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.
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