Whats in the Box: Kohlrabi (green or purple), romaine lettuce head, red radish, red russian kale, garlic scapes, baby red beets with greens, swiss chard (bright lights mix), chocolate mint.
What’s going on at the farm: This week is a pickup week for full season (Standard and Basic) members only. Bi-weekly members have the week off and will pick up again next week. It was another productive week of work on the farm. So many weeds were pulled by hand around many crops including our garlic and strawberries. All our greenhouse tomatoes were pruned and clipped for the third time and we will be pruning and clipping them weekly as they develop fruit this month. This week we planted all 1648 of our sweet and hot peppers, two types of napa cabbage, two types of lettuce heads, and we seeded green beans. The summer crops are loving this warm weather.
Romaine: This week we have more spring crops coming your way including some dense romaine heads. These beauties really pack a crunch and we have been enjoying them at home as wraps for easy lunches when you’re busy and on the move.
Radish: more radishes are 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, grilled, sautéed, or used fresh as a snack or in salad with your lettuce. We also tried a quick pickle with vinegar, water, sugar, and allspice.
Kohlrabi: Kohlrabi is in this week! Kohlrabi comes from the German language and means “cabbage-apple.” 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 stems. They could be used minced in a soup or stock but I rarely use them.
Beets: Our baby red beets are new this week and their sweetness is impressive, even sliced thinly and eaten raw. However, the greens are fantastic on these as well and I know we have a lot of greens early but do not miss out on sautéing these rich and dark greens. (https://flathatnews.com) I like them lightly cooked with olive oil and garlic (use your scapes). They are so tasty and similar to chard (actually the same species as chard) so prepare them as you would swiss chard or spinach. The taste after sautéing is rich and pairs very well with the sweet roots and maybe some creamy cheese or savory herbs.
Garlic scapes: Garlic scapes are the immature blossom from 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.
Chocolate mint: Our herb this week is chocolate mint which has a sweet and strong minty flavor. Use it to flavor water, tea, coffee, ice cream, or desserts like cakes, cookies and, baked goods.
Swiss chard: Swiss chard is our final new crop this week and it is our favorite to use anywhere you would use spinach. It is fantastic sautéed with your eggs in the morning for a nice fritata or in pasta dishes. Because chard is related to beets, it has many colorful stem varietals and we enjoy the stems right along with the leaves.
Other crops we have coming in the next week or two include strawberries, broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, chioggia and golden beets, snap peas, cucumbers, dill, and curly and lacinato kale.