Week 10

Hello all,
I thought that this morning I would bring you out to Bluebird farm. Don’t worry, you can leave before the hot, hot afternoon!

6 am

Out the door. I’m still loosening up my shoulders, neck, and fingers. Every morning those three places are the sorest. Walking to feed the cats and up the hill to the chickens is usually enough to warm up my legs.

6:05

Cats are fed. Now comes the hardest part of the morning. I haven’t developed a system of writing down the things I noticed I needed for the next morning’s chores. So I am left to scratch my sleepy head for a moment remembering who needs food and water. I love it when I remember that we are fully stocked.

6:07

This is the part of the walk I usually remember that I forgot something. Today, nothing! I hate turning around.

6:10-7

Open, move, feed, and water meat birds and layer hens. Stroll past the pigs on my way back down for breakfast. Marie has taken care of the baby chickens and started the eggs. Mmmm, by this time I am hungry and sweaty already.

Our hard working truck, loaded and ready for action!

8 am

On the road to Silver Creek Farm

Now is when the day really starts. We head over to Silver Creek farm to work in the vegetable garden before it is unbearable hot. These days there is usually something to harvest every day. Most of the greens we harvest in the spring can hold in the field until we need to pick them for market or CSA. The summer crops on the other hand just keep ripening. Squash, beans, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes all need to be picked every other day or we will find baseball bat squashes, tough beans, and rotten peppers and tomatoes.

Our day often begins by starting the irrigation pump

After the vegetables are in the shade we move on, usually to weeding. While we weed we are constantly scouting for potential problems so that we can address them as soon as possible. These days we are on the lookout for a wide variety of insect “friends.” While the spring rampage of Colorado Potato Beetles has dissipated summer pests are out in force. Cucumber beetles, squash bugs, squash vine borer beetles, stink bugs, bean beetles, tomato horn worms, and a variety of unknown worms are all causing us difficulties. Our primary line of defense against insects is old fashioned hand picking. When we fall behind neem oil and Bassilus Thuringiensus (Bt) help keep the insects at bay.

I hate weeds!

The neem oil, essential oil from the Indian neem tree, also acts as a fungicide. Hot, humid weather provides ideal conditions for many funguses including blossom end rot on tomatoes and a black fuzzy mold on our squashes. To apply oil, Bt and anything else we may need to spray on plant foliage we put on our “ghost buster” backpacks. They hold 4 gallons of liquid and use a hand pump and spray nozzle to pressurize and apply liquids to plant. They are a great tool for precession application of fertilizers, insecticides, and fungicides (all organic of course).

The dreaded bean beetle larva (the yellow fuzzy thing)

12:30

Time for lunch yet!?

By now it is almost too hot to function in the field. We are hungry, hot, tired, and usually a little grumpy. This is not a good time to come visit. Homeward bound to lunch and a nap. Rejuvenated we will catch up on inside work during the heat of the day before heading back out to move sheep, seed, more weeding, put up crow
deterrents….

A garden visitor

Week 10 box

Leeks
Basil
Tomatoes
Squash
Peppers (you have been getting various sweet green peppers. All peppers are green when unripe. They then reach a final color depending on the variety-red, orange, yellow… Being unripe fruit, green bell peppers have a sharper flavor compared to the sweet ripe fruits. Last week you also received some jalapeños-the small green pepper with purple mottling)

Recipes

Leeks

Leeks are a non-bulbing onion with a mild flavor. The white part of the leek is the sweetest. The greens are perfectly edible. The higher up you use the stronger the onion flavor. How much green to use is a matter of personal preference.

To prepare leeks Remove roots. Then slice half way through the leek along the length. Hold the leek upside down and rinse well. The growth habit of leeks means they tend to fill up with dirt as they grow so they need a good wash.

To cook either

Dice and sauté in butter to serve with just about anything.

Or try

Cutting the leeks into three inch lengths and sauté in butter. Then place the leeks on a piece of good bread, cover with a tomato slice, then top with gruyere or mozzarella cheese. Broil just long enough to melt the cheese.

Pesto version 1

Ingredients
1 big cup of basil leaves
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 ½ tablespoons of pine nuts
3 tablespoons of original parmesan cheese
1 ½ medium sized garlic cloves

Directions

Crush the basil leaves using a mortar and pestle after washing the leaves carefully (they should not break before you start crushing them. Otherwise they might lose flavor).

