What’s in the Box: Celery, fennel, green beans, summer squash, green garlic, zucchini, english cucumbers, green onion, chamomile, and cabbage, (bi-weekly only)
What’s going on at the farm:
Another busy week had us working hard through the weekend. The old strawberry field clean up was completed so they should be nice and clean for next season with no weeds left to go to seed. We continued weeding, mowing and clean up from some early crops too this week. It sounds simple but cleaning out these fields requires many physically strenuous steps for us including; removing plastic mulch by hand which is buried in the soil. Pulling out drip lines, and sometimes resetting long length of drip for a second crop. Removal of posts, trellising, and hoops or row covers. Then mowing by weedwacker to shred old crop residue and weeds up for better incorporation into the soil and to prevent the weeds from going to seed if they are close to doing so. Finally there is the actual plowing of the field to incorporate any shredded crop residues into the soil while they are still green and valuable to the soil structure. We will be planting a lot for the fall season over the next few weeks. This week I planted french filet beans, blue pole beans, carrots, mustard greens, and a braising mix. Cabbage is back for bi-weekly members so here are two simple ways to prepare it quickly. The first is a grilled version I did this week by quartering it with the green stem end attached to each quarter. Then mopping it on the grill with a marinade of soy, honey, brown mustard, garlic, chili oil, veg oil, and celery salt. The result was a grilled teriyaki like cabbage quarters which were perfect with brats. I also suggest trying some homemade kraut which you can find info on here. http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-easy-homemade-sauerkraut-in-a-mason-jar-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-193124. If that fails then there is my personal favorite which is stir fry with a whole cabbage and a bunch of green onions sautéed together with teriyaki sauce and served over rice or noodles. Delicious. Plenty of squash and zucchini to enjoy this week and I love them grilled and brushed with marinade too. They are perfect for pasta and perhaps even making pasta with as well for gluten sensitive people or just something new squash or zucchini noodles if you have a spiralizer are a great option. We have some very tasty crisp celery ready for you all this week. Try it as an addition to a stir fry, or maybe just a tasty, cool, and crunchy snack. Our celery is much more flavorful then the store bought stuff you will find in your local coop or grocery. We are very close to harvesting all of our garlic which we will likely be completing this week and everyone is receiving a little green garlic fresh on the stalk this week too. Simply break the cloves out as you would on cured garlic and peel of any paper and your ready to go. Of course I think garlic goes well with anything so i’m sure you will all have no problem with this one so enjoy the first of what will be much garlic to come. Chamomile is our herb this week and it is wonderful for tea…. simply use a cheesecloth or other steeping devise to brew it hot or maybe a nice twist for some sun tea? Tomatoes and green peppers are a good possibility as an addition to the box this week but we need to make sure there will be enough for all shares before we do so but our tomatoes are on the verge of pouring in so expect a lot of tomatoes coming soon! Until next week then folks. I’ll get back out there and finish harvesting our garlic and you enjoy the veggies!
