This has been a get to work outside week, unlike last week’s have to work outside week.
One quick announcement: It looks like they have installed the new culverts on our road this week. I expect they will start repaving next week. Be aware there might be construction and and be prepared to come around the backside if necessary (see this newsletter for what I mean).
Farm News
Last week I discussed how the weather affected our crops. One area I failed to mention was the effect on the produce due to rain-splashed soil. Since we grow most of our produce outside — and in the ground — anytime it rains the rain splashes the plants with mud. This makes the produce dirtier and harder to clean. The best example is the yellow zucchini. When we have no rain the zucchini has very little dirt on it and simply washing it twice in cool water gets the small amount of dirt off. When it rains the zucchini are far dirtier due to the splashing from the rain. Then when we pick the zucchini the dirt gets ground in a bit more due to them being jostled in the harvest crate. When we go to wash it we can’t get all the dirt off without scrubbing it. However if we scrub the zucchini the skin gets damaged and it will not last long in the fridge either here at the farm or in your fridge at home. So we do the best we can without damaging the fruit and leave the scrubbing to you, which you should do just before using it. Other crops like cucumbers also get dirtier when it rains but their skins are less susceptible to dirt penetration so we can wash the dirt off without scrubbing. We grow most of our tomatoes inside so the rain doesn’t affect them.
Speaking of dirt, last week we gave out carrots with their tops on. The tops looked great so we figured why not? However it took four people four hours to wash last weeks carrots. When we were done we thought we did a great job but when packing boxes and helping people in the tent the carrots looked less clean than I recalled after they were washed. I think it is a perception thing. We washed off probably 99.9% of the dirt, but since they grow in dirt and were very dirty to begin with, that last 0.1% wasn’t immediately noticeable. This winter we applied for a grant to purchase a barrel root washer, which we hoped would improve our ability to clean root crops, but we did not get the grant. So we leave a bit of the farm on all our root crops for you to enjoy or scrub off, whichever you prefer.
Speaking of dirt and scrubbing, this week you’ll get new potatoes. Why are they called “new” potatoes? Because they aren’t old and haven’t been sitting around watching Matlock reruns all day. They are potatoes that haven’t fully matured prior to our digging them up. So they have baby soft skin. And unfortunately this soft skin doesn’t hold up well to scrubbing. As you’ll see the potatoes have missing skin spots, and this is from a light rinsing with the hose. So like last weeks carrots we leave a little bit of the farm on each of our potatoes for you to gently remove prior to cooking. It is either this or send you naked potatoes!
Speaking of potatoes, what is a potato’s least favorite day? You’ll find out if you keep reading!
Another quick point about our farming practices: We use as little pesticide as possible and only organic when necessary. I mentioned last week the cabbage butterfly larva you may find on your brassica crops. We try to use a bacteria (Bt) that the larva ingest causing them to perish. This bacteria works on all lepidotera insects (moths and butterflies) in their larval stage. This includes the black swallowtail butterfly. The interesting thing about swallowtail caterpillars is that unlike a lot of our members they love fennel! But we also love them because they are beautiful (as my wife once said, “Butterflies are like flying flowers!”). So we do not spray fennel or related plants (carrots mainly) with Bt. We scout the plants occasionally, remove what we find and either raise them in captivity ourselves or give them to a preschool to raise. If you find a caterpillar on your fennel (we found two today) I highly recommend keeping it alive by feeding it fennel fronds until it cocoons, then wait a few days (weeks?) until it emerges. It is quite the show! You can do the same if you find a caterpillar on your cabbage, cauliflower or broccoli but the emerging butterfly isn’t as pretty or as large. Still a fun science experiment.
Enough science for now. The answer is Fryday.
What will we have this week?
More than last week! We have onions, sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, lots of squash, some eggplants, some kohlrabi, some cauliflower, some cabbage, new potatoes, a few carrots, a few peas, some fennel, lots of beets, lots of beans, and the herb this week is basil. There might be a few other things I am forgetting…
Produce Usage Ideas
This past week I made a delicious sweet and sour pork dish. Typically when I think of trying something new I search the interwebs for ideas and inspiration then create my own version of it with what I have on hand. This is what I did for the sweet and sour pork recipe. You could also use chicken. It is quite tasty and doesn’t have the breading coating the pork so I think it tastes better.
Sweet and Sour Pork
Ingredients:
1-2 lbs Cutup pieces of pork (we bought it already cutup)
2/3 c brown sugar
2/3 c cider vinegar
2/3 c ketchup
1 T soy sauce
1 T sunflower or cooking oil
A bunch of veggies like:
2-3 carrots cut into bite-sized pieces
a handful of string beans, stem end removed and halved
1 onion, sliced
1 eggplant cut into bite-sized pieces
a handful of snow peas, stem end and strings removed
2 cloves garlic minced or 3-4 garlic scapes chopped
1 can pineapple chunks, drained
Hot cooked rice
In a bowl whisk sugar, vinegar, ketchup and soy sauce. Pour half into resealable plastic bag and add pork. Close and refrigerate for a half hour or more. Set aside remaining marinade.
Drain and discard marinade from pork. Heat oil in large skillet. Add pork and cook for 3 minutes. Do not overcook since it will continue to cook as we add the rest of the ingredients. Add the vegetables and garlic. Cook until tender. Add pineapple chunks. Heat through and serve over rice.
Practically any vegetable can be used in this dish (except those you generally don’t cook) so experiment with what you have on hand.
We also made cole slaw from the recipe in this newsletter.
Another easy to make recipe is Basil Buttered Beans.
Ingredients:
2 T butter
1/2 c Basil, coarsely chopped
1 lb string beans, stem ends removed
Shredded Parmesan cheese
Steam beans for 15 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, melt butter in a pan. Add basil. Arrange beans on serving plate. Drizzle basil butter over beans. Sprinkle with cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.
I guess that is more than enough for this week. As always do not hesitate to contact me with questions, comments, suggestions, jokes, riddles and brain teasers.