Add the olive oil and mix it very well. When it starts to look like a paste add the garlic and the pine nuts and continue mixing all the ingredients.
After you obtain a nice puree season with salt and pepper and continue mixing for another 2-3 minutes. Now, add the parmesan cheese and again: mix it well.
Let the pesto rest before you use it, so the flavor will unfold. 10 minutes should be enough. Use it with your favorite pasta dish or try another dish, such as pesto chicken.

Pesto version 2

Ingredients

½ cup fresh basil
2 cloves garlic
¼ cup walnuts or pine nuts
½ cup olive oil, approx.
Salt to taste

Directions same as version 1

Pesto Tips

Pesto can be made with almost any nut. I have had excellent pistachio pestos as well as roasted almond pesto.

A homemade pesto sauce should be kept in the fridge if you don’t use everything in the same day. You can store homemade pesto for about 1 week, if you cover it with olive oil.

To freeze pesto leave out the parmesan cheese. You can add the cheese after thawing. Divide pesto into meal size portions. Freeze in freezer bags.

Don't forget to stop and smell the basil!

Week 9

Hello all,

Hot and humid-but it rained!

A note on the cucumbers: Some of you have probably encountered some of our bitter cucumbers. The heat has worn the plants out. The tired plants send tiny packets of bitterness into the stem end of the cucumber fruit. Some of our varieties of cucumbers are more susceptible to this problem than others. Unfortunately, the bitter plants are the most productive. Last September, William and I enjoyed the amazing earthy taste of the Emperor Alexander cukes. A small number of plants (12!) dumped buckets of sweet cucumbers in that steady, pleasant weather. Now, that same type of plant is producing some of the bitter culprits. Good news, the dark green Straight 8’s, bright white mini cukes, and Little Leaf (mini cukes) are all delicious. Bad news, those varieties make up only 25% of the plants we have in the garden. AND…because of the weather and the fertility issues (overall stress) all of the plants have very little fruit. Those 12 plants last fall would have kept the boxes full of cukes, this summer we have over 150 plants and they aren’t producing properly!!!

Other plant also have trouble when the temperatures get about 90 degrees. Tomatoes and peppers have trouble turning flowers into fruit- (We have 10 tomato plants for every CSA member and over 10 pepper plants for every CSA member!). Frustrating, but can’t complain about the soaring temperatures and dry, crispy weather too much, right? Complaining about it doesn’t get me very far when there is still work to do!

One of the great parts of a diversified vegetable farm is that even when some crops are struggling, others are doing alright. I am absolutely in love with the cherry tomatoes plants. Even if it is more labor to pick them, they are worth it! You can taste summer as you eat the sweet juiciness of the Sungold’s and Black Cherry’s. Their colors of shining gold brilliance and deep earthy red fire beckon me as I pick them from the shimmering tomato vines. Those colors, combined with their productiveness, make me feel at peace in the garden. This is the rhythm I want to see in mid-summer.

On Monday the rain came! I was harvesting tomatoes when the first cool drops fell. I picked the cherry tomatoes faster, making sure I picked any fruit that might swell and burst from absorbing the potential downpours. William cruised through the large heirloom tomatoes, plucking plump globes from the vines. I felt like I should burst into song and pop out into a Bollywood movie set in the middle of a long awaited monsoon. Oh the joy of being soaked by gentle rains after over a month with crispy, dusty soil. We would like to request a little more rain like that, once a week would be perfect.

The rain will also provide a much needed boost to our cover crops. These are non-vegetable crops preceding and following the vegetables. They perform a myriad of tasks in the garden from suppressing weeds to attracting beneficial insects to building soil. We have planted to buckwheat, cowpeas, and millet in areas where spring crops have been removed (they are all food crops, but we are going to till them back into the soil for organic matter).
Our second succession of “green” beans has stated to produce! This week you will find a colorful mix of yellow, green and some purple beans in your box.

