A smaller share this week with: radicchio, carrots, salsify and scorzonera, beets and collard greens. This may have been the final radicchio share, we’ll have to see if the heads that were still frozen today recover at all, but it’s unlikely. Carrots will continue, but expect some freeze damage in those, too. The freeze damage can be hard for us to see at harvest and sometimes only shows up in storage a day or two later. The same goes for the beets, and really all of the roots. The beet variety we have is actually a mix of varieties called a grex so you’ll see yellows, oranges and reds of various shades. The freeze really sweetened up the collard greens and although for now they’re still small.
Salsify and Scorzonera are crops I haven’t grown for a while, and I’m not sure they’ve ever been grown at this farm. They’re a bit of an oddball root that handles cold weather really well. Salsify is the white one and scorzonera the black. Both can be peeled and boiled, roasted or fried. When boiled they taste slightly like oyster and are sometimes called oyster root. When roasted or fried the starches turn to sugar and they become sweet – and also have a tendency to burn if you’re not careful. The greens are edible as well and if any are let go to flower in the summer the blooms are really beautiful.
Today’s share was smaller partly because of the freeze and partly because Tiiu was out sick. Sounds like she’s making a recovery though so we’ll hope she’s back strong for the next harvest. While it’s also forecasted to warm up, much of the damage is done from the frosts now so we probably won’t recover from those, but it’s also the time of year when days are getting longer which means the plants will start growing again. We still have a lot of food in the field so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it continues to store will in the field for the next month, and even grow a bit!
Cully Neighborhood Farm 