In Your Share (June 3rd edition)

Image 1 The Grand Island garlic harvest has begun! This week the crew brought in over 4000 heads of our first variety, Early Chinese Pink. It’s laid out in the loft of the big white barn at Luscher farm to dry for the next few weeks, then you’ll start seeing those big beautiful heads in the share.

Several salads and recipes using some of the new asian greens ie. choi & mizuna are in this week’s recipe packet which you can download HERE.

This week your share may include…

  • Dry Beans: We’ve been experimenting with different varieties of dry beans the last few years and this is one of our great success stories! One of my favorite beans are the Gigante’s, but they are difficult to grow here. We started with a strain that was much smaller and could barely get it to ripen most summers. Over the years we have selected for larger beans and obviously only picked the ones that mature in our relatively short summer season. The result is a bean we’ve started calling Laura’s Big White – enjoy!
  • Carrots: Sweet baby carrots – featured on the farm Facebook page!
  • Choi: Nice big heads of Joi Choi have sweet crunchy wihite ribs and tender leaves. This soba noodle salad is one of my favorites and there are several recipes in your packet too.
  • Garlic Scapes or Whistles: The variety we’re picking from this week is Music. Put them on the grill whole or cut them up and saute them with the bulbs from the green garlic. The flavor is sharp when raw, but mellows when you cook them. It makes a great pesto too.
  • Lettuce Heads: Nice big heads of green leaf lettuce will make a fabulous salad. The variety is Tropicana.
  • Mizuna: The frilly leaves are mild – great in salad or lightly sautéed.
  • Sugar Snap Peas: What can we say about these peas except yum!
  • French Breakfast Radish: We’re having a variations on the radish theme this week – these are elongated with white on the bottom and red on top. I dream about them with fresh butter on a baguette from Little T Baker – dangerously good!
  • Spring Raab: This is the traditional Italian raab aka Sessantina Grossa. It has a wide leaf, peppery flavor and small bud.

Coming soon… more sugar snap peas!