In Your Share (June 11th edition)

In addition to planting lots more veggies last week we also seeded some Sudan Grass cover crop. This is a heat loving grass that forms a thick huge stand of biomass over the summer shading out weeds and adding lots of organic matter to the soil. We’re planning to plant even more down at Grand Island so I’ll post pictures of the process in a few weeks when we get that done.

You can download Recipe Packet for this week’s share HERE. These are written by my friend Katherine Deumling at Cook With What You Have.

We still have a few SUMMER SHARES for sale!! Follow the links above to sign up.

This week your share may include…

• Baby Bok Choi: These are little bigger than last time, but still tender and tasty! I really like to make soba noodle salad with them. There was also a great stir-fry recipe in your  packet a few weeks ago.
• Dried Fava Beans: These beans are used fresh & dried throughout the Mediterranean & Middle East. Soak them for at least 8 hrs or longer before cooking. As always the dilemma is – to peel or not to peel?! There are some great tips and interesting recipes in your packet.
• Garlic Scapes (aka Whistles): These are the immature flower stalks from the garlic. You can chop them up and use them to replace garlic in any dish. If you like the shape and want to make some fun finger food – try rubbing them with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, then put them whole under the broiler. They’re done when they start to wilt down and when sections of the scapes get brown & start to caramelize.
• Green Garlic: In the fall when we plant our regular garlic field, we always save a few cloves just for green garlic. These are planted on a much closer spacing – just a few inches apart – and harvested early in the spring. The bulb end is most tender and can be used raw or sauteed. The tops are  starting to get tough now, but make great soup stock.
• Lettuce Mix: This week is lettuce mix which makes a beautiful colorful easy salad. Top it with diced garlic whistles, radish, turnip and the green garlic aoli from you recipe packet.
• Popcorn: A shareholder reminded me last week that this Early Pink variety is open pollinated so you could plant some in your garden if you want to! If you have a microwave you can put the whole cob in a brown paper bag and microwave it 1 min at a time for up to 3min. Most of the kernals will be popped off at that point so pour it in a bowl with some butter and salt & yum! BE CAREFUL – more than 4 consecutive minutes in the microwave  can cause the cobs to catch on fire!! Otherwise, take the kernals off the cob and make perfect popcorn the old fashioned way. 1 cob makes about 2 cups when it is popped.
• Radish: The bright red round ones are Cheriette and the longer red & white ones are French Breakfast. Katherine included radish’s in many of the recipes this week and I’ll include the link to one of my favorites again. It’s from Lynne Rossetto Kasper at the Splendid Table website – Radish Butter
• Turnips: Nice big bunches of Hakuri salad turnips this week. Don’t forget to use the greens too.