mid season newsletters

August 4 - week 11

Lettuce Tomatoes Cucumber Peppers Garlic Eggplant Summer Squash

Potatoes Cantaloupe Okra or Green Beans

Basil Purple Ruffles Basil Cutting Celery

WOW is it hot! These are the kind of days that we contemplate joining the electrical grid and having an air conditioner. We can't spend enough time at the creek.

Last night's thunderstorms missed us, so we're ready to lay drip tape and do a little irrigation. With Fall crops to plant, more beans to germinate, and shallow rooted lettuce to keep growing, a trickle of moisture to the top of the soil makes the continuation of the garden possible. Plants that have been in the ground for awhile – like the okra, peppers, tomatoes, melons, basil, have all reached their long roots down to where there is still plenty of soil moisture. It's the new plants that need a lift.

Speaking of lettuce, this is the time of year that it suffers. The heads are small and may be more bitter than usual. We recommend using a sweeter salad dressing, or using some fruit – dried or fresh – mixed in your salad to off-set the bitter flavor (a very important, though neglected and wrongly maligned taste in the American flavor repertoir). Our good friend Wilson will eat very bitter lettuce by mixing a dressing of tahini and marmalade, thinned with some oil and maybe a splash of vinegar. Otherwise, you might try this:

Orange Sesame Vinaigrette

3 Tbsp canola oil 3 Tbsp toasted sesame oil 3 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp fresh orange juice 2 Tbsp rice vinegar 1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 tsp honey salt and pepper to taste

Mix well, taste, and adjust seasonings as necessary. Can be kept covered refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

We're still recovering slowly from our various spinal perterbations. Paul can do a fair amount of work, but is still not comfortable sitting for long periods of time. Coree, on the other hand, can sit just fine but walks with a limp and has difficulty lifting heavy things. We're grateful for progress, grateful for the many helpful hands and kind healing thoughts and prayers that have come our way in the past few weeks. We cannot pretend it hasn't been a trying time, but like most trials, it serves to clarify our perspective and sharpen our resolve to make the changes we need to make to stay healthy and strong and live this life we love.

You never know what might come your way on the information super-highway. Here's some unconventional knowledge about cucumbers, for your entertainment, at least:

~ Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.

~Have an important meeting or job interview and realize that you don't have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.

~ Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, voila, the squeak is gone!

The excessive heat is doing a number on our eggplants. They're beautiful this week, and there will be a few more next week, but they refuse to set fruit in the high heat. Once the heat breaks, the flowers will hold and bear again, but we may have a break in their production. Have some Baba Ghanoush ~ Enjoy them while you've got them!

3 lbs eggplant 2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 garlic clove (or more!), minced salt and cayenne to taste ¼ c. chopped parsley

Wash and dry eggplants, and broil them on a rimmed baking sheet. Turn them one or twice, and broil until soft and tender – 15-20 minutes. Let the eggplants cool for ten minutes, then peel them, discarding stems and skins. Coarsely chop. Combine sesame oil, lemon juice, garlic and 2 tsp salt in a small bowl and whisk to blend. Place eggplant in a medium sized bowl, and beat with an electric mixer or immersion blender until smooth. Gradually beat in the oil-lemon mixture. Season with additional salt to taste. Transfer to a pretty bowl and serve at room temperature sprinkled with parsley and cayenne pepper. Store in the fridge up to 5 days.

Here's a cool recipe for hot weather that incorporates much of our harvest...

Panzanella Salad

12 oz. day old country style break with rusts, ut into 1 inch cubes (8 cups)

4 large tomatoes, cored, seeded, and chopped, juices reserved

1 large cucumber, cut into ½ inch dice 2 med. Peppers, cut to ¼ inch dice

1 small red onion, cut to ¼ inch dice ¾ – 1 cup sun-dried tomato vinaigrette

salt and pepper to taste 20 fresh basil leaves, cut into thin ribbons

Combine bread, tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, and red onion in a large bowl.

Add ¾ cup of the sundried tomato vinaigrette and toss to coat all ingredients evenly. Taste and add more is the salad is dry. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with basil. Serve within an hour or two of making. Made too far in advance, the bread will soak up all the dressing and you will need to add more. Capers, olives, and anchovies are good additions.

Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette

1/3 c. sun dried tomatoes, reconstituted in hot water, chopped ¼ c. balsamic vinegar

½ tsp (at least!) minced garlic 1 c. olive oil

½ c. red wine vinegar salt and pepper

Process vinegars, garlic and tomatoes in food processor together, then add olive oil. Refrigerate, covered, up to two months – best used at room temperature.

(All the recipes for this newsletter came from The Earthbound Cook by Myra Goodman, with thanks.)

If you find an enourmous, beautiful, delicious pink tomato in your bag, that's one of our new favorites, with the (great) name – Mortgage Lifter. Healthy plants are producing well, not cracking, like so many large tomatoes are prone to do. We hope you're enjoying them too.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the good eating...

With best regards,

Paul, Coree, Lulah, Levon and Branden

“A thatched roof once covered free man; under marble and gold dwells slavery.”

~ Roman philospher Seneca (3BC – 65 AD)

End of July - week 10

Lettuce Cucumber Bell Peppers Hot Peppers

Garlic Tomatoes Eggplant Green Beans MELONS!

Okra Basil Sorell Cuttimg Celary Green Onions

More powerful and fearful on the farm than flood, drought, heat, or cold... back injury.

After two weeks of Paul's slow recovery (we're glad to report that he is recovering steadily), Coree and Branden were some tired folks (Paul is tired too – but in a different direction – he's tired or being laid up!). Coree, flying around doing chores and getting ready to start dinner on Saturday evening, went to climb into the barn loft to fetch some onions and the ladder toppled, sending her down onto her right hip pretty hard. That's two farmers down – not good numbers.

Branden's youthful energy and the helpful goodwill of a great number of our family and friends has been on our side this week and we're sure grateful. We knew entering into this season that help would be necessary to make it work; we had no idea how true that would prove to be. It feels very strange for neither of us to be able to make it to Cookeville for delivery this week – we're glad that the food can be brought to town without us. Thank you all for your understanding as we weather this strange interval.

The mid-summer heat, and harvest, is upon us. The hills are a full deep green, and the nights are noisy with cicadas and tree frogs in full chirp. Cucumbers and okra need picking every other day, tomatoes twice a week. Melons will come on fast for awhile then trickle in after the rush. The green beans are sweet. You have a great sufficiency of menu items to work with this week. What a great time of year.

