The farm is open as usual on July 4th. If you typically pick-up on Mondays and can’t make it on the 4th please let me know which day you’d like to switch to. We are open M, W and F from 3:30 to 6:30 and Th from 9:30 to 11:30 am. We will deliver to Mac-Groveland and Ginkgo Coffeehouse on July 4th. If you want to switch to on-farm pick-up instead please let me know asap so we can plan accordingly. Ginkgo will close early that day (8:00 pm I believe) so please pick-up promptly!
Farm News
I’m not sure why our broccoli has been on the small side this season. My first theory is that since it is a cool season crop and we’ve had a number of very hot days it decided to flower before it reached a reasonable size. Theory two is that we trialed a new early variety and maybe it is just small. If some of our standard later varieties are normal size this could be our answer. Nonetheless, growing broccoli in the spring is always a challenge here in MN. Since it likes cool temps the amount of time we have in the spring that is in its sweet spot is quite limited. So we struggle a bit sometime to get it to the size we like.
Fall broccoli is always better but far harder to plan. We try to get it to produce during the month of October. Some years it comes too early, say mid-September when we have a lot of other stuff to give out. Other years it runs late into November after the season has ended. Last year we had some great broccoli near the end of October and gave a lot of great broccoli to the food shelf once it sized up in November. This season we planted the fall broccoli a bit earlier hoping it all arrives in October, though giving some to the food shelf is always a great consolation prize.
Other than struggling with broccoli we are pretty much struggling with moisture. The last few large storms fizzled prior to arriving here at the farm. So over the last couple weeks we’ve had little to no rain. So we are spending a lot of time irrigating. Hopefully this Thursday will be a good soaking rain. If not, we will continue to irrigate.
What will we have this week? Garlic scapes (the last of them), green garlic (the last of it), green onions (lots left!) summer squash/zucchini (could be lots of it!), the rest of the first planting of bok choi (the second planting is several weeks out still if it doesn’t get too hot), lettuce, some snap peas (started picking the second planting), maybe some snow peas (we don’t plant as many of these so there are fewer to be had), some radishes, some basil, some broccoli, probably some chard, probably some kale, maybe a few kohlrabi, and quite possibly some beets. Sorry to be so obtuse; I didn’t have time today to get a good sense as to where things are. My guess is there will be mostly multiple choice categories this week.
Recipe of the week!
Well not so much a recipe, more of an approach. One meal we make frequently in the summer is a sautéed vegetables over pasta. We throw together whatever the farm gives us that week. Last week I used green onions, green garlic, broccoli, summer squash, and pea pods. I chop them up into bite-sized pieces and cook them in olive oil over medium heat. At the end I added a ladle of pasta water to the pan since this is what Jacque Pepin would do then throw the cooked pasta directly into the pan with the sautéed vegetables to finish it. Then serve it up with some grated parmesan cheese. Delish! When the veggies are this fresh and are grown for flavor and not for transport, storage or display purposes, it doesn’t take fancy recipes to make a delicious meal. Just cook them (or not) and eat them.
MeatShare and FlowerShare this week.
Every week is a BreadShare week.
No cheese, eggs, seafood, fruit, ice cream or coffee this week.
As always do not hesitate to send in questions, comments or any other interesting tidbits.
And for those who read to the end here is the song that goes through my head every time I harvest broccoli.