We are downright proud of this beautiful box. We had some defeats this week – we had to give up on the wind-whipped salad rows, till them in and start fresh with new rows seeded for fall and transplants popped into shady areas. We also found some gorgeous big Red Norlands under the mulch in our potato rows, so we decided to dig new potatoes for you this week, only to find that most of the tubers were tiny. So we replaced the mulch and walked away disappointed. However, we ended up with tremendous yields on all of the basil varieties, the squash blossoms exploded and the pea vines finished out for us with some delicious tender tendrils at their tips. Alliteration is always appropriate for a celebration! Remember, as always, use the first things listed first, as they are the most fragile.
Squash Blossoms – Oh! What can we say but, “Oh!” These are such a delight and surprise on the plate. We hope you’ll be able to make use of them quickly and well. The crew cheered when they saw that picking squash blossoms was on the harvest list this morning, because that meant stuffed and sautéed squash for lunch! Delicious. If you can’t use these right away to stuff, they will still be terrific in their wilty state baked on top of a frittata or quiche. The flavor is like a light cucumber floral. We put a ton of ideas up on the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page, but our basic stuffed recipe is on the Recipe Blog for Box 3. Be sure to shake these out before you use them - we found a tree frog in one this morning! See above.
Pea Tendrils – Holy cow. Amazing. Our peas finished up this week, and we went through the trellises picking the last pods. But while we were out there, we picked the tender growing tips to munch on, and they were amazing! So we’ve brought you this last gift of the peas. This week they will be cut to make way for the cucumbers and little acorn squash that are growing up next to them. Garnish the top of a salad, or better yet, sauté very very lightly. You can use these in the Pea Curry Recipe we have on the Recipe Blog, but don’t mix them in when you cook up the curry. Instead, lightly sauté them at the end and serve the curry with the wilted tendrils and a few cashews on top. You’ll be a rock star chef!
Dill – These pretty flowers are tucked on top of your box so it they can be the first thing you smell when you open it. Yum! Dill flowers, stems and leaves all have the flavor, so you can use them just like the fresh leaves. Snip into eggs, garnish fish whole, or pop into something you are going to pickle. We snip the green leaves into goat cheese, and then decorate the plate with tiny yellow flowers picked from the umbels. Store in the fridge in a glass of water until you can use.
Basil – PESTO SEASON IS HERE! This should be enough for you to get a nice little stash of pesto in your fridge to use up in the next week or so. Covered with some olive oil, it will keep at least a week. If you want, freeze some. It freezes great. We are mixing ours with sorrel and oregano right now for a super-tart Italian style dip-starter we add to goat cheese and have on crostini. Also terrific over spaghetti squash instead of pasta, if you are trying to limit gluten. Lots of recipes on the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page.
Swiss Chard – Oh my, so gorgeous and tender! Chard is such a gift in the hot months because you can eat it when the lettuce gets bitter. This is our first picking and it is exceptionally butter and thus fragile. So eat it soon. Ribbon for salad, or chop and sauté in everything. We LOVE chard paired with garlic and eggs. But we consistently hear from members each year that they don’t quite know what to do with it. Just yesterday one of our crew, Mark, told me that he loves chard on toast with mustard and a little cheese. YES! A perfect, quick, healthy breakfast, lunch, or dinner. A fried egg would also work in there.
Summer Squash/Zucchini – First picking. Now you know it’s summer! When the squash are this young and tender we recommend eating them raw with a healthy dip or lightly sautéing in olive oil and garlic and serving with pasta or a grain. In the height of the squash season, I’ve been known to leave them in the fridge for quite sometime, but these skins on these are so young and tender they are not going to offer a lot of protection in storage. USE SOON! Saute and have with pestoJ
Sorrel - Still so bright and fresh, we are eating this as salad with roasted rhubarb and balsamic and adding by the handful to our pestos. Also great as a wilted salad with a light lemon and bacon dressing. A little parmesan shredded on top takes it to the next level.
Snow and Snap Peas – Alas, this is it for the spring pea season. We are planting more for the fall, but fall peas are always a gamble. They’ve had a good run this year, though, and you’ll have enough here to make one last Pea Curry from the recipe on our Box 3 Recipe Blog. Otherwise, make up the Thai Dipping Sauce that’s on there and eat raw with the summer squash.