If you get a melon that doesn't smell perfectly ripe, leave it out a couple days. Otherwise, pop it in the fridge because it's probably perfectly ripe. Cucumbers and okra should be refrigerated as well. Eggplants and peppers prefer to not be refrigerated but may need to be if you can't get around to using them fairly soon.

This is our tenth week – marking the middle of our twenty week season. If you are paying quarterly, please make your check ready for next week. If you're not sure where you are in your payment schedule, just drop us an email and we'll let you know.

Tomatoes Tomatoes! It's a big bunch of tomatoes. They sure are beautiful. We hope you're enjoying them completely. FYI – tomatoes lose texture and taste when refrigerated. Of course, they'll also keep longer in the fridge, but the icebox should be a last resort. A warm sunny window will ripen them faster. Cool shade will keep them longer. Use them up. We don't buy tomatoes off season; we just eat so many and put up as many as we can, and by the time the last green tomatoes get frosted, we're tired of them! Put tomatoes in everything - some recommendations – make your own salsa or tomato sauce (you can freeze the tomato sauce to use this winter) – bruschetta – tomato sandwiches – tomato soups – tomato salads - tomato juice – tomato jam!

A few basic tomato recipes fill the remainder of the newsletter – we'll be back with okra and cucumber recipes next week!

Bruschetta – an Italian appetizer dating from the 15^th century (old food!) - simple, flexible, and delicious. For best results use a crusty kind of bread. I like to fry the bread in olive oil, but like as mentioned above – it's all flexible to your own tastes:

Mix salt, pepper, ½ cup olive oil, one large minced clove of garlic,

and several leaves of chopped fresh basil.

Dice two large tomatoes and an onion if you want (make this in any quantity you like – simple math).

Combine tomatoes with oil and herbs, allow flavors to mingle well.

Spoon this mixture onto crispy toasted Italian bread. Top with Mozzarella and/or Parmesan. Enjoy!

Salsa – this is probably also an ancient food. Same principles as Bruschetta, but with a different set of flavors, and delivery method (chips). Here's a basic framework:

1 pound tomatoes, diced (or more) 1 red onion, finely diced

1 jalapeno, finely diced and seeded 1 clove garlic, smashed (or more)

1 lime, juiced 3 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine and enjoy!

Salsa variations are endless. Sweet corn is a wonderful addition to salsa. Bell peppers or tomatilloes will be fine in here too.. Mostly, if you have some tomatoes, either an onion or some garlic, salt and pepper, and lime juice, you can have a basic and very delicious fresh salsa. So good.

And a nice fresh tomato sauce:

10 ripe tomatoes 2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter 1 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped 2 carrots, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning 1/4 cup Burgundy wine

1 bay leaf 2 stalks celery

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have ready a large bowl of iced water. Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel and squeeze out seeds. Chop 8 tomatoes and puree in blender or food processor. Chop remaining two tomatoes and set aside.

In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes. Pour in pureed tomatoes. Stir in chopped tomato, basil, Italian seasoning and wine. Place bay leaf and whole celery stalks in pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours. Stir in tomato paste and simmer an additional 2 hours. Discard bay leaf and celery and serve.

We hope you enjoy your basket this week. We look forward to seeing you next week. Please be careful when climbing ladders and lifting anything heavy.

With best regards,

Paul, Coree, Lulah, Levon and Branden

Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

7-21-11-9

Red Springs Family Farm
July 21, 2011 week 9

Lettuce Onions Cucumber Bell Peppers Garlic Tomatoes Eggplant Fennel
Purple Ruffles Basil Basil Tulsi

We're thankful that we didn't get too much more rain this week and that the garden has dried up enough to get out there again. Our mornings start early so we're out there before the heat really gets going. The heat is oppressive though. It's a good time of year to spend some time in the creek each day.

Some of you may have heard that Paul has been out of commission for a while now due to a back injury. He's starting to get better but still not much of a help. Branden has picked up the bulk of the field work with a bunch of help from Coree and Lulah and other friends too. It's been a trial all around, but it looks like we will make it through.

It's been a hard year for the summer squashes with the stress from the wet spring and now they are getting devoured by the squash vine borers. This is a moth that lays an egg on the stem of the vine which, when it hatches, eats its way into the vine and devours it from the inside out. It's hard to catch them until it's too late. We always lose a few vines to them, but this year it seems that we may lose all of the first planting. We put out a latter planting and working to keep them un-infested.

The eggplant is the best stand that we have ever had. Every plant looks great and big too. They were so big in fact that they tumbled over in that last heavy storm. We reinforced them with bamboo stakes this week and they will be much the happier for it. They have a heavy set of fruit on them and there will be more coming in over the next few week. Summer crops are all starting to roll. We were hoping for water melon this week but they should be perfect next week, and there will likely be cantaloupe too. Tomatillos will be beginning soon, as well as okra. A long row of beautiful cucumbers will be fattening up now also – get ready!

There is an amazing sounding recipe from allrecipes.com involving steamed mussels, fennel, tomatoes, ouzo, and cream. I can imagine making it work with a few substitutes, but I can't imagine substituting the ouzo and I'm not sure how many people will have that in their cupboard. This is a simple one from the same site:

Carrot and fennel
1 teaspoon olive oil 3 carrots, shredded 1 fennel bulb (2 small), trimmed and diced
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds 1/3 cup heavy cream

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the carrots and fennel, and season with coriander and fennel seeds. Cook until lightly browned. Mix in the heavy cream, and reduce heat to low. Simmer about 5 minutes until the cream has been absorbed into the carrots and fennel. Serve hot.

I can also imagine omitting the carrots and using thinly sliced eggplant instead. I'd up the oil some as eggplant absorbs so much. I'd also consider omitting the cream and adding garlic.

You might notice that there is an abundance of tomatoes in your basket this week. The tomato stand looks great this year and it should continue awhile. We looooove tomato salads – with basil and garlic chopped in and a liberal dousing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and nutritional yeast. Feta or Parmesan or fresh Mozzarella really compliment this well. The salad dressing/tomato juice soup left at the bottom of the bowl is sublime. Here’s another way to use these tomatoes. The recipe called for plum tomatoes, but I feel certain that any fairly firm tomato could be treated in the same fashion with great results.

Roasted Tomatoes
12 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, seeds removed 4 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Arrange the tomatoes on a sheet pan, cut sides up, in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle the garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper over the tomatoes. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, until the tomatoes are concentrated and beginning to caramelize. Serve warm or at room temperature.

We’re in a basil crazil dazil today – you have three kinds of basil in your herb bag. The smallest fuzzy one is Tulsi – loved in Indian and Thai food. It also makes a lovely iced tea with lemon and honey. Or you can just dry it and use it in sachet or potpourri. The purple basil is highly aromatic and flavorful – excellent addition to pesto – edible garnish – object de art!

