weeks 3 and 4

 

June 18, 2013 week 3

Coming right along here. It dried up enough to tractor cultivate the open spots in the garden, and get a good start on hand cultivation, too.

If you're wondering how some of your veggies, feel free drop us a line. You might also skate around on our blog and find the information you need. I'm slowly making the blog a more beautiful and user friendly online 'place'.

New, this week... Kohlrabi – this is another brassica – a cousin of broccoli, kale, and cabbage, developed for it's tender round stem. The leaves are ok to eat, too. Just peel the outer flesh off and enjoy the tender crisp heart of kohlrabi raw or cooked. We slice it thin and throw it in stir-fried or steamed veggies (lemon and butter work well). We also grate it or slice it into salad. It makes a nice addition, or base, for cole slaw type salads, grated with carrots and the like. Take off the leaves and store them separately. The bulb keeps well.

Nasturtiums – again – eat your flowers! Nasturtiums aren't so much cutting flowers, but their spicy sweet flavor is a real treat. I once stuffed nasturtium flowers with some kind of spiced veggie cream cheese as an appetizer. It was as tasty as it was beautiful. Store them, without crushing, in a loose bag in the fridge, or you can try to keep them in a small vase – jury's still out around here as to what works best.

Sorrel – these bright green arrow shaped leaves have a strong lemony flavor. In our experience, kids like them. Great way to sneak some greens into a wrap or pasta salad, with a nice zing. We throw a few of these leaves in every salad.

New Zealand Spinach – This unusual succulent green hails from the South Pacific, where it is fabled that Captain Cook's crew survived by eating it when they ran out of sauerkraut. We love that it thrives in heat – a rare quality in cooking greens. NZ Spinach is best cooked – but it doesn't take much cooking to make it wonderful. It works in quiche, lasagna, or substituted for cooked spinach in just about any recipe.

Otherwise, there are the familiar veggies: Lettuce (Romaine this week – go Ceasar!), more Broccoli, Sugar Snap Peas, Green Onions, Cilantro, Parsley, and Green Hot Peppers.

The radishes may be getting too hot to produce now, and the arugula is trying to bolt, so there may not be a lot more of that, either. Summer squashes aren't quite ready yet, but it won't be long now. There are beautiful green tomatoes on the vines, and the cucumbers are beginning to flower. Come out for a wade in the creek and visit the garden anytime.

AND

June 25, 2013 week 4

In one bag: summer squash, broccoli, kohlrabi,

green pepper, sugar snap peas

In the other bag: lettuce, parsley, sorrel, cilantro, nasturtiums, green coriander

Did you know.... that we have more taste buds in the last trimester of out time in the womb than we have ever after? So, our taste preferences are being established even before we're born. Isn't that cool?

The friendly UFO's of the garden are back this week, and this time, they're purple. These kohlrabis are an heirloom variety, and their leaves have held up better than the green hybrids we sent last week.

A nice surprise this week: green pepper. We've uncovered the peppers and eggplants and they look GREAT. This is just a little thinning I did to give them room to grow. Other harbingers of Summer on on the way. Green beans and cucumbers are getting close, and we found the first ripe tomato this week – just one – but it's a nice early start.

We've sent a little more sorrel this week with the hopes that you take our advice and try it in a quiche. I sauteed it with the onions, it wilts fast, then layered it in a crust with feta cheese. The bite of the lemony flavor is subdued and something wonderful remains.

The zucchinis in your basket are called 8-ball. They're our favorite. We hope you enjoy them, along with these sweet buttery little crooknecks. Summer is grand.

Another unusual and season-specific treat this week – green coriander. These little green seed clusters in your salad bag are the unripe seeds of coriander – the fruit of cilantro. Taste one and you'll see why we like them. Crush them and add them to a light salad dressing or marinade. You won't be sad.

And, BASIL. You'll find that we hand out basil and parsley as if they were green vegetables, or superfoods, because they are. It's impossible to maintain a grumpy disposition while picking basil. Just the smell is enlivening goodness. What great stuff.

If you have a collection of clean plastic grocery bags you'd like to pass along, we would be happy to put them to use in weekly deliveries.

Thank you all for your good eating habits. If you have friends who would be interested in our services, we still have room for a few more – please spread the word! We hope you enjoy this week's smorgasbord.