A simple, delicious recipe for them is:

Green beans sautéed with lemon

Ingredients

Green beans
Olive oil
Garlic-2-3 cloves
Lemon juice-2-3 tablespoons
Parmesan cheese-2-3 tablespoons

Directions:

Wash beans. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Cook beans until they are hot through (the fresh beans don’t need much cooking, only heating). When the beans are hot add 2-3 cloves of crushed or finely diced garlic. Add lemon juice to taste (about 2-3 tablespoons). Stir until flavors are blended. Remove from heat and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Stir in cheese. Serve as a side with just about anything.

Week 9 box

Beans
Garlic
Potatoes (try rosemary roasted potatoes with the bean recipe above)
Rosemary
Swiss chard (for those of you who did not receive it last week)
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Squash and Zucchini
Green peppers

Week 8

“Does it smell like fish yet?” That was the question of the night Tuesday. At first we weren’t sure if we could smell fish, but in the end we had success-we had stinky fish smell in our irrigation water! Why, you might wonder, would we celebrate malodors in our irrigation water? What it meant is that we had successfully used the siphon system for injecting fertilizer into the irrigation system at the farm. Now, we don’t have to carry heavy backpack sprayers full of fish on our back slowly spraying plants. We are able to practically run up and down the rows fertilizing. We are fertilizing with Neptune’s Harvest Organic fish emulsion, a good product manufactured from fish processing byproducts from the North Atlantic fish industry. In the long run we hope to design a system of cover crops and rotations that allow us to grow much of our fertility in place. But as you all know, new ground sometimes requires short term solutions to bridge the gap to the long term ideal.

Thank you all for your words of support after last week’s email. It is so encouraging to hear your positive energy and commitment to local, fresh, and healthy food. I think of some of your emails and conversations several times a day as we try to work out solutions to each challenge we face. The fish emulsion fertigation (fertilizing + irrigating) is one of those success stories.

If “does it smell like fish?” was the question of the night then “The sheep are out again!” was the exclamation of the night. Unfortunately, the bad sheep have learned the tricks to getting out of our fencing. Part of the problem is the lack of high quality grass, so they are never happy. As many of you have undoubtedly noticed it is rather hot and dry. With our irrigation systems we are able to grow our vegetables with no water issues. However, unlike Colorado, no one in the South East is equipped to irrigate pastures. It is simply an unjustified expense in our rainy climate. We hope to revisit that rainy climate sooner rather than later. We (and the sheep) welcome some soothing, soaking rains to gently wake and invigorate the grass.

Week 8 box

Your first taste of Tomatoes! We have a wide variety of types from slicing tomatoes, to thick, meaty tomatoes for cooked dishes, to sweet cherry tomatoes. We will try to rotate varieties among the whole CSA. If you receive cherry tomatoes please return the pint container clean and dry for reuse. The thick, meaty tomatoes are usually long shaped with thick walls and are small (quarter size) to large (5 inches tall). These Roma type tomatoes are for dicing into pasta but they are also great for quartering and salting- then adding to salads.

Cucumbers

Squash

Scallions

Basil- Thai, use basil for a flower arrangement, but also use the leaves! The purple flowers can be soaked in maple syrup for infused flavor! Drizzle that over some pork or grilled veggies in the last 30 seconds of cooking for a glaze.

Green Pepper- small, but flavorful- those thick walls sure are difficult to obtain!

Half of the boxes will receive Swiss Chard-Next week the other half can look forward to Swiss chard (we have to give it a longer regrowing period in this hot weather)

Large Shares only-Green beans

Cucumber Yogurt Salad

This is one of my favorite quick dishes for a hot day. Flavors can be adjusted for personal taste.

Cucumber

Plain yogurt

Dill- ***Sometimes we also add coriander ***

Salt

Garlic or Scallions

Either Peel and slice or Peel and grate the cucumber. Salt the cucumber and place in a colander to drain for about 15 minutes

Dice or crush several cloves of garlic

Or

Dice several scallions

Add as much garlic of scallion as you like-personal preference for this varies widely

After Cucumbers have drained mix with yogurt

Mix in garlic or scallion

Add dill and salt to taste.

This salad is a great side for a Mediterranean themed meal.