Please feel free to refuse what produce you cannot use. But also please do TRY to use this good food. Peel the tomatoes and pop them into freezer bags for the winter. Freeze or dry your basil. Peppers need only be washed and chopped to your size of choice and frozen as is. This is the time to put things by for winter.

Speaking of winter… we’re about to start planting for Fall. It feels strange to be trying to think about Fall when it’s 100 degrees out, but that’s the reality of gardening. We are planning for a beautiful season extension with a huge diversity of greens, roots, and goodies to share.

Please remember to do us the kindness of placing your blueberry orders ahead of time – it helps with the flow of veggie pick ups. Thanks a million.
It’s too hot to think anymore right now – time to pack it up and bring you all this harvest.

Enjoy!
With best regards,
Paul, Coree, Lulah, Levon and Branden

Sowing the seed, my hand is one with the earth.
Wanting the seed to grow, my mind is one with the light.
Hoeing the crop, my hands are one with the rain.
Having cared for the plants, my mind is one with the air.
Hungry and trusting, my mind is one with the earth.
Eating the fruit, my body is one with the earth.
-Prayers and Saying of the Mad Farmer, IX
by Wendell Berry

week 8

July 14, 2011 week 8

Lettuce Onion Potatoes
Bell Pepper Patty Pan Garlic
Tomatoes Cucumber
Herb Bag: Sorrel Basil Cutting Celery

We're grateful to not be in a drought so far this year! No end to the interesting weather, though. We've seen soaring heat and torrential down pours. About 3 ½ “ of rain fell on Tuesday which brings our total for the last month to about a foot. This was just a little pop-up thunderstorm that dumped all that rain in about an hour! It washed out our road and took down our phone too. The county road crew did a prompt repair job, but the phone company seems to have a lot going on right now.

We did pretty good catching up with cultivating the garden but will be out there doing it all again after the hard rain. We harvested the potatoes and the rest of the onions too. That was a big day! The tomatoes are doing great now and the peppers are looking good too. The okra has shown it's first blossoms and the corn grew about 2 feet taller with the warmth and abundant moisture. We also had our very first watermelon of the season and the prospects look good for next week on the small ones with yellow flesh.

Summer Squash are on of our favorite early summer treats. They come in a variety of shapes and colors. This week we have the yellow and green patty pans that look like flying saucers, and a few round green zucchinis. The zucchinis got hit hard by the early wet weather and many plants succumbed to fungal disease, which summer squash are prone to. We have also planted a few other varieties that will be coming along in a few weeks. There will be Yellow Crook Neck and Benning's Green Tint – a white patty pan that we especially like the flavor of. They can all be used interchangeably as they have a similar taste and texture. They are great raw out of hand or chopped into a salad or can be lightly stir fried until they are just heated through. They can also be cooked until soft as in a ratatouille.

Try this with your summer squash.
Vegetable Pasta Salad
¼ c. red wine vinegar ¼ c. Olive oil ½ tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper
1 clove garlic minced 1 tbs Dijon mustard ¼ cup Basil
wisked together and set aside

4 ounces uncooked Pasta cook, drain, and rinse in cold water. Toss in large bowl with 1/3 of dressing

2 c. chopped fresh vegetables: green peppers, summer squash, cucumbers, broccoli, mix and match
3 medium tomatoes cut in thin wedges ½ cup sliced olives
Layer ingredients on top of pasta in above order.
Sprinkle ¼ - ½ cup fresh basil and 2 tbs fresh parsley on top then add ½ cup Parmesan cheese and remainder of dressing. Toss lightly before serving.

And for the tomatoes: Chilled Tomato Soup
1 beefsteak sized tomato (peeled), 1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt, 6 basil leaves, salt and pepper
Puree in a blender until smooth. Oh YUM.
There are many ways to feel about potatoes. For some people they are just another starch, a root (though that isn't botanically accurate), something bland that fits the bill to put with the more important parts of dinner. But this time of year, we beg to differ. This may be due in part to the many hours we spend in the hot field tending the potato plants, then grubbing around in the soil digging them, toting them around in baskets, sorting them out, and tucking them safely into storage, but nevertheless, we contend that fresh potatoes are a different story. You can't ever count on finding really fresh potatoes in a grocery store (sort of like garlic). These potatoes are more crisp – like a fresh apple – and considerably more delicate in flavor (in my opinion) than potatoes that have been in storage. These smaller sized potatoes don't store well, and are best eaten fresh, or NEW, hence the name – new potatoes. You can treat as you would any potato – boil, fry, bake, mash, butter, olive oil, salt and pepper. For a basic good recipe, try this:

Roasted New Potatoes
1 1/2 pounds new potatoes, quartered 2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
AT LEAST (adjust herbs/spices as needed:) 2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Combine all ingredients in a plastic bag; toss to coat. Pour into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Bake, uncovered, at 450 degrees F for 35 minutes, turning occasionally until potatoes are tender. Remove from the oven and cover with foil to keep warm until serving.

We're offering Kenny's Cheese again this year. For those of you who haven't heard of it , Kennys cheese is a great little family dairy in Barren County Kentucky. They use only there own fresh raw milk to make their cheese. We think that it is a great tasting high quality cheese. The prices have taken a slight increase – we've done what we can to keep them down, but dairy is a tough business. Here's how it works...

Tell us the cheeses and quantities of cheeses that you would like, as soon as possible and no later than next Thursday. It will take Kenny's a full week to process, cut and wrap our order, and we'll bring your order to market July 28. We'll do this once a month through the season, so order an appropriate amount to see you through. We know that these prices can seem high if you're buying conventional cheese. They are comparable to specialty and organic cheese prices, and having seen the Mattingly farm and how it operates, we are confident offering Kenny's products. He uses no growth hormones, and though he does not certify organic, his practices are sound and he is a fine steward of the land. Kenny's offers a very nice selection of cheese – we're keeping it basic for now. If you see something interesting on their website you can request it. Here's the selection and price list, all prices are for ½ lb blocks:

Cheddar, Mild $4
Cheddar, Aged $5
Monterey Jack $4
Colby $4
Barren County Blue $5
Swiss $5

We would like to know that we have a reasonable amount of interest in the cheese order before we commit to making the drive up to Kenny's. Please express your cheese intentions soon.

Cantaloupes and Eggplants will be ready soon. Enjoy your meals!

With best regards,
Paul, Coree, Lulah, Levon and Branden

“To be sane in a mad time is bad for the brain, worse for the heart.
The world is a holy vision, had we clarity to see it – a clarity that men depend on men to make.
– The Mad Farmer Manifesto; The first Amendment (2) by W. Berry

weeks 5, 6, 7

It's so easy to get behind! It's so nice to get caught up.

