how’s this for some bad lighting?
in the shares today:
– lettuce – 1 head of “Black-seeded Simpson,” that’s the really big bright green loose leaf lettuce, and 1 of “pirat” the red/green butterhead that you’ve had before.
– carrots! – always get me excited. The variety is Nelson.
– fennel – with the tops included. The bulbs are good raw shaved thin with a citrus-y dressing, or with pieces of citrus (something like this perhaps: http://garlicgirl.com/2011/01/16/garlic-girls-fennel-citrus-salad-with-shaved-pecorino-cheese/) If you want to use the tops, the comments on this website give you a lot of ideas: http://www.thekitchn.com/what-can-i-do-with-fennel-tops-106001. Here’s an easy sounding fennel salad recipe that would use the green onions as well:
“I make a fennel salad almost every week. It’s one of our faves. Very simple:
1. fennel cut thinly, w/a sharp knife, i don’t have a mandoline, but it works just fine
2. sprinkle rice wine vinegar a some salt and let it sit for bit. the fennel absorbs the vinegar
3. then sprinkle very thinly chopped scallions
4. sprinkle the fine leafy ends of the fennel
5. pepper
6. great finishing salt
it’s very refreshing in the summer. P.S. Forgot to mention to add olive oil.”
by the way, that’s from this website which seems to have some great resources for cooking with fresh vegetables: http://www.thekitchn.com/virtual-csa-box-17-25422
– red russian kale – this is a more tender-leafed kale than the lacinato you had before. If you want to make the ever-increasingly popular kale chips, here’s one recipe: http://www.katheats.com/favorite-foods/kale-chips
– hakurei salad turnips –
– snow peas-
– green onions –
The recent rain has allowed me to not have to water the farm (except for the hoophouse) for about a week. If we could just continue to get 1/2 inch of rain twice a week like this week, with sun and warmth in between, I wouldn’t have to water all summer! I don’t mind irrigating, but it does take up a bit of my time (not to mention expensive city water!). One of the pleasures of farming is being amazed at just how fast things can grow once the temperatures rise. The fava bean plants are so large now that they were falling over on the young pole bean plants until I tied them up. Some tomato plants are already almost up to the top of their trellis in the hoophouse. The first cucumbers came out of the hoophouse this weekend, which means there will probably be enough for the CSA come next week. The summer squash are putting on a lot of bright orange flowers now, so those won’t be long for the first fruits either. Well, that’s the quick version of the field update. Hope all is well in your kitchens and bellies. cheers, Matt.
Cully Neighborhood Farm 