​​​​​Week of July 3

This week in your portion: (Note new feature: Items with a * means we have extra available for purchase. Let us know if you want us to bring an extra portion or two of the item to the pick up.)

• Cucumbers

• Blackberries

• Blueberries*  (Margaret has pick-your-own at her farm!)

• Green Beans*  ( Margaret has pick-your-own at her farm!)

• New Potatoes*

• Carrots*

• Thyme

• Onion*

• Garlic*

Another gorgeous overcast and cool day! A great day for tending your crops--before the week's never-ending rain hits.Around this time of year, us tenders of diversified vegetable farms (that's the kind where we grow lots of different kinds of vegetables, and have some animals, too!) are prone to get a little disheartened. Every year in July and August, we start to fantasize about throwing in the hoe. Because just when the the really delicious stuff that we wait all year for starts coming in--the cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, green beans, corn, melons--the bugs and the weeds hit their primes of life. Their appetites are huge, their ways wily, and they will have success at all costs. Mostly at our cost.

 

I don't like to think in war analogies when it comes to gardening. I am quite sure I don't stand a chance against mother nature. And so I think in terms of sharing. For every one cucumber plant offered to the squash borer, harlequin beetle, cucumber beetle, bindweed or wiregrass, there is one for me to harvest.Oh sure, I have organic pest-control products. The kind that are extracted from daisies and degrade as soon as they are exposed to sunlight and so must be reapplied at regular intervals from the time the seedling emerges to the time of harvest. Many a twilight will find me gently marching down the rows with a sprayer on my back. But the borer gets inside anyway, and that hoe needs a body to work it if it's gonna do any good, and that mulch grows thin unless it is replenished.

 

It is times like these that we sometimes wonder--just for a brief second!-- if a little Round-Up in our garden would really be so bad. But it would. This morning I took a few seconds to comment (negatively) on the EPA's pending decision to raise the level of glyphosate residue allowed in food. That's the stuff of Round-Up and its ilk. If you care to find out more about it, click here.But mostly, we kind of like getting dirty digging potatoes and supporting tomatoes. Especially when we get to have fresh green beans and new potatoes for dinner tonight! And so can you:

 

Green Beans and New Potatoes

• 1 quart new potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled

• 1 pound green beans, washed and trimmed

• \2 hard-boiled eggs

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1/4 cup vinegar

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

• 4 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cook potatoes in water to cover for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on their size, until they are tender but firm; drain, and cut in quarters or halves, again depending on size. Meanwhile, steam the green beans 5 to 7 minutes, depending on their thickness; drain, and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking. Cut in quarters or thirds, depending on size.

 

In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, lemon juice and mustard; stir in the thyme and onion. When potatoes are cooked, stir them into the dressing. If the salad is not to be served immediately, do not add the green beans: the acid of the dressing will turn them gray. Cover the beans well, cover the dressed potatoes and refrigerate separately.

 

To serve, let the vegetables return to room temperature. Stir the green beans into the potatoes and dressing, and season with salt and pepper. Slice or crumble the hard-boiled eggs on top.

 

Week of June 12

Hope you made your reservations on the Ark, because spaces are filling up quick!
Kind of like our gardens are filling up with water. We got 3 inches since last night, and that's in addition to the 4 inches we got last week.

That's what muck boots are for I guess, and mucking about in the mud is what Margaret and I will be doing while we harvest your crops this week. We'll have:

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•     Cauliflower

•     Carrots OR Beets

•     Onion

•     Lettuce Mix

•     Fennel OR Kohl Rabi (LAST of BOTH of these goodies)

•     Snap Peas

•     Baby Spinach

What to do with Fennel, you ask? Well, besides slicing it up in delicious salads (try mixed lettuce with sliced fennel, raisins, red onions and maybe even an apple with a balsamic vinegar mixed with a little berry jam for dressing, along with salt, pepper, and a dusting of parmesan cheese!), you could use your cauliflower and do something extra delicious, like this!

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Cauliflower Fennel Gratin (That's cheesy cauliflower with fennel and breadcrumbs)

    1 tablespoon olive oil
    1 tbsp minced garlic
    1 small fennel bulk (thinly sliced)
    1 head cauliflower (cut into florets)
    1/2 cup cooking cream (or milk)
    1 cup cheddar (grated)
    1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
    2/3 cups fresh breadcrumbs (I used sourdough bread to make these)
    2 tablespoons parsley (chopped)

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium low heat; add garlic and fennel. Saute until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
Boil a pot of water. Immerse cauliflower in it and cook briefly, until tender.. Add to fennel and garlic mixture. Cook an additional 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat; add cream and 1/2 cup of cheese and toss together. Season with thyme and salt and pepper where needed.
Pour into a lightly greased pyrex or similar casserole/baking dish. Stir breadcrumbs and parsley together and sprinkle over cauliflower mixture. Top with remaining cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and brown.

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Week of June 5

Greetings from our blessedly damp gardens. It's a great day for pulling weeds and planting seeds! Thank you all for your enthusiastic appreciation for the produce we tend to for you. It keeps us going on bleaker days when the sun is blazing and everything is thriving but the crops and us.