July 7, 2011 week 7

Lettuce Carrots Beets
Bell Pepper Patty Pan Garlic
FIRST Tomato Wax Beans
herb bag: Sorrel Basil Cutting Celery

It’s our seventh week of the main season deliveries, and it happens to fall on the seventh day of the seventh month of the year. That feels lucky!

We hope you all had a fun Independence Day. We enjoyed time with family and friends, and Lulah enjoyed the fireworks just as much as Levon DIDN’T enjoy them. The raw blueberry pie was incredible. If you want to learn to make one, ask us for the recipe, or scan through the blog. I’m fairly sure it’s posted in there somewhere.

New item in your herb bag this week is Cutting Celery. This little green herb has all flavor of a celery stick in a small sprig of green. Not so handy for dipping peanut butter, but great in soup stocks, potato salads, and green salads. Our parsley took a hit in the last big rain, so it could be awhile before we have larger quantities of those greens to share. Cutting celery is abundant now.

Tomatoes are on the verge. The gardens on the hill have never looked better. Paul and Branden have worked hard to get the squash, corn, melons, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes and onions laid out and tucked into mulch. There are loads of fuzzy young cantaloupes, miniature watermelons, and thousands of green tomatoes. This week is a particularly precious time, because even though everything is green and lush and beautiful, it's still small enough to maneuver around the gardens. Soon, the tomato vines will close in and picking tomatoes will be like a trip into the primeval tomato jungle. Walking through the squashes and melons will be a tip toe dance around intertwining vines and blooms, and the sweet potatoes will be a solid carpet of beautiful ropy vines and leaves. Everything is growing strong and it won’t be long before we’ll be in full harvest up there. Corn will be late this year, but here come the peppers…

Peppers have a funny way of setting a great big fruit early in the season, right smack dab in the middle of the plant. That first pepper can grow quite large and actually lodge itself in the plant’s branches, making it difficult to harvest. These peppers you’re receiving today are those first big peppers. We picked them out to make room for the others to grow larger. There’ll be more soon.

This is the end of carrots for awhile. We're sad to see them go. It's been a lovely harvest. We'll have more later in the season. Beets are here, and we know they're not everyone's favorite vegetable, so we'd like to give you some information about why and how to love them. Unique pigment antioxidants present in beets have been found to offer protection against coronary artery disease and stroke, lower cholesterol levels in the body and have anti-aging effects. Beets are a great source of B vitamins, have more iron than spinach (step back Pop-eye!), and are also an excellent source of calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, copper, and natural sodium. A quick online search, also yielded this, um, interesting tidbit:

“Dandruff: Mix a little vinegar to a small cup of beets juice. Massage it into the scalp with your fingertips and leave on for about an hour, then rinse. Do this daily till dandruff clears up. Warning: you will smell awful during this hour! “

Nutritional information is motivational, but recipes are probably more useful:

Beet Roesti with Rosemary (from Mark Bittman)
Makes 4 servings Time: 20 minutes
An almost unbelievably sweet and wonderful side dish. The sugar in the beets caramelizes, and the flavors of the rosemary, beets, and butter meld beautifully.
· 1 to 1 1/2 pounds beets · 1 teaspoon coarsely chopped fresh rosemary
· 1 teaspoon salt · 1/4 cup flour
· 2 tablespoons butter
1. Trim the beets and peel them as you would potatoes; grate them in a food processor or by hand. Begin preheating a medium to large non-stick or well-seasoned skillet over medium heat.
2. Toss the grated beets in a bowl with the rosemary and salt, then add about half the flour; toss well, add the rest of the flour, then toss again.
3. Place the butter in the skillet and heat until it begins to turn nut-brown. Scrape the beet mixture into the skillet, shape it into a nice circle, and press it down with a spatula. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the bottom of the beet cake is nicely crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Slide the cake out onto a plate, top with another plate, invert the two plates, and slide the cake back into the pan. Continue to cook, adjusting the heat if necessary, until the second side is browned. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Roasted Beets, Italian style
Trim off the tops must 1/4 inch or so above the root. Rinse. Wrap all the beets together in a double-thickness of aluminum foil, crimping the edges together to seal tightly. Roast in a 400ºF oven until tender, 1-2 hours. Remove from the oven. When cool enough to handle, peel the beets (the skin will pull away) and slice into thin rounds or half rounds. Just before serving, dress with good-quality red wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper. Serve warm or room temperature. Especially nice after lamb dishes.
Roasted Beets can also be used in fancier salads. Try combining them with orange sections and watercress or lamb's lettuce -- or with walnuts and goat cheese – or with sliced red onions and fresh herbs – in a sherry vinegar dressing.

Quick and Easy Beans
Cook beans in a 4-quart pot of boiling salted water until just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain in a colander, then immediately toss in a large bowl with either:

1 Tbsp. honey, ¾ tsp. Grated lemon zest, and ¼ tsp. salt
OR
3 Tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil, juice of one lemon, 2 minced cloves of garlic, and salt and pepper.

This week, we hope to pull onions and dig potatoes. Cucumbers will be fattening up, and the tomatoes will pink up. Summer crops are upon us.

Have a great week, and please remember to send us your blueberry orders.
Thank you for your good eating.

Paul, Coree, Lulah, Levon and Branden

“The old agriculture of the 19th and 20th century is dying, and consumers can hasten that death, and they should. They are, after all, the walking wounded, offended by the chemical amateur. The consumer cannot hide in an organic garden or sleep in a subway or ignorance. Consumers will get lean agriculture when they demand it, casting their demands in knowledgeable terms and nailing those terms to the market door.” ~ Charles Walters, A Voice Eco- Agriculture, 1975


June 30, 2011 week 6

Lettuce Lacinato Kale Carrots Beets
Red Onion Garlic Chard Wax Beans
herb bag: Sorrel Basil Green Onions

Is it my imagination or was June SO fast? We are happy to see the sun shine again these days. By our estimations, we've had at least 7 ½ inches of rain in the past ten days. Monday night's finale thunderstorm was a light show to put most firework displays to shame. There was no sleeping through it, and Branden was tempted to bail out of his tent house. The gardens are still too wet to cultivate and we can't mulch or plant until after we cultivate. The to-do list has gotten pretty darn long! We'll hit the ground running on Friday morning.

Food ripens and grows, no matter what the weather. The first picking of green, (actually, yellow) beans was a little thin. We're aiming for more next week. Summer squashes have not enjoyed the rain, but persist in blooming, as do the cucumbers. There are spiny baby cucumbers all over the vines. Lulah has eaten about three not-quite-ripe tomatoes in the garden now. Soon, so soon, those best loved garden fruits will be rolling in. This week's sunshine will bring big growth.

