CSA Newsletter

Mobile wide open with rye around it

Greetings from the Garden!  This box has lettuce, spinach, salad greens like teen lettuce and pea shoots; braising greens - baby turnip greens, lacy red mizuna, mustards; baby beet greens, green onions, bulb onions, potatoes, and the first asparagus!

Field Notes.  Ken is busily planting and transplanting.  He plants by the Biodynamic calendar, so greens go in on leaf days, tomatoes and peppers on fruit days, onions on root days, etc.  Over the years we have seen a difference, so when possible, we follow the calendar.

Bed preparation

The greens in the mobile high tunnel are coming out just as Ken is going to start hot weather crops, so we won't move it - yet.  Ken has been doing bed preparation in the current location.  Then he will be amending and improving the soil with green manures and compost for the fall crops location.

A Guy in his rye

Rye!  Ken has used rye as a cover crop and green manure for many years.  It over winters and sends roots down to break up hard pan.  The root fiber adds organic matter to the soil - all good things.  He has begun mowing the rye where he will be planting in the field.

Picking asparagus with rye on the edge of the field

 From the Kitchen.  Asparagus!  What a spring treat.  Each year I feel gratitude when I think of all the work - weeding, feeding, planting a cover crop and mulching, mowing, and picking - thank you, Ken. Asparagus is a true medicinal food as it breaks down uric and oxalic acids that cause kidney stones.  Spinach has quite a bit of oxalic acid, so asparagus keeps it in check.  

As for cooking, asparagus is great grilled.  I used to steam it for about 3 - 5 minutes, and that is fine, but grilling or even sauteing in a cast iron skillet tends to seal in the flavor.  I brush with olive oil before grilling or sauteing.  The BIG thing with asparagus is DO NOT OVER COOK IT.  Most people who dislike asparagus have tried to eat something over cooked that is rather slimy and unappetizing.  I serve asparagus dusted with salt, or add it to pasta salads.  And of course there is cream of asparagus soup - great hot or cold.  Cook some asparagus and onion in soup stock to soft, run through blender or food mill, add cream and a tiny bit of nutmeg just before serving.  Voila!

Both baby turnip and baby beet greens are versatile. The turnip greens can be added as a garnish to salads, beet greens are sweet and nice in salads for texture, flavor and color.  Both are delicious braised.  Enjoy!

'Til next week - Bon apetit!