5/29 farm notes
I was out this morning spreading cover crop seed in between the rows of tomatoes planted in plastic mulch. It was a good morning because it was relatively cool, the task at hand was straightforward and easy to accomplish in the time I had, and most importantly I could hear thunder nearby and thought we were in for a good soaking. A couple hours later as I left the farm to deliver our CSA boxes it was once again hot, sunny and dry – we received only light showers this morning. Oh well, it’s not the first time or the last time that we haven’t gotten the weather that we hoped to get.
It is impossible not to get our hopes up when the weatherman predicts helpful weather, but we have learned that farming means preparing for multiple possibilities and being ready to change course quickly. That’s why we love tweaking how we do something so that we are better prepared for whatever might happen. For example, that plastic mulch suppresses weeds, but it also keeps the soil nice and moist so we don’t have to water crops on mulch nearly as much as we do crops on bare ground. Plus we can water in the heat of the day because the drip lines are buried a couple inches underground, beneath the plastic, and there is no loss to evaporation! This really helps when we are in a particularly dry stretch early in the season – like the last two weeks – because we have so many lines that need to be run overnight.
So, the next chance of rain is Friday, we’ll wait and see!
5/29 CSA week 2
In this week’s box:
Kohlrabi
Snow peas
Head lettuce
Red or green kale
Garlic Scapes
Arugula
Cilantro
Basil (The basil was picked this morning, but fresh-picked basil does not have a long shelf life so plan to use it sooner rather than later. You can always puree basil with olive oil and freeze in an ice cube tray. These frozen basil cubes may then be used in soups, stews or stir fries.)
Hakurei salad turnips (white, round roots)
Raspberries (some locations get them this week, some next)
Welcome to the second week of our CSA season. Remember to click on the linked vegetables above for more information on using the more unfamiliar veggies. We’ve also included a few recipes below that utilize a couple of this week’s veggies. Of course we really like hearing other’s favorite recipes so if you’ve got one don’t hesitate to post it in the comments section below. Your fellow CSA members will thank you!
Also, as you have probably realized we like to reuse the wax boxes that we package your CSA share in. Most members transfer their veggies into a reusable bag at the pickup site, but if you need to take the box home with you please return it to the pickup site the next week. This will help us reduce the amount of waste and will save us the cost of purchasing new boxes. Finally, our pickup sites are hosted by fellow CSA members so please do your best to keep the area neat. Thanks!
Recipes
Turnip and kohlrabi slaw (I would use more turnips and add cilantro.)
Beef, shiitake, and snow pea stir fry (Try adding garlic scapes with the ginger and mushrooms.)
Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi is a large green leafed vegetable with a swollen round stem. The leaves and stem are both used. The leaves can be used in place of any recipe calling for kale or collards. The baseball size stem is delicious raw. It tastes similar to cabbage but is sweeter and juicier. Simply peel away the tough outer skin and then slice. Around here, we eat kohlrabi like apples! Kohlrabi is also delicious cooked. Here are some recipes to get you started.
Sugar Snap and Snow Peas
Snap and snow peas are types of peas that are eaten whole, pod and all, when the peas are still immature. We recommend stringing them prior to cooking. They cook very quickly and make great additions to stir-fries, pasta salads, and rice pilafs. They can (and should!) be eaten raw.
Arugula
What a flavorful salad green! Arugula has a peppery taste and is often used in salads as the main green or mixed with lettuce to balance the strong flavor. Pests, especially the flea battle, love arugula so we have to grow it under protective row cover or else it would come to you full of holes. If you find arugula is too peppery for you, you can mellow the flavor by wilting it either with a hot dressing or by throwing it in the pan in the last 2 minutes of cooking.
