CSA Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week's box has lettuce and salad greens, mizuna, mustard and braising greens, pea shoots, turnip thinning greens, parsnips, sunchokes, asparagus, dill, and the first baby beets.

Field Notes.  It has been an unusual spring.  After many years of warmer, dry weather and soil conditions, this year has been cooler and wet.  This forces Ken to work with the weather.  There are windows of opportunity and he seizes them to work the soil and plant.  Many crops have been planted later than usual and some that are usually in the ground are not yet planted this year.   For example beans like it warm and dry.  If Ken had planted bean seeds on the usual date he plants them, this year the seed would have rotted in the soil.  

But many crops are doing very well.  Greens love cool and damp, and so does asparagus.  Now is the time to order extra asparagus if you want to freeze or pickle it.  I usually freeze some asparagus and make cream of asparagus soup in winter when we crave green food.

The hot weather plants in the greenhouses are moving slowly ahead.  Even with monitoring and opening and closing, crops that love heat are later than usual.  Good news is tomatoes are blooming.  then they set fruit and when it ripens, we will be harvesting.  Great to see the progress.

Ken has been planting.  And planting.  Last night he planted LOTS of brassicas - Brussels sprouts, cabbage,  cauliflower, and kohlrabi.  Brassicas like this weather and if it continues they should do well.

From the Kitchen. The first beets are so delicious.  Beets are one of the "bonus" vegetables - you get great greens and roots to eat.  I separate the tops from roots.  I use the tops in braising and salad mixes.  I tend to use the smaller thinning tops in salad and the larger root tops in braising mixes.  I boil the roots until the skins slip off and then I slip the skins and either serve at that time or put in the refrigerator for later use.  One of Ken's current favorites is to warm some butter in a skillet, add some cracked fennel and then sliced, cooked beets.  Beets are also a crucial component of borscht, and this time of year I often use any of the braising greens in place of the cabbage.

Turnip thinnings will add some zip to your life.  Try them in salad and stir fry and braised.  We like them as last minute soup additions, too.  They are so nutritious at this stage of growth and are worth incorporating into your own greens recipes.  Treat the roots like radishes.  Some people call them salad turnips.

Dill is a nutritional powerhouse. I add it to fish - especially cold salmon salads.  It is great with beets and in creamy salad dressings.  

'Til Next Week!

Rug Class - a progress report

Last weekend I was in the Twin Cities.  Ken had nudged me to take a class on Scandinavian Rug Weaving.  I have been weaving traditional American rag rugs for a short time every winter, and really enjoy transforming rags into useful rugs.  I was intrigued by this class as the rugs looked more durable than what I had been making all these years.

I have two weekends to learn this technique.  So far I have gotten the loom at the class warped up and will be weaving next weekend.  I have learned so many things that will make my warping process (the slowest and somewhat tedious part of weaving) go more quickly and more smoothly.  This has been so exciting.  I was ready to learn these new techniques and with deep gratitude I say, "Thank you, Ken!" 

I will try to remember my camera next weekend!

CSA Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week's box has many types of lettuce and salad greens, braising greens, spinach, radishes, sorrel and chervil, green onions, asparagus, sunchokes, parsnips.

Field Notes.  Memorial Day weekend is a good time to look back, be grateful, and move ahead.  We are glad to be here and do what we do.  It is wonderful to start the season with water in the irrigation ponds.  It is great that the apples seemed to have blossomed without freezing temperatures.

Rye a couple weeks ago

Moving ahead we are working at planning and planting.  Ken has been deciding which rows of rye to turn up and plant and which to leave growing.  He had some sad news - the electric fencer seems to have lost its charge and there is some deer damage already.  There are many deer in the area and enough food for the does to reproduce and no predators.  This means at times the population is hungry and goes through fencing.  

Plastic drying before we fold it up and store 'til fall

Last week Ken removed the conduit and plastic that makes the hoopettes.  at first the garden looked a bit naked and vulnerable, but everything there can take a light frost.  Thursday night the forecast was for 32 degrees.  When I woke at 4 a.m. and checked it was 34.  When Ken woke at 5:30 it was also 34.  Neither of us saw any frost damage.  Usually we do not get frost after Memorial Day.  

Mustard and turnip tops

From the Kitchen. Braising greens.  I got a question last week from a new CSA member about braising greens - which and what do I do with them.  I refer to all the kale, brassica tops like kohlrabi, rutabaga, and the flavorful mustards like mizuna or red mustard or green wave mustard as braising greens.  Many folks just add as accents to salads.  If you salt or wilt braising greens, the zippy flavor backs up to a milder flavor.  I usually do a flash cook to just wilt.  I often saute onion, add the greens, and then add lemon juice, vinegar or any dressing you like.  We also add them to soups just before serving.  

