Summer Squash

Summer squash can be chopped and sautéed.  It can be grilled whole or halved when small and sliced in thick slices when bigger.  Brush with some oil and salt and grill.  Chop up any fresh herb, dill, parsley, basil or even cilantro and combine.  I like to add red pepper and some lime when adding cilantro and sometimes a can of white beans for a quick meal.
Sauteed Summer Squash with Garlic and Lemon from Deborah Madison
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 ½ lb summer squash, diced
salt and pepper
lemon zest
2 tablespoons herbs

Heat oil in skillet, add garlic and cook over medium heat until it begins to color.  Raise the heat, add summer squash and saute until heated through.  Lower the heat and continue to cook, turning occasionally, until tender and golden around the edges 8 to 10 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper, toss with the lemon and herbs and serve.

Fennel

Fennel is a anise flavored vegetable.  The leaves are chopped off and the white stem and bulb are used slivered fresh in salads or cooked,  The fennel greens can be chopped very fine and used as a garnish for any fennel dish.  Fennel is often paired with oranges, red onions and parmesan cheese in recipes. fennel is one of the crops we grow a batch of in the early summer and a batch of in the fall.

Fennel Salad
* 2 fennel bulbs
* 5 oranges, peeled & sliced into rounds
* Parmigiano Reggiano curls, for garnish
* fennel tops, chopped for garnish

Dressing:

* 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus more if needed
* grated zest of 1 lemon
* 1 teaspoon Golden Balsamic Vinegar
* 2 tablespoon Olives chopped
* 2 tablespoon parsley, chopped
* salt and pepper to taste
* 3 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Trim the fennel and cut  into thin slices.

In a  bowl, whisk the lemon juice, zest, vinegar, olives, parsley and salt and peppers. Whisk in the olive oil. Taste and adjust with salt and lemon juice as needed.

Add the fennel and oranges and toss to coat and garnish with fresh curls of parmigiano reggiano

a good day, June 29th

Polished Stone Adze

A good day on the farm.
We picked in the morning while it was cloudy and misty hoping the skies would dry up.   Then the sun came out and everyone got on a tractor – except for Matt who was sent to the far  field to hand weed by himself.  Lars was tractor cultivating corn, celery, celeriac, basil, onions, carrots, beets, chard, peppers, and leeks with the basket weeders and tine weeders.  Emma, Otis and Suzy transplanted with the new tractor -a whole field of corn, summer squash, a whole field of winter squash and melons.  At first we had a lot of problems with the transplanters hitch but we were able to fix it.  Willy direct seeded carrots, beets, chard, beans, salad, brocoli raab, radish and turnips and spinach.  He tilled beds for the transplant crew and also managed to answer 25 phone calls on his cell phone in the field.  Claudia direct seeded flowers (latest ever due to wet conditions).

While Willy was busy yelling at Emma over the growl of the tractor he looked down and saw the adze covered in dirt.  The dirt obscured it,  but he knew it was an adze.  This is most likely a woodland period adze.  It is a polished stone adze.  The people who made and used the adze left it behind and Willy finally found it.  Someone may have used the adze to hollow out a canoe, or maybe a bowl.

Summer Solstice

Rainbow gets a little help/pictures by Emma Podolin

Rainbow and her mama Flora

Rainbow getting a little more help

Rainbow's first milk!

A shower this evening formed a double rainbow as we discovered our newest calf being cleaned up by her mom, Flora.  Flora is a very small cow and young and this being her first calf, the baby is tiny.  But Rainbow, as Mae immediately named her, was up and trying to nurse by the time we found her.  We penned the two of them to keep an eye on their progress for a couple of days and the little thing demonstrated her vigor with some accomplished nursing.  She would suck until she just got too relaxed and fell over and then would jump up to start again.  Emma got some good pictures for the blog…

The rain persists, making me reflect on the oddity of this year’s weather.  Hot march, cool and dry all spring, powerful hailstorm almost to the day of last year’s intense hail.  Last year’s storm was followed by twelve inches of rain in three weeks and we seem to be on track for a repeat.  Nice to see the grass grow and though lots of the produce was beat up last week, the survivors are definitely growing fast now.  The longest day of the year makes us hustle to keep up with the surging changes in the fields. -Willy

Radish Leaf Pesto

Deirdre told me she made some really good radish leaf pesto but I lost the recipe she gave me so I went searching and found lots of varied and interesting ones.  I am definitely going to try a bunch out.  Here is one that caught my fancy.
Ingredients:
2 large handfuls of vibrant radish leaves, stems removed
½ cup hard cheese, such as pecorino or parmesan, grated or shaved
1 bunch basil
½ cup nuts, such as pistachios, almonds, or pine nuts
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp. lemon zest and splash of lemon juice
½ tsp. sriracha or ground chili paste
¼ tsp. cumin
1 tsp. honey
3 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more to get the consistency you like
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender, process in short pulses until smooth. You will likely have to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. This recipe produces a thick pesto; stream in more oil and continue to pulse to get the consistency you prefer.  Serve over pasta, on crostini, crackers or crusty bread.
Pesto can be stored in the fridge for up to a week or frozen for up to one month.

