In the Bag
~Cherry Belle Radishes (the red ones—you can eat radishes raw, but also cooked in stir-fry)
~Hakurei Turnips (the white ones—good for raw eating, on salads, or in stir-fry)
~Spinach
~Buttercrunch Lettuce
~Rhubarb
~Horseradish (the skinny root thing—a little goes a long way...hot, hot, hot! Good for meat sauces or an addition to mashed potatoes)
~Herbs (Tarragon, Cilantro, Chives)
~Kale
~Swiss Chard (multi-colored stems...not to be confused with rhubarb... you can eat the stems and leaves in stir-fry...)
Farm members planting squash...
The Farmer’s Muse from Erin
I am a Virgo. I like things organized, tidy, and maintained. I want to feel in control. I am a perfectionist.
I am finding these personality traits to be at odds with farming. Vegetable farming is chaotic. At this scale, I have no control. Just when everything seems to be going well, I notice the turnips have become infested with flea beetles, or the cabbages are losing their tops to an unknown herbivore, or the peppers are one-by-one being eaten down to the root. “Stop eating my plants!” I yell to no one in particular. There is no one to blame after all.
This year the farm is supplying 65 full shares of produce to members in Wisconsin and the Twin Cities. We are also feeding two gophers, one delinquent chicken, a large snake, and an undetermined amount of small mammals with mysterious identities and eating habits.
This year farming has been more in control than last year. We were able to re-cover our hoophouse with new plastic that is not supposed to rip (last year our plastic tore off in a wind storm). We are cover cropping fields in preparation for next year. We cleaned our maple syrup equipment within weeks after the syrup season ended (last year we didn’t clean the equipment until the following spring!).
Members turned out in large numbers for the planting day. Many thanks to all who turned out. We planted squash, melons, and sweet corn galore. At ten pm, long after everyone had left, we realized it was going to frost on everything that had just been planted… Five of us went down to the field with headlamps and covered every squash and pepper.
We did this two more nights after that… the first week of June! We lost some things to the frost…some of which has been replaced or will be…
As a writer, I revise. I can go back and re-arrange my words, perfect them, mold them into a beautiful thing that on a really good day becomes poetry. I often try and do this with vegetables. I tend to them in the greenhouse, plant them tenderly in the garden, mulch, hoe, water and prune. I watch them grow. I try to create poetry. But where I can control words, vegetables sometimes fail. There is no undo button or delete or copy and paste or thesaurus or poetics in the garden. On a good day, maybe. On a bad day, the cabbage is eaten and the turnip leaves have holes.
The perfectionist in me would like to give you only the most perfect of produce. The realist in me must give you whatever we have. We wash everything here…but we recommend you do the same. Organic gardens are full of life…sometimes this life will make its way into your produce and home. Worms and slugs like organic veggies too.
Despite the frost, drought, extreme heat and now cool temperatures, we are off to a good start. I hope you enjoy the weeks ahead.
Creamy Spinach and Tarragon Soup with Apple and Toasted Almonds
From Farmer John’s Cookbook
Serves 2
2 tablespoons chopped or slivered almonds
1 apple, peeled, cored, cut into chunks
1 cup water
2 cups coarsely chopped spinach
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
1 ripe avocado, peel and pit removed, quartered
freshly squeezed juice of ½ lemon
1 tablespoon almond oil or olive oil
½ tsp. salt
1. Toast the nuts in a heavy dry skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until they are lightly browned and begin to smell toasty (not burnt).
2. Put the apple chunks and water in a blender and puree. Add the spinach and tarragon; pulse the blender a few times to partially blend in the leaves. Add the avocado pieces, lemon juice, oil, and ½ teaspoon salt. Blend the ingredients until smooth, thinning with more water if necessary. Add more salt if desired.
3. Pour the soup into two bowls, top with the toasted almonds, and garnish each with a fresh tarragon sprig.
For those who bought syrup shares, this is excellent!
Sweet Maple and Balsamic Vinegar Dressing
From Farmer John’s Cookbook
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons finely sliced fresh basil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp dry mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper
Combine and shake in a jar until blended. Toss into salad.
Opal’s Rhubarb Custard Pie
From the Gunflint Lodge Cookbook by Chef Ron Berg and Sue Kerfoot
Crust (pat-in-the-pan)
2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp. sugar
1 ¼ tsp salt
2/3 c. vegetable oil
3 T. milk
Preheat oven to 450°F. In a sifter, combine flour, sugar, and salt and sift into an 8-inch pie tin. In small bowl, beat together oil and milk with a fork. Pour over flour mixture. Combine with the fork until all flour mixture is moistened. Remove about one-third for the top of the pie.
With your fingers, press remaining crust mixture as evenly as you can over the bottom and sides of the pie tin. Flute the edges with your fingers if desired. Set aside.
Rhubarb Custard
1 ½ c. sugar
3 T. flour
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 T. butter, cut into bits
2 eggs
3 c. chopped rhubarb
In medium bowl, mix together sugar, flour, nutmeg, and butter. Add eggs; beat until smooth. Stir in rhubarb. Scrape into prepared pie crust. Crumble reserved crust mixture over top of the filling.
Bake pie on middle shelf of 450°F oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F; bake until filling thickens and bubbles around the edges, about 30 more minutes.
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