Week 4... a heavy one

 Folks,

This week brings some peculiar sorts of productivity... early potatoes for you, and homemade duck-egg mayonnaise... read on:

Green beans, salad cucumbers, onions, early potatoes, cabbage, garlic, hungarian hot peppers, basil, rosemary, squash (large pattipan, large zuch or two smaller of either), and duck-egg mayonnaise.

There's extra lettuce and also chard for whomever wants it, I told you I'd hook you up with extra this week. More greens than you can shake a 10ft pole at lol...

Here's what's in this week's basket... (#3)

Hey-yo... long day, gotta get this info out to you all though, so you know what you're working with + have a tip or two... so here goes:

Don't forget, you can click on it to enlarge it... if that helps! =)

Lettuce greens -- one thing we've actually gotten good at growing the past couple of years... the amount of slug pressure about two months ago was just WHOA, though... glad we managed to hand-evict all thousand-or-so of those troublemakers!

Radichetta -- basically a low-bitterness commercial cultivar related to dandelion. We did not forage these, but rather grew them from seed packets we ordered. Try mixing it in with other soft greens in a salad, or lightly wilt and season like you would cooked greens

Kohlrabi -- grate it into a small portion and season with vinegar or mayonnaise like slaw, or slice thin and raw and season lightly (or, dip in luxurious real-cream ranch dressing, like I do to this and broccoli =P)

Cucumbers -- hooray for new stuff!

Sunburst pattipan squash -- sorry not enough yet on the plants to include multiples, good flavor... the key, as with all squash, is to get some caramelization going (see https://www.thekitchn.com/pattypan-squash-recipe-23058706, for example, for more info)

Kale -- just a splash of it, honestly. Many uses for this stuff

'Green' garlic -- you can either use the cloves over the next week or two and enjoy the uniquely sharp taste of truly fresh-from-the-ground garlic, OR... leave off the ground in a cool, dry place (basement?) for the next two weeks, and then enjoy chipping away at it long-term. NB: It will NOT have a long shelf-life, if you don't take this important drying-out / skin-hardening step!

Basil -- Some purple, some the more common deep green. An old friend for most

Milkweed florets -- Doro and I have been cultivating for the past few years a special perennial patch of milkweed taken from the prairies surrounding Chicago that framed our earliest days living together here in the states... and it is doing well enough now, that we can share a little of this special foraging treat with you. Just stir-fry briefly (a few minutes) with butter and a bit of salt... tastes like a mix of broccoli, asparagus, and a faint hint of caper.

Daylily flowers (not pictured) -- also foraged; eat fresh, either diced up and adding fun color to a salad or arguably more-boldy whole, as a salad topper or sandwich topping.

And last and definitely also a bit LEAST: French breakfast radish. I have to apologize, as normally I get to sample a crop before deciding it goes in the share basket. These appeared and felt not at all overly ripe, but are also (very atypically) our first root crop after the bad-for-root-crops hot and dry spring we've had this year. Doro and I noticed that one we tried to cut up this evening was a little tough on the outside. CAVEAT EATOR... but hopefully only very few are like this!

Also, one share member let me know that he had a hard time using the stalk of the walking onion from a week or two ago, that it was fibrous. Now, I did pick and cut up and eat raw as well as test-fry one of these at the time, and it was not fibrous at all... and I also went for a consistent snapping-off when harvesting the stems and aerial bulbils. In any case, I'm sorry if you got unlucky there/then, as well. I will aim to make it up to you, with something extra in the next basket.

In the meantime, email me any fun recipes you find... and, may the rains and sunshine be appropriate in the coming weeks -- and the pests discovered (and remedied) early!

Basketto numero due... prego!

OK, I know 'Basketta' is not Italian... the inclusion of the letter K is a dead giveaway. Maybe baschetta is a better fake Italian word? =) Anyways, here is this week's loveliness, followed by a description:

Here's whatcha got this week -- 

a handful of onions, greens and all -- eat it ALL, please!

bundle of swiss chard -- is there any other national denomination of chard? Again, plz eat it all!

bundle of garlic scapes -- such a yum balance of garlic and leekiness

one head 'o lettuce greens -- one person got a MASSIVE head, everyone else got a substantial one :)

kohlrabi -- you can eat the leaves and the orb-like body... nevermind the little colored depressions on the body, there is nothing inedible about a slug pre-approving a nibble here or there (before we remove and skyrocketed them down the hill!)

radichetta -- a special, cultivated dandelion-like green with very minimal bitterness... you can probably sautee and serve these, no special tricks required (outside of a 'lil butter, sweetness, sour, or mix of those)

lamb's quarters -- we let this forage green grow up every year in our garden, looking forward to breaking off the tender top parts of the stalks for our members. Prepare leaves as you would any spinach recipe, including lightly cooked (ie topping on pizza) or raw on sandwiches. Stems you should discard.

SUPER-SPECIAL BONUS VIAL = some of my homemade apple cider vinegar; its sweet and sour and superyummy, kinda like a fine aceto basalmico (basalmic vinegar)... if you don't thing you'll use it, plz keep and bring back to next share meeting... very precious stuff and I'd like to not waste any of it :)

Send us a cool recipe or two, if you end up using something new (or trusted) and really liked the result!

best,

Matt

 

Basket #1 of 2021... diving in!

Folks, so glad to being you your first basket of goodness! I'm gonna try to keep this post short, and just enumerate what is in there... but first, a general tip: we lightly rinse all our stuff, do give it a second rinse just to be sure. OK here's a pic of a dissected basket this week:

We've got:

Spinach greens (in zip lock)

Garlic scapes... super-yum, use sunflower seeds for a cheap and yummy pesto

Salad greens -- various varieties, everyone got a 'head' :)

Sprig of oregano

Egyptian walking onion stalk (all parts are edible; you can pluck and replant the top bulbils if you want to try cultivating a growing patch of this for yourself)

Tatsoi (Asian greens)... very mild, can use for a lot of things (including making kimchi ;)

Dandelion greens -- well, dandelion and a couple of very closely related species... the first stars of spring, they get a better jump on the growing season than anything else I know! Be generous with your sour, sweet and oil, the only tricks I know to get kids OK with eating them (can also mix lightly into a fresh salad, if you are used to eating greens)

Well, email me any recipes you end up using, bring your basket back next week, and we really hope you get to use and enjoy everything!

Doro and Matt and the gang