William and I would like to put out a great wave of appreciation to you, Bluebird Farm’s CSA members, for being such an important part of this farm. We like to think of you- your support and enjoyment of the farm, us, and the food when we are outside trellising the ever-growing tomatoes, picking beans, and sweating behind the hoe. This tangible connection to the food that is grown, harvested and eaten from this farm is a unique situation to have in this moment of conventional industrial agriculture. We have been receiving many thank you’s and notes of appreciation from you all. Let me tell you- we love to hear that! We also want to you to ask us questions, and give us feedback on any challenges or problems you’ve had (quantity, quality, variety, etc)

Our tomato trellises. Everything has grown so much, I guess its time for more photos

Here’s a brief excerpt from my favorite author, Barbara Kingsolver. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a passionate narrative of a year’s journey of food on her farm. “This is why we do it all again every year. It’s the visible daily growth, the marvelous and unaccountable accumulation of biomass that makes for the hallelujah of a July garden…We gardeners are right in the middle of this with our weeding and tying up, our mulching and watering our trained eyes guarding against bugs, groundhogs, and weather damage. But to be honest the plants are working harder doing all the real production. We are management; they’re labor.” I would encourage you all to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It is a insightful, charming picture of the seasons of life and food on a farm.

Check out their website for wonderful recipes. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Disappearing Zucchini Pasta

This recipe is from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and boy that zucchini disappears into a delicious cheesy pasta dish. The cheese and zucchini combine together to create a rich flavor. Mmm! Zucchini and squash are those vegetables that you miss when they are gone, but everyone loves to roll their eyes about. The plants can really get out of hand and over produce, but that's a good thing in the vegetable world. There are so many ways to create wonderful meals with zucchini and squash- especially the delicious heirloom varieties. They blend well with creative cooking! Just don't serve it to me plain and steamed!

Week 6

Swiss chard

Bok choy

Zucchini or Summer Squash

Cucumber

Basil

Large Shares only

Kale

A note on the cucumbers: The dark skinned cucumbers are sweet and delicious simply washed and sliced. However, we have discovered that the lighter skinned with whiter or yellower sections seem to have a bitter skin. Some are very mild, while others are very strong. At first we thought it was the size of the fruit, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. The good news is that peeling the cucumber makes it just as sweet as the others. Our current guess is that the bitterness is a result of the hot, hot weather we are getting.

Photo from http://www.stephencresswell.com/s/anchorago.html

Hooray to Bluebird Farm’s Insect Hero of the Week; Anchor Stink Bug, Pentatomidae family- our friend the beneficial Anchor Stink Bug feeds on caterpillars and beetle larvae (those squishy larvae love to suck juice from plants) Yet another great insect that would be obliterated by routine, broad spectrum synthetic insecticides that are used in conventional agriculture. The techniques used in organic agriculture help create safe habit for beneficial insects in the garden.

William Lyons and Marie Williamson
Bluebird Farm
4178 Bluebird Dr.
Morganton, NC

BluebirdFarmNC.com
BluebirdFarmNC.blogspot.com

BluebirdFarmNC@gmail.com
828.584.7359

Greetings from the farm,

***Some business first…Quick reminders!*** Please read the email newsletters for tips and information on caring for your veggies and cooking them. Let us know through email if you have your #1 recipes or ideas that you’ve had success with! We love community meal ideas!

Please reuse all of those plastic grocery bags and pack all your leafy greens in them before your place your veggies in the fridge. Tie them shut with a small bit of airspace around the veggie to make a humid “greenhouse”. Leafy greens like lettuce, kale, and Swiss chard should be great for 5-7 days this way.

Basil likes to be placed in a small glass of water on the counter like a bouquet. It DOES NOT like the COLD fridge very much. You may pluck leaves off and zip into a baggie with lots of air. This bag may go into the fridge with some minor cold bruising.

This week’s cucumber is the first, but I have a few notes on it! Some of the cucumbers got too big-they exploded with the rainstorm we got and developed a bitter skin! Our delicious heirloom cucumber variety, Emperor Alexander, (very thick with yellows and greens) developed a bitter skin. PEEL THOSE BABIES REALLY WELL! WOW! Without the skin, the cuke shows off its great flavor! Next week’s cuke’s will not be so bitter if I can help it.

