Box #5 + greens cooking tips (if helpful!) + latest pics

Your box #5, unveiled!

1) Howdy! So, in your 1/2 share basket (which was kinda plump this week, I'm pleased to say) you should have:

Eggs
Heirloom tomatoes (one person got a yellow-ripening one, some got one just-barely-unripe that need to table-ripen)
Potatoes (I think the variety is Pontiac; tried to be generous here, while also leaving some in the ground for later in the season)
Cucumbers
Carrots (unbelievably sweet, IMO)
Breakfast radishes (are these guys officially the 'usual suspects' yet?)
One random root veggie (one person got a salsify; others got turnips)
Japanese eggplant... the one pictured here is fat (Eurpoean) instead of skinny (Japanese) lol
Banana peppers
Matt-pickles (cucumbers courtesy of -- as is the aforementioned eggplant -- our partner Golden Acres Farm... if you don't end up liking them, please bring them back to me, as these are a family favorite!)

2) Here is my personal, generic-but-golden 'greens' recipe that you might use, if you haven't already, to start making something of those turnip, radish, and other root greens (instead of throwing them away):
http://veggies37g.wikispaces.com/Matt%27s+world-famous+greens+recipe

3) Here are some pictures from harvest today / yesterday, in case you are curious:

Monarchs on our milkweeds!

Josie helping me harvest a section of our potato plot

Cleaning up the turnips

Situating the few heirloom tomatoes we have that didn't have any soft spots (damn it, where do they come from?)

Same-day-harvested potatoes

Radishes, needing a light cleaning and partitioning

All of the lovely tomatoes that we COULDN'T given, due to having spots. WTF

Dividing up the carrots that Josie so dutifully separated from the ground yesterday evening

All eight shares, raring to go on our dinner table! :)

Special Delivery today -- share #4

Hey there! Just a special note that today your shares will be delivered by two of our really good friends, Laura and Danny! So don't be surprised if you see two not-yet-familiar faces sitting in my usual 'spot' at the Wedge today... they'll be there from 2 to 4, as usual. I have a tentative list of what should end up in the basket, but these two lovely people should be able to tell you if any last-minute changes were necessary:

sunflower sprouts
arugula flowers?
manila lettuce
mountain mint
cucumbers
tomatoes
radishes
spring onion
dried porcini mushrooms (locally harvested and prepared last fall)
eggs

Don't forget to bring baskets, plastic bags, jars, and egg cartons from previous shares (as they become available) by today, I'll be picking it all up from Danny and Laura later today or tomorrow. And, here are some fun pictures from the past few days:

Peppers looking good, should be reliably in the share in a few weeks' time

Cucumber plants about to break through, too!

Grrr... even after hand-removing probably close to three thousand of these 'fleures des heures,' I found a few gone to seed already late last week =(

Okra will also be on the menu, probably in early August =) One of my favorites

Success with foraging down by new my folks place in northern Georgia, on the fourth of July. I'm hopeful we'll find several staple delicacies near Asheville soon, too... the repeated rain is a very key ingredient!

I wish I had photos of the harmful critters we've caught in the past week, too: there was another woodchuck (which hopefully means we saved some of our fall squash plants, as well as some of our fall cabbages) and also there was a raccoon (not good for chickens). Both got exported down the road a good bit, and hopefully won't be back anytime soon!

Will be great to see you all again next week...

Your latest share contents!

Matt's handy-dandy Notes:
1) Special thanks to Golden Acres Farm for sharing some of their lovely beans and peppers!
2) Special thanks to Doro, for helping pick, clean and pack most of the baskets this morning!!
3) Special thanks to you all, for sharing in the produce we manage to coax out of these plants this year!!!
4) Radish greens can be diced and added to dishes with other greens (healthy, but bitter -- can often manage if you are not a 'greens' person with vinegar or sugar)
5) Don't forget to pull away any lingering shells in sunflower sprouts
6) Sprouts and arugula flowers go together NICELY in a sandwich (at least, in my personal experience)... one contributes nuttiness, while the other sharpness, and both have that 'salady' crisp
7) Applesauce has no added sugar and was made with some peel intact-- our kids love it but you may prefer to spice / sweeten it up -- or perhaps you can find a use instead as an ingredient (ex -- a fun, different pizza sauce)

Hope you all enjoy, and as usual... please bring your empty baskets, ziplocks, jars (both from the share and from your other consumptives), and egg cartons back next week. We are doing a great job so far, having a low footprint (and a high re-use rate)

=)

Thanks y'all!

Box #2 contents!

I still can't believe Doro is finding enough strawberries out there for everyone to at least have a MUNCH... I only see a few red ones every time I am down there transplanting, weeding, watering, or applying compost! I'd thought our last berries were on the plants several weeks ago... but its nice that she stuck with digging around there on Wednesday mornings! She must have the magic eye...

Also, don't forget to keep your baskets, and the plastic and egg cartons within. I only have enough to spot everyone for about four weeks tops; ideally, we'd get the same ones back over and over again, to clean and keep re-circulating!

Email me if you have any questions or usage tips! BTW, the bagged greens are fully rinsed, while everything else is superficially rinsed... just be aware. This will be the case for every share until the end -- if its not in a zip lock bag, go ahead and assume its not been fully rinsed. Some things deteriorate more quickly after am overly thorough rinsing -- for example, the radishes. Many know if they've not been treated with pesticides, the leaves can be diced and used in a salad (for peppery effect).

