Welcome to our summer share subscribers!

As mentioned previously, the beginning of summer will be a continuation of late spring. We are so close with some of the summer crops; they just need some hot weather to finish maturing.

Look at all those flowers on the Romano beans!

Royal Burgundy beans starting to form

We did not start other, more tender, summer crops until mid-May when the weather was (supposed to be) more stable.  So eggplant and cucumbers are a little further behind.

We should get one more week out of the lettuce, but the expected hot weather later this week will probably do them in. We are trying an experiment (gardening is all about trying new ways!) and succession planting some of the longer standing varieties in an area that is shady all afternoon. If it works, we will have lettuce over the summer, if it doesn’t, the lettuce will be back in the fall. In the meantime, try this recipe for a robust Swiss chard summer salad. Later in the summer the chard will taste better as a cooked spinach substitute, but for now it is still good raw:

Ingredients:

1 bunch Swiss chard

1 15 oz can Mandarin oranges-other fruits such as mangos, raspberries, strawberries, etc. would also work 

2-3 Hard boiled eggs

Crumbled bacon

Feta cheese (optional)

Croutons or fried Chinese noodles (optional)

     Dressing:

½ cup oil (we used olive oil)

1/6 cup vinegar (any type-we used apple cider vinegar)

1/3 cup sugar

¼ tsp onion or garlic powder

¼ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Cut the stems and midribs off the Swiss chard leaves. Don’t discard the stems; a recipe for them is on our webpage. Tear into pieces a little bigger than bite size. Rinse well and either pat dry or use a salad spinner.

Washed and dried torn up chard

Mix all the dressing ingredients in a container that is easy to mix. We use leftover mason jars from canning and shake vigorously. The dressing will separate so you want to be able to mix well right before you pour over the chard. Refrigerate any leftover dressing; it will get thicker in the cold. Mix well and use on other salads also.

Mix dressing and pour just enough over the chard to coat well. Using a Tupperware type container with a lid and shaking it to mix works well.

Add Mandarin oranges and gently mix. Serve immediately or let sit in the refrigerator for a few hours to slightly marinate the chard. The longer it sits the more the chard will shrink. Right before serving add hardboiled eggs and crumbled bacon (and feta/croutons/noodles if desired). Yum!

Enjoy!

Until next time,

Jeff and Sandra

What the heck is that???

I know that is what I asked the first time I saw this green ball-like veggie. This is a kohlrabi, a member of the cabbage family grown for its swollen, turnip-shaped stem. The exterior can be purple or green with a creamy white interior.  We grew the green variety this spring and are planning on growing both green and purple this fall. It can be eaten either raw or cooked. I think a cooked kohlrabi tastes like a sweet broccoli stem. Kohlrabi is a good source of vitamin C and potassium. It is low in both sodium and calories. One cup diced kohlrabi contains only 40 calories and 140% of the RDA for vitamin C. We usually cut into coins, and then cut off the outer skin, it’s easier than peeling.  Try cutting it up into veggie sticks and dipping into ranch dressing, or put it into a stir-fry.   

Speaking of the cabbage family, you will also have a head of fresh cabbage in your baskets. Keep in mind if you are going to cook it, fresh cabbage cooks a LOT faster than cabbage from the store. Or you can make some homemade cole slaw. This recipe will make a sweet slaw dressing:

Ingredients

Cabbage (about 1 head)

Shredded carrot (for color-optional)

2 tablespoons diced onion

2/3 cup Miracle Whip (this does not taste as good if you substitute regular mayo)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon poppy seeds (optional)

Rinse cabbage and either drain dry or spin in a salad spinner.

Mix the Miracle Whip, vegetable oil, sugar, vinegar, salt, and poppy seeds in a medium bowl; blend thoroughly. Pour dressing mixture over cabbage and toss to coat. Putting it into a Tupperware type container with a lid and shaking to coat the cabbage pieces works well. Chill at least 2 hours before serving-overnight is even better. It will shrink in volume.

Summer temperatures have set in this weekend.  Most of the spring greens have decided that it is time for them to bolt and grow their flower tops. Once this happens the plants become bitter and inedible. This happened almost overnight to the Chinese cabbage, we will not see them again until fall. We may or may not get one more week out of the purple bok choy. The romaine lettuce has also bolted, although we still have a lot of leaf lettuces that should keep us in salads for a little longer.

Bolting Chinese cabbage and Romaine lettuce

One good thing about the higher temperatures…our heat loving plants are taking off.  We have flowers on all the tomato plants.  As we mentioned last week the beans are flowering and beginning to form pods.

This will be the last week of the official spring session. However, you may still receive spring like produce for another week or two as we transition to the summer plants. For those of you who are starting up with us in the summer session, this gives you the opportunity to share what good stuff the spring folks have had. We will also confirm with our summer folks about day and times of deliveries during this coming week.

Till next time,

Jeff & Sandra

Hello All,



It is hard to believe that the spring season is almost over. What a great season it has been! Although the weather was really weird to begin with, we can’t argue with the results.



Lots of Lettuce!

Kale

 


More lettuce intercropped with leeks

Your shares this week will have some beets. Don’t forget that the greens are edible too! Cook them with the beets, add to a salad, or put in a stir fry. The beets themselves are wonderfully sweet, both raw and cooked. In fact, you would have had a picture of one but I ate it first. Scraped the skin off (like a carrot), grated it, and put in in a salad. It turned everything pink-including my hands, so don’t wear white while doing this-but was so good! The greens will go in an omelet tomorrow. Other ideas are to roast them (no need to peel first, the skins will slip off after cooking) or peel raw, chop up, and mix with apples or carrots. Add a vinaigrette dressing of your choice. Our initial planting of beets had sporadic germination (that would be the weird weather thing) so this first batch is not too plentiful, but we have more succession plantings to follow.

Summer shares will be starting soon, scheduled for the week of June 17^th. Since we haven’t gotten any really hot weather yet (great for greens, not so great for peppers and tomatoes) the beginning of summer will probably be a continuation of late spring. The beans are starting to flower so they should be available within a couple of weeks:



Yes, these will be purple beans

We are now sold out of summer shares, and have just a couple of fall left. Thank you all for such a wonderful response; we’ve gotten some great feedback. We hope you are enjoying this as much as we are! As always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact us at 1-804-221-3783 or jsminifarm@gmail.com.

Until next time,

Jeff and Sandra