I often say that farming has similarities to gambling. When it comes to money, neither William nor I are the gambling type, but imagine connecting the factors involved in planning, seeding, watering, weeding, biological monitoring, insect encouraging, disease prevention, harvesting, post harvest handling, all of these factors contributing to the growth of the cucumbers in your CSA box. Wow! I might call myself a garden gambler. This time those silly cukes got too big overnight! There are so many connected paths and cycles in the garden and around the farm. In the annual eating cycle, we have cycled back to summer cucumbers. My menus and eating habits change with the season and I welcome that cool, refreshing crunch after a 6 month break. In terms of garden planning, on paper, we hope to produce cucumbers until the first week of October. What actually happens goes back to so many factors and good ole chance. Here’s an interesting seasonal food fact; the common restaurant salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce doesn’t happen very easily in the garden. Tomatoes and cucumbers both love summer weather, and well, lettuce hates hot summer weather. We have started to harvest some of the last lettuce we have in the garden. Hopefully it will hold out with this sizzling hot weather.

Last week we harvested about 20 zucchini and squash. This week the zucchini, “zukes” and squash has produced enough for the CSA. Unfortunately, last week we had a tiny zuke and squash scare- We had squash vine borers, larvae that burrows into the vine’s stem and quickly kills the plants from within. I believe our remedy worked and this week is the beginning of a great harvest.

What’s in your box?

Lettuce- baby heads, lettuce will be out of season soon

Swiss chard

Tat soi- (Bok choy’s mini cousin), stir-fry the leaves whole or you may cut the leaves off of the plant and mix with lettuce for salad

Napa cabbage or Chinese cabbage, this will be out of season soon

Zucchini (straight Gold and Green varieties)

Squash, (Yellow Crookneck, round Scallopini squash)

Scallopini squash

Cucumber

Garlic, Fresh, strong, and flavorful! This garlic is not cured or dried, keep in a cool, dry place!

Ideas:

· Sauté olive oil, onions, garlic, and Swiss chard stems on medium low for about 6-8 minutes. Add squash and zucchini, sauté 4-8 minutes. Add chopped basil and chopped Swiss chard leaves the last minutes. Toss with angel hair pasta and parmesan cheese.

· Basil: Chop and add to salad dressing.

· Extra Basil?: Chop basil and throw into a freezer bag- Save for pesto or toss frozen basil into dishes at the end of cooking to add flavor through the winter.

TERIYAKI TOFU STIR-FRY WITH Bok Choy and Veggies, CARROTS, AND BABY BOK CHOY*

I have a hard time following a recipe word for word. The other day I served a version of this recipe with bok choy, Muddy Creek Mushrooms’ wonderful shiitake mushrooms, and soba noodles. I thought it was best as cold dish the next day! Feel free to substitute or add other items like mushrooms, Napa cabbage, and pork. I also added garlic.

*use your head of Tat Soi (cousin of Bok Choy)

serves 4

4-5 Tbs. Toasted Sesame Oil
1/2# extra firm organic tofu, drained 15 minutes, sliced very thin
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbs. minced fresh ginger
1 bunch organic broccoli, cut into florets
3 organic carrots, peeled and cut into rounds on a bias
1 head bok choy, stems cut into matchsticks, leaves roughly chopped

Teriyaki Sauce- you may purchase your sauce or make your own- see steps at end of recipe
Stir-fry steps:

1. In a largish saute pan, heat the sesame oil over medium high heat. Add the tofu and saute on each side for 3-5 minutes, or until golden brown on both sides. Transfer tofu to a plate lined with paper towels and set aside.

2. Return the pan with the sesame oil still in it to the stove. Add onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions have softened. Add bok choy stems. When they begin to soften, add the broccoli and carrots.

3. When broccoli and carrots are al dente(tender crisp), add bok choy leaves and stir. Cook for 30 seconds. Then, add the sauce, and just as it begins to thicken, remove from heat. Toss tofu into the pan, stir it all around, and serve with steamed brown rice.

Teriyaki:

• 1/4 cup tamari soy sauce (soy sauce)
• 1 cup water
• fresh grated ginger (about 1 tbsp or to your taste)
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup cold water

Combine 1 cup water, tamari, brown sugar, garlic and ginger in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Dissolve cornstarch in 1/4 cup of cold water and add to sauce.

Stir constantly to allow the sauce to thicken.

