remember each cherry tomato starts as a flower, and check out these plants! almost more flower than leaf! look out for these little yellow beauties!
Thanks to the anonymous commentor a few
weeks back, for drawing my attention to a need to follow up on a
story. I forgot to mention that the insect exclusion netting worked
like a dream! Not only did it exclude the swede midge- and we got
the best crop we have had in years-actually ever! As an added bonus,
it also excluded the cabbage moths, they lay the eggs that become
those green caterpillars (that are the exact same color as broccoli).
Additionally, and we are not sure why, the flea beetle damage on the
plants under cover was significantly lower than the uncovered plants,
and they got a big head start on the few plants that were being eaten
around the edges outside of the covers. And the last thing that the
covers did, was to exclude rabbits, who munched those plants that
weren't protected! Those poor “control” plants outside of the
cover, really are not in great shape, and the experimental ones under cover did fantastically! Overall, the
insect exclusion netting gets a major thumbs up from us!
That praise for insect exclusion
netting out of the way, now I will say that while the first half of
the broccoli was a splendid success. The second half is is an
excellent study in human behavior and farm economics. For some
reason, those crowns, which looked fantastic last week, are now
getting little brown spots on them, the spots seem to be superficial
and the heads may have even all been harvested for the corning market
last week, (but alas, the growth rate of veggies and how they don't
pause for a federal holiday was not a factor in the cancellation of
the market. ) but I digress.
The point being many or perhaps now
most heads have brown spots on them. Now at this moment, you may
well be thinking, well that's no big deal, I can just cut out those
spots and not waste the other pound and a half of good broccoli. And
we agree. But in eleven years of selling at farmer's market, what I
have noticed is that sentiment doesn't acutally carry over to what a
person selects at the market table, each person selects what they
percieve to be the best product in the stack, leaving the last one on
the table to be what was considered the least desirable. And
teaching farmer's to only bring things of the utmost quality to
market (yet still some people feel they most paw through every head
of lettuce to find “the best” one, as if poor quality ones were
brought to market, PULEEASE!)
Our propensity as a society for
“perfect” food leads us to the farm economics lesson. An apple
farmer that has a hail storm and has their fruit damaged, even just
one or two marks on each apple is forced by the customer's selection
of only perfect fruit to mark down their imperfect (yet still just as
tasty) fruits in order to sell them- (reinforcing the idea that those
“inferior” fruits are worth less than those perfect fruits) the
problem being that it takes the same pruning, spraying, picking *,
packing *, and marketing * effort to get fruits with two hail spots
to market as it does to get blemish free fruits to the market stand
(*in fact usually more effort on the starred items as there is a lot
more sorting to do both in the field, in the packing stand, and at
the market than for unblemished fruits). A farmer could be forced to
sell these fruits for half price, thus losing half their yearly
income, just because they had the bad luck of getting 10 minutes of
hail in july.
(also leading farmer's who do use sprays to use as much as possible to maximize perfect fruits and minimize less desirable fruits that are sold for less).
Off my soap box and back to the
broccoli, it may not be worth the labor for us to pick it, wash it,
pack it up, unload it at market, make it look nice nestled on our
table, just to have people snub those little brown spots. So we'll
see how the timing works out for harvesting this week as to whether
we'll make the effort.
some of the first broccoli, looking fine!
On totally different note, the second
hatchings of robin babies seem to be fledging right now and they have
lots of food available in the form of a large tart cherry tree in our
back yard. Its got birds in it all day long, and there are cherry
pits all over the farm- from birds dropping them in flight. We
picked the lowest limbs tonight, but short of a cherry picker bucket
to lift us way up, there is no way that we could ever reach all of
the highest fruits. Hope you, too, filled your freezers with fruits last
week, the annual cherry frenzy is coming to an end up here! this year we tried drying them for the first time and the conclusion, is thumbs up for dried sweet cherries! some of those non bird eaten tart cherries will go in tonight to see how tart cherries measure up.
It was really nice to show around lots
of CSA cherry picking members this past week! Thanks for making the
trip out to the farm! and to alternate markets as well this week, we feel that food every week is superior to twice as much food one week and none another.
Here's a yummy sounding recipe that
john, kathy, and amy passed on to us! Recipe from:
Creamy Maple Mustard Dressed Raw
Chard Salad
vegan, serves 2-3
1 beautiful bunch
of organic Swiss chard (any color will work!)
Creamy Maple
Mustard Dressing:
2 tsp whole/coarse grain mustard
2 tsp
vegan mayo, aka Vegenaise
1 tsp grade B maple syrup
1
tsp apple cider vinegar (you can substitute this with lemon juice if
necessary)
1/8 tsp (or just a few pinches) or fresh orange or
lemon zest
pinch of salt (to taste)
pinch of fine black
pepper
pinch of cayenne powder
optional: squeeze of lemon
juice
additional spices you may want to try: garlic powder,
coriander, turmeric, onion powder, nutritional yeast - dried or
freshly chopped jalapeno, garlic or parsley.
dressing
notes:
* If your chard is an extra large bunch, or you just like
more dressing, double my recipe.
* choose a
spicy whole grain mustard if possible, otherwise
you can add in a 1/2 tsp spicy Dijon mustard in addition - or a few
extra dashes of cayenne. The spicy kick is a nice compliment to the
sweetness of the maple
salad garnish: fresh lemon or
orange citrus zest
Directions:
1. Rinse your
chard in cold water - each leaf should be well rinsed to remove any
sandy residue. Chop off any brownish ends on the stem. Pat leaves dry
with a paper towel of you can use a salad spinner to help dry once
they are chopped.
2. Thinly slice the chard into ribbons. Add
to a large mxing bowl. You can rinse one more time in cold water if
desired.
3. Whisk together your dressing in a small cup. Pour
over top greens and toss well.
4. Pour into serving bowl and
cover. Place in the fridge to chill for at least one hour before
serving. Greens should be eaten within 8 hours of preparing. Serve
chilled. Add fresh lemon or orange zest over top to serve.
The website mentions that this dish would
be nice with some edible flowers on top, this week you'll start to
see edible flowers at market if we have time to pick them- nice spicy
nasturstiums in a wide array of shades of orange, red, and yellow!
Have a good week!
beets
lettuce heads
kale
Swiss
chard
zucchini
parsley
carrots
garlic
scapes
spinach
cucumbers
broccoli
new potatoes
green
onions
cabbage
a few peppers
green beans
tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
also local, organic dry beans and flour
Liz and matthew
this is where garlic scapes come from, right in the center of the garlic plant, now you know...
