CSA Week 4, June 28

Before:


What a rain we had this morning. The garden was a little damp and squishy for picking, but we mucked our way through and found several surprises for you. I mentioned one other week that the rain makes everything very dirty, so pay careful attention for dirt on your items this week. But here is proof that we do actually clean your produce first.
It gets soaked, then rinsed, then soaked again.
It then goes in this beast!

That is my mom's leg/foot. She is a not a hobbit, so imagine an average height woman, and that green machine is about two feet high.
The inside looks like a regular salad spinner.

From there, we dump the clean produce into another bin (or basket) and then bag it.

Beautiful! Only full shares got a bag of these greens this week while we wait another week (hopefully only that long) for our next crop to be ready to pick.

Everyone did get a head of romaine lettuce this week though. There may be a wait before you see that again, as the next crop was just seeded.

The hoophouse is about 10-15 degrees hotter than outdoors, so the cherry and regular tomatoes are growing, and soon we should have some of those. The cukes are doing well, and everyone gets one of those again this week. They are a little bigger than last week, as it was a warm week. The heat really makes things jump ahead. The sugar snap peas were only in blossom last week, but the heat turned them into beautiful delicious peas. If you have never had sugar snaps, know that the whole pea is edible (well except the stem). They don't have stringy shells but snappy crunchy ones, sometimes very sweet. I use them on salads a lot, or just eat them plain.

Full shares got heads of broccoli. That is an item that is known to have bugs. Of course if we sprayed with chemicals and pesticides, it wouldn't, but you don't want that, do you ;-) It may be necessary to presoak broccoli in salt water for about fifteen minutes to rid any bugs that may be hiding in its tightly packed florets.

Something in the same family but quite different made it's way into half shares bags. It is called broccoli rabe (rapini is it's real name). It has many spiked leaves that surround a green bud which looks very similar to a small head of broccoli. There may be small yellow flowers blooming from the buds, which are edible. The flavor of rapini has been described as nutty, bitter, pungent, and quite delicious. It is a source of vitamins A, C, and K, as well as potassium, calcium, and iron. A common preparation involves sauteing it with garlic over low heat for 10 - 15 minutes.

Everyone got beet greens and chard this week. They are two interesting plants, in that you cut the greens from them, yet they grow more. They do not "bolt" (send up a shoot and go to flower) like other lettuces/greens, so you can keep picking them over and over again and there is always more. Each week we have picked them I have been amazed at that and think I've picked them all, but the next week, the row is full. All the chard comes from about 10 plants. Eventually, when the beets are big enough, we will pull those with the greens attached, but by then we will have a new crop coming ready for picking the greens but not the beets. This succession thing is working out :-)

The curly leafy purple and green plants are chard. This week only the half size share got them. This is another one of the plants that keeps producing more like the two just mentioned. It will go right into fall, and sometimes even through a frost or two.

Full share bags got a white turnip.

Greens are still attatched as they help keep them fresh, but also they are edible, even a delicacy down south. If you don't feel like tossing them, look up a recipe!

Full size shares additionally got spinach and radishes.

Everyone got a bag of mixed basil.

Looking forward to next week. Hopefully this muggy weather will have cleared by then :-)

After:


Have a good week!

CSA Week 3, June 21

Welcome Summer Everyone. Today is the longest day of the year (the summer solstice), and boy, it sure felt long this morning while we picked and cleaned everything for your CSA out in the hot sun :-) It takes us a good solid 3 hours from start to finish! Farming is very hard work, and it's good for you to know what really goes into it so you can value your food all the more.

We are thinking about using a easy up tent next week over our picnic table though (where our cleaning station is set up), to at least keep us cool while we wash/rinse/spin/bag everything. It fascinates me that there are farms who have hundreds of CSA's. I've even heard of a farm in CO that has like 3000! I don't know how they do it, but I'm sure it involves lots of employees. We don't ever want to get big; small works for us. We utilize who is available to help. Sometimes that is a sister, sometimes one of our children. Thanks for committing yourselves to our mission, even if it is just for this year.

New this week: Romaine Heads! They aren't the tight white heads you find in the grocery, but bursting with flavor and nutrients. Someone once said "a little dirt never hurt", and although that is probably true for some things, no one really wants to bite into their Caesar salad and find a chunk of gritty brown. Because these are still attached to their roots, and the way they grow around each other, they are highly susceptible to dirt even though they have been washed.

