A great big Thank
You to all our users who are bravely testing our online systems.
We're working hard to make sure the “site-switch” and “vacation
hold” features are working right. Thank you for your patience.
Also, thanks to our intrepid customers who tested the “extras
pickup” feature, which works like an online store for picking up
extra produce at the farm. That went well, and we hope everyone
finds it convenient. It was a little late coming up this week, but
we'll try and have the following week's list ready by Friday PM.
Also, thank you all so much for your positive feedback about the information about how to clean and store your produce.
This year, you might
have noticed an intruder in some of your vegetables. The
above-average amounts of spring rain have created an unprecedented
amount of water around the baseboards of our hoop-house. Due to the
amount of compost and the minimal tillage we use on our farm, we are
happy to report absolutely zero standing water in our vegetable
fields. However, the soggy soil at the baseboards of the hoop-house
coupled with our usual heavily hay mulched walking paths has created
a slug issue in the hoop-house this spring. After this spring, we'll
be reevaluating our heavy use of hay mulch in the hoop-house!
We don't like there
to be bugs in your produce. Not only do we want the produce to be
'clean' of dirt, but clean of bugs as well. Your baby romaine, salad
turnips, and Napa cabbage this week are all coming out of the
hoop-house, and though we will be soaking them once after they are
harvested, you should also soak them in cold water as you're prepping
them for your table just to make sure there isn't a slug hiding away
in the leafy greens of those veggies. Our standard for what passes
as high quality enough to sell is different from what you may get
from 'California organic' produce from the grocery store. There is a
cost to produce the “perfect” look (and by “perfect” I mean
exactly uniform and free of bug damage) of those bags and bundles of
veggies. They lack in flavor and don't hold for a whole week in the
fridge. I know one part of those bug free leaves is a huge amount of
produce being left in the field or in the packing house, due to
aesthetic damage. Our produce has better fresh vital flavor and will
last longer in the fridge….and this spring...until next week when
all the produce is coming from the field instead of the
hoop-house...it may have a slug in it.
Now, in other
exciting hoop-house news, last week we flipped the beds where the
earliest bok choi, radishes, and arugula had been and planted the
first of the summer crops! Peppers, basil, cherry tomatoes, and
cucumbers are in the ground. People are often surprised to hear that
late May is one of the busiest times on the farm. With our intense
short season there is an incredible push in late May to get the warm
season vegetable crops in; we have a small window of time to do this
after the soil has warmed up but soon enough that the crops will
mature and produce before we get a hard frost in mid-September.
(Gah!) This week, we are planting more tomatoes, eggplant, summer
squash, winter squash, and sweet corn. We are also continuing with
our normal weekly plantings of herbs, bi-weekly seeding of salad
greens, and regular schedule of every 3-4 weeks planting successions
of beets, carrots, green onions, and heading kohl crops (broccoli,
romanesco, cabbage, and cauliflower).
We are going into
this 'busy week' a bit behind from last week's Wind Event. Sustained
20-35 mile an hour winds from 3 am until 8 pm last Wednesday doesn't
just mean we lost a day of field work but also that we spend time
Tuesday getting ready for it and now this week when we go to flip
beds, lift row cover to harvest and weed we will be removing the
hundreds of extra sandbags we laid down to get ready for the epic
gales. The extra prep time is worth it though, as we are really
happy that we came out of the wind store with Zero Damage; just some
very thirsty plants that got extra irrigating Thursday. Tired
farmers got extra ice cream!
Partial
Arugula - partial
bag
Baby
Romaine -- one
Radish - partial
bundle
Pea Shoots - partial
bag
Napa Cabbage - 1
small or ½ large
Tatsoi - small
bundle
Collard
Greens - partial bundle
Full
Arugula - regular bag
Baby Romaine - two
Radish - regular bundle
Pea Shoots - regular bag
Napa Cabbage - 1 medium
Tatsoi - bundle
Collard Greens - bundle
Arugula-we
are loving arugula right now paired with a creamy homemade dressing
and topped with chopped pea shoots and radishes; it's such a fresh
combination of lovely spring flavors.
General Salad
Making Tips
Making dinner is a
whole lot less daunting if I have a big salad all ready to go in the
fridge and put it on the table; look! Dinner is half way there and
all I did was take a bowl out of the fridge .
~4 quart Pyrex bowl
with lid ~ The 4 quart size perfectly fit this weeks arugula and
chopped baby romaine. I like chopping the greens as more greens will
fit on a plate when chopped.
~ zyliss 'salad
knife'~ I'm not into kitchen gadgets but I love these weird plastic
serrated knives; you cut greens with them and they don't wilt or get
brown on the edges….magic?
~I like to keep some
salad toppings stored in smaller containers (early spring that's
radishes, salad turnips, cilantro, and dill) chopped up and ready to
top the salad.
~We eat salad after
every meal with lunch and dinner this time of year; no extra plate,
no extra bowl. I also like that as I don't want my salad to fill me
up; I want the other stuff and then the salad is like the most
satisfying lovely thing to eat after a meal. That must be a lot of
salad you may be thinking...yes, we go through about 5 lbs of salad
greens/week! So I like to make salad prep easy.
Baby Romaine -
We
love these little romaine lettuces and will often make some ground
beef or beans for lunch and use them to stack other good food on;
ground beef topped with braised radish tops, topped
with homemade herb dressing and
wrapped up in romaine. It's
good stuff!
Napa Cabbage -
This is one of our favorite spring vegetables and my go to is always
to make a lovely peanut sauce stir fry. Last year we also made
Tracy's napa cabbage slaw with raw napa and LOVE it!
Tatsoi -
Sometimes called 'Asian
spinach' this lovely tiny Asian
green is one of my favorites. Like bok choi, you can eat it stem and
all finely chopped and sauteed. You may also like the leaves raw in
a salad as they are very tender.
~Have a great week!~
