News from Windy Willow Farm
2008 Week 5
2008 Week 5
This week’s share includes:
1 bunch asparagus – Probably our last week of asparagus as I’m letting more and more of the stalks develop their ferny heads, which store nutrients for next year’s crop.
1 bag spinach
1 head Tropicana lettuce – Their wonderful ruffly edges, this variety of lettuce gives your salads an attractive look.
1 head buttercrunch lettuce – Hands down, this is our favorite variety of lettuce. When the buttercrunch is ready, all the other greens go by the wayside. If I were to grow one variety of lettuce, this would definitely be it! We’ll have bigger heads next week.
1 head red buttercrunch lettuce – According to Mark, the only variety of red lettuce he likes. These are delicate, so be sure to give it a dunk in cold water when you get home.
1 bag arugula
10 garlic scapes – this is the flower stalk of the garlic plant, and if not removed will make a beautiful flower, and a tiny head of garlic. Chop up and use just like you’d use for garlic or onions. Awesome flavor! (Or you can chop and freeze, flattened, in a plastic bag. Then just break off a corner when you need some.) My favorite scape recipe: chop 3-4 in a food processor and blend with softened cream cheese and salt to taste. A great dip for veggies or pretzels or schmear on a bagel.
1 bunch Swiss chard – The Swiss chard is just coming on, and we’ll be enjoying these stalks for a while. Use the entire plant, but cook the stems longer than the leaves. My favorite Swiss chard recipe: toast pine nuts in a dry frying pan, boil water for pasta. As the pasta is cooking, sauté garlic (or garlic scapes!) in some olive oil, and sauté Swiss chard stems until soft. When the pasta is almost ready, add the roughly chopped leaves and cook until wilted. Toss with the hot pasta, top with toasted pine nuts and parmesan cheese (which I like to shave with a potato peeler), salt and pepper to taste. Finish with an acid (to balance the chard) of a tablespoon of either lemon or balsamic vinegar. You’ll love it.
1 bunch dill – I planted dill in our orchard field, but this dill is a volunteer and reseeded itself from prior years. It’s taking over one of our pea rows, but it looks nice and smells great, so it stays.
Best guess for next week – Bok choy, snow peas. A couple weeks: broccoli, black raspberries
Photo caption: A beautiful shot of Swiss chard growing in the field. We use a rainbow chard variety, which has mostly green leaves, but all colors of ribs and stems.
One of my favorite jobs on the farm is hand weeding. Hand weeding is the process of getting down onto the soil and using your hands and weeding tools to eradicate weeds around your baby plants. In this case, it was carrots. Carrots do not like weed competition and grow much nicer when they can stand alone. The carrot tops are a few inches tall; the weeds are (were) about six inches tall and were growing vigorously! There is a satisfaction to look down the row you’ve weeded and see your plants rescued from the scourge of weeds! But hand weeding also gives you a chance to get down and dirty (pun intended) with the soil. I sat still for a moment and saw all kinds of movement in the soil: ants, bees, ladybugs, worms. The soil is alive and well and functions in it’s own little ecosystem. Since we don’t spray nasty chemicals on our plants, these beings get a chance to live their life cycle. I even found a skeleton in the soil. It always amazes me what a secret life my fields experience when I’m not there to observe. I’d love to set up a camera to see what kind of traffic goes through.
Every week it seems like there are more recalls for contaminated food. It’s so scary that you could eat something as benign as a tomato, or spinach, and become sickened by it. Your farmers at WWF take the health of ourselves and our customers to the utmost. Every piece of equipment that touches your food has been bleached and cleaned prior to every use, and every picker is healthy and clean. We always have access to hand washing facilities or use hand sanitizer. As a matter of fact, I’ll put some out for your use during pickup, for convenience. As for field contamination, we use our well water that we test every few years; we spread finished compost from our own animals on our lands for fertilization. We try to have few outside inputs to our soils, but occasionally use commercial organic fertilizer compounds like dehydrated chicken manure compost or fish/seaweed fertilizer. We invite you all to inspect our gardens and handling procedures at any time to ensure your confidence in our farm. All comments and discussions are welcome.
