Zucchini Recipe

I told you I'd been perusing magazine for recipes using veggies. This one from the July issue of Cooking Light looks like a winner for my family.



Also planning to make this with chard at some point, albeit not as easy as the first recipe, but it looks delicious. In the reader reviews, someone mentioned making it into a full size pan. That's what I'm going to do.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/individual-swiss-chard-and-italian-sausage-lasagna

Rampant Rapini

An interesting article and a couple recipes I found today while reading the April issue of Eating Well.

CSA Wk 8, July 26

For the first time this year, my knees got wet when I was kneeling down to pick vegetables. This is a good thing! The rain this week/weekend came overnight, didn't ruin daily plans, and gave us a good soaking that is carrying over to these hot days we continue to have. The breeze last night was amazing though. I was picking a bunch of produce from 7-10 PM, and I couldn't get over how gorgeous it was outside. The moon was nearly full (if not completely, didn't check on the calender to see) and it felt like fall, which is, coincidentally, my favorite season :-)



The garden here at Intervale has really kicked in, and nearly half of the produce this week is from it. I am thrilled by this, to see the bounty that can be reaped from my hard work. I'm sure my mom has felt the same every week from her garden, but she doesn't write the blog to express that :-) I've told her she is welcome too, but she keeps passing the buck HEHE


This week we see a return to broccoli rabe and sugar snap peas. This is because of that succession planting we told you about in the beginning of the season. Mom's peas have completely died out, but mine just started producing. She has already replanted, with hopes of a late summer/early fall crop, and I will do the same when mine die out. It's a total cycle.



I have been getting magazines out from the library lately, ones I've never really thought to read, but looking for recipes myself to use with all of this awesome produce. I've found Vegetarian Times, Eating Well, Cooking Light, and Bon Appetit to be very useful. I will try to post links and/or scan them in to share with you if time allows. For instance, I saw a whole article about grilling veggies, and I was amazed at things they were grilling. Things like radishes, who knew! I will try to locate and post it for you.



So here is the run down for this weeks shares. Bags are brimming :-)



1/2 Size:
Basil
Garlic
Cukes
Sugar Snap Peas
Beans
Easter Egg Radishes
Beets (Remember the Attached Greens Are Edible)
Lettuce Mix
Rainbow Swiss Chard
Tomato
Broccoli Rabe
Broccoli
Bitter Greens (This is a bag of greens that have gotten to big to call lettuce and are more bitter. They are not bad, just approach them differently than in a salad. Try sauteeing them and using them in a pasta dish.)

Full Size:
Basil
Garlic
Cukes
Sugar Snap Peas
Beans
Easter Egg Radishes
Kale
Beets w/Attached Greens
Beet Greens
Lettuce Mix
Rainbow Swiss Chard
Broccoli Rabe
Tomato
Cherry Tomatoes
Zucchini
Cabbage

If there was something you were really hoping for that is not in your bag, remember it may be available in the stand for sale. There is currently granola in there, and possibly by the end of the day there may be some baked goods (depends on what kind of a baking mood we are in). There are also some soaps/body products Mom makes so be sure to check them out.

Have a great week!

The Long & Winding Rows

This is a sampling of the garden at Intervale Road. It has since been mulched, and the plants have grown (why does it take so long to get around to doing these blog posts anyway!)

Mom does a lot of work in this garden, and sister Robin does too. I mentioned last week that Mom does all the work in the garden at her property too (which is just as big as the garden here). I always forget to bring my camera when I go down there though :-)

Some of the rows here Mom hoed and seeded. She is always saying she has a crooked eye, and that her rows are not very straight; therefor the "winding" comment in the title.

When I weed them, it seems to take forever to get to the end of one row. I haven't done a recent measurement, but seems I remember they are 125' "long".

It's also fitting that I used a "Beatles" title for inspiration, as they are the worst pest we have in the garden this year. Mainly, Japanese ones (I don't know if I've ever heard of a British beetle HEHE). They are what leave nice holes on your chard/kale/beet greens. We have not had the woodchuck once this year (he demolished several of my crops last year) and we have seen deer prints a couple times, but we strung a fence of fishing line and we haven't had a deer since. My sister made a good comment though as to why possibly I don't have critters this year. I am in the garden A LOT and last year I was not, so perhaps my scent or just the fact I could be in there has scared them off. Too bad the Japanese beetles weren't afraid of me :-) Man has not figured out an organic way (as far as we know) to take care of these armored bugs.