If the sauce is too thick add a little water or tamari to thin.

Hello CSA members,

As Bluebird Farm has grown and developed it has been one large project after another in expansion and addition. Every week, even every day, brought a totally new project to be tackled-our first chickens, our first butchering, our first sheep, a new walk-in fridge, first planting of each crop, then on to the next first, and the next. But this week we began to see the beautiful cycles of farming. Now, the arrival of a new batch of chickens does not initiate some new adjustments, instead we just prepare and go.

In the garden, summer crops are in the ground and growing. Now our priorities are planting the second succession of the summer crops like tomatoes, cuke, and zuchinnis. Some of our spring crops are done and we clean up the bed, much like in the spring, and prepare for another round of seeds and growth. Also our focus shifts to maintaining the crops we have: namely fighting weeds and insects.

Of course we are always trying to work with natural systems and not fight them. But the weeding and insect killing of the past week can only be described as war. Suddenly potato beetles are everywhere. We are using a variety of physical (spray on clay barriers), manual (hand crushing), and spray methods. Our two first line options for insects are insecticidal soaps and essential oils. The soaps are biodegradable soaps that penetrate insect cells, causing their cell membranes to collapse, dehydrating the whole insect. The essential oil we have been using is neem oil from the neem plant. It is a natural, but powerful, oil that kills insects.

We do try to encourage beneficial insects as well. We are assisted by lady bugs, predatory stink bugs, soldier bugs, and assassin beetles. All of these insects prey on our pest species, helping to keep their numbers in check. Our lady bugs are everywhere and it’s great fun to watch the predatory stink bugs spear and suck the juices from bug larvae. A very good reason to avoid traditional chemical pesticides is that they typically kill all insects-good and bad. Almost always the bad insects will rebound first-this time into a habitat totally devoid of any predators.

A soldier bug eating a colorado potato beetle larva

This week brings another round of greens. You will find kale in your box again this week. We hope you will enjoy it as much as our new neighbor, Mr. Ground Hog enjoys it (sometimes our four legged mammal friends are worse pests than insects). Mr. Ground Hog’s house is approximately 20 feet from the garden and a well worn path is visible. We have been encouraging the beast’s relocation.

Week 4 CSA box

Kale

Lacinato Kale

Curly kale

Poc Choi

Chinese or Napa Cabbage

Salad mix-contains a mix of lettuce, mizuna (a mild Asian mustard), and baby kale

Basil

Beets-cook the roots and the greens (like the swiss chard-beets and swiss chard are actually the same plant bred for two different attributes)

Storing Your Vegetables

Place all your greens in plastic bags in the fridge when you return home. Greens need high humidity to keep well. A plastic bag will hold in the vegetables natural moisture, keeping it fresh and crisp for up to a week.

Please remember to return your box every week!

Kale Cous Cous Salad (Serves 4 with leftovers)

Ingredients:

2 cups Cous cous

1 Bunch curly kale

Cilantro

1 16 oz. can garbanzo beans

8 oz. Feta cheese

Cucumber (available at area farmers markets-ours will be ready in a few weeks)

1 small red onion

1 clove garlic

Lemon juice

Olive oil

Salt

Black olives (optional)

Accompaniments:

Hummus, pita bread, a yummy green salad

Preparation:

Cook cous cous according to directions on box refrigerate while preparing the rest of the dish

Prepare kale by cutting leaves off the stem (this makes for a more tender salad). Finely chop kale. Heat some olive oil and garlic in a pan and sauté kale until tender.

Drain and rinse garbanzo beans.

Dice red onion, cilantro, and cucumber.

Combine cous cous, kale, garbanzo beans, feta cheese, onion, cilantro, and cucumber. Add olives if desired. Add lemon juice and salt to taste.

Serve chilled or room temperature. It is especially good stuffed into a hummus filled pita with a green salad on the side.

Sweet Roasted Beets:

Dice 3-4 beets (nickel sized) and toss with 2 tbl sp. olive oil,1 tsp. basalmic or rice vinegar, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp brown sugar. Toss with 1 tbl sp of sesame seeds if you wish. Bake on cookie sheet at 350 F. for approx 10-15 or until cooked to your liking.

