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Email from earlier this week:
As it heats up and dries out, the farm begins its final transition from spring to summer. In the next ten days, we will stop harvesting all spring veggies and make the move to early summer veggies. Although we could continue to pick kale, we will mow it down and till it in (like other seasons) to break pest cycles and prevent pest infestations in the fall. We will begin seeding old spring fields into summer cover crops (buckwheat, chicory, and soybeans) this weekend ahead of the rain chance and continue through next week.
What else is going on on the farm? We started harvesting garlic on Monday, all three Asiatic varieties are now drying in our shaded greenhouse. “China Stripe” was a real standout, and we will begin handing it out this week as green garlic (uncured). Early potatoes are ready (although we won’t harvest until next week), and we are in full swing maintaining summer plantings: weeding, staking, and trellising. This is also when we begin to dedicate quite a bit of time to seed saving observations and field trial data collecting.
This week’s share will include: scallions, summer leeks (the skinny ones), green garlic (treat like regular garlic except store in the fridge), carrots, beets, fennel (may have something to swap for it for those of you who really can’t stand it…last week), sugar snap peas (these may become green beans by Friday), green cabbage, cauliflower for T/W Sustaining Members, summer crisp lettuce, and a choice of herb. We also started picking summer squash and cucumbers yesterday. They are just starting to come in (they went in a week late because of cold in April). We may have by F/S pickups.
Storage notes: again loose bag everything (or ziplock with cut corners), removing leaves from beets and fennel and storing separately. Fennel fronds can be dried and used like you would dill weed. These carrots are fresh carrots (not storage type that come in plastic bags in store). They will not store more than a couple weeks.
Recipe ideas: the leeks and green garlic have such a good flavor when picked so fresh that I wouldn’t just fold those into any old recipe. Consider making some green garlic butter (http://www.inerikaskitchen.
I hope everyone has a good week.