Sage – Ooops! We thought we were digging potatoes for you this week, but they were still too small. And we love sage with potatoes, so we picked a ton! Oh, well. It will last in the fridge in the baggie for a long time. We will likely have your new red potatoes in the next box. In the meantime, enjoy with Yellow Squash or Zucchini! Fry up some sage leaves in butter until the butter turns slightly brown. Remove the leaves to drain on a paper towel and try not to eat them. They should be crispy and amazing. Lightly sauté the squash in the butter. Plate up and crumble some of the sage leaves on top. Salt and pepper to taste. Yum.
Kale – Kale chips? Have you tried them? Yummy! But we’ve been eating massaged kale for our summer salads here with the berries from the hedgerows and goat cheese.
Fresh Garlic – Our first picking of the garlic – just the biggest bulbs came out to make room for the rest to really beef up. This isn’t cured – the skin is still soft – so use quickly or store in the fridge, not the pantry. This will make your pesto ZING!
Oregano, Lovage – These bunches in your box have flowering oregano and several stalks of lovage. The lovage looks like a big parsley but it is in fact a perennial celery. Both leaves and stems are useable, but obviously the stems will have to cook for while. Alternatively, blitz in the food processor and add to salad dressing. It has an amazing celery/nutmeg taste. There’s a great recipe for salad dressing here from the wonderful Four Elements herbal farm:
http://ediblemadison.com/recipes/view/fresh-is-best-cole-slaw
The pretty purple oregano flowers are just as tasty as the leaves. The only thing you won’t use on this plant is the woody stem. Use your imagination with these flowers and garnish pizza, cheese dips, egg dishes and pasta plates.
Summer Onions – First pick of the onions and these, too, are not cured, so use soon and store in the fridge. More to come in a month!
Rhubarb – We rarely pack rhubarb 3 times in a season, but it’s still so gorgeous and fresh and we wanted you to be able to try my Prize-Winning Fruit of the Forest Cream Pie that’s on the Recipe Blog. It’s good! I just won first prize with it in the Hollandale Pie Baking Contest last weekend.
Did you know we also have a Farmhouse Bar page at the Farmer Kriss Pinterest site? Lots of ideas to use fresh herbs and fruit in cocktails! What better way to enjoy these gorgeous nights...
Squash Blossoms – Oh! What can we say but, “Oh!” These are such a delight and surprise on the plate. We hope you’ll be able to make use of them quickly and well. The crew cheered when they saw that picking squash blossoms was on the harvest list this morning, because that meant stuffed and sautéed squash for lunch! Delicious. If you can’t use these right away to stuff, they will still be terrific in their wilty state baked on top of a frittata or quiche. The flavor is like a light cucumber floral. We put a ton of ideas up on the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page, but our basic stuffed recipe is on the Recipe Blog for Box 3. Be sure to shake these out before you use them - we found a tree frog in one this morning! See above.
Pea Tendrils – Holy cow. Amazing. Our peas finished up this week, and we went through the trellises picking the last pods. But while we were out there, we picked the tender growing tips to munch on, and they were amazing! So we’ve brought you this last gift of the peas. This week they will be cut to make way for the cucumbers and little acorn squash that are growing up next to them. Garnish the top of a salad, or better yet, sauté very very lightly. You can use these in the Pea Curry Recipe we have on the Recipe Blog, but don’t mix them in when you cook up the curry. Instead, lightly sauté them at the end and serve the curry with the wilted tendrils and a few cashews on top. You’ll be a rock star chef!
Dill – These pretty flowers are tucked on top of your box so it they can be the first thing you smell when you open it. Yum! Dill flowers, stems and leaves all have the flavor, so you can use them just like the fresh leaves. Snip into eggs, garnish fish whole, or pop into something you are going to pickle. We snip the green leaves into goat cheese, and then decorate the plate with tiny yellow flowers picked from the umbels. Store in the fridge in a glass of water until you can use.
