This Week’s Share
Summer Savory is in!
…..A new crop for the farm this year, we are still discovering ways to utilize this delicious herb. Savory leaves can be used fresh or dried in soups, eggs, vegetables, beans and lentils, poultry, pork, sausage, veal, turkey, tomato and cheese dishes. For tips on storage and other information on summer savory, click on this link.
Recipes
Very Simple Summer Savory Vinaigrette
Adapted from Simple Measures
1 part balsamic vinegar combined with 3 parts extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. Fresh Summer savory, minced
Whisk ingredients together and serve over salad.
Crepes with Savory
Adapted from Gardenweb.com
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 teaspoon ground savory
2 eggs
2 tablespoons oil
buttermilk, milk or water
Combine all ingredients, using enough liquid to make a thin creamy batter. Heat a frypan pan and grease lightly. Pour in enough batter to lightly coat the base of the pan. Cook until bubbles break on surface, turn over and cook for a few seconds on reverse side. Stack and keep warm. Serve with your choice of crepe fillings. A sauté of spinach and onions with a little cheese maybe?
Summer Savory and Mustard Marinade
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine
2 Tbl Dijon mustard
1 Tbl red wine vinegar
¼ cup olive oil
3 Tbl finely chopped summer savory
1 Tbl water
Salt and pepper to taste
Whisk together ingredients. Use as a marinade for your choice of grilled meat or vegetables. Marinade for 15 minutes.
Carrot Cumin Salad
adapted from Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka
1 clove garlic, smashed and peeled
1 pound carrots trimmed and cut on the diagonal into 1/8-inch slices (about 1 and 1/2 cups)
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1/8 teaspoon sugar
Kosher salt to taste
Olive oil to taste.
Fill a medium saucepan with water, add the garlic and bring to a boil. Add the carrots and cook until just barely tender. Drain, discard the garlic. Transfer the carrots to a bowl.
Mix together the spices, lemon juice and sugar. Salt to taste. Pour over the carrots. Chill.
Sprinkle with olive oil before serving. Makes 1 and 1/2 cups.
Braised Fennel
adapted from Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka
1 and 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 fennel bulbs trimmed and cut through into 3 to 6 wedges. (Wedges should be about two inches wide at most)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup Basic chicken stock/Roasted Chicken Stock/Commercial chicken broth
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
In a medium pan, heat the olive oil over low heat. Add the fennel pieces and salt. Cook gently for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally, until the fennel is softened.
Add the lemon juice. Cook for 10 minutes. Pour in enough chicken stock to cover the fennel. Simmer gently, partially covered about 1 hour, until the fennel is very tender. The liquid should be reduced to a glaze. Taste; add pepper and more salt if desired. To serve, toss the fennel with the glaze to coat
Spinach Salad with Sesame Peanut Dressing
adapted from The Best of Bloodroot Volume One cookbook, by Selma Miriam and Noel Furie
In a food processor combine:
1/2 cup peanut butter (without added fats or sweeteners)
2 teaspoons agave nectar or honey
1 tablespoon white miso
1 tablespoon dark toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons tamari
1 tablespoon mirin (if not available use rice vinegar)
Turn processor on, gradually adding 1 cup of water. Process until mixed well. Correct seasoning. Refrigerate. In a 300 degree oven brown 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds lightly. Set aside. Prepare a bed of well-washed spinach leaves. Ladle Dressing over spinach. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Hardboiled egg slices are an optional garnish.
Lentils with Spinach (quick tasty dinner solution)
adapted from Kanzeon in the Kitchen by The Dharma Rain Zen Center Sangha
Your share of Spinach chopped
1 large onion
2 Tablespoon olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic peeled and minced
2 cups dried lentils picked over, washed and drained (small Spanish lentils are nice as they cook quickly)
2 teaspoons of salt
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
Chop Onion. Heat oil in a pot (cast iron is best) over a medium flame. When hot, put in onion and garlic. Sauté for a few minutes. Now put in lentils along with two cups of water. Bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat and simmer about 25 minutes or until lentils are just tender. Add Spinach, salt, cumin. Stir gently to mix and bring to a simmer until heated through.
Makes 7 or 8 Servings
Field Notes by Tanya (SIO Farm Manager)
It’s been a while since I’ve stopped to reflect on where we are in season. The last couple of months have been full and busy with the arrival of this year’s apprentice crew in early May, the beginning of CSA harvests, and a full slate of plantings to get in the ground. Last Friday on field walk I could feel a clear shift in the season, right on schedule it seems with the official start of summer and the longest days of the year.
For one thing, the share is starting to gain a little weight and a few crops are making their debut this week. The return of carrots is always exciting. This year we have put much energy into our carrot crop in hope that we can out smart the carrot rust fly that caused damage to much of our 2007 crop. We have begun covering all our carrot beds with floating row cover before the carrot seeds germinate. This barrier keeps adult flies from laying eggs at the base of the carrot plants. The larvae that hatch from these eggs feed on the carrot root and caused the damage we experienced last year. Today’s harvest of Napoli carrots was free of any evidence of rust fly damage and tastes great. Also new this week is fennel, one of my favorite vegetables. I like to parboil it and then sauté in lots of butter until it’s really tender. We’ve included a lighter recipe in the blog for you to try too. Really, if you are only familiar with fennel seeds you must give the bulbs a try. And if you love them, know that there’s more coming in a couple weeks.
There are other crops just around the corner. Pods are developing on the fava plants with little beans tucked inside the fuzzy white pod. The flowers on the potato plants indicate that tuber formation has begun. Last week marked the beginning of garlic harvest, dictated by the number of wrappers on the garlic bulbs. The wrappers preserve the garlic bulb in storage, so having enough wrappers is important. Though much of our garlic is distributed to you within a relatively short time, we do save some for seed each year to replant in the fall. We look for 5-7 wrappers on a given variety to initiate harvest. We’ll be harvesting garlic over the next few weeks. You can expect to see it in your share soon.
By now we have most of our major plantings in the ground. The night time lows are hovering safely enough around 50° that we will plant our peppers and eggplant this week. Some of the crops that you won’t see in the share until October and November – Brussels sprouts and parsnips – to name a few – are already in the ground. Fall kale and collards are being seeded in the greenhouse now. The sweet corn field is planted – one full acre – decked out with mylar tape, an inflatable snake, and a scarecrow standing guard.
Fifteen hours of daylight means plants grow faster. Last week the crew commented on seeing the potato plants grow from one day to the next. Along with the vegetables, the weeds are taking full advantage of these hours of light. Now that the fields are mostly planted out, we’ll be transitioning our focus to keeping the weeds down, both with steel and hand.
The crew has started to get into a good rhythm and it is hard to imagine that we have only been working together for a couple of months. As satisfying as seeing the fruits on the tomatoes start to grow, swell, and sweeten is being witness to the camaraderie that grows in the fields over the work of planting, weeding, and harvesting. I hope its spirit infuses the harvest you share in.