This Week's Vegetable Harvest:
- Green-Top Carrots
- Red Radishes
- Spinach
- Red and Green Head Lettuces
- Fennel Bulbs
- White Japanese Turnips
- Asparagus or Green Onions*
*=Those who pick up at the farm will receive green onions. Those who pick up at other locations will receive asparagus. Next week we'll switch.
Farm Journal
Tuesday Evening
It's 7 p.m. and our crew has just finished planting the last of the broccoli. It's late, but the weather forecasters say there's a storm coming. We wanted to finish as much planting as possible before the rain moves in overnight, and our crew really stepped up to the plate to get things done. Meredith, Jeff, Derek, Tyler, Catherine, Jessie and Nathan started at 7 o'clock this morning harvesting radishes, turnips, spinach and asparagus. After lunch they moved on to planting onions, peas, eggplant and broccoli.
Twelve hours is a long day by any standard, but the sheer physical nature of the work can make days like this feel especially long. It's not always an easy job, working in the vegetable fields, but it is our good fortune to be working with folks who move through the day with humor and patience and a desire to make sure every job is done right. It's the humor part that seems to really make a difference when the going gets tough.
After the tractors have been put away, we kick back on the front porch and proceed to devour 3 large pizzas. We are sitting there chatting on the porch as the light begins to fade, when Derek looks over and notices that one of our chickens seems to have escaped from the chicken yard. The chicken is hanging out under the forsythia bushes alongside the porch, clucking softly as she pecks at the grass. "Yes," I say, "that's Henny Penny. She's... Well, she's special." I explain that she didn't really escape. I intentionally separated her from the rest of the flock after she had a run-in with a skunk 2 weeks ago. The incident left her blind in one eye and a little, well, psychologically damaged. Ever since the unfortunate incident, the other chickens have sensed in her a weakness that has left her in a vulnerable position in the flock's pecking order. So now she spends her days hanging out on the edge of the garden where she seems content to search for insects, safe from the aggresive instincts of some of the other hens. She's a sweet thing who has taken to eating out of our hands.
I chuckle a little bit as I explain how, each night, I put Henny Penny in a small cage on the screen porch to keep her safe from predators. All of a sudden Tyler pipes up, "Oh yeah, well we've got a goat sleeping in our bathtub!" There's a slight pause in the conversation and then we all burst out laughing. Tyler goes on to explain that his parents, who own a farm in Waukegan and have quite an assortment of farm animals, have taken pity on a young goat who also seems to be somewhat psychologically fragile. We laugh as Tyler tells us that this goat isn't the first animal to sleep in his parents' bathtub and it surely won't be the last.
It's funny, yes, but deep down I am relieved to know that there are others who will go to great lengths for animals that aren't quite "right", animals that would never fit into a large-scale production agriculture model. Personally, I am perfectly happy to continue caring for Henny Penny, a chicken who fits in quite well here on our farm, a place that is just right for her, for us, and for the amazing bunch of people we have the pleasure of working with.
Above: Our girls feed Henny Penny.
............................
2010 CSA Gatherings
- Early Summer Field Walk on Thursday, June 24th, 6:00-7:30 p.m.
- Mid-Summer Field Walk on Sunday, July 25th, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
- Tomato Jubilee on Sunday, August 29th, 2:00-5:00 p.m.
Overheard at our kitchen table this week:
Parent: "Honey, please eat your cheese sandwich and then you can go out to play."
Four-year-old Child: "I will NOT eat my sandwich unless you put spinach on it!"
I swear I am not making this up. It happened yesterday at lunch. Now, my kids are pretty good about eating their vegetables, but this one left me speechless. I carefully piled a little mound of the green stuff on top of the cheese in her sandwich and, sure enough, she ate the whole thing. I guess it just goes to show that kids are not born with an innate dislike of all vegetables. (You won't see this child come within 10 feet of a tomato, but she can't get enough spinach and lettuce.) So take a cue from our 4-year-old and enjoy it while it lasts! Spinach doesn't grow well in the heat of summer. Once the spring crop is gone, spinach usually doesn't make another appearance until fall. So go ahead and pile it on your sandwiches, enjoy it in omelettes, on hot pasta, in cold rice or orzo salads or whatever else strikes your fancy.
Try substituting fennel for celery in most any recipe, including chicken salad, tuna salad and potato salad. Use the feathery leaves as a seasoning. You can also try using it in place of dill. Fennel is excellent on baked or broiled fish with butter and lemon. Add to vegetable and chicken soups. One of my favorite ways to use fennel is to sauté sliced fennel with onion and some Italian sausage. Then I add it to hot pasta, mix in wilted beet greens, turnip greens or chard, drizzle some olive oil on top and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese and salt to taste. Life doesn't get any better than that!
White Japanese turnips are making another appearance in this week's share. Our farmers' market customers have been raving about them this spring. We hope you enjoy them as much as they do. This turnip variety is mild and sweet and can be eaten cooked or raw.
This Week's Recipes
Bruschetta with Braised Greens
Sausage and Lentils with Fennel
Tomato-Fennel Soup
Fennel Mayonnaise (Serve as a dip for raw hakurei turnip wedges and carrot sticks.)
Omelet with Sautéed Greens and Swiss Cheese
Next Week's Vegetable Harvest (our best guess)... asparagus, baby beets, rhubarb, dill, napa cabbage, swiss chard, lettuce and more!
