Produce Subscription (Week 28)

The boxes are green this week…we need some hot-house peppers to change up the colors! Other colorful things like carrots and beets are on their way, slowly. Beets were transplanted this year, so they are actually growing well but slowly. The carrots, well, let me just say, carrots are NOT my favorite thing to grow. Direct seeded, many have washed away in our flooding and slow to germinate all are consumed by faster germinating weeds. My mission this week, should I choose to accept it, is to go find 1500 ft-row of carrots. Grrrrr. But, color coming soon…

The absence of color— white cucumbers in their protective “Surround” coating.

Your boxes will be in their respective drop site locations by 9am Wednesday. (Dropsite Location Details) Find the box with your name and have at it!

If you have any questions, please call Roger on his delivery phone 626 488 5437 (if before 10a) and the farm phone 715 426 7582 (if after 10am).

Again, the brassicas and salad fixings as the focus in your boxes this week; but warm weather veggies are coming right along.

Cucumber, slicing Ahhh, the first cucumbers of the season! We are trying different sizes in the hightunnel, and the small/lunchbox variety as well as the larger slicing variety are represented this week. See what you think.

Broccoli Gosh, I really hope ya’ll like broccoli. It has been a good year for it thus far.

Mesclun Might be the last of the salad mix for a few weeks; hot and wet is not good for the closely planted leaves. We’ll start back up for more in the fall.

Lettuce Again, two different types; a red leaf lettuce and a really red romaine that has a softer leaf, more like a leaf lettuce. The hot temps have them reaching high, about to bolt.

Turnips, salad A few little white crunchies, definitely the last of the season.

Kale (Red Russian) A bunch of young kale for a nice soup, stirfry or green smoothie.
Cabbage (Napa) One more Napa head; last of the early season. More on the way later in the season.

Cabbage (Caraflex) The crunchy variety of cabbage with the funny shape. Whip up a nice Dill Coleslaw; THE best!
Garlic scapes Ok, if you haven’t met scapes before, they are the flower stalk of “hardneck” garlic. They carry all of the garlic yum of typical cloves but are used chopped up as a “green” addition to salads, stir-fry, soups and sides.

Chives I’m thinking it is time for some savory Herb Bread (bread machine-assisted). A tiny, hole-in-the-wall café in Marin County, CA introduced me to this bread. They serve enormous slabs of it with their fresh daily soups. Just the aroma is intoxicating!

Dill Ditto on the Herb Bread (bread machine-assisted). And the Dill Coleslaw. Or maybe just a sprig or two in a light olive oil vinaigrette.

Recipes for your consideration

Coleslaw is a wonderful salad for lunchboxes. Make ahead and it will keep all week, getting more and more flavorful as the days pass.¬

Dill Coleslaw

1 cup Veganaise or Nayonaise
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp maple syrup or sugar
1 Tbsp celery seed, grind a bit in a mortar and pestle to soften seeds
1" bunch of chives, finely chopped
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
1 head cabbage, finely sliced
(And increase recipe as you see fit.)

Whisk first 8 ingredients together. Fold into shredded cabbage. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Anyone out there have a bread machine languishing away in the cupboard? Was that a 90s fad? Well, they are fabulous, let me tell you. We have had fresh bread for the past 8yrs since moving out to the farm; no store purchases. And it is really quite easy to do…_honestly, I don’t have a lot of spare time, let me tell you!_ I don’t use the baking feature of the machine, just the dough making aspect. Then I quick knead and shape and put in a standard loaf pan to rise (30-45min and bake 30min). So you DO have to be around the house to accomplish that last bit. But total actual work time is approx 10min.

Herb Bread (bread machine-assisted)

In your bread machine pan, add:
2 Tbsp maple syrup or sugar
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 ½ tsp active dry yeast
1 ½ cup warm water
2 tsp salt
4 cups bread flour (white, wheat or combo)
3 Tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
1" bunch chives, finely chopped (alternatives: 2 Tbsp shallots, fine dice; or 2 Tbsp onion, fine dice)
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)

Makes a 10in x 5in loaf

Set machine to “Dough Mode” and let ’er ride.

When it is done, remove dough from pan, knead 3-4 times, folding over as you go with the goal to shape it quickly into a tube that will fit your loaf pan.

Get your hand wet with water and pat the top to moisten. Make 2-3 slits in top (decoratively) to help with crown rising and place in warm spot for 30-45 min depending on how much wheat flour you used. (I just warm the oven for 1min, then leave it in to rise.) More time for whole wheat, less time for white.

Bake 400F for 30min. Remove and decant from pan. Allow to cool. Slice with a serrated bread knife using a exaggerated sawing motion with very little downward pressure (don’t want to squish it!) The very best is when served slightly warm in thick slabs.

Garlic scapes are a fresh version of the old standby— garlic cloves. Enjoy them blended in a high-protein dressing that will give any fresh offering a profound zing! (If you haven’t used silken tofu before, it is quite versatile. You can find it in the Asian food section of all grocery stores; it is in a 4-5" carton, not refrigerated. Use it to make creamy things higher in protein and without the cholesterol.)¬

Green Garlic Aoili

2 garlic scapes, rough chopped
1 pkg silken tofu, soft
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp lemon juice or seasoned rice vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp sea salt

Add all to blender and whizzzzzzz until smooth and creamy.

Serve as a dip for fresh veggies or thin slightly with soy milk to make a creamy salad dressing.

Everyone feel free to add your favorite recipes to the website.

For Your Reading Pleasure

Bringing it to the Table by Wendell Berry

Excerpt from Michael Pollan’s introduction:

“Americans today are having a national conversation about food and agriculture that it would have been impossible to imagine even a few short years ago. To many Americans, it must sound like a brand-new conversation, with its bracing talk about the high price of cheap food, or the links between soil and health, or the impossibility of a society eating well and being in good health unless it also farms well. But to read the essays in this sparkling anthology, many of them dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, is to realize just how little of what we are saying and hearing today Wendell Berry hasn’t already said, bracingly, before.”

Well worth the read; Mr. Berry is an excellent write with insight into food, farming and our planet that few have put to paper with such foresight. This is a history lesson and a motivation to change what we can ourselves to make it all better.

Farm News

News this week is all about the heat, the rain and the weeds. But enough about that. Let’s see, well, we are moving to “turn” the early hightunnel position 2 and 3 beds over to cover crops for the summer and fall. Position 1 is held by the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers “indoors” right now. The other 2 positions have been yielding our spring fare. Now all of those tired, expended, weed-bogged beds are getting tilled and planted into buckwheat or rye & hairy vetch. We need a quick turn around on one of the positions so we can get the fall/winter plantings in, and the other one must do its duty and build the soil for next season’s heavy feeders (tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.) Wow, the juggling act, huh?
It really takes it outta folks…

“Workin’ hard…workin’ Saturdays!” (What a comparison to last week!)

The pest situation appears fairly stable at this time. Deer entertain Roger all night, every night. Potato beetles are into their second breeding cycle, so we are squishing eggs daily on the young potato plants. Leafy greens of the brassica-family are well past, so flea beetles have nothing to poke holes in right now. And we have been diligent with row covers (and more successful with them too) on the long-lived brassicas, like cabbage and broccoli, so the little green inch worms have not grossed us (or you) out at all this season!

That said, I just about jumped out of my skin while reaching for the dill…but isn’t he/she pretty!

Please bring your boxes back this week. Reduce – Reuse – Recycle (thanks!)

And a SURPRISE first purple sweet pepper of the year hidden in someone’s box! Enjoy the colorful little fella.

Have a wonderful week, and enjoy the vegetables.

Roger and Lara