Last weekend we were invited to a party and asked to bring finger food.  At first I was baffled as I usually bring tossed greens.  So instead I made a dip of yogurt, and some of Ken's pickled red bell peppers, pickle juice that I ran through the blender and garnished with chopped parsley.  I cleaned radishes and cut them in half so they would not roll off the plate.  It was a hit as there were no radishes to return home with us!  So try radishes on the hors d'oeuvres tray with a dip!

'Til Next Week!

A Project and a Vow

I used to have a nice flower garden.  About ten or twenty years ago.  Back in the day I worked in an office and once I had the "cute clothes" off and work clothes on I headed out to the flower beds.  

Then I moved here.  People said it was serious as Ken was planting more carrots (need thinning) and peas (need fencing) and I was moving out perennials.  Some flowers did well in the woods of Wisconsin, others did not.  I lost most of my Asiatic lilies, Pasque flowers, and clematis.  But I had huge Joe Pye weed, and the iris did fine.

soon there will berries to pick

Then we began a vegetable business.  I was the picker of small fruit and vegetables.  Starting with strawberries in the spring, I picked and picked - usually every other day.  I enjoyed it, BUT

a start

my flower garden went to hell.  Grass.  Weeds. Poison ivy.

Last year I did a lot of physical therapy and my knee is better than it has been in years.

so far

I want to reclaim the flower garden.  And putting it here and in writing may just be the push I need to just keep at it.  We will see.

Herb identification Chervil and Sorrel

Chervil is a French herb that loves cool weather.  Most people know it only as part of mixes like the French herbes fines.  It is a delightful ferny plant that has a light slightly anise like flavor.  It is great with eggs or fish.  And it is a nice addition to a light flavored salad dressing on delicate spring lettuce

Sorrel is another French herb or green.  It has a strong lemony flavor and is great with fish.  I like to rinse, pat dry and slice in ribbons and wilt in oil or melted fat.  I use it in place of lemon where I want green color.  The oil preserves both flavor and color

CSA Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden! This week's box has a variety of lettuce and salad greens, red bok choy or mizuna, brassica and braising greens, spinach, parsnips, sunchokes, gobo (burdock), radishes, and the first of the asparagus!

Field Notes.  Sunday we had a bit of excitement.  Friends had invited us over to see lambs.  When we left there was a storm warning for Ellsworth.  As we neared our destination, there was a new storm warning on the radio for Balsam Lake, Turtle Lake, and Rice Lake.  We had left the greenhouses open, and both of us had visions of the house in the Wizard of Oz.  We got home and Ken shut greenhouses and we were glad to see rain, not such bad wind, and no hail.  We felt fortunate!  Hail reports scare me as much as fire scared the Straw Man in the Wizard Oz!  Entire crops can be shredded and devastated in no time.  

The rain was welcome after the dry windy weather we had been having, and the irrigation ponds rose to previous levels.

Ken has been planting, and is nearly on a par with where he is most years - in spite of the colder than usual spring we have had.  We do not put heat loving crops out until after May 18th - the latest date we have had under 20 degrees - a killing frost for those crops.  Weather reports look good - not too hot for the greens that like it cool and not too cool for the heat loving crops.  So far so good!  

Ken is also taking the hoopettes out of the garden.

From the Kitchen.  Asparagus!  One of the sure signs spring has arrived is the start of the asparagus season.  Asparagus is a perennial crop that needs weeding and feeding.  But its health benefits are great.  It clears the body of oxalic and uric acid; eat asparagus and you probably will never get kidney stones.  I started grilling asparagus a couple years ago and it is really tasty.  Rinse, trim bottom if it seems tough, brush with olive oil and either grill outside or in a cast iron skillet.  This seals the flavor inside rather than losing it when steamed.  Ken likes it topped with a drizzle of my home made mayonnaise.  My biggest asparagus cooking tip is don't overcook it.  Most bad asparagus experiences can be traced back to overcooking.

Parsnips were a great addition to Sunday dinner's roasted vegetables - some cut up onions, potatoes, and parsnips and sunchokes.  I clean the vegetables, toss in oil and thyme and roast after I take out the meat so I can use a higher oven temperature for a shorter time.  I toss every few minutes so the vegetables are coated with oil and herbs, don't stick and the outside starts to brown as the inside becomes tender.

Radishes make a nice accent in salad.  They also make a tasty salad on their own!  Last season I went to a potluck and had a great radish salad - Sliced radishes had been lightly salted to wilt, then a dressing with yogurt and chives was added.  It was great!   Early radishes with nice small tender tops have a bonus - the greens are great in salads or used to make a green goddess dressing in the blender!

Spring in the mobile high tunnel

One May 18th a few years back, the temperature dropped to eighteen degrees.  Even with cover tomatoes died back to the soil.  As a result we remain cautious about early plantings of heat loving crops.

Now that we are past that cold date, Ken has been transplanting those crops.  As greens are harvested out of the mobile tunnel, he has been planting in the open spaces.  Tomatoes are in and peppers are ready to go.

The irrigation pond that dried up last year and was dug deeper has water in it!