Why hello there, CSA members! It's the third week of the season, which is just about the point at which we get to stop and take a breather. We've gotten most of our acreage weeded at least once, thanks to some really excellent work share volunteers and student interns, and the drenching rain is really speeding up growth where we've managed to keep the water from drowning crops.
We are starting to see the first fruit setting on all of our high tunnel tomatoes, which means by the end of July we should have them for you in quantity in the CSA shares! Zucchini and summer squash are here to stay, cucumbers are a few short weeks away, and the eggplants, melons and peppers look great. In the meantime, enjoy the last few weeks of spring greens, look forward to broccoli and cabbage, and the first of the beets (carrots a little later).
This is, in my opinion, one of the best reasons to eat from the land: seasonality dictates your food choices. In the winter I use a big red onion in almost every meal. Sweet curly kale and stored cabbage is a salad. In the spring, it's scallions, arugula, tender baby lettuce, and mustard greens. In the summer, it's fresh summer cabbage salad made with a variety like napa, stir fried zucchini and garlic scapes for lunch. Then we get into late summer, and we start eating salsa, israeli-type salads (cucumber, onion, tomato, lemon juice, salt and pepper) and basically just making tomato salads of all types all the time. It's really a refreshing way to eat.
Thanks again for being a part of this big leap of faith for us, this adherence to the belief that what was before will happen again, that the seeds that are dried and stored the fall before will again spread their leaves and arise in the spring, and thicken and swell for harvest in the summer. Every year doubts enter my mind, and every year they are swept away by the onrush of fresh delicious food that just about flows out of the field during a fertile season like this. Take heart that you and I evolved to live on the Earth, and that the food that grows from its soil is just what we need to live happy, healthy lives.
Anyways, Kara and I have been munching away at the veggies this week, filling sandwiches with leafy lettuces, marinating kale in a variety of dressings for massaged kale salads, munching kohlrabi sticks in the field, stirring our spinach into curries and soups and grating radishes and scallions to go on top of pretty much everything. Consider this the season to eat everything we grow raw, or at least very lightly cooked. It's just the best this way. Please also keep up with Chef Allison's blog at https://addictinthekitchen.wordpress.com/, where she is documenting her CSA cooking experiences. We are finding much inspiration there and hope you will too! Plus, the pictures are soooo pretty.
Oh, and a note about garlic scapes: we will have them in the share this week, and possibly next. For those of you who do not know, they are the immature flower heads of garlic. They are DELICIOUS! Chefs clamor for them around this time of year. They taste like a delicate, garlicky green bean. Please sautee them in a nice fat like olive oil or lard, season with salt and pepper and eat out of the pan. They're that good.
And now, our harvest forecast for the week: (Green with chance of crunch!)
GREENSKale, assorted types)
Rainbow Chard
Lettuce Heads
Red Mustard Greens
Arugula
Tatsoi
Spinach
ROOTS
Radishes
Hakurei Sweet Turnips
Scallions
Kohlrabi (actually a big stem, but kinda like a root!) (Recipe idea: peel, grate roughly, toss with dressing of choice, scallions, and radishes sliced thin. Instant crunchy salad!)
FRUITS
Zucchini and Summer Squash (limited)
Garlic Scapes (a flower, but close enough!)
HERBS
Parsley
Oregano
Sorrel?
--
Aaron Munzer
Ithaca Farmers Market, Manager
Plowbreak Farm, co-owner
845-594-7126
www.plowbreakfarm.com
We are starting to see the first fruit setting on all of our high tunnel tomatoes, which means by the end of July we should have them for you in quantity in the CSA shares! Zucchini and summer squash are here to stay, cucumbers are a few short weeks away, and the eggplants, melons and peppers look great. In the meantime, enjoy the last few weeks of spring greens, look forward to broccoli and cabbage, and the first of the beets (carrots a little later).
This is, in my opinion, one of the best reasons to eat from the land: seasonality dictates your food choices. In the winter I use a big red onion in almost every meal. Sweet curly kale and stored cabbage is a salad. In the spring, it's scallions, arugula, tender baby lettuce, and mustard greens. In the summer, it's fresh summer cabbage salad made with a variety like napa, stir fried zucchini and garlic scapes for lunch. Then we get into late summer, and we start eating salsa, israeli-type salads (cucumber, onion, tomato, lemon juice, salt and pepper) and basically just making tomato salads of all types all the time. It's really a refreshing way to eat.
Thanks again for being a part of this big leap of faith for us, this adherence to the belief that what was before will happen again, that the seeds that are dried and stored the fall before will again spread their leaves and arise in the spring, and thicken and swell for harvest in the summer. Every year doubts enter my mind, and every year they are swept away by the onrush of fresh delicious food that just about flows out of the field during a fertile season like this. Take heart that you and I evolved to live on the Earth, and that the food that grows from its soil is just what we need to live happy, healthy lives.
Anyways, Kara and I have been munching away at the veggies this week, filling sandwiches with leafy lettuces, marinating kale in a variety of dressings for massaged kale salads, munching kohlrabi sticks in the field, stirring our spinach into curries and soups and grating radishes and scallions to go on top of pretty much everything. Consider this the season to eat everything we grow raw, or at least very lightly cooked. It's just the best this way. Please also keep up with Chef Allison's blog at https://addictinthekitchen.wordpress.com/, where she is documenting her CSA cooking experiences. We are finding much inspiration there and hope you will too! Plus, the pictures are soooo pretty.
Oh, and a note about garlic scapes: we will have them in the share this week, and possibly next. For those of you who do not know, they are the immature flower heads of garlic. They are DELICIOUS! Chefs clamor for them around this time of year. They taste like a delicate, garlicky green bean. Please sautee them in a nice fat like olive oil or lard, season with salt and pepper and eat out of the pan. They're that good.
And now, our harvest forecast for the week: (Green with chance of crunch!)
GREENSKale, assorted types)
Rainbow Chard
Lettuce Heads
Red Mustard Greens
Arugula
Tatsoi
Spinach
ROOTS
Radishes
Hakurei Sweet Turnips
Scallions
Kohlrabi (actually a big stem, but kinda like a root!) (Recipe idea: peel, grate roughly, toss with dressing of choice, scallions, and radishes sliced thin. Instant crunchy salad!)
FRUITS
Zucchini and Summer Squash (limited)
Garlic Scapes (a flower, but close enough!)
HERBS
Parsley
Oregano
Sorrel?
--
Aaron Munzer
Ithaca Farmers Market, Manager
Plowbreak Farm, co-owner
845-594-7126
www.plowbreakfarm.com
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