Dear Shareholders,
This week welcomes your first week of vegetables fresh from your farm. And, the first “official” newsletter of the season.
This newsletter will have the same format each week. First, you’ll find a list of the veggies that I expect to include in your shares. This allows you a little advance notice to start thinking about your menu for the week. Occasionally, you will arrive at the pick up site and discover that something has been substituted for an item listed in the newsletter. That means that some sort of pest got to your veggie before I did. IE. I woke up on harvest day and discovered the deer had eaten all the lettuce during the night! Hopefully, this will be a rare occurrence.
In the next section of the newsletter you’ll find information about what is happening on your farm. This is where you’ll will learn about the ups and downs of farming…. the good and the not so good. Sometimes, this section may expand to include items about agriculture in general.
Finally, you’ll find the Featured Veggie of the Week section. This section includes links to recipes and/or nutrition information about at least one of the vegetables included in your shares.
Feel free to reply to the newsletter. I’d love to hear from you, especially if you have a fabulous recipe for one of the items in your share.
This Weeks Veggies
Four Seasons Lettuce – This is a lovely, big red butterhead lettuce.
Bok Choi – See the Featured Veggie of the Week section below for recipes and nutrition information.
Green Onions – These are a very small bulbing onion. They are usually used raw in salads or any where you would use scallions. I also use them as a substitute in recipes that call for chives.
Baby Chard leaves – These leaves are so young and tender, you can eat them as a salad. Or, chop your green onions, sautee them in olive oil for a few minutes, then add your baby chard leaves and cook until wilted. I serve them over bow tie pasta with a sprinkle of good quality parmesan cheese.
Cherry Belle and French Breakfast Radishes – You’ll receive two bunches of radishes this week. How about doing a little taste test? Do you notice any difference in the flavor? Which one do you like the best? The tubular radishes are the French Breakfast, the round ones are the Cherry Belles.
Farm Tales
Summer has finally arrived, just in time for the solstice. Some of the vegetables, especially the lettuce, are reacting by trying to go to seed. Known as bolting, this can make the lettuce bitter if not harvested soon. Fortunately, I planted several bolt resistant varieties, just in case. You’ll see those in your shares in the coming weeks.
The other plants that are loving this weather are the squash, and the weeds. Both seem to grow by the minute. The squash plants are growing at least an inch a day and putting out new leaves just as quickly.
If you have ever had your own garden, you’ll know that weeds are the primary pest that farmers must address. In my case, it is thistle. Sometimes I feel like I am growing the best crop of thistle ever known to mankind. As is often the case the source of the thistle is an unmaintained property nearby. Last year, the thistle seeds blew in from the adjacent property, blossomed, and dropped more seed. Those seeds, plus the additional ones that blew in, have created a rich seed bank in my soil. I will continue having problems until this seed bank is depleted, a process that can take several years.
Consequently, it is imperative that I prevent this years thistle crop from going to seed. I must be certain to keep the field edges and paths mowed to cut off the flowering heads. And, I’ll also be mowing the adjacent pasture to be sure that mistake isn’t repeated. Meanwhile, I’ll remind myself that thistles, with their long tap root, are good for pulling up minerals from deep in the ground. And, they are good for the compost too.
Featured Veggie of the Week
This weeks featured veggie is Bok Choi, also called Pok Choi. This mustard is a classic ingredient in Chinese cooking.
This web site will give you good general information about using Bok Choi in Asian dishes. http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa062701b.htm (This site recommends wrapping your Bok Choi in wet paper towels before storing it in the refrigerator. I find this actually causes the Bok Choi to spoil more quickly. I recommend washing it, spinning or toweling it dry, then putting it in a plastic bag before putting it in the refrigerator.)
The following web site gives you good nutrition information for Bok Choi, as well as a simple recipe for braising it. (Since this is mature bok choi rather than baby, you’ll want to put the stems in to cook first, then add the leaves when the stems have softened.)
http://healthycooking.suite101.com/article.cfm/braised_bok_choy
Enjoy.
I look forward to seeing you in the Emanuel parking lot at the corner of Knott and Vancouver on Tuesday afternoon between 3:00 and 6:30. Remember, the pick up site is BYOB – Bring Your Own Bag.
Your Farmer,
Florence Jessup
Artisan Organics
www.ArtisanOrganics.net
503.270.6689
P.S. My thanks to those of you that have let me know that an alternate person will be picking up your share this week.
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