 

This week, we'll be bringing you:

 

• Snap Peas OR Broccoli OR rhubarb OR beets

• Strawberries

• Asparagus

• Cabbage

• Chard

• Garlic

• Fennel

• Lettuce

Rest assured, if you don't get snap peas this week, you'll get them in the weeks to come. They're just starting to come on now.

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And just so you know, this week might mark the end of the strawberry season. If you haven't gotten your fill, head on out to Margaret's Sunrise Gardens any day but Sunday and Wednesday and take advantage of her "pick your own" operation. It is definitely the last of the asparagus, so enjoy them at their freshest!

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And Diana at Glean Acres has a few freezers full of tender, delicious, pastured Spring Chickens. You can stop there most anytime and pick one up for your Sunday Supper. Just call first to make sure she's there. 571-251-7828.

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We realize you may still have a cabbage from last week, and now another bundle of leafy joy on the way! What to do? Well, this recipe gleaned from the pages of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy (it was the main character's FAVORITE dish as a boy) is now a favorite in the Glean Acres household as well. Maybe it will become yours?

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Farmer Boy's Cabbage with Apples
1 small head cabbage, chopped
2 onions, sliced
2 flavorful apples, chopped
Butter

Preferably in a nice cast iron pot or dutch oven, saute onions over medium heat in butter until nearly translucent. Add cabbage and apples. Cook until soft. Add salt and pepper to taste. Melt-in-your-mouth delicious and goes great with some all-natural sausages and boiled potatoes. (New potatoes are almost ready!)

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Incidentally, Farmer Boy makes for great summer reading for whimsical adults and children alike. Just ask Diana, who read it last summer for the first time!

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Week of May 29

Here is what we have for you this week!

    Strawberries
    Asparagus
    Lettuce
    Baby Spinach
    Baby Kale
    Cabbage
    Asian Greens/ or Rhubarb / or Broccoli

 

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Recipe: Broiled Asparagus

Tired of steamed asparagus? (I guess it could happen...) For something special, coat it with just a smidgeon of olive oil and sea salt, then spread it out on a cookie sheet and broil it just a very few minutes, checking and turning frequently. Yum.

 

Week of May 22

Thank God for this weekend's sprinkling of rain and respite from summer heat. Because it means that you just might get some broccoli this spring after all!

The moist, overcast days have been perfect for transplanting everyone's favorite summer fruit... Tomatoes!  Cherokee Purple, Black Prince, Tess's Land Race, Box Car Willie, Goliath,German Johnson, and Brandywine Pink are just a few (no kidding!) of the varieties we're growing just for you.

Meanwhile, the peas are finally flowering, the strawberries are turning red, the blueberries are turning purple, and Margaret and I are turning all kinds of colors while we try to figure out how to provide health and variety and happiness in a bag.

Here's what we came up with this week:

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•     Mixed leaf lettuce (surprise!)

•     Broccoli (for about two-thirds of you--we'll have more for all of you next week.)

•     Baby Tendergreen Mustard-Spinach (for about 1/3 of you). It's a delicious, sweet, not bitter, slightly spicy delicate spinach-like mustard that's perfect in salads, or (you guessed it) lightly sauteed. Try it. You'll like it. Also TERRIFIC on sandwiches as lettuce substitute.

•     Asparagus (get it while you can!)

•     Easter Egg Radishes (for that burst of color amongst the green)

•     Asian Greens--an assortment of PakChoi, Tatsoi, and/or Vitamin Greens

•     Giant Spinach and Kale cooking greens mix

•     Fennel. Unless you VETOED Fennel, which many of you did. Then you'll get Kohl Rabi or exciting sweet Japanese turnips instead.

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And now, recipes:

    Japanese Turnips
    Kohl Rabi
    Fennel Pasta
    Easy and tasty recipe for any greens.

And if that rhubarb is still haunting your refrigerator, you will use it this week when you see these enticing ways. http://www.laughingduckgardens.com/ldblog.php/2011/05/24/the-year-of-rhubarb/

Disclaimer: You may notice that many of your greens are being enjoyed by creatures other than yourselves before they get to you. If  bugs like them and live, they must be good for you, right? The bugs got some sort of unexpected head start on us this year, and we're sorry if that makes you uncomfortable. We will have some spotless produce for you once we get through the spring greens!

 

 

Week of May 15

The phones of farmers across the entire eastern seaboard were ringing yesterday. "You know there's a frost coming, right?" was the line that followed the opening formalities of answered calls.

Margaret and I and our husbands spent the better part of Sunday tucking in crops in our respective gardens. Because finally, our green beans are up. Our potatoes are a month from harvest. Our tomatoes are fit to be tied. (We're not quite there yet, ourselves, but see what you think of us in August.) Thick layers of fluffed hay, an extra layer of row cover, and we hope for the best.

We'll wait until Wednesday to uncover those babies and hope to share the good news of high survival rates with you all when we see you then! And it looks like we'll have some other non-leafy crops coming in soon. Think broccoli. Peas. Strawberries. Good things come to those who wait and all!

