What a glorious week we’ve had here on the farm! No floods, no drought, no difficult weather of any kind – just cool mornings, temperate afternoons and lots and lots of beautiful views. Absolutely gorgeous views, in fact. This week we took the crew off-site to forage in our neighbor’s prairie for milkweed pods and took the opportunity to check out what natives were blooming. If you’ve got a prairie nearby, do go see it soon while all the yellows are still blooming. When our farm membership was smaller, we used to forage a lot for the boxes. We are too big now to spend that kind of time in the woods (you long-term members will remember chickweed, nettle, watercress, elderberry flowers and daylily buds), but I still do keep my eyes out for all the tasty things that pop up in the hedgerows. If you like the milkweed, you can certainly find more somewhere near you. But also look now for the big white umbels of elderberry blossoms! These are great for making fried fritters, which taste like flowery funnel cakes, a treat which we will indulge in this weekend. Check out this recipe. We did pack a lot of awesome stuff for you this week, though! Here’s what’s In The Box. Use the first things first.
Here's what's In The Box! Use the first things first:
Head Lettuce: Our salad mixes have petered out here in the sun, but we did have some perky head lettuces still growing in the shady edges of the gardens. Use these to create your own unique salad mix with some of the herbs and other greens we’ve included in the box.
Minutina: Since we had no more salad mix, we wanted to give you a bunch of fun ingredients you could mix up yourself. These ferny little heads of skinny greens are an English garden green that will enliven your salad. Or use it to create a bed for grains.
Summer Squash: It’s awful early for these guys to be producing, but we transplanted them in that first hot week of June and they got the message to get fruiting. So here we are! Just a few tender yellow and green squash, but they are just terrific sliced thin and sautéed with olive oil and some brewer’s yeast.
Cilantro: Very fragile. Use it up!
Milkweed Blossoms: Those of you who’ve been with our farm for a few years know how much we like edible flowers and foraging. These early summer treats combine the best of both! The un-flowered buds from milkweed stalks can be used in several ways, but definitely don’t eat them raw. Our favorite way is to simply sauté lightly with garlic wok oil, season with soy sauce and serve over rice. Peas and broccoli would also be great in the mix. But you can also boil them for a few minutes and add to quiche. Farm Member Isabella says the quiche recipe on our pinterest page and recipe blog is terrific!
Peas: We’ve got snows and snaps bagged up for you this week. Frankly, they hardly ever make it into any sort of pot here, since we eat them raw like candy. But they are even better if you can hold yourself back and sauté them lightly just til they turn a bit darker. Remember to remove the strings down the side before you eat or prepare.
Cucumber: These are very early in the boxes this year because we actually grew them in our brand new hoop house. You should come see it actually – they are growing up strings and it is soooo cool! So easy to pick, too! There will be lots more to come. Oh, and in between the cukes, we’re growing mini yellow watermelons.
Chives (bagged): These should keep for a while in plastic in the fridge.
Oregano and Dill (bunched): You can use this fresh for a few days and then hang the whole bunch up to dry and crumble it up to store.
Broccoli and Cauliflower: You’ve gotten some combination of broccoli and cauliflower heads. These are soooo picky in the spring we should really stop growing them in the early season – they don’t like up and down temperatures and we’ve got just too much of that. Our greenhouse is full of starts for the fall crop and those will be wonderful.
Garlic Scapes: Just a little taste of the garlicy goodness we’ll harvest in a few weeks. For now, chop these curly blooms up just like you would scallions enjoy the heat.
Rhubarb: The second and last harvest of the summer. Yum! Now you can try all the recipes that your fellow Farm Members sent in on the Box 3 recipe blog. See the Farmer Kriss pinterest page for more ideas.
Flower Bouquet: We had to skip flowers for the last box because we didn’t have room, but here is a little bouquet squeezed in so you can enjoy the first summer blossoms: lots of yarrow, wild quinine (white), native false indigo greens and my favorite flower of the year : the little chartreuse bupleurum!
Parcel Transplants: This tiny little bagged plant is an experiment for us this year. It is a cross between parsley and celery that is supposed to make the problems associated with those two plants less troublesome. Parsley is so necessary all year, but it fades in the heat. Celery is so yummy with summer stuff, but it takes all year to stalk up and we only harvest it in the fall. So this is basically a cutting green that tastes like both that is supposed to be harvestable all season. Plant it and tell us what you think!
Minutina: Since we had no more salad mix, we wanted to give you a bunch of fun ingredients you could mix up yourself. These ferny little heads of skinny greens are an English garden green that will enliven your salad. Or use it to create a bed for grains.
Summer Squash: It’s awful early for these guys to be producing, but we transplanted them in that first hot week of June and they got the message to get fruiting. So here we are! Just a few tender yellow and green squash, but they are just terrific sliced thin and sautéed with olive oil and some brewer’s yeast.
Cilantro: Very fragile. Use it up!
Milkweed Blossoms: Those of you who’ve been with our farm for a few years know how much we like edible flowers and foraging. These early summer treats combine the best of both! The un-flowered buds from milkweed stalks can be used in several ways, but definitely don’t eat them raw. Our favorite way is to simply sauté lightly with garlic wok oil, season with soy sauce and serve over rice. Peas and broccoli would also be great in the mix. But you can also boil them for a few minutes and add to quiche. Farm Member Isabella says the quiche recipe on our pinterest page and recipe blog is terrific!
Peas: We’ve got snows and snaps bagged up for you this week. Frankly, they hardly ever make it into any sort of pot here, since we eat them raw like candy. But they are even better if you can hold yourself back and sauté them lightly just til they turn a bit darker. Remember to remove the strings down the side before you eat or prepare.
Cucumber: These are very early in the boxes this year because we actually grew them in our brand new hoop house. You should come see it actually – they are growing up strings and it is soooo cool! So easy to pick, too! There will be lots more to come. Oh, and in between the cukes, we’re growing mini yellow watermelons.
Chives (bagged): These should keep for a while in plastic in the fridge.
Oregano and Dill (bunched): You can use this fresh for a few days and then hang the whole bunch up to dry and crumble it up to store.
Broccoli and Cauliflower: You’ve gotten some combination of broccoli and cauliflower heads. These are soooo picky in the spring we should really stop growing them in the early season – they don’t like up and down temperatures and we’ve got just too much of that. Our greenhouse is full of starts for the fall crop and those will be wonderful.
Garlic Scapes: Just a little taste of the garlicy goodness we’ll harvest in a few weeks. For now, chop these curly blooms up just like you would scallions enjoy the heat.
Rhubarb: The second and last harvest of the summer. Yum! Now you can try all the recipes that your fellow Farm Members sent in on the Box 3 recipe blog. See the Farmer Kriss pinterest page for more ideas.
Flower Bouquet: We had to skip flowers for the last box because we didn’t have room, but here is a little bouquet squeezed in so you can enjoy the first summer blossoms: lots of yarrow, wild quinine (white), native false indigo greens and my favorite flower of the year : the little chartreuse bupleurum!
Parcel Transplants: This tiny little bagged plant is an experiment for us this year. It is a cross between parsley and celery that is supposed to make the problems associated with those two plants less troublesome. Parsley is so necessary all year, but it fades in the heat. Celery is so yummy with summer stuff, but it takes all year to stalk up and we only harvest it in the fall. So this is basically a cutting green that tastes like both that is supposed to be harvestable all season. Plant it and tell us what you think!