This week I have two favorite customer comments to share. The first is from a CSA member who commented, “I feel like every Wednesday is my birthday,” which is so awesome. I love it. The other comment was from a farm stand customer/neighbor who came to introduce himself and to stock up on mesclun. He said, “Thank you for doing this!” which made my day. I’ve been told by other neighbors that we rescued this farm and how glad they are to have us. It’s nice to be valued by your neighbors. (Except the neighbor who was awoken at midnight by my escapee/scared-of-thunderstorms dog. He’ll probably need some time to come around. I brought him a dozen of our awesome eggs to sweeten him up.)
Thanks for your support!
Gwen, Mark, Sarah and Jason Hyde
© 2008 Gwen Hyde
1 bunch asparagus – Probably our last week of asparagus as I’m letting more and more of the stalks develop their ferny heads, which store nutrients for next year’s crop.
1 bag spinach
1 head Tropicana lettuce – Their wonderful ruffly edges, this variety of lettuce gives your salads an attractive look.
1 head buttercrunch lettuce – Hands down, this is our favorite variety of lettuce. When the buttercrunch is ready, all the other greens go by the wayside. If I were to grow one variety of lettuce, this would definitely be it! We’ll have bigger heads next week.
1 head red buttercrunch lettuce – According to Mark, the only variety of red lettuce he likes. These are delicate, so be sure to give it a dunk in cold water when you get home.
1 bag arugula
10 garlic scapes – this is the flower stalk of the garlic plant, and if not removed will make a beautiful flower, and a tiny head of garlic. Chop up and use just like you’d use for garlic or onions. Awesome flavor! (Or you can chop and freeze, flattened, in a plastic bag. Then just break off a corner when you need some.) My favorite scape recipe: chop 3-4 in a food processor and blend with softened cream cheese and salt to taste. A great dip for veggies or pretzels or schmear on a bagel.
1 bunch Swiss chard – The Swiss chard is just coming on, and we’ll be enjoying these stalks for a while. Use the entire plant, but cook the stems longer than the leaves. My favorite Swiss chard recipe: toast pine nuts in a dry frying pan, boil water for pasta. As the pasta is cooking, sauté garlic (or garlic scapes!) in some olive oil, and sauté Swiss chard stems until soft. When the pasta is almost ready, add the roughly chopped leaves and cook until wilted. Toss with the hot pasta, top with toasted pine nuts and parmesan cheese (which I like to shave with a potato peeler), salt and pepper to taste. Finish with an acid (to balance the chard) of a tablespoon of either lemon or balsamic vinegar. You’ll love it.
1 bunch dill – I planted dill in our orchard field, but this dill is a volunteer and reseeded itself from prior years. It’s taking over one of our pea rows, but it looks nice and smells great, so it stays.
Best guess for next week – Bok choy, snow peas. A couple weeks: broccoli, black raspberries
Photo caption: A beautiful shot of Swiss chard growing in the field. We use a rainbow chard variety, which has mostly green leaves, but all colors of ribs and stems.
One of my favorite jobs on the farm is hand weeding. Hand weeding is the process of getting down onto the soil and using your hands and weeding tools to eradicate weeds around your baby plants. In this case, it was carrots. Carrots do not like weed competition and grow much nicer when they can stand alone. The carrot tops are a few inches tall; the weeds are (were) about six inches tall and were growing vigorously! There is a satisfaction to look down the row you’ve weeded and see your plants rescued from the scourge of weeds! But hand weeding also gives you a chance to get down and dirty (pun intended) with the soil. I sat still for a moment and saw all kinds of movement in the soil: ants, bees, ladybugs, worms. The soil is alive and well and functions in it’s own little ecosystem. Since we don’t spray nasty chemicals on our plants, these beings get a chance to live their life cycle. I even found a skeleton in the soil. It always amazes me what a secret life my fields experience when I’m not there to observe. I’d love to set up a camera to see what kind of traffic goes through.
