May is a gorgeous and delicious time here.
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Summer squash is just starting for us, which makes us remember that we need to get our family’s grill fixed, because grilled summer squash is a weekly summertime staple for us.
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Root vegetables are growing, leafy greens are still amazing, and the assortment of plump vegetables with seeds inside of them are tempting us with hints of what is to come.
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Of course, nothing is perfect, and we experience plenty of set-backs with the temperamental plants, weather, pests, and inexplicable vagaries. We promise to show you the beautiful and the frustrating details of this farm. See below:
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90% of the baby cukes died on the vines of our cucumber plants last weekend. (See the tiny yellow thing in the center of the first photo? It’s supposed to be green and alive. Multiply that times a few hundred and that is what we found Monday morning.) We’ve had this happen before and we can’t figure out what’s causing it.
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See the devoured cabbage plant? Oh, those cabbage worms! We use an organic treatment to keep them at bay, and most of the cabbages aren’t like that, but it is still frustrating.
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See these trays, just seeded? That is our third attempt at seeding watermelon this spring. Mice keep eating the seeds out of the trays in the greenhouse. We have cats and we have set traps and still the small-but-mighty mice elude us. So it goes.
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All else is well. The bees keep swarming, and we keep catching them. Vegetable plants keep growing and we keep trellising them.
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Weeds keep growing and we keep flaming them.
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Three reminders before we list this week’s vegetables:
* You can order tshirts or hoodies with our beautiful logo through next Friday, May 25th, at which point the ordering closes. CustomInk sells them, and they are very comfortable as well as fetching. See here for the Gray with pink beet T-shirt Ordering Page See here for the Hoodie (Sweatshirt)/Long Sleeve Tee/Blue short-sleeve t-shirt Ordering Page
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* This year’s Real Local RVA Farm Tour & Cookout is on Saturday June 17. Spend a day being driven (chartered bus) between 3-4 different farms for tours (urban ag, rural dairy, our suburban vegetables) while enjoying a boxed lunch, and at the end of the day live it up with a cookout here at Broadfork prepared by four of Richmond’s best chefs. Click here to buy tickets or for more information.
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* We now have a Facebook group for our CSA Members. Send a request to join, and we’ll add you so that you can exchange cooking ideas or questions with other members. (Thanks to those members that requested this!)
Saturday’s/Monday’s Farm Share will most likely include:
Salad Mix, Hearty Greens Mix, Cabbage, Cucumber, Garlic Scapes, Green Garlic, and Sweet Salad Turnips OR Radishes
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Recipe Suggestions…also cataloged on our Recipe Page and see our Pinterest Page
Garlic Scapes – We got a lot of wonderful reports from CSA members who enjoyed the Scapes last week. Thank you! This week is likely the last week for their harvest – they are a fleeting delight! Reminder: They are the tender and mild tops of our garlic plants. Treat them like Asparagus and grill or roast with butter/oil and salt and any other seasoning desired.
Green Garlic – This week’s share features two different parts of the garlic plant, as Green Garlic (bigger than scallion size now, but not by much) are the root of the garlic plant, not yet grown into full bulb size, and without the papery skin covered cloves. Green Garlic is more mild than fully mature garlic bulbs/cloves, but not as tender and mild as the Scape. Treat these like Onion Scallions but with the added bonus of garlic flavor. Slice/dice the white part finely. Most recipe suggestions in this genre call for Onion Scallions plus Garlic but know that you get to use Garlic Scallions as a “two-for.” Try Spaghetti with Green Garlic or Garlic Scallion Noodles or Ginger Chicken Meatballs with Chinese Broccoli or Aromatic Wilted Greens with Coconut Milk (this can also use our Hearty Greens Mix, or your Kale from last week if you haven’t used it yet).
Hearty Greens Mix – Reminder to treat this like Spinach, or Kale. It is wonderful raw or cooked/wilted/in a saute or soup.
Salad – We hear from members that it’s easy to use these Salad Greens in Salads during the week, and we agree, but we also benefit from having different Salad Dressing suggestions from time to time. We prefer to make our own dressings. Thus: Homemade Thousand Island Salad Dressing, which doubles as a tasty sandwich topping.
Cabbage – Cabbage is one of the vegetables that our family has said we wish we had available to eat every week, all year long. It is cool and crisp in summer salads, and it is hearty and warm in recipes for cool weather. Our standards in warm weather are American Cole Slaw (ignore the part about “bagged slaw mix”!), Asian Slaw, Quick Kraut (great as a sandwich or hotdog topping), and Easy Kimchi.
Radishes – We’ve heard from a few CSA members that this Radish Dip recipe we shared last year has become a favorite with family and neighbors. Hooray!
Sweet Salad Turnips – These are likely new for any new CSA members. They are not the tough purple-top varieties that so many of us were forced to eat boiled-and-mashed when we were younger. These are a delicious Japanese variety that are great raw or cooked. We slice them on top of green salads, and we saute them with butter on the stop top. (Hint: Don’t add salt right away. Let them caramelize first, then salt them at the end.) Use with any stir fry or saute, or add to eggs or any protein, or saute/caramelize them first and then serve on top of a green salad, or add to soup (best if caramelized first). Finally, try Glazed Turnips or Roasted Turnips – both wonderful. See our collection of Turnip recipes on Pinterest.
This week’s harvest (and baking) includes:
Arugula, Bok Choy, Green Garlic, Hearty Greens Mix, Kale (3 varieties), Radishes, Salad Mix…and our Organic Hearth Baked Bread (Baguettes, Raisin, Seed, & Sunny Greens loaves for this weekend) PLUS: You can purchase our Pepper Jelly and Certified Organic flour that we have freshly stone-ground in our Bakery. AND PLANTS…Tomatoes (Brandywine, Big Beef, Supersweet Cherry, Black Cherry, Sun Gold, Jet Star, Mortgage Lifter, New Girl, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Arkansas Traveler, Paisano), Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Sweet Lunchbox Pepper, Jalapeno Peppers. HERBS: Peppermint, Basil, Thai Basil
{Our farmstand is open Friday with most of the above items…see here for updated inventory}
2017 Market Share CSA Members: Reserve your selection online to pick up Saturday, May 20th at our farm, at the Brandermill Green Market, or at the Farmers Market @ St. Stephens.
Anything remaining after CSA shares are distributed and our farm stand is shopped… we’ll bring to the Brandermill Green Market or the Farmer’s Market @ St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the West End of Richmond. Keep an eye on what we have available via the online farmers’ markets: FallLineFarms.com and Local Roots Food Coop.
Enjoy ~
Janet, Dan, & the whole Broadfork crew
Want to follow along during the week, including Farm Stand updates? Visit us on Facebook or Instagram.
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