Look forward to week 5 box with:

Peas-we ended up with a lull between pea crops

The first tasty Summer Squash and Zucchini

And much more!

Have a great week!

William and Marie

CSA WEEK 3

Hello from a hot and humid Bluebird Farm,

This week began with a gully washer-.85 inches of rain in just a few hours on Monday morning. The weather has brought a good mix of rain and sun with a healthy dose of warm temperatures. Some of our spring greens would prefer cooler days, but our summer crops are practically leaping out of the ground, their colorful blossoms teasing our taste buds with the thought of what’s to come.

Not that the flavors at our dinner table have been particularly suffering. Far from it in fact, we have been enjoying the crispness of lettuce, bountiful flavors of Swiss chard, and a great stir-fry made with our Chinese, or napa, cabbage.

We hereby declare the week of May 31st 2010 to be “National Stir-fry and Greens Awareness Week! This week your box will include:

Poc Choi also known as Bok Choy, with crisp juicy stems,

Bok Choy Brassica rapa var. chinensis

Chinese Cabbage also known as Napa Cabbage, with its sweet, mild flavor

Swiss Chard, beautiful color and deep flavors, it’s a great summer substitute for spinach (which hates hot weather) try adding a bit of lemon juice (1 tsp-1 tblsp)

Swiss Chard: Beta vulgaris L. subsp. cicla.

Head Lettuce

Cilantro- It may look a little different- this cilantro has very fine feather leaves, but still tastes the same.

BASIL !!! Wow, there’s a bit of Thai basil, perfect for the stir-frys. Thai basil is the signature to many Thai recipes. Thai basil is more mild and sweet than Italian styles basil, lending its flavor to sweet and sour dishes and coconut sauces. Try adding a bit of Thai basil to the greens. You can also soak basil in maple syrup for a delicious pancake syrup.

Thai Basil Ocimum basilicum L.

Onion- Use the tender green of the onion too.

Sugar Snap Peas- This is the last week of peas, unless the next planting of peas survives the deer and groundhogs.

Cooking the greens:

Remember that with all these greens the stems are just as edible; you just have to cook them a little longer than the leaves. We like to dice the stems to the same size as the onions in our dish and add the stems whenever we start the onions. Poc Choi and Napa cabbage stems are crisp and add good texture to a dish. Swiss chard stems from our Rainbow variety give any sauté dish great color. Try serving sautéed Swiss chard over cheesy Polenta (yellow grits).


Pork and Napa cabbage Stir-fry

Simple Stir-fry

Swiss chard- Try adding some lemon!

Stir Fry Pork and Napa cabbage

* 1 (1-lb) pork- our fresh ground pork or diced pieces of the fresh bacon
* 2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
* 4 teaspoons cornstarch
* 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
* 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (not seasoned)
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons water
* 2 lb Napa cabbage, quartered lengthwise, cored, and cut crosswise into 1 1/2-inch pieces (10 cups)
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
* 1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
* 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves

* Accompaniment: rice

Preparation

Toss pork with 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, and 1 tablespoon sugar in a bowl.

Stir together vinegar, salt, remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce, and remaining 1/2 tablespoon sugar in a small bowl.

Stir together water and remaining 2 teaspoons cornstarch in a cup.

Rinse cabbage in a large colander. Tap colander lightly, then transfer cabbage to a large bowl with water still clinging to leaves.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking, then add pork in 1 layer as quickly as possible. Cook, undisturbed, until pork begins to brown, about 3 minutes, then turn over and cook, undisturbed, until browned but still pink in center, about 1 minute more. Transfer pork and any juices to a plate. Do not clean skillet.

Heat remaining tablespoon oil in skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then stir-fry garlic and ginger 30 seconds. Add half of cabbage and stir-fry over high heat until cabbage is wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in remaining cabbage (skillet will be very full), along with any water in bowl, and soy sauce mixture, then cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until all of cabbage is tender, 4 to 5 minutes.

Add pork, along with any juices accumulated on plate, and bring to a boil. Stir cornstarch mixture, then pour into skillet and boil, stirring, until sauce is slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Season with salt, then serve sprinkled with cilantro.

Enjoy

Overview of the garden on our leased land at Silver Creek Farm (a nursery farm not far from us)