Basil – PESTO SEASON IS HERE! This should be enough for you to get a nice little stash of pesto in your fridge to use up in the next week or so. Covered with some olive oil, it will keep at least a week. If you want, freeze some. It freezes great. We are mixing ours with sorrel and oregano right now for a super-tart Italian style dip-starter we add to goat cheese and have on crostini. Also terrific over spaghetti squash instead of pasta, if you are trying to limit gluten. Lots of recipes on the Farmer Kriss Pinterest Page.
Swiss Chard – Oh my, so gorgeous and tender! Chard is such a gift in the hot months because you can eat it when the lettuce gets bitter. This is our first picking and it is exceptionally butter and thus fragile. So eat it soon. Ribbon for salad, or chop and sauté in everything. We LOVE chard paired with garlic and eggs. But we consistently hear from members each year that they don’t quite know what to do with it. Just yesterday one of our crew, Mark, told me that he loves chard on toast with mustard and a little cheese. YES! A perfect, quick, healthy breakfast, lunch, or dinner. A fried egg would also work in there.
Summer Squash/Zucchini – First picking. Now you know it’s summer! When the squash are this young and tender we recommend eating them raw with a healthy dip or lightly sautéing in olive oil and garlic and serving with pasta or a grain. In the height of the squash season, I’ve been known to leave them in the fridge for quite sometime, but these skins on these are so young and tender they are not going to offer a lot of protection in storage. USE SOON! Saute and have with pestoJ
Sorrel - Still so bright and fresh, we are eating this as salad with roasted rhubarb and balsamic and adding by the handful to our pestos. Also great as a wilted salad with a light lemon and bacon dressing. A little parmesan shredded on top takes it to the next level.
Snow and Snap Peas – Alas, this is it for the spring pea season. We are planting more for the fall, but fall peas are always a gamble. They’ve had a good run this year, though, and you’ll have enough here to make one last Pea Curry from the recipe on our Box 3 Recipe Blog. Otherwise, make up the Thai Dipping Sauce that’s on there and eat raw with the summer squash.
Sage – Ooops! We thought we were digging potatoes for you this week, but they were still too small. And we love sage with potatoes, so we picked a ton! Oh, well. It will last in the fridge in the baggie for a long time. We will likely have your new red potatoes in the next box. In the meantime, enjoy with Yellow Squash or Zucchini! Fry up some sage leaves in butter until the butter turns slightly brown. Remove the leaves to drain on a paper towel and try not to eat them. They should be crispy and amazing. Lightly sauté the squash in the butter. Plate up and crumble some of the sage leaves on top. Salt and pepper to taste. Yum.
Kale – Kale chips? Have you tried them? Yummy! But we’ve been eating massaged kale for our summer salads here with the berries from the hedgerows and goat cheese.
Fresh Garlic – Our first picking of the garlic – just the biggest bulbs came out to make room for the rest to really beef up. This isn’t cured – the skin is still soft – so use quickly or store in the fridge, not the pantry. This will make your pesto ZING!
Oregano, Lovage – These bunches in your box have flowering oregano and several stalks of lovage. The lovage looks like a big parsley but it is in fact a perennial celery. Both leaves and stems are useable, but obviously the stems will have to cook for while. Alternatively, blitz in the food processor and add to salad dressing. It has an amazing celery/nutmeg taste. There’s a great recipe for salad dressing here from the wonderful Four Elements herbal farm:
http://ediblemadison.com/recipes/view/fresh-is-best-cole-slaw
The pretty purple oregano flowers are just as tasty as the leaves. The only thing you won’t use on this plant is the woody stem. Use your imagination with these flowers and garnish pizza, cheese dips, egg dishes and pasta plates.
Summer Onions – First pick of the onions and these, too, are not cured, so use soon and store in the fridge. More to come in a month!
Rhubarb – We rarely pack rhubarb 3 times in a season, but it’s still so gorgeous and fresh and we wanted you to be able to try my Prize-Winning Fruit of the Forest Cream Pie that’s on the Recipe Blog. It’s good! I just won first prize with it in the Hollandale Pie Baking Contest last weekend.
Did you know we also have a Farmhouse Bar page at the Farmer Kriss Pinterest site? Lots of ideas to use fresh herbs and fruit in cocktails! What better way to enjoy these gorgeous nights...
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