Beets

Beets!
It may take a bit of work to learn to love beets. The thing about beets is that they are really sweet and also can take flavorings very well.    They can be eaten hot or cold and can be steamed, boiled or roasted.  I like to steam the beets this way.  Heat up an inch or two of water in a pan.  Wash beets and cut from leaves leaving about 1 inch of stem.  Do not peel.  Place in steamer and cook until fork tender.  Run under cold water and slip the skins from the beets by gently handing in the running cold water.  Slice or serve whole with any kind of dressing you like.   If you want to serve this dish cold. marinate/dress the beets while still warm and wait until cool then refrigerate.  Try beets with this orange vinaigrette!

Orange Vinaigrette
from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison\

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
¼ cu orange juice
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons light olive oil or sunflower seed oil
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 drops orange oil or orange flower water, optional

Combine the orange zest and juice. vinegar, and ¼ teaspoon salt in a small bowl and let stand for 15 minutes.  Whisk in the oils and season with pepper.  Add the orange oil then taste for salt and adjust vinegar and oil if needed.

Quick Beet Greens
from Vegetarian Gourmet, Spring 1993

1 lb. beet greens
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds, toasted

Toss beet greens, garlic, and oil in large sauce pan or skillet.  Cover and saute until greens are just wilted.  Add a splash of water if necessary to prevent greens from sticking to pan.  Toast sunflower seeds in dry skillet or hot oven for several minutes, tossing often and stir into green.  ( this is delicious with goat cheese!)

Escarole

Escarole is in the chicory family and is slightly bitter when raw but turns sweeter when cooked.  Escarole pairs well with olive oil, butter, red pepper flakes, vinegar, parmesan and asiago.  If you like bitters escarole can be added to salad.  Escarole can be enhanced with a little citrus dressing when raw.  A classic italian way to prepare escarole is to wash chop and saute in olive oil with lots of garlic.

arugula, pear and pancetta salad

Gourmet | September 2006
For vinaigrette
1 tablespoon Champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon mild honey
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
For salad
2 oz thinly sliced pancetta (4 to 5 slices)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 firm-ripe pears
4 cups baby arugula or torn larger arugula (1 1/4 lb)
3 oz ricotta salata, thinly shaved with a vegetable peeler
Make vinaigrette:
Whisk together vinegar, honey, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a salad bowl. Add oil in a slow stream, whisking until combined well.
Make salad:
Cook pancetta in oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, turning frequently, until just crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain (pancetta will crisp as it cools). Tear into bite-size pieces.
Halve pears lengthwise, core, and cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices.
Add pears to dressing along with arugula, cheese, and pancetta, tossing to coat

garlic scapes

This week we are picking garlic scapes.  They are the would soon to be flowering tips of the hardneck garlic plant.  Garlic scapes are firmer and a little tougher than scallions and have a mild green garlic flavor.  Chop and saute until olive green.  (Or check out the recipe from last year for garlic scape pesto by going to recipes on the blog and then searching for garlic scapes)

Oh hail. June 16th, 2009

We had a hail storm last night.  Not as bad as last year -ten minutes at about nickel sized hail (better than last years 40 minutes on June 16th), but the devastation of crop is about the same.  Many heads of shredded lettuce and many partially shredded greens, and long season crops are affected.  Onions look worse than last year but I think it is because the plants were looking so good.  Last year’s onions recuperated even though I didn’t think they would and we ended up having a fine harvest of onions.  Melon plants are shredded.  Luckily, the winter squash are not out yet and eggplants still in green house so that’s all good.  Peppers shredded but they recuperated last year too.  Tomatoes all protected in green houses.  Fennel, broccoli, parsley, cabbage and some of the greens from the upper garden seem fine. So how will this effect csa shares?  Not sure what will happen with the next few weeks of plantings of salad greens etc, but we’ll try to save the best of the head lettuce.  You will start to see some damage on the leafy greens and head lettuces in your shares.  We hope we’ll get some nice dry weather and will be able to grow through this big messy hail battering and the long season crops will heal.

Hey, is this getting to be a weather pattern?  We did purchase 7000 pounds of pipe to bend and create three season shelters for the spring and fall season extension and to protect our heat loving summer crops from too much rain or hail, like we do with the tomatoes in the greenhouses.  They should amount to about nine more greenhouses worth of protection.  This idea was our response to last years hail.  We will not have a lot of project time to work on these until the fall, but I sure am looking forward to setting these up for the following season!

So, expect quality of produce to be a little less for a few weeks and maybe selection too.  Its hard to tell exactly how things will go after hail.  Claudia