Things that made their way into every one's bag this week were as follows:
Romaine Heads
Rhubarb
Swiss Chard
Lettuce
Garlic Scapes
Walking Egyptian Onion
Lemon Balm/Dill (Herbs)
Cucumber

When we split things up for both size bags, the larger shares get a larger amount of the similar item. Just in case you were wondering.

Half shares also received:
Beet Greens
Spinach

Full shares got:
Kale
Radishes

While some crops we harvest over and over again all season, others are a one time event. The garlic scape is like that, and once it's here, savor it, because it won't be again until next year. We were able to get two weeks out of it by not harvesting it all last week, but this is it. Enjoy. Here's a fun article I found pleasure reading while looking for more ideas of what to do with mine.

Your herb bag this week has a nice combo of lemon balm and dill. These would go great diced up and roasted on potatoes or chicken, with some lemon juice, salt/pepper, and olive oil. I have been buying my potatoes at the Farmers Market in New Gloucester (if you are local {or not} and are free on a late Sunday morning, check them out ). Serendipity Acres from North Yarmouth has had potatoes they have wintered over, and the fingerlings and red ones are my favorite. Won't be long until ours are available; can't wait! We have never been able to grow enough to keep them around until the next years crop. Maybe they take up too much space in the gardens to grow enough, or maybe we eat them too fast :-)

Do you know about kale? It is one of the most nutritious vegetables you can eat. It's great in soup, and I've been known to add it to my smoothies for extra nutrition. Just remove it from the stalk first. I haven't tried this recipe yet, but have been drawn to it from a great website we use for recipes.

Things have been growing fast with the heat and rain. We hope to have something new to offer you next week too, and it won't be long before there is a plethora!

Have a great week.

CSA Week 2, June 14

Today we picked during rain sprinkles. It was a nice cool off, but the rain kicks up dirt in the garden onto the produce. Most things were double washed, but as I said last week, it doesn't hurt for you to rinse again.

We went into the picking wondering what we could give you, but found a variety we think you'll be happy with. We were actually a little jealous that we weren't CSA members ourselves :-)
The way we get your bags is first, we pick what we can, meaning what is there. We then wash, rinse, spin and bag everything, dividing up what we found. Sometimes full shares will get something half shares don't, vice versa.

Everyone got a geranium plant. Put this in a bigger pot and it will grow and flower beautifully all through fall. It likes sun, but works in the shade too.

We found 4 cucumbers in the hoop house so those went to our 4 full share members (the other 6 of you are 1/2 shares).

Garlic Scapes were a plenty in our garlic beds this week and you each got a bag. The scapes are the tangly, green specimens that look like a cross between a plant and an octopus (not quite like the Egyptian onions from last week, but close). They aren't as dangerous as they look. They are, in fact, pretty wonderful once you get to know them. Garlic (and its relatives leeks, chives, & onions) grows underground. As the bulb grows from the softer planting stage soft to hard, a shoot pokes its way through the ground. Green like a scallion, the shoot is long and thin and pliable enough to curl into gorgeous tendrils. This stage of growth is the garlic scape. If left unattended, the scape will harden and transform from green to the familiar white/beige color of garlic peel. Keeping the shoot attached will also stunt further growth of the bulb. So, to allow the garlic to keep growing, we cut off the edible delectable. The scape is great fun; it’s a little less mild then garlic. Try dicing it into scrambled eggs, adding to a veggie saute, or using as garnish for rice. This week I’m including a recipe for a dip Mom makes with it, that is to die for on most anything. We have been known to eat it right off the spoon :-)

Garlic Scape Dip
• 1 cup sour cream
• 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
• Garlic scapes – to taste (if you LOVE garlic, add them all…..if you just want just the flavor of garlic, add a handful)
• Dash of Hot Sauce – to taste
Process scapes in a food processor or blender. Add cream cheese, sour cream, and hot sauce.

The basil mix we've included in your bag is also a plant that needs to be pinched for it to grow well. You get to benefit from that this week too. This basil is from the greenhouse right now, but eventually that will be field grown. The hoop house gets too hot in the summer for most crops.....we haven't figured out what we can grow in there yet during the heat. Something tropical perhaps :-)

There is another bag of lettuce this week, and we anticipate that is something you should see every week. It is our most seeded crop, meaning a new batch is seeded every week so we always have it.