In the meantime – here's to beets and carrots. Make your holiday weekend colorful by using these bright veggies. We like to grate beets on a salad. (You might have noticed already, but we'll put almost anything on a salad. We hope you will try too.) They turn whatever they come into contact with a delightful bright pink (it's especially delightful if you have a young daughter :)). They are great baked in foil, just like a white potato, and if you're doing some grilling this weekend – check out these tips for Grilled Beets, a great addition to a grilled veggie platter:
Heat the grill to medium-hot – you should be able to hold your hand about an inch over the cooking grate for about 2 seconds.
Peel and slice beets.
Brush beets with olive or vegetable oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt.
Place beets on grill. If using a gas grill, cover. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, turn, and cook until beets are tender and grill-marked, another 8 to 10 minutes.
Serve beets hot, warm, or at room temperature. Drizzle with additional olive oil for serving, if you like. This is also a great time to use any nut oils - toasted walnut oil or hazelnut oil in particular - since they are delicious on grilled beets.

Reminder - any oil you use can be easily infused with garlic and/or basil or any other herb you choose, simply by crushing the herb or spice and mixing it with the oil. The longer it soaks in the oil the better, and if you're infusing for more than a few hours, please move the container to the fridge.

Another good thing to do with beets:
Beet Raita
3 cups raw beets, grated 1 bay leaf 1 Tbsp sunflower oil
½ tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp sea salt 1 Tbsp honey or maple syrup
2 cups yogurt
Steam beets over 1 inch of water in a saucepan for 2 to 3 minutes. Heat oil in a small skillet; add mustard seeds and crumled bay leaf. When mustard seeds pop, take skillet off heat. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Chill if desired. Enjoy as a garnish with bread, soup rice or vegetables.

These pretty little kale tops are the end of the brassica family in the garden until Fall. Some will mourn their loss and others rejoice. Here at home we do a little of both. Leaving a good space between the Spring and Fall cabbage family plantings helps reduce the caterpillar population, and leaves us with better garden rotation options.

Here's a nice soup, from Laurel's Kitchen, to use your kale. You could probably use chard in this as well. I probably would not use them both together.

Potato Kale Soup
1 onion 1 tbsp oil/fat
1 clove garlic 2 large potatoes
1 large bunch kale 5 cups hot water or stock
1/2 tsp salt or to taste black pepper

Sautee onion in fat until slightly golden. Add potatoes and 2 cups water. Simmer, covered, until potaotes start to soften at the edges. Meantime wash kale(soak in a sink or bowl of water. Remove stems...chop fine and steam. (don't cook with the potatoes...the flavor will be too strong.)
When the potatoes are well done, puree half of them with remaining water and salt an pepper (consider using miso instead of salt here). Combine all and heat gently (do not boil). Correcting consistency by adding hot water or milk. Makes about 6 cups.

In coming weeks, we hope to grub some white potatoes, pick more beans, and ripe tomatoes, and bring some cucumbers to town.

We hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend, and look forward to seeing you next week!

Your Gardeners
at Red Springs Family Farm

PS – There are still shares available – pass the word along to your friends. Also, basket up for grabs next week – if someone wants a sample.


June 23, 2011 week 5

Lettuce Chinese Cabbage Carrots Broccoli Red Onion Fresh Garlic
herb bag: Sorrel Basil Shiso
Green Coriander Anise Hyssop Echinacea flowers

Amazing how fast we can oscillate between praying for rain and begging for it to stop! Oh well. All seeds planted are sprouting well now. So are the millions of weeds we will be pulling and hoeing when the garden soil dries enough to walk upon again. We prefer to not even walk in the garden when the soil is this wet. Good garden soil teems with microscopic life, and when the soil is wet, that life is all the more fragile. Our heavy steps have a heavy price.

These lovely red onions came from Lulah's hands to your kitchen. We were up on the hill making the most of a few sunny hours on Tuesday. The garlic harvest needed to happen before the next rain, which seemed emenent. Lulah looked at the onion bed and noticed that the red onions' tops were laying down. We confirmed her suspicion that they were ready to come out of the ground, and she harvested all the bent onions, laid them in piles, and carried them to the tractor all by herself. Purple is one of her favorite colors, which made the job a real joy for her.

These red salad onions are not cured. They should be stored in a plastic bag in your refrigerator and eaten within a week or two. Here's a basic Greek Salad to use a red onion in:

1 large head Lettuce 1/2 half red onion, sliced
1 English Cucumber, sliced 1 cup Kalamata olives
1 cup Greek Feta, crumbled

Dressing: 1/2 cup olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp dried oregano 1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper

1. Place lettuce in a large bowl.
2. Mix dressing ingredients in a bottle and give it a good shake.
3. Toss lettuce with about 1/2 the dressing.
4. Place remaining salad ingredients on top of lettuce, and drizzle with some more dressing.
(Recommendation from the farm kitchen – use thinly sliced tender broccoli stalks and small florets instead of cucumbers, which won't be ready for another couple weeks.)

It's such splendid work to grow garlic. In the midst of the garlic harvest, I remembered that Paul went up to plant the garlic 8 months ago, last October, when I was just getting the feeling of going into labor with Levon. Tuesday, Levon fell asleep in the stroller, giving his Momma a rare and wonderful opportunity to work unencumbered in the garden. The garlic is beautiful. Fresh garlic is something you can't ordinarily buy in a grocery store. The clove skins are not dry - the bulb is on the whole juicier than most garlic. Enjoy. You'll be getting a bulb each week, but this new fresh garlic is special.

Shiso, or Perilla, is a new one in your herb bag this week. Looking on wikipedia, I find this:
“ Perilla is traditionally used in Chinese medicine and has been shown to stimulate interferon activity and thus, the body's immune system. It is used to ease the symptoms of the common cold. It is fried in oil with garlic or ginger in the wok, and eaten as a dish with meals. “

We like to slice it thin on salads. Shiso grows as a weed in our garden, a very beautiful and tasty weed. You may have seen it used as a garnish in Japanese restaraunts. We can get a chuckle by asking the sushi chef what s/he pays for that garnish. What kind of farm income could we generate by selling our weeds?!

This will be the last of the broccoli until Fall. The cold snap did the broccoli good. We think you'll find this week's selection slightly superior to last week. We experimented with an open pollinated variety this spring, and we have been pleased. Broccoli, in general, has been highly hybridized to perform under particular conditions in a very specific time frame. The hybrid broccolis sometimes don't go all the way to flower! They turn yellow but dont' bloom, which seems strange, at least. The open pollinated variety behaves more like a natural broccoli, seems to keep more tender stalks, and we hope you find the flavor agreeable as well.