BTW, if you ever get a conserve from me that ends up being totally NOT up you and your family's alley -- would you please, without regret or remorse, bring it back to me in the next week or so? Every conserve that I include in the share is something I (and many times also, my wife and kids) busted our butts to put up in the basement pantry last fall and winter. Its usually also stuff that we really enjoy eating =) So, if this applies to you, kindly bring the prepared stuff back to us, rather than it go to waste!

Finally, good job bringing in the old baskets/etc. today!!! We had about an 80% success rate with that, and it will allow us to consistently be sustainable = reusing as much as possible). Don't forget to comment here, if you have a recipe or just some simple preparation advice around any of this week's deliciousness!

Test Post #2 -- PLZ REPLY IF YOU GET THIS!

Share members, I'm hoping I fixed this, and that this note makes it directly into your inbox. I am testing again because it seems that as soon as I started using the Google Group email for us, the posts stopped making it to one or more of you. That means, some of you might have missed the last two posts (SORRY IF THAT IS THE CASE).

Please reply with 'got it' if you GOT THIS POST DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX. Then, go to coburncove.blogspot.com when you've got a free couple of minutes, and check out any recent post(s) that you missed!!!

Looking forward to seeing all of you at the Wedge tomorrow. Also, I'll have a little of my homemade apple cider for you to taste. Totally optional. And ONLY a very short pour, as I don't want staff at the Wedge to think I'm competing with their offerings... a sip may be best anyways -- as last Wednesday I was stuck with a pitcher of porter that no sharemember had the time to help me drink! =)

Recent happenings! And, sorry for the lack of more traditional greens...

I should have told you all, sooner than now, that a little over a month ago, practically all of the kale and cabbage starts that we put in the ground were eaten down to the bone by some unwelcome, previously unseen critter(s) down at the food plot we are managing. My first suspect was rabbits, but I could not find or catch any down at the plot (nor have I ever found any rabbit poop about). Shortly after that, when we put some beautiful new squash plants in the ground, we soon found several of the best plants with almost all of their foliage eaten. WTF?!?!

What in the world eats squash plant leaves? I'd never seen this before... researching, I found some people claiming that woodchucks might like them from time to time. Well, I eventually caught the culprit -- sure enough, a woodchuck -- and relocated him. Dried apple slices did the trick.

However the damage was still done/ =( I had hoped to have kale in everyone's share for week one... alas, we are left to focus on other gambles. Tomatoes are looking great, but their payout is some time down the road. Same for cucumbers and peppers! I have some of this conserved from last summer that I will share with you all soon. Other berries (black, wine) are soon to be in boxes, and I think the strawberry patch has more to give, too. We'll make it interesting whatever the setback! =)

Before I go, here are some pics from things that have happened in the last week or so: (hope you appreciate these little windows into the nuts and bolts of our attempt at multi-family homesteading)

Anyone want a rooster? We've got four, but wanted zero. They are cute and have personality, but... don't lay eggs!

Mr. Jerkface in the flesh, who single-handedly undid four hours of careful transplanting and watering, plus laid waste to half of our expensive (ie, not started in-house) squash seedlings

A chicken masqueraded as a duck, and laid on the ground (vs. in the more typical raised nesting boxes)

One of our few remaining leghorns died from a rapidly progressing internal condition. Egg bound or internal infection due to broken egg? She always laid these strangely thin-shelled eggs with dimples -- despite getting plenty of calcium. RIP dear 'Turkeyfeather'!

Damn potato beetle larvae, trying to eat our tomato plants (they are related, and I'm sure leaves taste similar to them)... Josie and Yanusz and I must've removed about three hundred of these, until we couldn't find any more!

Relaxing with my family on a blanket in the grass for daddy day... and enjoying some belly time with our most friendly chicken (who I am convinced thinks she's a person) -- Lazy Eye aka 'Knucklebird'!

Doro and Josie, helping me start one of the four new ~30 ft seed beds we made this past weekend. Sooner-to-mature stuff like certain herbs, greens, and small rooties (radish, etc.) should make it into your later-in-the-season boxes thanks to these!

Contents of first share!

Hey there, let's try and eliminate some of the mystique around this stuff (sorry that the picture here is from the one share that didn't get picked up today -- and so the contents don't appear as fresh as they could be):

NB: Everything here was grown without pesticides, and without artificial fertilizers. The lamb's quarters were gorgeous, perfect-for-eating, pre-flowering volunteers in the potato patch, and I just couldn't resist (they taste like spinach, are a relative of quinoa, and are just as healthy). Here are some preparation tips:

STRAWBERRIES: Eat or prepare ASAP -- they've got no preservatives and were picked uber-ripe (as opposed to white, as most commercial ones are)

LILIES: Dice up the pods and flowers and enjoy them fresh in a salad, or use the flower as a garnish, or you can also either stir fry or deep-fry them

LAMB'S QUARTERS: Tear leaves off stems (sorry, I would have done this for ya'll but ran out of time today), simmer in pan with olive oil and a tad garlic briefly (as you would spinach) -- or, put fresh on a sandwich!

KALE-CHI: For those who do not like the fermented / briney taste of a lacto-fermented super-food, here's a cool workaround to get it back to simply kale: fill jar with water, let stand for 5 minutes or so. Empty water. Then, put 'rinsed' kale-chi in frying pan with olive oil and a splash maple syrup (or other sweetener) and simmer for a few minutes. My kids finally liked it when I did it this way!

Please respond to this post with any recipe tips, or simple stories of how you ended up using things! And remember to bring back baskets, plastic, and egg cartons (if you can) next week... I'm very grateful to be growing food for you all!