Summer Soltice Brings Spring Bounty

Happy first day of summer! We wait all year for this and now it's finally here. The calender may say it's summer, but to be honest, it doesn't really feel like summer yet. The temperatures have stayed on the cool side and it's been cloudy and rainy for the past two weeks. This may not be great summer weather, but the spring crops have been loving it.



This has been ideal conditions for cool weather crops such as peas, lettuce, and other greens. The lettuce just keeps getting bigger and bigger without any signs of bolting. Its almost embarrassing to bring some of these gigundo heads to market - our customers probably think we're injecting them with steroids or something. We've also been harvesting some really beautiful heads of Frisse endive this week, probably the nicest heads I've ever been able to grow.



The table at market has been overflowing the past couple of weeks with a bounty of spring crops. In addition to our regular offerings of cut salad mixes and sprouts we have been bringing baby boc choi, cut stir-fry greens, Japanese salad turnips, escarole, frisse, French breakfast radishes, and Chinese kale (brocolini). This past Saturday was also our first market this season with sugar snap peas. The plants are completely loaded with pods. We picked 30 pounds on Friday, and barely made a dent in what was on the plants.



We get a lot of questions at market about a few of these crops, so for the record here are our stock answers to a few of them.



What's a salad turnip? This is a variety of turnip that is very tender and mild. You can cut it and use like a radish, but it is much less spicy. People are truly shocked when they taste one raw - they really don't taste much like a turnip at all. You can also cook the turnips, either steamed, sauteed, or our favorite - roasted. To roast, just cut into chunks, toss with olive oil, add a little salt and pepper or fresh herbs, and bake in a 400 degree oven until just tender - don't over cook or they'll turn to shmush.

What is a French Breakfast radish? This is a small elongated radish, red on top and white at the tip. They are a little less spicy than a regular radish, but still have a good radish flavor. Supposedly they are eaten in France with soft butter and served for breakfast - believe it or not.



What is Chinese Kale? This is a plant in the brassica family, closely related to broccoli, kale, and collards. It looks like a miniature broccoli plant, with a tiny head. I am not positive, but I believe what is marketed in supermarkets as "brocolini" is actually Chinese kale. Brocolini is a trade marked name, so technically no one else is supposed to use it. Anyway, Chinese kale is used much like regular kale, chopped up and steamed, stir-fried, or sauteed. Use the leaves, small bud, and the upper parts of the stem. The flavor is quite mild and sweet.

We will continue to have most of these crops for another couple of weeks, and then grow them again for the cool season during autumn, so be sure to try them while they are available.

On a follow up note, we have decided that our spinach problem is Spinach Blight. This is not good news. It is actually a virus that is spread from plant to plant by aphids. Plants first turn yellow and then shortly thereafter die. To get rid of the disease, you have to get rid of the aphids, not an easy thing to do. There are a few allowable sprays you can use in organic production to kill aphids, but they are not too effective. We are going to try to move the later spinach plantings to a different field, perhaps keep them covered with fabric, and try spraying with stylet oil. Fortunately the virus only effects spinach and not any of the other greens we grow. We will keep you posted on this front.