Not everything we grow has been included in these pictures. You will recognize things you have gotten, or things you haven't yet. But maybe you have never seen what some of the stuff looks like growing, so I wanted to share it with you.

.......Broccoli.........................Beets.............................Glads........

Peas

.......Potatoes..................Onions..................Leeks........

Lettuce (& Grass)

......................Kale..............................Beans....................Rainbow Chard........

Cucumbers

...Brussel Sprouts..............Bok Choy..........Broccoli Rabe....

Corn

............Tomatoes.........................Zucchini/Squash..........................Eggplants.............

More Rainbow Chard (we have LOTS)

More Tomatoes............Tomatillos...................Beans

Basil

Freeze the Surplus

Whether you are sick of the chard, or just haven't had time to use it up, save it for a later date!

Here is a chart I found in a magazine I got out of the library recently. I found it very helpful, as somethings I didn't realize you could freeze, like kale and chard! I plan to do some of these for my family know that I know that. How great to pull a bag of kale out in the middle of the winter to use in a soup! Will go great with my local chickens and stock I've made from them. (If you are interested in buying local, home grown, pasture raised chickens, my friends right around the corner at Morgan Hill Farm do it right. I just helped slaughter 30 for my freezer!).

Happy Freezing!
(click picture to enlarge and then try printing)

*NOTE: Thanks to one of our members for pointing this out. The article recommends using a vacuum sealer. If you do not have one, you can use zip-lock bags, squeeze as much air out as you can, seal almost all the way and then stick a straw in and suck out the rest of the air manually, then seal. I did this for years until I bought a Food-Saver :-)

CSA Wk 7, July 19

Much of my last week has been spent pruning the tomatoes and staking them. The blight I mentioned last week has been removed, and they are looking pretty good. We had a mulching party here this weekend, where we spread old hay over most of the garden.

This is supposed to really help with weed control, as I may have mentioned before. But, it may show up in your produce too. Sorry if there is a stray piece of hay in your kale or chard :-)

Mom tends the garden at their house, but she is up here often too, working hard as a dog right along side of me. I don't know how she does it somedays. It's inspiring. My sister Robin has been helping out a bunch too. I could definitely not do this alone, unless I spent every waking minute out there. We are a team.

Still no considerable rain, but despite this, things are still growing at an alarming rate. Summer squash/zucchini are really close. We had enough zukes to send to the 1/2 shares this week. Some good rain would really move them along. These are things you may get 3 or 4 of each week when they really come in! The cucumbers are starting to come in to, and some of the ones we sent out were from the garden. The ones from the hoophouse are super smooth. You will see the difference if you got garden ones :-) They are so crunchy though. I love me a good cucumber and mayo sandwich this time of year, or just slice them up with cider vinegar and S&P. Mmmm mmmm goood!

We had not been able to open our farm stand yet, as we just weren't getting enough from the garden to supply your bags and that, but today we made the decision to open. This is now where you will be picking up your shares. Sorry if you loved coming in my barn :-) There will be additional produce for sale in the farm stand that you may be interested in. If you look at the list on the blog before you come to pick up, you will know what you have/don't have. Or just ask me when you're here if you need to know. Eggs will also sometimes be available. It's all up to the chickens :-)


I hope you are all enjoying your shares, and finding new ways to use the same ingredients. I have a couple recipes this week that I want to share, but also, if you don't think you can use something right away, you can always freeze it for later use. I will be posting soon a chart that gives instructions for how to do this for many varieties of vegetables.

This weeks shares received
1/2 size:
Radish
Scallions
Lettuce
Kale
Beet Greens
Cukes
Beans
Pt. Potatoes
Carrots
Zucchini
Tarragon

Full size:
Radish
Scallions
Lettuce
Cukes
Broccoli
Swiss Chard
Beans
Qt. Potatoes
Bok Choy
Tomato
Carrots
Tarragon

A recipe for Egg salad, doctored :-)
Another great one for Green beans with lemon....sounds refreshing

Happy Eating!

