Oh man, there’s been a whole lot going on since we last spoke a few months ago. Global pandemic, quarantines, and protests have erupted and redefined our society and our existences. It’s sure an interesting time to be alive, and regardless of anything else, I’m grateful for that.
Of course, for us here on the farm, the last few months have been hardly different from this same time of any other year. We rarely leave the land, have few visitors, and strive to make trips to the store as rare as possible.
Roots had be put down again, literally and everyway else. Seedlings were planted in tiny soil blocks, transferred to larger soil blocks, kept alive through many subfreezing nights, hardened to the sun’s shine and the wind’s battering.
Rips in the aging greenhouse plastic were mended, trellises constructed, gophers, removed, visits made by raven and coyote, whippoorwill and bear. The field was plowed with Kristin’s dad’s (and dad’s dad’s) old tractor. Putrid semi-liquified waste carp was fed to the soil ahead of hungry corn seeds. (yes this was a hilariously gross episode.) Weeds were pulled and scraped and torched and buried. Thousands of little plants were moved out into the field, suddenly transforming the blank canvas into a full garden, ready to fill out into abundance.
And we grew. Especially Otis, of course, in most every way. He’s a child of the land here, and it’s so damn exciting to see it happen.
Of course, it’s also exciting to see the first boxes of our food disperse out\ into the world. Most of you are old hands with us now, but we do have a few totally new folks on board this year. We’ll try to give useful info while not being too repetitious … but really, that’s the cyclical nature of farming.
Around and around we grow!
In the Box: Week One
- Micro-greens
They’re like food confetti! Enjoy the Restaurant Experience at home by garnishing up some fancy meals … and just enjoy munching them in sandwiches or salads or plain …
There are two containers: one is all Radish (zippy.) , the other is a Mix of red cabbage, two types of kale (red russian & curly blue), and amaranth.
- Spinach
You can use it in a pasta dish, or a quiche, or eat it uncooked perhaps! (But really, at this time of year, it will likely taste best cooked.)
- Pea Tips
Put them on just about everything! A fresh garnish atop something that would be wonderful beneath them? You can’t go wrong.
- Bekana
A loose-headed Asian green – sort of a Napa Cabbage that never forms a head. Use in a similar manner. Not pictured, but not because we don’t love it..
- French Breakfast Radishes
We have a LOT of radishes on our plates on the farm lately. They’re actually quite versatile, as it turns out, giving them some heat (pan-frying, oven roasting, etc) takes away the powerful trademark radish bite. Depending on where you go from there, they can be many kinds of delicious. Try them roasted in butter or maybe olive oil, or whatever you’re into! Also great sliced into stir-fries. Oh yeah you can totally cook and eat their greens as well! The roots will store best if cut off from the greens
- Green Onions
- Chive Flowers
Pick the petals off with your finger tips – and sprinkle them on a salad perhaps. They provide a little bit of chive flavoring, in addition to the obvious visual appeal. Or you can infuse vinegar with them!
- Dandelion Jelly
When you want to forage and make preserves this early in the year, you get to work with some pretty awesome seasonal bounties.
PS – there is a search function on our website; if you want more info about a vegetable, try a search to see if it’s been discussed in years past.
I’m excited for the bekana! I think we’re going to do this: https://www.wozupi.com/blog/recipe/tokyo-bekana-spring-rolls with ours, but I found this site: http://www.tucsoncsa.org/category/recipes/tokyo-bekana/ with a lot of recipes as well. Lots of them call for green onions too.
Also, Where the Wild Things Are is the only book Aster wants to hear right now and this is the 2nd newsletter I received that day that started with that line… (Another very cool little very local biz, good company to be in for you both.)
I did change the correct quotation from “start” to “begin”, because that’s how I remember it and I think it sounds better
Even though it is wrong