10 for our garlic planting party and BBQ. Rain or shine we can split the garlic to prepare it for planting. We will start the day at 10:00 am and share in a potluck lunch with our own BBQ grass-fed hamburgers at 1:00 pm. Wear clothes that can get dirty and bring gloves, water bottle, sunscreen, and a dish to share at the potluck. Please sign up at your CSA site so we know how many burgers to prepare. Hope to see you at the farm! (2343 State Route 9H, Kinderhook, NY 12106.
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WINTER SHARES AVAILABLE: The winter share consists of three deliveries:
Dec 1 - 4, Jan 5 - 8, 2016, & Feb 2 - 5, 2016.
Each delivery includes a box of 30 lbs of storage vegetables:
potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, cabbage, onions, parsnips, winter squash, and celeriac. The Winter Share costs $125 for members; please email the farm to make an order. You may also order more than 1 share.
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BEEF AND CHICKEN AVAILABLE TO ORDER We have ground beef, steaks, and roasts available for ordering. Yundwell Pastured Poultry has chicken breasts, wings, thighs, backs, and drumsticks as well as whole chickens available for purchase. Go to www.roxburyfarm, Our Products and Meat Orders to place your order. We will email you when your order will be at your pickup site; there will be an invoice and then send payment to the farm.
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