In Your Share (March 4th edition)

I took all of the farm crew to the OSU Small Farms Conference last weekend and we went to some really good sessions. I participated in a workshop with Eleanor O’Brien from Persephone Farm about different strategies we use to control pests on our farms. At Persephone Farm, they plant flowers out into many of their fields to help bring pollinators and beneficial insects closer to the crops. We’ve done this a few times in the past with mixed results, but hearing about Eleanor’s success made me inspired to try again.

Here is the Recipe Packet for this week’s share. I know that the link didn’t work for everyone last week so I’ve tried it a new way this time. Let me know if you have any trouble.

This week your share may include…

Beets: We’re happy to finally have some of these nice Lutz beets in the share. 

Purple Sprouting Broccoli: The sprouting broccoli is kicking into high gear and it is looking great! There were lots of recipes for the broccoli in the Feb 18th Recipe Packet so check out those too.

Cabbage: Beautiful little savoy cabbages this week

Carrots: This has definitely been one of our best carrot  years and now carrots have come full circle on the farm – we just made our first spring planting of them last week.

Chard: Beautiful rainbow chard which which would make tasty chard patties.

Leeks: This variety, King Richard, has beautiful long white shanks that are nice and tender. Try them with the recipes for beans or  parsnips that were in your recipe packet last week.

Potatoes: Nice Desiree red potatoes.

Shallots: These are a variety called Conservor. This is the first year we’ve grown these and many of them are quite large. They have good flavor, similar to a French Shallot. Let me know what you think?

Winter Squash: We’ve only grown the Thelma Sanders squash for a few years, but it has become one of my favorites.  We got it originally from Seed Savers Exchange, where it had been passed from on from farmers in Missouri to Ohio. I wasn’t convinced it would ripen in our relatively cool maritime summers, and was pleasantly surprised when it ripened well, had good sweet flavor and then stored better than most others it’s size. It look like a large cream colored acorn squash, but this time of year the acorns are long gone and Thelma is our shining rock-star squash! Some great squash recipes in the packet.

Coming soon… more raab & rapini!