We had full size spinach as well, so everyone got a small bag of this. It would be great to slice up and add to a pasta or in a quiche or something, as there probably isn't enough to cook up as a side dish (you know how spinach wilts away to practically nothing when cooked). Here's a recipe I like.

Beans, Bowties, Spinach & Cheese
• 8 oz bowtie pasta (farfelle)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed (you could use scapes finely chopped)
• 3 plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 15 oz can white beans
• ¼ cup chicken broth
• 5 oz. fresh spinach, chopped (this is probably just about what you have)
• ¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

In large skillet heat oil. Add garlic and tomatoes. Cook & stir until tomatoes are slightly soft, about 2 minutes. Add beans, broth & spinach & cook until spinach just wilts, stirring constantly. Season with salt & pepper.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta & add to skillet. Add in cheeses, toss lightly & serve immediately.

We've made you a Bouquet Garni, which is French for "garnished bouquet" and is a variety of herbs, usually tied together, that is used to make soups, stews, stocks and sauces. They can also be stuffed inside a chicken. We didn't tie ours...sorry, we were too busy rinsing and bagging all the other stuff to take time to do that :-)

There were only enough radishes to put in the full share this week. I've mentioned we are learning as we go too, so we have planted more in larger quantities, in succession (see previous blog post to understand what that means), so within a couple/few weeks, we should have them consistently. I am including yet another recipe that was in my current Martha Stewart Magazine. It is an inventive take on hummus, and is a chunky bean dip that gets flavor and texture from garlic and radishes. Save it for another week you get radishes if you didn't get them this week, or pick some up from your local farmers market or farm stand. I can see this dip going fast!

Smashed Chickpea, Basil, and Radish Dip
1 can (15oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed (reserve 1/3 cup liquid)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt & Pepper
1/4 cup fresh basil, coarsely chopped
4 radishes, chopped
1 small garlic clove, chopped
1/8 cup fresh lemon juice (app. 2 lemons)
Pita chips
Lightly mash chickpeas, oil, 1/2 tspn salt and pepper in a bowl until creamy but still chunky. Stir in basil, radishes, garlic, and lemon juice. Stir in some of the reserved chickpea liquid, until the dip holds together. You may not need it all. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

I use beans a lot when I cook. They are tasty to me for one, and I like the texture for two, but more than that,third they are a good source of plant protein and they have fiber in them as well.

Last week our full shares got rainbow chard, so we've mixed it up this week and given that to the half shares and the full shares get beet greens. We will try to make it interesting for you each week.

We love feedback, so anytime you want to tell us what you made with your items, or just that you liked your bag, feel free to drop us a line. Also don't be afraid to tell us if there is a problem with anything!

Thanks! See you next week.

Let the Weeding Begin

This muggy overcast weather we have been experiencing doesn't do much for us personally, but the weeds love it. The hardest part of gardening no doubt is dealing with weeds. A small garden is somewhat "easy" to manage, but when you have two that cover over 1500 square feet each, it's a little daunting. As we are organic, we have very little choices other than actually weeding by hand. One is mulching. We have done that to the far end of the garden at Intervale Road where the potatoes are growing. It is helping, but some things like milk weed and blackberry bushes just want to come through. Here is a picture of what the far corner looked like Saturday morning.

Unfortunately, all that lush green vegetation to the front and left is not for eating, but is weeds.

The close up here shows that we do have nice brown mulch, yet we still have grass and black berry bushes coming right up through.
After a couple hours of weeding, we finally had only potato plants in that area.

The other parts of the garden that aren't mulched we can use the tiller in.
This allows us to "weed" between the rows and then get the stuff right in the rows by hand..... for now. It isn't easy work either, and each time you till, you stir up new weed seeds. It's kind of a rut you get stuck in, and we hope to break out of it soon. We are going to try a new technique of burning the weeds when they first come up again, to see if that works. Gardening is all about trial and error, and finding what works one year doesn't necessarily mean it will work the next.

After the weeding was done, we seeded some more crops of carrots and beets, as well as planted more of our 4 varieties of eggplants (some have already been set out in our other garden).


