- Green Cabbage
- Purplette Onions
- Snap Peas*
- Broccoli
- Gold Swiss Chard
- Baby Leeks
- Garlic Bulb
- Fresh Dill or Basil
- Head Lettuce
- Zucchini/Summer Squash
- Garlic Scapes
This Week's Fruit Share:
- Raspberries
- Sweet Cherries
- Sour (Pie) Cherries
- Red Currants
Crop Update
Some of you know that I've spent the last 5 weeks recovering from a broken ankle. During that time I've figured out that being on crutches does, in fact, compromise my ability to perform certain tasks around the farm. (This came as an unwelcome suprise to a certain hard-headed farmer convinced of her own ability to surmount any obstacle.) What I've missed most is the ability to take my daily walks around the farm, strolling up and down the rows as I make notes on how each crop is doing. For the past month I've had to rely on Matt, Jeff and the rest of our hard-working crew to be my eyes and ears in the field while I concentrate on running the office. Now that I am able to get around a bit without the crutches, I'm delighted to begin walking up and down those rows again, albeit very slowly and very cautiously. I have to say that I couldn't be more pleased with what I'm seeing this week--plump juicy cabbages, huge zucchini plants laden with fruit, thousands of tomato plants growing taller almost by the minute, and beautiful sprawling cucumber plants studded with 2-inch-long fruits.
The priorities for this week include trellising tomato plants, weeding leeks, popcorn and parsley, and finishing the garlic harvest. Unlike most other crops which are harvested continuously over a number of weeks or months, the garlic crop is harvested all at once. Garlic bulbs are pulled out of the ground with their leaves and stems intact and tied into bundles. The bundles are arranged in the greenhouse where they will cure for several weeks. Curing is important because it ensures that the bulbs will store for many months. In addition to the above-mentioned tasks, we'll also spend a fair amount of time doing irrigation work. After several dry weeks, most our crops now need water. We'll move irrigation pipe from one field to the next, in constant rotation until the next rain comes. In the meantime, we'll continue to enjoy the glorious sunshine that is bringing forth such abundance!
Have a great week. -Peg
Notes from the Farm Kitchen
Mick's sweet cherry trees are starting to bear heavily now, so he will have a good supply for the next couple of weeks. While sweet cherry season is regrettably short, sour cherry season is even shorter, lasting for only 2 to 3 weeks. Sour cherries are rounder, softer, and more tart than sweet cherries. They can be eaten out of hand, but I prefer to bake with them. Because sour cherry season is just getting started, there aren't enough ripe ones yet to make a pie. (Next week there will be more.) This week's pint of sour cherries is a nice amount for making a batch of muffins or the crumb cake recipe that appears below. Red currants can also be substitute for some of the cherries called for in the crumb cake recipe.
I should point out that sour cherries can be used in both sweet and savory recipes. There's a recipe for a tart cherry glaze on our website that is great for chicken, turkey and pork. You could use all sour cherries or a combination of sour cherries and red currants. The recipe calls for green onions, but purplette onions or finely chopped baby leeks would work just as well. If you haven't got time for baking this week, you can pit the cherries with a chop stick or knife and pop them into a freezer bag. (Red currants can also be frozen once they've been taken off the stem and rinsed.)
In terms of refrigerated storage, my recommendation for the cherries and the raspberries is to line a plate with a paper towel and spread the fruit on it. Place another paper towel on top of the fruit and refrigerate. By taking the fruit out of the pint and quart containers, you will allow air to circulate around the fruit. This will give you a slightly longer shelf life.
This week some CSA members will receive dill while others will receive basil. Those of you who don't receive basil this week will receive it next week. Fresh basil can be a challenge to store, so I recommend using it as soon as possible. I try to avoid putting it in the refrigerator since cold temperatures tend to cause splotchy discoloration on the leaves. Many people have good luck putting the bunch into a small glass of water and keeping it on the countertop until they're ready to use it. The nice thing is that even basil that has become a little wilted can be wonderful for cooking because it still retains all of its wonderful essential oils, and the essential oils are what make basil taste so good!
Late June and early July is the time of year when many of our crops are ready to harvest at the baby stage. Although they are growing fast, it's too hard to wait for some of them to reach full size! Carrots, beets and leeks are three great examples. Last week's baby carrots will be full-size carrots by next week and this week's baby leeks will be full-size leeks in August. Rather than waiting until August to enjoy leeks, we harvest a small portion of the crop at this stage when they are young and tender. They are great braised or roasted and served whole, or chopped up and used in stir frys, soups, pasta sauces, etc.
This week's sugar snap peas were grown by our friends, Steve Pincus and Beth Kazmar, who have a certified organic farm called Tipi Produce in Evansville, Wisconsin. This is another crop that tends to have a very short season, especially here in the Midwest where it is not uncommon for a long, cold spring to delay or prevent pea seeds from germinating. Once the plants get going and the vines begin to flower, midwestern vegetable growers hold their collective breath and pray that there won't be any sudden temperature spikes. A couple of days of heat above 90 degrees can do a lot of damage to a snap pea crop. Fortunately, Steve's crop fared pretty well this year and we couldn't be happier!
This Week's Recipes
Next Week's Harvest (our best guess)... carrots, garlic, green onions, lettuce, beets, broccoli, Tuscan kale, kohlrabi, basil, blueberries and more!