Hakurei Turnips
These small white turnips are so crisp and have a sweetness to them that they can be enjoyed raw and are often called salad turnips. There is no need to peel them (though you certainly can), simply chop into salads and grate into slaws. They can also be cooked and we recommend roasting as it intensifies the sweetness of the turnip. These turnips are not very common in grocery stores so they are a local seasonal treat. They are a relatively new variety developed in Japan in the 1950s to deal with food shortage problems. The turnip itself is very nutritious, but so are the greens, so we recommend cooking them as well. We hope that you enjoy them as much as we do!
Roasted Turnips in honey and wine (all time favorite recipe of ours!)
5/22 farm notes, “the crazy house”
Though it should no longer surprise us, the weather continues to throw us curve balls. After a winter that never got cold and a spring that dealt us 80 degree weather in March, we now seem to have hit the dog days of summer in May. The fields are dry which is great for fieldwork like planting and cultivation, but it means that we are running around trying to keep water on all of our crops. One old-time farmer that we know likes to say, “wet weather will put you in the poor house and dry weather will put you in the crazy house.” After the last couple of years each with a lot of wet and dry weather in the same season, I’d have to say that I agree!
Fortunately we were pretty well prepared for the dry weather with irrigation already set up on a good number of crops. We just have to remember to turn it on before we go to bed every night and turn it off every morning.
The most difficult crops for us in dry weather are direct seeded crops (like green beans, carrots, beets, radishes, arugula, etc.). These need almost daily water in order to get them started. And while our old well pump works fine with drip tape, it doesn’t keep up as well with the demands of a line of sprinklers. So we’ll keep planting, hoping for rain, and trying to water as much as we can!
5/22 and 5/26 CSA week 1
Welcome to Mile Creek Farm’s 2012 CSA season!
In today’s box (click on linked veggies for more info!)
Broccoli Raab, all green with some florets
Hon Tasi Tai, purple stems with florets and yellow flowers
Head Lettuce, red leaf and green leaf
Bok Choi, we grew a purple leafed variety this year
Red or Green Kale
Garlic Scapes, thin and curly tapering to a point
Strawberries (grown chemical free by one of our neighbors)
Basil Plant
Today is the first week of the CSA so we are going to take minute to let our members know how to find information about their CSA box (don’t worry if you aren’t immediately familiar with everything in your box, we’ll tell you what everything is and give you ideas on cooking all of these great vegetables).
All CSA posts can be found in the CSA category link that you should see in the toolbar to your right. Simply click on the “CSA” link and you can find all posts related to the CSA.
If there is a veggie that you are not familiar with or are looking for new ideas on using less familiar veggies try typing it into the search bar or click on the veggie in the list of veggies in today’s box. Veggie notes can also be found under the “food notes” category.
We will also be posting farm notes with updates and information on what we are working on and how the crops are doing. These notes can be found under the “farm notes” category.
Hopefully all this info will help you get the most out of your CSA boxes and will give you a look into what we do to grow your veggies. Please let us know, either via email or by commenting on a post if you have any questions.
Finally, thanks for your support. We hope that you are as excited for the start of this season as we are!
Bok Choi
Bok Choi is also known as Chinese Cabbage and is in fact related to cabbage as it is a member of the brassica family. While it is normally white stemmed with green leaves, this year we are trying a new red variety that we think is mighty pretty. Like most greens, it grows well in the cooler months of spring and fall. You may notice the flowering stem of the bok choi beginning to form. This is fine as the stems are tender and the flowers edible. Bok Choi can be eaten raw or cooked. Stir fries and soups are the most common use of this nutrient dense vegetable.
Garlic Scapes
The green pencil thin curly stem like vegetable is the flowering head of garlic, called a garlic scape. We harvest the scape for two reasons. First, by cutting off the flower of the garlic plant we are forcing it to spend its energy making nice big garlic bulbs instead of flowers. Second, they taste great! When cooked they are like the texture of a green bean, but have a mild garlicky taste. You can mince the scapes and use in place of garlic or treat them like any other vegetable, cutting into green bean size peices and adding to quiches, soups, sautés, etc. and cooking until tender. You can also have them raw — garlic scape pesto is one of our favorite spring dishes.
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