This Week’s Share
- Arugula
- Bok Choi
- Broccoli
- Green Garlic
- Lettuce
- Spinach
Arugula – This spicy green is one of my favorites. I enjoy it fresh sprinkled with olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper. Or mix it with some of your spinach for a tasty salad.
Bok Choi – This new variety of Choi is called Fuyo Shomi. The Johnny’s seed catalog describes it as, “New last year! Medium-green, spoon-shaped leaves. Very uniform, dense plants. Wide, light green petioles. 10-12″ tall.” Try a quick stir fry by heating oil in a wok or pan, quick cooking some green garlic and sesame seeds until tender, and then add the chopped Fuyo Shomi (put the stalks in first because they take longer, then add the leaves). This quick stir fry is sure to delight.
Broccoli– Hearty and healthy, broccoli is a wonderful vegetable. Broccoli is the flowering head of this leafy plant. When we harvest your broccoli it’s a few days away from flowering. You can enjoy this veggie in a variety of ways, but there is a recipe for you below in case you need some inspiration.
Green Garlic – This immature garlic can be used in so many ways and is a good companion to many of the other produce in your share this week. Sauté with broccoli or Fuyo Shomi. It also makes a spicy and delicious salad dressing when blended with olive oil, sesame oil, salt and a smidgen of rice vinegar.
Lettuce – This week you will get two heads of Romaine in your share, and that means this is a good week for a Caesar Salad. See below for a simple Caesar dressing recipe. The large, long, ribbed leaves of Romaine are also great for making lettuce wraps. Tabbouleh, rice salad and pesto make a great stuffing for those big Romaine leaves.
Spinach – A cool welcome to spinach! This satisfying cool weather crop is packed with nutrients and can be eaten fresh or cooked (or steamed, sautéed, braised…you get the point). You can make spinach the center of a hearty salad, or steam it as the bed for a delicious garnish. This leaf is where it’s at. Spinach only comes around twice a year, spring and fall, when it is not too hot for it to flourish. Enjoy it while it’s here!
Recipes
Caesar Salad Dressing
adapted from cooks. com
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp Worcestershire
- green garlic to taste
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp pepper
- 1/2 c Parmesean cheese
- 1 tbsp of milk or half and half
Add hard boiled egg, bacon pieces, croutons and other goodies. Try including some chopped spinach from your share with this salad too.
Farmgirl Susan’s Super Spinach Soup
adapted from the Farmgirl Fare Blog
Makes 4 cups
- 1/8 cup nice olive oil
- 1/2 pound yellow or white onions, chopped
- 3 cups (48 ounces) chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 1/8 cup uncooked white rice
- 4-8 ounces fresh spinach
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon good pepper
Heat olive oil in a large pot and cook onions, stirring frequently, over medium heat until translucent and just starting to turn golden at the edges, about 7 to 10 minutes. Add stock, bring to a boil, add rice, turn down heat, and simmer, with the lid cracked, stirring every so often, for 20 minutes. Stir in spinach, salt, and pepper and simmer another 5 to 7 minutes. Carefully puree the soup using a blender or immersion hand blender. Serve hot, garnish if desired (but it really doesn’t need it) with dollops of sour cream or crème fraiche and a few chive blossoms if you happen to have any laying around.
Garlic & Lemon Broccoli
adapted from Southern Cooking
- 3 tablespoon butter
- ¼ c green garlic, chopped
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste, optional
Steam broccoli until tender but firm, about 5 to 7 minutes. Heat the butter in a heavy nonstick skillet over medium heat; add the garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add the cooked broccoli, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste, cooking briefly to combine.
Introductions
Hi! My name is Vanessa and I am a second year apprentice at the farm. I became interested in sustainable farming a few years ago and have been passionate about the topic ever since. My long term interests include teaching youth the importance of healthy food and how to grow it, bringing local food to schools, raising poultry or working on food policy issues. I also have the fantasy of growing acres of nothing but heirloom melons or opening up a rural breakfast spot where diners can watch the chickens pasture while eating delicious eggs! We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next. In the mean time I am learning valuable knowledge about every aspect of farming and I am enjoying growing and caring for your food on a daily basis.
The Apprenticeship
Sauvie Island Organics offers a unique opportunity for people who are interested in gaining a complete and long term farming experience. The apprenticeship program is 17 months long and three new apprentices are brought on to the farm every May. The apprentices overlap for the summer season (when the most labor is needed) and work together under the crew leader to do almost all the labor on the farm. Whether seeding, transplanting, irrigating, weeding, harvesting or washing and packing out, us apprentices are in on most of the action. It’s a great way to work and learn at the same time! In September the second year apprentices graduate from the farm and the first years hold down the fort until the new apprentices come in May.
In the Fields
June is a huge month for transplanting at the farm. This month almost all of the summer transplants leave the warm protection of the greenhouse for planting in the open fields. This includes corn, peppers, eggplants, melons, basil, winter squash, and the weekly lettuce plantings. Field preparation and irrigation must be carefully coordinated with each planting, making for a well choreographed schedule of plantings throughout the week. It will be so hard to wait for all these juicy, colorful vegetables to grow and ripen in the fields…I can just taste the melons now!
Grass Roots
I filled out much of last year’s newsletters talking about sayings that originated in agriculture but have become common place in our lexicon. Phrases like nip it in the bud (which originated in the late 1500’s as nip it in the bloom and referred to the de-budding of plants), redneck and even the idea of a brand name. Grassroots was on the list last year, but it wasn’t until weeding the perennial herb bed early this spring that I really came to have a thorough understanding of those real grass roots. Those tangled, deep-diving runners just kept going endlessly. No matter how many clods of grass I dug up and threw into the road or how many roots I chased down, unburied from the earth and tried to destroy…the grass sprung up almost immediately and after a few weeks was back in full force, blanketing the herb bed with its bright green blades. As members of this CSA, you are all part of a very Grassroots movement to support local food and bring it to the forefront. I hope that together we can all spread our grass roots and continue to help the local food movement thrive and multiply.
Good Reads- Edible Portland
If you are not yet familiar with Edible Portland, now is the time! The summer issue of this wonderful publication, with a focus on “Celebrating the abundance of local foods, season by season”, just came out and is full of juicy recipes, exciting events and food related issues relevant to us North westerners. Read more at www.edibleportland.com or pick up a copy at New Seasons or the Ecotrust building.
Good Entertainment- The Endless Feast
The Endless Feast is a 13-part PBS series that brings together local farmers and food artisans, food lovers and star chefs to explore the connection between the land and the food on our tables. In each episode, a rotating group of chefs celebrate the bounty of a particular region by creating tantalizing menus with local specialties. The dinners are staged in beautiful outdoor locations, from farm fields to vineyards to urban community gardens, celebrating food at its source. Our farm will be featured Sunday June 17 at 2:30 pm and again at 11:30 pm on OPB channel 10.
Community Corner
CSA member Amy Aycrigg runs City Dog, Inc. She welcomes dogs into her home for kennel-free boarding where they become part of the family. Your dog will enjoy walking in the neighborhood on leash or going to Forest Park for a romp. Four-legged guests are given plenty of TLC. Amy’s family includes Kathy Saunders, who works for the City of Portland, China their 12 year old Australian Shepard, and 2 cats-Tinto and Patches. Email Amy at adaycrigg@hotmail.com if you are interested in finding out more about City Dog, Inc.