and a Heat Wave!  That is about all you hear on the news lately, well that and political stuff.  But yes it is hot, when coupled with the adequate moisture in the ground does help everything take big leaps towards maturity.  Some things are not fans.  Spinach, Lettuce and Radish throw up the white flag and flower surrendering to the heat, pretty much regardless of age.  I replanted them a few times, but I doubt it will amount to too much if the heat persists for very long.   Tomatoes don’t often set fruit very well, but there are plenty coming, but patience, it will be a few weeks.  Other things like beans and corn go in overdrive.  Also in overdrive is the broccoli.  I always have the great intention of doing some succession planting, but I didn’t with  the broccoli, and as a result we have great big wave of it happening right now of the first, nicest heads. Hopefully you can manage to find your own great ways of enjoying it… steamed, raw, that broccoli/carrot/raisin salad or some stiff fry perhaps? 

Also making a debut in the box is a beautiful head of red cabbage.  300 lbs went into sauerkraut this week, but there are a few stragglers who will be garnishing your box the next few weeks.  We were graced with a patrons favorite way to prepare the cabbage, Sweet-Sour Red Cabbage

Here is the recipe:

Sweet-Sour Red Cabbage

1/2 cup butter

2 tbs chopped instant onions or 1/2 c minced raw onion

1/4 c packed brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp cloves

1 2-lb red cabbage, finely shredded.

1/c boiling water

1/2 c wine vinegar.

Melt butter in skillet; sautee onions until golden brown

Add sugar, seasonings, cabbage and mix lightly

Add water, cover and simmer for 1 hour.

Add vinegar and simmer 10 minutes longer

This is pleasantly tart; should you prefer it milder, use only 1/4 c vinegar.

Serve Hot to 8 people.

There are plenty of beans to go around so you received a healthy sum of green ones, if you get sick of snapping them just pawn them off on your neighbor.  Also included are the ever beautiful Dragon’s Tongue Beans.  These tender wide-podded golden beans with the purple flecks are surprisingly good with a light blanch or steam.  However since they loose their color in cooking maybe a eating them raw is the way to go? There is kale, some Purple Viking Potatoes, orange and red carrots, beets, a couple onions, a garlic, and zucchini. The bunch of onion looking things are actually shallots.  They are ready for curing so if you don’t use them, just find a nail in the closet, hand them up and let them dry for use later.  Many recopies call for this milder cousin of the onion. They often are very fitting to eat with beans.    Finally it wouldn’t be summer with out some cool slicing cucumbers.  These are the first of the year,  no bitterness, just greatness.

Enjoy the week!

Sorry to disappoint the fans of Leif Erickson and Thor, but it only seams fitting to acknowledge the Minnesota Vikings with our assortment of gold and purple in this week’s box.  
The beans are in full force with a first string lineup- yellow variety called Solei and the ever tasty purple Velour making the final cut.  This past weekend we celebrated by Dad’s 75th birthday and Mom made a big batch of this homemade green bean casserole and it was great!  The favorable spring and summer weather has worked well for the onions; there is a bunch of purple ones in the box.  Red beets  and a head of garlic are a gain playing in this week’s box as are the zucchini.  New to the team are the fancy, all-purpose Purple Viking Potatoes.  There is a head of beautiful, mild tasting iceberg lettuce which would be great on a summertime sandwich and a mini head of cabbage.  Finally, this is the retirement of the MVP of the last 3 weeks, the Napa Cabbage. You could try out this stir fried version if you have run out of ideas.   They have had a great run and I hope you enjoyed them.  There are a few planted for fall, so they may come out of retirement and make a return for the fall season, but we will have to wait and see. 

The garlic harvest has begun and by the looks of the 3 varieties lifted, it will go down as my best year of garlic of all time!  Get ready to start warding off the Packers.. errr….vampires because it will becoming your way. 

Also underway is the kraut making process.  First up is dill pickle, red and we are trying out a Jalapeno Red this year as well.  The 6 to 8 weeks wait time to try it out is just another lesson in patience.  
Enjoy the box and enjoy another beautiful week of summer in Minnesota because like most good things, they don’t last forever.

Week three top of box

Week three and the weather is gorgeous!  These longest days of the year allow for much to get done, and that’s a good thing because there is no shortage of things to do.  The heat does require a little watering here and there, but considering how much things have been growing, it’s no surprise.  Beans are blooming, cabbage is heading and I see the very beginnings of some broccoli.  Amazing eating season is upon us.

This week’s CSA share contains: lettuce, kale, onions, fresh garlic, garlic scapes, cylindrical beets, sugar snap peas, and rhubarb only because there is also a quart of strawberries as well.  The large share also has an extra bundle of golden beets, purple Pak choy and a small head of cabbage.  If you really don’t want to use the rhubarb, simply chop, throw in a freezer bag, and freeze till the craving comes back.  There is also an herb bundle with a sprig of the tarragon (excellent with chicken) and a few sprigs of mint for mojitos or tea. 

Enjoy these long days of summer while they last!