CSA Wk 6, July 12

Well, the rain came this weekend as anticipated, though not quite as much as we hoped for. The gardens were in dire need of it, and anything IS better than nothing, but the soil still feels dry to the touch. A few good thunderstorm showers would be great this week. Just not in the middle of our BBQ's or anything...in the middle of the nights would be great :-)

We have finally caught up on the weeding, so had some time to spread organic compost the other day. That should help the new garden at Intervale Rd. We are planning to mulch it this coming week, hopefully to help with the new weeds that will come. Unfortunately, weeds grow back :-(

Some bad farm news is that last years blight has made a return on some tomato plants. It is a soil borne disease which attacks the plant, and leaves brown spots and eventually wilts it. Last year the blight was blamed on nursery seedlings, but we grew our own, and still had it. We blamed it on all the rain (think about how many mushrooms grow on your lawn after heavy rain) but this year we haven't had that and yet the blight is still there. We are being proactive about it this year though, so we don't lose the whole crop like last year. One of the things that we are doing is cutting off the parts that have it, and we have also found an organic spray that is also supposed to help. We don't use a lot of spray, but when a whole crop is in danger, we will find the organic solution if there is one. No spray is the best way, but using it is better than losing a whole crop.

This year we also were having a problem with potato and cucumber beetles. We found an organic bacteria that you buy in spray form, and when applied, the bugs consume it. Then they die, therefore ending the cycle of them laying more eggs etc. This has been HUGE for us, as at this point we are too big to pick all the bugs off by hand. We are aiming for a great potato harvest now, thanks to the spray.

Todays half shares got the following:
Basil
Garlic
Mesculen
Lettuce
Rainbow Chard
Cucumber
Broccoli Head
Cherry Tomatoes!!
Peas (There is a mixed bag of sugar snaps and the Chinese peas. See last weeks post for info. on each of them.)

Full shares got the following:
Basil
Garlic
Mesculen
Beet Greens
Spinach (Side note: This was picked from the Intervale Rd. garden. This is the first item in the CSA from the garden so just celebrating a little!)
Kale
Cukes
Broccoli Head
Beans!!
Peas (There is a mixed bag of sugar snaps and the Chinese peas. See last weeks post for info. on each of them.)

The greens sometimes taste a little bitter from the sun, but they are still edible. They are especially good with a dressing that matches their bitterness. This one from Barefoot Contessa is one of my favorites. I mix the vinegars up, using what I have on hand. The mustard and garlic are what give it it's spicy kick.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/green-salad-with-creamy-mustard-vinaigrette-recipe/index.html

The salad spinner was working a little better this week, but greens still may be a little wet.

Next week we hope to see zucchini, and summer squash shouldn't be far behind. Beans, which were new this week, are taking off and hope to have enough for everyone soon. Many things are getting close! It's exciting to see so much of the hard work coming to fruition, literally :-)

I hope you are all finding time to enjoy this hot Maine summer. It reminds me of summer's when I was a kid, where the mud puddle across the street was about as good a swimming hole as any. That and the rain barrel filled with water from the well. My dad HATED how much water we used with the spraying of each other with the hose, and was always afraid we were going to run the well dry. (As an adult, I can respect that, as I can take into consideration the amount of showers, dishes, laundry, even toilet flushing, that went on in our home. We never once ran that well dry, but he finally put in an above ground pool for us in the mid-80's, and no more hose! The pool is still standing and still used. Mom cools off in it all the time while weeding or mowing the lawn. After picking in the heat this morning, I jumped in to cool down before packing, and was just as thankful for it today as I was when I was 11.

Have a beautiful week!

Farmers 8

CSA WK 5, July 5

Short and sweet today. Going to go cool down on the lake :-)

A note: the salad spinner stopped working this morning so the lettuce is very wet. We apologize for this, but hope you can wring it on your own.

1/2 share list:
Lettuce
Sugar Snap Peas
Garlic
Beet Greens
Kale (Last week I called this chard by accident. The purple/green leafy. Sorry!)
Broccoli Rabe (Read last weeks post if you need to know what it is or what to do with it).
Scallions (young onions, greens and bulb are edible)
Oregano

Full share list:
Lettuce
Sugar Snap Peas
Chinese Peas (For stir fries, steaming etc. the colors are beautiful and stay that way when cooked. This was a brand new trial seed this year, and my mom got her hands on it to test for her job. You shouldn't be able to find these for sale anywhere else, so they are a real treat.)
Garlic
Rainbow Swiss Chard
Broccoli Rabe
Oregano
Scallions
New Potatoes (These are soft skinned, not "cured" like later ones will be. They are delicate in texture and flavor.)

If you have any questions, comment or email. Sorry so short.