Between the two gardens, and the succession plantings, we hope to have a steady stream of vegetables. Usually when you garden for home use, you get what you get when it comes, and that's it. But with succession planting, you have a crop of beans for two weeks, and when they fizzle out, you have another crop just beginning. This is our first year really working with this method, and it will be interesting to see how it works out.

CSA Week 1, June 7

Today was a beautiful day after a nice rainy Sunday. The gardens needed the rain, so it was welcome (this time). We started picking your items right around 1:00 so they are just about as fresh as you can get.

Today's shares are what we may call "small", as we know how much they will grow in quantity in the mid-summer/early fall. We feel we did okay, scrounging through the gardens for what we could give you though :-)

We have included a bag of greens/mesculen. This is being grown in the greenhouse but is also in the garden too. It has been washed but you still may want to rinse and run through a salad spinner.

There is also a horseradish root. That's the big white thing, in case you have never seen it in that form before. You can make your own prepared horseradish by carefully peeling (a good idea to use gloves) and then putting chunks of it into a food processor or blender with some vinegar and salt. Store this in your fridge and add it to ketchup for your own cocktail sauce, or be even more daring and make your own horseradish sauce for burgers etc. Mom did this for us girls for Christmas and canned it and it was delicious. You can find recipes on the internet (or email if you want mom's recipe and I can have her find it).

We have included 3 herbs this week: tarragon, lemon balm, and oregano. Tarragon is the tallest of the three, and smells a little like black licorice. It is great with fish or chicken, and also tastes great with eggs. It is known as the "king of herbs" to the French. Lemon balm is the next one, and it is a member of the mint family, and therefore is great in iced teas and drinks. It's the one with the big leaves....oh, and it smells like lemon :-) It can also be used to make pesto and sauces. Some people grow it to keep mosquitoes away (doesn't work for us), and it has been said to have medicinal qualities as well. The last herb is the one you will probably recognize the most by name, and it's oregano. It's the one with shorter stems, bushy, small leaves. It is very versatile and can be used for almost anything.


Their is a weird looking creepy, crawly, green thing called an Egyptian walking onion. This is actually a top set from the onion, meaning it grows at the top, not under ground, like most onions. You can peel the bulbs and use like garlic, and you can eat the greens like scallions. They taste just like an onion, but are much more interesting, and a great way to get kids to try something different. They are called walking onions because it is said if you don't pick that top set off, they will walk all over your garden.

Full share members got a bag of rainbow chard. You can eat is fresh in salads etc. but can also saute or steam it. I like mine cooked with onions in a little bit of bacon grease (I always save my bacon grease by straining it and keeping it in the fridge. It has such awesome flavor! I buy my bacon from a farmer in Limington www.udderandfiber.com He sells at the Windham farmers market. I also buy my beef from him. We hope to raise our own again someday, but in the meantime, I have been to his farm, met the animals, and see how he does things....I approve.)

Everyone also got a couple radishes. Just getting into the growing season, things like this will become more plentiful in quantity as the weeks go on and your supply won't be as limited.

Rhubarb is still in season. We've found the more it is picked, the more it produces, and we were picking well into late summer last year. There are many great recipes you can make with this. This is one of our favorites, and although you can use frozen strawberries, I have seen both local farm stands (Chipmans and Pineland) with FRESH!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble

Yields 6 to 8 servings.

For the topping:
1 1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
Zest of one lemon
1/4 pound (1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:
1 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 quart strawberries plus a few extras, hulled, quartered
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons cornstarch
Pinch of salt

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Prepare topping: In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugars and lemon zest and add the melted butter. Mix until small and large clumps form. Refrigerate until needed.
2. Prepare filling: Toss rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch and a pinch of salt in a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate.
3. Remove topping from refrigerator and cover fruit thickly and evenly with topping. Place pie plate on a (foil-lined, if you really want to think ahead) baking sheet, and bake until crumble topping is golden brown in places and fruit is bubbling beneath, about 40 to 50 minutes.

If you are a person who likes to save bags, we will gladly take any of them back and reuse them. Same goes for egg cartons if you are an egg share holder. When we give you jars with flowers, also, feel free to return them for future use.

Any questions, just drop a comment or email me at tammy@farmers8.com

Hope you enjoy your first week. Thanks again for your support.