Week three bottom of box

Spinach

Somehow, amid the rain showers, we have managed to get most of the crops in the ground in a timely fashion.  Germination has been great, and everything is growing like weeds with the ample moisture and just right temps for the cool season crops.  A couple spots picked up a little too much rain but overall things are wonderful.  The garlic is just about sending out the scapes, radishes are plump, and the greens are, well, green!

The tomatoes and peppers have made it into the ground and we are exited about some new varieties as well as some tried and true kinds.  New this year are Pink Boar from the Wild Boar Tomato Farm and Chocolate Chestnut from Baker Creek.  But there should be plenty of red Amish Paste and Wisconsin 55 to provide a staple of red.

The first round of the CSA are set to go out June 8th from the farm.  Also coming up will be the processing of our pasture raised broiler chickens.  They came a bit early this year and will be about 6 pounds I am guessing by when we can get to them the week of June 13.  If you’re interested in some of the best fresh chicken around, there are still some available so drop us a note and we can put you down.

In other doings, all the hatching is done and there are plenty of up and coming egg layers to build production by mid summer, geese and turkeys will be available this fall and winter for holiday dinners and the goats are almost done kidding for the year.

The orchard of heirloom apples, grafted over the past 5 years are finally looking like they will provide some unique apples for us.  There will hopefully be enough to provide a nice mix later in the season.

973.429.3

977.323.8

This beautiful warm weather has everybody thinking of spring and of all the wonderful things it brings.  But long before the snow began to melt and the yard became muddy the plans for the 2016 CSA were forming.  Many new and exciting varieties are in the works like Badger Torch Beets, Orange Sherbet Mellon,  Lucid Tomatoes, and Long Pie Pumpkins.  We are in the process of taking in CSA subscriptions for the 2016 season, if you want in or have questions, feel free to drop a note.  

If there is one crop that is the queen of the garden, it is the tomato. These are the fruits you wait so long for, care for, pamper, boast about or get anxious about.  How you are as a gardener often is reflected on your tomatoes.  Gardeners strive to have the biggest, prettiest, sweetest, and most productive tomatoes.  All this enthusiasm is well justified.  These versatile red globes find their way into family secret sauce, flaming salsa and mouth watering BLTs.  So when it becomes tomato time, there are usually quire a few happy people.

I love the varieties of tomatoes that available today.  Hybrids, Heirlooms, open pollinated, determinate, indeterminate, cheery, pear, beefsteak, heart shaped, red, pink, yellow, orange, white, ribbed smooth, paste and the list goes on an on.  It can be daunting picking out varieties to try each year.

This weeks share has tomatoes.  Both small snacking cherry and some larger beefsteak plus extras if you desire.  The cherries are a mix of brown berry, bumble bee, and Juliet.  In addition there are a couple garden peach and Japanese Trifle Black in the bag.  For the larger ones, there is a mix.  The beautiful orange ones are Kellogg’s Breakfast.  There might be a pink Soldacki, brownish Chocolate Striped, an Aunt Ruby’s Green or some purple ones named Carbon.  While some varieties tent to be more flavorful than others, I really think each year a different tomato comes out on top.   Years ago my Yellow Mortgage lifter were the best tasting tomato ever, last year, not so much.  Usually Kellogg’s breakfast is good and this year is no exception.  The Japanese Black  are excellent this year but two years ago they never developed any flavor.  I guess that is why I plant so many.  You never know what is going to be better on any particular year so I always try to have a variety.

Also included into the box is a bundle of kale, flat leaf parsley, beets, carrots, garlic, onions, a bell pepper, fennel bulbs, watermelon radishes, potatoes, cucumbers (Marketmore 76 and Russian Sikkim).

The next few days will filled with the start of the State Fair the start of the Fair.  While it is a busy time it is a fun time and I always enjoy the change of pace and the the opportunity to tour around the Horticulture building.

Ample rain and two weeks away bring on quite the changes.  Tomatoes overgrow their cages, beans grow feet, carrots thicken, potatoes dry off, corn goes from 0 to 60 and the weeds, well, they have been running amok.  It is not all bad, yes they can put down some crazy number of seeds for the next years but I suppose if mowed and mulched they should add some good organic matter for the following years.

The tomatoes have begun to roll in.  Always a welcomed sight.  However the rain has been a little hard on the quality but as things dry out they should get better.  Eggplants and peppers are also getting into the groove of things.

Also included are some red gold potatoes,  – good for pretty much everything, a mix of carrots, some beets, a few slicer cucumbers, purple beans, and some garlic.

New this week is a bundle of parsnips, celery, a rutabaga, few little pears, corn and zucchini if you so desire, and eggplant. You might find the onions a little soft in the neck.  I should have pulled them before I left but I thought they would make it. However the wet conditions were not anticipated.  Only the yellow Alisa Craig bulbs were affected and the other varieties should dry off well for storage.

In the coming week it is off with the heads of cabbage as another frenzy of kraut making takes place.   Hopefully some potatoes will be unearthed and some clean up of the spend plants and weeds will take place.

Hope the week of eating is great!