Chinese Cabbages are not our usual spring garden fare. They enjoy one great advantage over their western relatives (broccoli, head cabbages, kale, etc.) in that the cabbage lopers aren't attracted to them. Unfortunately, the flea beetles do enjoy them, and the recent soggy conditions have made life all the better for those bugs. The damage is primarily aesthetic. These cabbages are tender enough to cut fine in salads. If you want to stir fry them, they need only a short time in a hot pan.

Carrots are beginning to be damaged by the excessive rain. The root bottoms suffer in our low hollow – high water table. We'll hope that things dry out this week and give them a chance to recover. Here's our favorite carrot salad recipe:

12 medium carrots, grated 1 cup fresh pineapple, drained and chopped
½ cup raisins ½ cup roasted pecans
1 Tbsp parsley (optional) ¾ cup basic dressing (below)
Mix well and chill.

Basic Dressing:
1 tsp Dijon type mustard 2 Tbsp. Plus a bit wine vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp flax oil

Dip a fork into the ja of mustard and transfer about 1 tsp to a small bowl. Add vinegar and mix around. Add olive oil in a thi stream, stirring all the while with the fork, until oil is well mixed or emulsified Add flax oil and use immediately.

COMING SOON – new potatoes, beets, green beans. We don't know when the first tomatoes will ripen but we sure look forward to that day!

FARM BUSINESS – if you are paying on the quarterly payment plan, this is your last week paid for. Please bring a check next week, if you didn't already this week. Thank you!

Thank you for your good eating. Happy Summer!

VIII When I rise up, let me rise up joyful, like a bird.
When I fall, let me fall without regret, like a leaf.
~ Wendell Berry, Prayers and Saying of the Mad Farmer

weeks 3 and 4

Red Springs Family Farm
June 16, 2011 week 4

Lettuce Lacinato Kale Kohlrabi
Carrots Broccoli Red Onion
Green Coriander Sorrel Basil & Mint

Beautiful! What a break! We’ve enjoyed the cold snap, and the good soaking rain yesterday, and the garden has too. The summer transplanting is almost complete and now with a good hoeing and a little more mulch, the summer crops will be “laid by” as they say ‘round here. Early tomatoes are swelling, but still green. They’re setting a tremendous number of blooms (exciting news for future harvests). Squashes, peppers, and eggplants are also blooming, and will be set to grow as we emerge from these wonderful cool days.

Today you’re getting the first handful of carrots, the first bulbed onions, and their yummy greens, and a little taste of fresh basil. The broccoli is just a bite. It falls short of what we had hoped for, and is nowhere near the perfection of a good autumn broccoli, but it’s a sincere reflection of the temperature fluctuations and growing conditions of the season so far. Tall and willowy, reaching for the sky, going to bloom before it makes a full head. We’ll be glad to pull out the remaining stalks and leaves (the chickens will turn them into good eggs) and give the space to another vegetable. Enjoy this special taste of broccoli.

The broccoli isn’t the only thing aiming for the sky down in the hollow. Lulah’s feet seem to touch the sky as she pumps herself up on the swingset, and lettuce has been bolting skyward as well, so we’re moving on into the summer lettuce selection of crunchy sweet butterheads. We like to dress our salads with a pinch of salt, a splash of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and nutritional yeast. The garlic will be out of the ground shortly, and then the salads will really sing!

Both the broccoli and the kale could use a good soaking before you cook them. Put a generous pinch of salt in your soaking water and it will cause any remaining cabbage lopers (green caterpillars) to float to the top of the bowl. It’s nicer to find them in the rinse water than on your plate!

As a matter of full disclosure – we do use an organically approved caterpillar killing spray (Dipel) on the cabbage family vegetables. It is based on bacillus thuringiensis (BT for short) – a naturally occurring soil-born bacteria that kills caterpillars, and has been used to do so since the 1920’s. Its effect is very targeted, and it is deactivated by sunlight, so it is active for a very short period of time. We use it only on a need-to basis. If we didn’t, there would rarely be kale, collard, broccoli, or kohlrabi to enjoy. Rest assured, we are extremists about what we use in the garden and this is the only pesticide, fungicide or herbicide that we use. We rinse these well and eat them without reservation. Any organic food you buy in the grocery store has certainly been sprayed with BT or some other variety of organic approved chemicals, and conventional produce has been treated with what the organic board did not approve, which can be some really poisonous stuff.

BT has gotten some bad press lately because it’s being used in Genetic Modification – particularly in potatoes, corn, and cotton – and due to that strange technology, the bacteria is now showing up in human blood stream samples. This is, in our opinion, one of the many potential ill effects of short term thinking in the world of modern agri-business (we don’t believe that sort of science can aptly be called ‘culture’).

Enough of that! How about a Broccoli Tofu Stir Fry?

Prepare: 1 ½ cups broccoli
2 carrots, thinly sliced 1 ½ cups kohlrabi, peeled, cut to 1 inch cubes
Drop vegetables into 2 cups boiling water. Boil for 2 minutes, drain, reserve cooking liquid.

Add to liquid for sauce: 2 Tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp garlic powder ½ tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp sugar 1 Tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot

In a large skillet or wok, cook a few minutes: 3 Tbsp. oil and 2 onions, cut into thin wedges.

Add the drained veggies to the onions, stir. Add 2 cups tofu, cut in 1 inch cubes.
Stir in the sauce and cook until sauce is bubbly. Serve on hot rice.

You could vary the vegetables used in this stir fry quite abit and still have great results. The greens would be just fine in here, and probably would not need the 2 minute blanch.
(adapted from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook)

If you’re wondering what to do with sorrel – try this recipe. We put some finely sliced sorrel into a chicken soup (along with green coriander seed) to a very nice effect. You don’t have 2-3 cups of sorrel in your herb bag, but you could mix in some kale or even broccoli to bulk it up.

Sorrel and Goat Cheese Quiche
2-3 cups sorrel, coarsely chopped a few scallions, chopped
3-4 ounces goat cheese (chevre) 3 eggs
1½ cups milk ¼ teaspoon salt
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread goat cheese (or any strong flavored cheese) in the bottom of a piecrust. Cover with chopped sorrel and scallions. Beat eggs, salt and milk together. Pour over greens. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until top is golden brown.
Source: A Luna Circle Farm original recipe

Next week, we’ll likely pull more carrots, maybe beets, and hopefully the Chinese cabbages will be full enough to share.

