Whats in the Box: Kohlrabi (green or purple), salad mix (all lettuce blend), romaine lettuce head, red radish, arugula, broccoli, garlic scapes, chioggia beets, strawberries.
What’s going on at the farm: This week is a pickup week for full season members only, this means that if you are a Standard or Basic share you pick up but bi-weekly or half share members have the week off and will pick up again next week. It was another productive and tiring week of work on the farm. So many weeds were pulled by hand around many crops including our cauliflower as well as cultivating more open spaces to kill off weeds. All our greenhouse tomatoes were pruned and clipped for the third time this week and we will be pruning and clipping them weekly as they develop fruit this month. We delivered the first shares of the season and attended three farmers markets this last week and so the harvest and delivery season will go weekly. The greens are loving this cool weather and there are plenty more to enjoy this week. My favorite of these greens is arugula… crisp and spicy with a radish like flavor arugula complements sweeter items like salmon, berries, and can be mixed with your salad greens for a spicier salad. More radishes coming your way this week and I trust I do not have to familiarize anyone with them but they are great with cultured butter and salt sautéed or used as a snack or in salad with your lettuce. Kohlrabi is in this week! Kohlrabi comes from the German language and means cabbage-apple and like its meaning it is crisp and sweet like an apple with a cabbage taste as well. I like kohlrabi skinned and sliced up as a snack with salt and cheese. It is very good with butter and cream, salt and pepper sautéed too. It can also be grated or sliced thinly for salads. The leaves on kohlrabi are edible but not recommended raw or with the stem.s They could be used minced in a soup or stock but I rarely use them. We also have romaine lettuce which has very nice outer leaves and a dense crisp center. The outer leaves are wonderful for wraps and the center could make a fantastic wedge salad or go with the current trend i’ve seen and heard people doing which is a lightly grilled lettuce wedge salad. Our chioggia beets are a specialty beet with rings in the root and they do not bleed like red beets. The greens are fantastic on these and I know we have a lot of greens early but do not miss out on sautéing these rich and dark greens. I like them lightly cooked with olive oil and garlic (use your scapes), they are so tasty and similar to chard which it is related too so prepare them as you would swiss chard or spinach. Garlic scapes are an interesting crop that only comes off a hard neck garlic in June before the plant bulbs. I like making pesto with them but they can be used just like a clove a garlic for mincing up into your dishes and sauces/marinade. Of course everyone is familiar with berries! Our berries are never fumigated or treated with anything so you may find some spotting on them but that is due to moisture so please hope for some nice dry weather out there for the next two weeks while our strawberries are coming in! I think you will find the taste of these berries is far superior to the store bought varieties so enjoy these fresh fruits promptly to avoid spoilage! They are also best kept at a cool temp of 34 degrees. Our crops are looking great this year and we are getting very close to harvesting some other new crops over the next couple weeks including swiss chard, zucchini, summer squash, strawberries, mini english cucumbers, broccoli, garlic scapes, golden beets, sugar snap peas and more! Enjoy!