In the meantime, you can look forward to frost-hardy crops in your portion this week:

•     Easter Egg Radishes

•     Mixed leaf lettuce

•     Asparagus

•     Rhubarb

•     Vitamin Greens and Bok Choy or Tatsoi

•     Mixed Braising Greens (Spinach and Kale)

Two recipes and ideas for you this week. And just to let you know, if you feel overwhelmed with Rhubarb, it freezes beautifully! Chop it up, spread it out on a cookie sheet and freeze. Scoop it all into a freezer bag and save for a delicious fall dessert! Or enjoy it in a new recipe below.. A FAVORITE of Margaret's husband.

1. Rhubarb Salad

3 cups chop rhubarb.

Simmer until tender, but still firm.

Can microwave for 3 minutes, stirring every minute. Drain.

Place in a bowl and add:

1 orange, chop

1 large apple or pear chop

¾ cup brown sugar

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup chop nuts.

Chill. Serve cold.

Can substitute mandarin oranges and craisins for orange and apple.

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2. Here's something different to do with your mixed greens, from a fellow Madison Eats member, who is also a chef! Thank you, Nancy Sime:
Independent Director
The Pampered Chef
540-937-7127-office
540-229-4841-cell
www.pamperedchef.biz/nancysime

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Creamed Greens

adapted from recipe by

Emily Dingmann

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 15 min

Ingredients (6 servings)

    2 bunches mixed greens
    1/2 onion, sliced paper thin
    3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
    1 1/2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
    1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
    2 Tbsp butter

Instructions

    Wash kale and remove stems.
    Roughly chop.
    Pour 2 cups water in large pot with onion slices and garlic.
    Bring to a boil and boil for about 2 minutes.
    Lower heat to medium high, and add kale to pot, sprinkling with salt.
    Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
    Drain kale-onion mixture and press all water from it.
    Add cheese and cottage cheese to food processor (or blender) and process until smooth.
    Add butter and kale-onion mixture to food processor and process to desired consistency.
    Serve hot with shredded parmesan cheese if desired.

 

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Week of May 8

Mixed Asian Greens

Rhubarb

Asparagus

Lettuce Mix

Baby Vegetable salad topping mix

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Wondering how to enjoy all that rhubarb?  It's easy to have as a super healthy dessert, or even a side dish. Here are a couple of idea s to get you started:

 

Stewed Rhubarb:
2 cups chopped rhubarb (rinse well and discard all leaves. Leaves are not edible.)
1/2 cup sugar
dash of cinnamon
1 tsp lemon or orange peel

Put all ingredients in non-reactive pot with water just to cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Serve as dessert on its own or with vanilla ice cream OR: Follow the above recipe, stir in a little applesauce, and have it as topping for pork chops! Some people also enjoy the recipe as a side dish with their meal, like applesauce.

 

Spring Braising Greens Frittata

Serves 2-3 (increase quantities of ingredients incrementally for more servings).

    Preheat the oven to 350.
    Mix in a bowl :
    – 3 or 4 large Farm Fresh Eggs
    – ½ c. fresh milk
    – Dash of nutmeg
    – Pinch of salt and white pepper (if you have it)
    Wash and chop about 2 cups worth of Asian greens in large 1 inch pieces, stems and all.
 Thinly slice one green onion, or 1/4 cup regular onion.
    In a non-stick skillet, lightly saute the greens and onions together until just beginning to wilt. If you want to, add about ¼ cup chopped asparagus.
    Add egg custard to the pan, and stir to coat the bottom of the pan. As soon as the custard begins to set, place in the oven to finish for about 10 minutes.
    Remove from the oven and dust lightly with freshly cracked sea salt and pepper and fresh parmesan or asiago cheese.

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Week of May 1, 2013

​​Portion:

• Leafy, sweet lettuce

• An astounding assortment of incredibly sweet, flavorful, and nutritious Asian greens--including "vitamin greens," bok choy, tatsoi, Chinese cabbage, and Tokyo Bekana

• Rhubarb

• Spring onions (also known as scallions.)

What is Tokyo Bekana, you ask? Well, it's a MILD-flavored type of mustard, and makes an EXCELLENT salad green, with no trace of bitterness. BUT--it can also be used in stir fries! Talk about flexibility!

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​Rhubarb Crunch

4 cups diced rhubarb

• 3-4 T flour

¾ cup sugar
Mix these together in a brownie pan. Then mix:
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup flour
4-6 T melted butter
Sprinkle over the rhubarb. Bake 350 for 40 minutes. Serves 4.

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Week of January 13, 2013

​​Here is where each Monday, we'll give you a taste of what we've been up to in the fields for you, as well as some simple recipes and ideas for preparing your fresh, local fruits and vegetables. Click here for examples from 2012, including what members received each week. That will give you a little bit of lead time to make sure you have the ingredients and other menu items on hand, to simplify your week and limit your shopping trips.

 

Spending time at home cooking gives you an opportunity to be at home with your loved ones, and we want to help you do that. Even if it does occasionally involve vegetables that look or sound like they came from another planet.  We know it's good for you!  Have fun!​