Thank you for participating in our CSA. We know that the increasing speed of the world does not lend itself to cooking meals from scratch at home, and we commend you for continuing to value authentic and high quality food. Please feel free to contact us with questions about your basket’s contents – we want to encourage you to eat well and enjoy your share of the harvest. If you’d like to help spread the word about our farm and its service, please look us up at localharvest.org and drop a good word on our page there. By the time tomato season begins, we will have WAAAY too much food around here, and the local harvest site is a nice way to get our name out to the surrounding community. We appreciate your support.

Have a lovely weekend.

“…Lightning, then the rain-laughter. Dark earth receives that clear and grows a trunk. Melon and cucumber come dragging along on pilgrimage. You have to be to be blessed! Pumpkin begins climbing a rope! Where did he learn that? Grass, thorns, a hundred thousand ants and snakes, everything is looking for food. Don’t you hear the noise?...” ~ excerpt of Rumi

Red Springs Family Farm
June 9, 2011 week 3

Lettuce Rainbow Lights Chard Kohlrabi
Baby beet greens Mizuna Sorrel
Green Coriander Anise Hyssop Day Lilies

The gardens are looking better all the time. Paul and Branden are sweating it out for the love of good food. Sunday brought us a sweet little downpour. We were grateful for that ¼ inch of rain. The newly transplanted sweet potatoes were grateful too. Thanks to a little help from some friends, the tomatoes are all mulched and caged up and setting loads of little green fruits. Branden went to visit a neighboring farm’s interns and brought back a “crop mob” for an afternoon of work on the hill. Six folks with hoes and pitchforks sure can accomplish a lot of work in a short time! The home table was full of lively discussion, swapping travel plans and college stories over a late dinner of scrambled eggs and homemade tortillas. We all slept well that night.

There is no doubt that summer is here. Besides the little rain over the weekend, the days have been clear and hot hot hot. The cold creek is our best refuge and we enjoy it often. Please feel free to come out for a splash. In the meantime, stay hydrated. Here’s how Paul maintains:
One quart of good water dash of sea salt dollop of sorghum or molasses
Stir these three together and drink as needed. Don’t add ice or refrigerate. This is a homemade electrolyte drink. It hits the belly easier than water, and is very satisfying in this deep heat.

I know that most of you don’t eat your day lilies, but please remember that they are safe and lovely on a salad. Throw the anise hyssop flowers on too and you’ll have a veritable masterpiece of flavor and color in one bowl. Even if you don’t put the lilies on a plate – you might enjoy them in a vase. Each flower only lasts one day, but if you persist to pluck them off, you’ll be amazed at how many of even the smallest buds will burst into bloom for you over time.

The little purple aliens are back! These are kohlrabi. They’re fun. We like to eat kohlrabi grated in a salad. We put it in a teriyaki stir fry a couple nights ago. It’s just fine peeled and eaten like an apple, straight out of the lunchbox. We have not actually tried this recipe, but have used kohlrabi in slaw-like (what is coleslaw but kohlslaw anyway?) fashions and this sounds like a winner:

KOHLRABI & APPLE SLAW with CREAMY COLESLAW DRESSING
Makes 4 cups

DRESSING
1/4 cup cream 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon good mustard 1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt & pepper to taste - go easy here Fresh mint, chopped
1 pound fresh kohlrabi, trimmed, peeled, grated or cut into batons with a Benriner
2 apples, peeled, grated or cut into batons (try to keep equivalent volumes of kohlrabi:apple)

Whisk cream into light pillows - this takes a minute or so, no need to get out a mixer. Stir in remaining dressing ingredients, the kohlrabi and apple. Serve immediately.

The feathery little leaves in your herb bag this week are chervil, the symbol of sincerity. It does not love our clayey soils and excess heat, so we’re sending it in a little early, just in case. Here’s some more details: “Often referred to as the “gourmet’s parsley,” chervil tastes mildly of licorice combined with pepper imparting certain freshness to a dish. Fresh or dried, it is a bright green and quite delicate and should be added to a dish at the end of cooking. Chervil has a tendency to enhance the flavors of other herbs when used in combinations. The most notable case is fines herbes, the French blend of at least three herbs, ground fine, where one herb is almost always chervil.” It is a good partner with your kohlrabi, and is said to be a natural companion to carrots. With luck, the chervil will live to be picked again when the carrots are ready (which will be pretty soon!).

Since the broccoli isn’t behaving in the heat (who would?), we’re sending this beautiful chard. We need to speak a kind word about chard stems now. There were times in the late winter and early spring when chard stems were an important food item in our home. They are very good. I’ve used them as a vegetable in pasta salads, quiche, and stir fry. They need more cooking than the leaves, but not much. They’re best enjoyed with a little texture remaining. That said, here’s a deluxe chard leaf recipe from a beautiful cookbook. Go to it!

Lasagne with Chard, Ricotta, and Walnuts from Local Flavors by Deborah Madison
1 cup walnuts sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 lbs chard leaves 2 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for the dish
3 large cloves minced garlic 1/3 cup white wine
1 cup whole milk ricotta 1 cup fresh grated parmesan
2 4 oz balls mozzarella, grated 1 ¼ cup milk
1 8 oz box no-boil lasagna noodles

1. Bring 2 gallons of water to a boil for chard and pasta. Pre-heat oven to 400, then toast the walnuts in a shallow pan until pale gold and fragrant. Chop finely and set aside.
2. When the water boils add 1 tbsp salt and the chard. Cook about 5 minutes, even if the water doesn’t return to a boil. Scoop the chard into a colander; press out and reserve water. Chop chard.
3. Heat oil in a wide skillet and add 2/3 of the garlic, then the chard. Cook over med-high heat, turning frequently for several minutes, then add the wine and allow to cook down. Turn off heat.
4. Combine ricotta, parmesan, all but ¾ cup mozzarella, and remaining garlic. Stir in 1/3 cup of the chard cooking water, then add the chard. Mix, taste for salt, and season with pepper.
5. Bring the water back to a boil. Lightly oil a 9X13 dish. Drizzle ¼ cup milk over the dish.
6. Drop 3 pieces of instant pasta into the water and boil for 1 minute. Remove them and fit them in the baking dish. Sprinkle with ¼ cup walnuts. Repeat twice more with the pasta, milk, cheese mixture, and ¼ cup of the walnuts. When you get to the last layer, add the remaining milk, mozzarella, and walnuts. Place 4 toothpicks in the pasta to make a tent, then cover with foil, and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes longer or until lightly browned on top. Let sit for 10 minutes, then cut into portions and serve.

