Hot Time on the Farm

Swiss chard

What a change in the weather from our last posting- from rain and showers every other day, to hot and dry with no rain in sight. While trying to keep everything watered adds to our list of chores, it's still preferable to having it too wet. During the past few weeks, we have been able to keep to our seeding, planting, and weeding schedule and  finally feel that we are almost keeping up.

Lettuce grown for full-sized heads

The farmer's market has been going like gang busters with mostly decent sunny weather and large crowds turning out to shop. While we regret to disappoint our regular shoppers, by not attending the Wednesday market this year, having the extra day on the farm each week has really made a difference in our sanity and the state of the farm.

July weather has brought on an abundance of vegetables at the market. In addition to our standard salad mixes and sprouts, during the past few weeks we have added other crops including: escarole, frisee, Swiss chard, radicchio, fennel, baby eggplant, and mini-cucumbers.

Our farm has always specialized in some of the more obscure vegetables out there. We enjoy growing crops that are not well known and introducing them to our customers. This often leads to the question at market, "What do I do with this?" We love to cook, but frequently don't use recipes, relying instead on experimentation and some basic cooking guidelines. Nearly every dish we make seems to start by chopping and sauteing an onion...

We realize that this cooking strategy doesn't work for everyone, so here is a simple recipe that utilizes some lesser known ingredients that are available now. This comes from one of our favorite cookbooks, A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop.

Fennel

Spinach and Radicchio Salad with Fennel-Red Onion Dressing

4 ounces baby spinach
1 medium head radicchio, leaves torn in bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small fennel bulb, stalks and fronds discarded, bulb very thinly sliced
1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
  Salt
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  Freshly ground black pepper

1. Place the spinach and radicchio in a large bowl.

2. Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the fennel, onion, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened and browned,

Radicchio

6 to 8 minutes. Stir in the vinegar and cook just until syrupy, about 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in pepper to taste.

3. Scrape the fennel mixture into the bowl with the spinach and radicchio. Toss to combine until the salad greens wilt slightly, about 1 minute. Serve immediately.




As we head into mid-summer, we are anxiously awaiting the harvest of some of our favorite crops. The fingerling potato crop is looking awesome. I can't remember a season when the tops were ever so tall and vigorous. Hopefully, the tubers underneath will be as healthy. Remarkably, we have found hardly any potato beetles on the plants this year. Perhaps the population has been reduced since we have not had potatoes for the past two seasons. Last year they rotted in the ground before sprouting, due to the rain, and in 2010, we did not plant them since we were on sabbatical.

Potato crop

 The heirloom tomato crop is also looking good, but taking their own sweet time in ripening. Their lateness is probably due to a very stressful start at transplanting. They got planted a week or two later than planned, as we waited for the ground to dry out. At planting time the holes were actually filling up with ground water as we dug them...not a good sign. We plopped them in with a splash, and hoped for the best. After a week, many had turned yellow from having saturated roots, but amazingly, after a month they had greened up and were growing nicely. They are now 3 to 4 feet tall and putting on a lot of green fruit. I think the harvest will be late, but plentifully.

Tomatoes in their tunnel

Baby eggplant

A new crop for us this year is baby eggplant. We are trying four varieties that are bred to by harvested small, at just 4 to 6 inches in length and about an inch in diameter. Thin skinned and with essentially no seeds, they are ideal for slicing in a stir-fry or putting on  the grill. So far the plants look vigorous and prolific. They are just starting to produce, so we have not had too many to sell yet - so come early to market if you want to try them.

That's about all the farm news for now. We'll try to keep in touch.