Blue Gate Farm News – Volume IV, Number 7
– June 12, 2007
In
this week’s box:
Garlic Scapes (just a few to finish out the season)
Lettuce: Asst. varieties
Pac Choi
Siamese
Dragon Braising Mix (Bag of mixed greens)
Swiss
Chard: Bright Lights (dark green leaves, bright colored stems in the open
plastic bag)
Turnips:
Hakurei (white) & Purple Top
For
those with the Cheese option: Feta
For those with the Herb
option: Chives and Sage
Featured Recipes (on back): Young Turnip
Salad with Apples and Lemon Dressing
The
Great Chard E’Scape
Rain this week: 1
¼”
What’s up on the farm?
These hard rains
are really remarkable this spring. We
can’t complain too much after the drought we had last summer, but it seems this
year it only comes hard and fast. We
thought we could get one more harvest out of the early salad beds, but the
leaves are just too bruised. So we will
strip out the original plantings and leave the 2nd crop to mature a
bit. Hopefully we will be back in salad
in about two weeks. Other than the salad
crops, the other veggies of our gardens seem to be perfectly happy with the
amount of rain we’ve been having. The
cucumbers, tomatoes and summer squashes are all blooming and there’s even
little baby zucchini and patty pan squashes forming. The height of summer harvesting will be here
before we know it.
Our tasks this
week have included clearing the high tunnel of the old salad beds (thanks
again, Kavanaugh family), pinching back the basil to encourage stronger growth,
hosting a tour for the Knoxville Garden Club, mulching the tomatoes, preparing
more planting beds, transplanting ground cherries, laying more irrigation tape
(for when the rain does stop) and planting the first of the sweet potato slips.
Oh, and weeding…lots and lots of weeding!
Also, now that the high tunnel is largely cleared out we are trying a summer
“field-trial” of a couple dozen eggplant and pepper plants in there. These are crops that in the past we have
struggled to get fully ripened before the fall weather moves in. So we’ll try a little experiment and keep you
updated with the results.
What are we seeing this week? Many
of the nesting birds are fledging their young right now. We’ve got eastern bluebirds, rose-breasted
grosbeaks, indigo buntings, bob-o-links, thousands of goldfinches, purple
finches, nut hatches, screech owls, chipping sparrows, woodpeckers(Red-bellied,
Red-headed, Downey and Hairy) and wild turkeys in abundance. Those are some bustling bird-parents out
there. The deer are also busy herding
their new fawns out of harms way. It’s
always fun to come upon a young, spotted baby curled up in the tall grass,
staying perfectly still just where its mother left it. We like to admire them briefly and then back
away quietly.
Our feature this
week is the Siamese Dragon Braising mix. This is a mixture of Asian greens that are
used as a cooked green. They are very
tasty when roughly chopped and sautéed in olive oil (or butter) with garlic and
a little hot Thai pepper. We also like
them stir-fried or steamed and dressed with seasoned rice vinegar. An
alternative is to use them as you would in just about any cooked spinach recipe
where a little extra zing is desired. Do
watch carefully when cooking as the greens can go from perfectly done to
overcooked mush fairly quickly. Actually
all of these cooking suggestions work for the Swiss Chard as well. For those of
you unfamiliar with chard, use it shredded raw in salads or on sandwiches, or
cooked as you would spinach. When
cooking the larger leaves, cut out the stem and slice into 1” pieces. Start cooking stems first. Stack leaves and
roll into a cigar-like tube, then slice into ribbons. Add leaves to pan and cook quickly.
A reminder that
our CSA Ice Cream Social is June 24th, a week from this coming
Sunday, from
Best from the
farm,
Jill & Sean
Young Turnip
Salad with Apples and Lemon Dressing
1 cup peeled and grated raw young turnips (about 2 medium turnips)
1 cup peeled and grated tart apples (Granny Smith is a good choice)
½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
3 tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tbs vegetable oil
salt
freshly ground pepper
Toss the turnips, apples, parsley, lemon juice and vegetable oil in a
large bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate for 1
hour.
This dish can be served as a salad (try topped with chopped toasted nut)
or on its own as a dip (try it with rice crackers)
Recipe Source:
Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables
The Great Chard E’Scape (campy name, I know but I couldn’t resist)
½ lb Swiss chard
1 tbs olive oil
5-6 fresh garlic scapes (or
more to taste) or 1-3 cloves minced garlic
Sea salt
Cut garlic scapes into 1”
chunks. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic scapes.
Trim large stems from chard leaves. Cut stems into 1” pieces. Add stems to
skillet. Stack chard leaves and roll into a tube. Cut into ½” strips. As scapes
and stems just begin to soften, add leaves to skillet. Cook until leaves wilt.
Sprinkle with salt to taste.
Great served over pasta with
a red sauce. For a side dish, try sprinkling with toasted sesame seeds.
Recipe Source: Blue Gate Farm