Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm! Welcome to Week 2. This is NOT an egg week. Ordering opened at 6 pm Thursday and closes
at 6 pm Sunday. Deliveries are on Tuesday.
I have to admit the weather has been fairly uneventful
recently. Or maybe I am just not
remembering? Today's rain was nice and needed.
Although we have irrigation here on
farm, there is nothing like a nice soaking rain. This week, on Monday, we celebrate the Summer
Solstice. The summer solstice brings the
longest day length of the season. Monday
night is also a full moon, so even the night will seem light! Time to get out and enjoy summer!
New to your CSA choice this week are peas, tomatoes and
scallions. Yes, tomatoes! Our Amish neighbor is already starting to
harvest some early tomatoes out of his greenhouse and we were able to purchase
some from him for our members to enjoy.
These are certified organic tomatoes.
Being the first of the harvest, they may still be small and a bit
green. Allow them to ripen a bit on your
counter before you use them. Dancing Hen
Farm tomatoes are quite a few weeks from harvest. The peas are ours and are starting to come on
strong. Currently we are harvesting snow
and snap peas, with shelling peas a bit later in June. These first harvest of peas, so sweet and
tender are one of my favorite seasonal veggies!
Both snow and snap peas are, as my Mother would say, "pea
pods". Meaning, no need to shell
them, eat the pods! We also have a spicy
salad mix on the choice this week. Spicy
salad mix, is a mix of lettuces and mustard greens. Of everything we grow, spicy salad mix is one
of Farmer Don's favorites. The mustard
greens adds an almost horse radish flavor to the mix.
One of my favorite ways to prepare peas uses several items
we are harvesting. I like to saute the
peas with garlic scapes and a bit of thyme.
Simply mince the scapes, saute them briefly in some oil, add the peas
with some fresh thyme and continue to cook until the peas become tender, but
still maintain their bright green color.
Peas can also be added raw to salads.
Or eaten right out of the pint box on the way home from your CSA pick up
site!
In the coming weeks, you should see cucumbers fairly soon
and our first harvest of new red potatoes.
Both of these crops are flowering nicely and it won't be long before we
begin to harvest. Greens, cooking and
salad, will continue to be available.
Our first planting of green beans are looking good, but have not
flowered yet, so it will be a few weeks before they are making beans and ready
for harvest. The first planting of
summer squash is continuing to produce and our second planting is in the ground
and should be producing soon. We will
continue to have a variety of herbs available throughout the season.
People often ask Farmer Don and I how to prepare different
veggies which we grow. We both love to
cook (and eat!) and have our own favorite vegetables and favorite ways to
prepare them. We also have a nice
library of cookbooks. Although we are
not vegetarians, we are big fans of Deborah Madison. Our library contains many of her books with Vegetable
Literacy being a farm favorite. Alice Waters also has also authored some
great cookbooks, including The Art of Simple Food II. In this cookbook, Waters focuses on
vegetables, fruits and herbs. We find
both of these cookbooks filled with fairly simple recipes which really
highlight the vegetables.
For CSA buying club members, you will see chicken and quite
a bit of pork on the list. Both of these
meats are raised here, on farm, on our pastures. The bacon and ham are cured with a nitrate
free cure. We are also offering Alaskan
salmon from our friends at Wild for Salmon.
In addition you will see mixed dried herbs available. These herb mixes are from a neighboring farm
and are a staple in our kitchen. With
the addition of some coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, these herb mixes
make wonderful rubs for your favorite meats.
We will be adding additional items to the buying club as the season
continues.
A quick note, concerning reduce and reuse. We try hard to reduce our contribution to
landfills and reduce our carbon footprint.
One way we do this is by, whenever possible, reusing packaging from your
weekly shares. As you all know, we reuse
the wax produce boxes your shares are packed in. We also reuse the green berry boxes items are
portioned into and clean dozen sized egg cartons. Any of these items can be returned to your
pick up site for us to pick up.
In closing I want to wish all the Dads out there a Happy
Father's Day!
And as Farmer Don would say:
"be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies".
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