****Please NOTE****
The 4th of July falls on a Tuesday this year!
We WILL NOT be
having pickup on Tuesday the 4th!
All members who
pickup on Tuesday will pick up on Monday July 3rd
5-7:30 on the Mason’s front porch! We will post this
announcement at the top of every news letter until the 4th
of July.
Phew! What a
week we had last week! Monday
it was 90 degrees and windy in the fields. Tuesday we had over an
inch of steady rain and winds (No gusts! No Hail!) during a harvest
day; the lettuce mix was literally blowing away in the wind during
harvest. Wednesday we had a high of 55. Thursday and Friday were
perfect weather for working outside; overcast with a high of 65.
Saturday we had a beautiful mild sunny day.
This
week we will celebrate summer solstice on Wednesday. On solstice we
like to mindfully respect the humbling power of this season; so full
of sun and light. As we approach summer solstice, and the longest
day length of the year, we are feeling the fullness of the 16+ hours
of daylight.
The
day length in our northern latitude (48 degrees north) in combination
with our year round cool nights makes Northwest Montana an ideal
place for growing greens and we know it’s easy to OVER DO IT and
put too many greens in your box. Loooooonnnnnnggg ago we lived
briefly in Philadelphia and we were members of a CSA there. Little
did I know then that I was learning about what I didn’t want
my own CSA to be like someday. Each week we went to pick up and came
home with about $20 of kale. Seriously; kale of all shapes, sizes,
and colors. I love kale and I’m pretty decent at cooking with it,
but that CSA was too over the top with the greens. Remembering our
own CSA experience, we try to never overload the boxes with braising
greens. We really want your nightly meals to be able to be prepared
from the contents of your CSA box. That said, in our climate, even
on ‘the first day of summer’ and well into the first weeks of
summer the things that grow the best here are leafy.
The
summer veggies are in the ground and growing slowly. The 60 degree
weather this week, and in the coming forecast, are pretty typical for
June in Montana. Our green beans are up and getting their true
leaves, the squash look pretty much the same
as when we set them out three weeks ago (this happens every year then
all at once they are huge and fruiting!), the tomatoes and cucumbers
are growing a little everyday….and the kale...well, you can pretty
much cut it to the ground right now and it will be as tall as a human
child in ten days. This
week it is officially summer AND we will have ‘summer veggies’ in
the coming weeks and months AND for now we get to enjoy these
abundant leafy veggies.
CSA week 6
Partial Full
Spinach - partial
bag
Baby Kale - partial
bag
Baby Romaine - lettuce 2 each
Green
Onions - partial bundle
Dill - partial
bundle
Kohlrabi - 2
each
Golden
Beets - partial bundle
Basil - just a
bit
Full
Spinach - bag
Baby Kale - bag
Baby Romaine lettuce - 3 each
Green Onions - bundle
Dill - bundle
Kohlrabi - 3 each
Golden Beets - bundle
Basil - just a bit more
Baby Kale-We
love this little kale for Caesar salads; at a recent pot luck our
middle child tried a salad a
friend made with baby kale
and proclaimed “WHO MADE THIS WONDERFUL SALAD!?!?!”
Kohlrabi-
in addition to the ideas I
shared for preparing kohlrabi in the newsletter last week, I
remembered on the cold and rainy Tuesday that
I love shredding kohlrabi with equal parts potato and
some green onions for making
some lovely comfort
food...hash
browns. Here’s
another unique awesome favorite that we ate in one sitting:
Kohlrabi Mac and
Cheese
In a large heavy bottomed pan melt one stick butter, saute a whole
bundle (or two) of chopped green onions, add salt and saute, while
the onions start to cook peel and shred about 1 lb or six cups of
grated kohlrabi, add to pan and saute (you could use shredded
cabbage, or any other root vegetable as well). Prepare your favorite
mac and cheese casserole and stir in these lovely sauteed veggies and
bake as usual.
Salad Dressing
I love this easy guide for making dressings…
I love this easy guide for making dressings…
and your DILL would be lovely in some dressing! Or chop up your dill
and keep it in a covered container in the fridge; what isn’t
good with fresh dill on it?
Little bit of Basil-after this week when we include basil in
the shares it will usually be 2 oz of basil for full shares and 1.5
oz for partial shares. We are dividing all of our
first basil harvest among our CSA members. Our family will
make our first basil topped pizza of the year to celebrate solstice!
Golden Beets-
If you’ve never had these you are in for a treat! The beets are
still small this time of year and
roasting and eating these may just be the culinary highlight
of your week. When they are small I don’t peel beets; I just cut
them in half and roast in butter in the oven until soft.
Golden Beet tops
may just be my favorite of all the braising
greens ( I know what you are thinking... ‘But
you say that about all the greens’). Beet
greens are super nutritious and crazy high in potassium,
but all that healthy
stuff aside,
the best thing about them is that they taste amazing. We used
sauteed beet greens for our weekly breakfast casserole this week
(golden
beet tops, green onions, hakuri turnips, pork sausage and Parmesan
cheese egg bake!) .
Beet tops are very similar to chard and like chard they can be used
interchangeably
in ANY recipe that calls for cooked spinach.
Happy Summer to our wonderful CSA customers! We hope your first day
of summer is full of love and light~ Lower Valley Farm
