How we farm organically, this week at the farm

Hello from your farm, 

It's a great year for lettuce, and we're pretty pleased about that!  How did you enjoy your first week of the harvest?  Fresh and seasonal eating is a great adventure, tastes great, and you simply feel alive eating this food.  

These are "farming full speed" months, and for us,  the days go by like minutes.  The crop outlook is a very good one--we've been spending a lot of time keeping the pesky weed, foxtail, out of the onions and potatoes, and we're going to have an outstanding crop of both as July rolls around.  We're weathering all sorts of weather--farming is a funny predicament, as you simultaneously wish for rain for about half of your crops and no rain for most of the work that you want to do at any given time :-) 

Hold on to your hats, the harvest is coming through! 

Serving Suggestions for the harvest this week:

Scallions: These mild-mannered onion family folks give an easy onion flavor to salads, sandwiches, stir fries and more.  Or you could do the old classic buttered bread and sliced scallion treat: my grandparents talked a lot about enjoying them in spring.  "A good spring tonic" says my 101 year old grandma. 

Lettuce heads: wow, these are beautiful this year. Enjoy as salad, sandwiches, wraps, or farm crew style, just plain munching on! 

Lettuce mix--great with grated cheese, olive, vinegar, standard salad fixings

Kale/Collards: we like to fry these in a skillet with butter or coconut oil until crisp, add some onions and saute them as well--a superb topping for rice, fried eggs or stand alone too.

Garlic scapes:  these are the would-be flowering stems of garlic--soft, tender, easy to use for stir fries, diced for salad, really anywhere a mild garlic flavor is desired. We like to use it for pesto here at the farm. *see garlic scape pesto recipe below*

Green garlic: this is garlic harvested before the base swells and becomes a bulb. It has a milder flavor than bulb garlic and can be used anywhere garlic is called for. Keep refrigerated as you would green onions/scallions. 

Pick Your Own Options: (included with your share--no additional fee--hooray) 

Snow peas: these flat-podded peas are eaten "hull and all" except for the stem and string. They are wonderful lightly steamed, boiled or in stir fry, even good raw.  The limit is reset due to abundance--1 and 2 quarts respectively may be picked this week. (in addition to what you may have picked last week) 

Strawberries:  This week we have bonus strawberries!--the limit is 1/2 quart box for half share and 1 quart box for full shares.  (in addition to what you may have picked last week) 

Goodbyes: 

Bok choi--these are really short lived in the spring and shine brightly in the fall when we grow a new round of them, sayonara for now.  

Rhubarb: our yearling plants have given us a good harvest for this year, and we will let them rest until next year when they will be more established.  

Check out the baby pawpaw fruits. North America's largest native fruit ripens in September and is sort of like vanilla-banana-avocado custard.  

Garlic Scape Pesto: 1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
3 T. fresh lemon or lime juice
1/4lb fresh garlic scapes
1/2 c. olive oil
Salt to taste

Puree scapes and olive oil in blender until smooth. Stir in Parmesan and lemon or lime juice and season to taste. Serve on bread or crackers. --courtesy of Mary Jane's Farm

 Enjoy the harvest!

Your farmers