We know that it’s summer vacation time for a lot of you. Please remember to take care of your baskets over your vacation. When you can’t make a pick up, we ask first that you find someone to pick up for you while you’re gone. If you can’t find someone, please give us AMPLE notice (preferably one week, but a few days at least is helpful) so we can try to fill in the gap. we can also arrange to donate your unused share to a shelter, if we have enough advanced notice to arrange the pick up. Thanks.

Have a great weekend – stay cool enough – and enjoy the harvest!
With love from Red Springs Family Farm

“It is wrong to think that bodily health is compatible with spiritual confusion or cultural disorder,
or with polluted air and water or impoverished soil.” – Wendell Berry

Gobo and Miso

So here are a couple good links for our more unusual items in the basket this week:

http://www.harmonyvalleyfarm.com/recipes/Burdock%20promo.pdf

and

http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/miso-soup-for-the-soul/

I'll put them on FB as well. The Chelsea Green link has a very nicely explained recipe for miso soup - and a fun piece about harvesting seaweed - something we've never tried to grow on the farm here!

week 2

Red Springs Family Farm
June 2, 2011 week 2

Lettuce Yokatta Na Garlic Scapes
Baby beet greens Green Onions
Sorrel Oregano Mint Miso
Mizuna Gobo (Burdock) Green Coriander

What a week! The stormy weather pattern broke and summer came rushing in. The heat has arrived. Paul and Branden have worked pedal to the metal each day, transplanting hundreds of eggplants, peppers and squashes. The corn seed made it into the ground, and another round of beans, too. The peas aren't looking good, so we're taking them out and planting the cucumbers on their trellis. Early spring crops don't like this heat. It wears a body out too. The guys have been coming out of the garden parched and sweaty and we've been spending time in the creek as often as possible.

Our spring broccoli planting may yield us some decent heads and side shoots in the next couple weeks. It won't be the same spread as the Fall broccoli last year (if you missed it – it was an amazing broccoli crop), but spring broccoli is always a gamble.

We're including some basic information about salad greens and herbs this week – care, handling, storage, and enjoyments all included.

Storage and Handling of Lettuce and Tender Greens
This category includes all lettuces, and most of the greens we send.
Store unwashed greens in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. To store lettuce or greens mix that you've washed and dried, roll the leaves loosely in a kitchen towel, put the towel in a plastic bag,a nd place the package in the vegetable crisper bin. Wet greens will spoil quikly, so make sure they are truly dry before refrigerating them. If you have a salad spinner, wash and spin the greens before refrigerating them. It is preferable to eat cut greens withing three or four days, and use lettuce within a week.

Salad greens bruise easily, so be sure to handle them gently. For lettuce, slice the head at its base with a s harp knife and let th leaves fall open. Discard damaged or leather outer leaves and tear large leaves into bite size pieces. Both lettuce and tender greens can be washed by swishing them around in a basin of cold water. If a lot of dirt collects in the water, wash them a second time. Dry in a salad spinner (great investment if you love salads), or place them loosely in a mesh bag or thin towel, then go outside and swing the bundle around your head.

Yokatta Na is back. It's in the bag with the beet greens. Judging by the feedback from your surveys last year, you either loved Yokatta Na or didn't care for it at all. We stand by this plant. Please, give it another try. Though it does not LOOK like spinach, we've found that it acts very much like spinach when cooked. We also have enjoyed it sliced thin in salads.

In your herb bag this week, you'll find more sorrel (bright green arrow shaped leaves) and mizuna (white veins and deeply lobed), which are both green in a salad mix, as well as mint, and oregano. On the side, there are green onions, garlic scapes, and tiny little green corianders, just a taste. They add a flavorfull burst into a pot of chili or soup.

Herb Teas, or Tisanes
For about 6 cups, take a good handful of fresh herbs. Give them a good rinse and pluck any unattractive leaves off the stems. Place them in a teapot and cover with boiling water. Let steep for 5 minutes, or longer if the tea does not seem very aromatic yet, sweeten with honey if desired, then pour into glasses or teacups. For iced tea, make the tisane, then chill well. Pour over ice and add a sprig of fresh herb to the glass.

Native to northern China and Siberia, burdock, or Gobo is more commonly cultivated in Japan where it has been an important vegetable since the 10th century. It is considered a delicacy in Southeast Asia. The root was valued by ancient folk healers as a blood purifier and strengthener, a tonic after sickness, and a relief medicine for arthritis. It is also highly valued for its medicinal uses for skin diseases. Burdock root extracts have been shown to destroy bacteria and fungus cultures, and also show strong cancer fighting properties. Steeping fresh burdock shavings in boiling water produces a tea which is thought to help with indigestion, strengthening and toning the stomach, cleansing the liver and clearing acne.

We love Gobo best in Miso Soup. If you've never been exposed to miso – here's your chance. Our good friend Crazy Owl made lots of miso and we have become stewards of a portion of his last batch. Store it in the fridge; it only improves with age. One teaspoon stirred into a cup of hot (not boiling) water makes a healthful and tasty soup/tea. Miso can be added to almost any soup as a salt substitute and taste enhancer, but only add it at the end, when the soup is no longer boiling. Gobo is a nutty rooty taste and should be added early on in the soup-making process. I will post a more detailed recipe on our blog soon.

Here's a different recipe for Gobo:
Stir Fried Carrots and Burdock with Sesame Seeds
1-2 Gobo roots 3 carrots (sorry they're not quite ready)
2 Tbsp mirin 2 Tbsp soy sauce
3 tsp white sesame seeds 2 tsp light oil
2 tsp roasted sesame oil
1.Scrub the burdock roots with a stiff brush under running water to wash away the soil. Thinly slice them on the diagonal then slice into matchsticks. Put them in a bowl of cold water until they're all sliced, then parboil for 1 minute. Drain.
2.Peel carrots and slice into matchsticks. Combine the mirin and soy sauce. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet until golden, then immediately pour them onto a plate to stop the cooking.
3.Heat a wok or skillet, add the oils and swirl around the pan. When the pan is hot, add the burdock and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add ¼ cup water, cover, and steam for 5 minutes. Add the carrots and stir fry 2-3 minutes longer. Pour in soy sauce and mirin and continue to stir-fry until the vegetables are nicley glazed, af ew more minutes. Toss with sesame seeds and serve hot or at room temp.

Next week, we look forward to bringing you broccoli and chard. Get your anchovies ready – it's time for Romaine lettuce. Have a great week and enjoy your greens!

~with love from Red Springs Family Farm

“Friendship is a basket of bread from which to eat for years to come. Good loaves fragrant and warm miraculously multiplied; the basket never empty and the bread never stale.” - Catherine de Vinck