Every week it seems like there are more recalls for contaminated food. It’s so scary that you could eat something as benign as a tomato, or spinach, and become sickened by it. Your farmers at WWF take the health of ourselves and our customers to the utmost. Every piece of equipment that touches your food has been bleached and cleaned prior to every use, and every picker is healthy and clean. We always have access to hand washing facilities or use hand sanitizer. As a matter of fact, I’ll put some out for your use during pickup, for convenience. As for field contamination, we use our well water that we test every few years; we spread finished compost from our own animals on our lands for fertilization. We try to have few outside inputs to our soils, but occasionally use commercial organic fertilizer compounds like dehydrated chicken manure compost or fish/seaweed fertilizer. We invite you all to inspect our gardens and handling procedures at any time to ensure your confidence in our farm. All comments and discussions are welcome.
This week I have two favorite customer comments to share. The first is from a CSA member who commented, “I feel like every Wednesday is my birthday,” which is so awesome. I love it. The other comment was from a farm stand customer/neighbor who came to introduce himself and to stock up on mesclun. He said, “Thank you for doing this!” which made my day. I’ve been told by other neighbors that we rescued this farm and how glad they are to have us. It’s nice to be valued by your neighbors. (Except the neighbor who was awoken at midnight by my escapee/scared-of-thunderstorms dog. He’ll probably need some time to come around. I brought him a dozen of our awesome eggs to sweeten him up.)
Thanks for your support!
Gwen, Mark, Sarah and Jason Hyde
© 2008 Gwen Hyde
Garlic Scape Pesto
Ingredients:
1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into ¼-inch slices
1/3 cup walnuts
¾ cup olive oil
¼-1/2 cup grated parmigiano
½ teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste
Method:Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. For ½ pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated.
Arugula, Pear, and Asiago Cheese Salad
(from http://whatscookingamerica.net/Salad/ArugulaPearSalad.htm)
3 tablespoon coarsely chopped toasted walnuts or pecans*
Method:Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. For ½ pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated.
Arugula, Pear, and Asiago Cheese Salad
(from http://whatscookingamerica.net/Salad/ArugulaPearSalad.htm)
3 tablespoon coarsely chopped toasted walnuts or pecans*
12 cups (about 8 ounces) loosely packed arugula leaves
1 to 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Coarsely ground salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 pears, peeled, cored and sliced
6 ounces Asiago cheese, shaved or grated (I like to use a potato peeler)
* Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Spread the walnuts or pecans on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for approximately 6 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer onto a plate and let cool.
In a large bowl, add arugula leaves and drizzle with olive oil to lightly coat. On individual salad plates, place the tossed arugula; season with salt and pepper. Arrange pear slices along the side of plate and top with Asiago cheese and toasted walnuts or pecans.
Makes 12 servings.
Spring Veggie Burrito Bake Recipe #303206
(from http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=303206)
SERVES 4
1 large garlic clove (minced)
1 medium onion (minced)
3/4 cup uncooked rice
3/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
16 cups fresh spinach (loosely packed)
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic (minced)
salt and pepper
2 cups cooked black beans
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 cup monterey jack cheese (shredded)
SERVES 4
1 large garlic clove (minced)
1 medium onion (minced)
3/4 cup uncooked rice
3/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
16 cups fresh spinach (loosely packed)
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic (minced)
salt and pepper
2 cups cooked black beans
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 cup monterey jack cheese (shredded)
In a saucepan, sauté 1 clove garlic (minced), onion, uncooked rice and ground tumeric in 1 tablespoon oil until onion is tender. Stir often.
Add broth and mix well. Simmer, covered, until liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes for white rice, 40 minutes for brown rice. Remove from heat, let stand 5 minutes, fluff with fork.
While rice cooks, heat 1 tablespoon oil in frypan on high heat. Add garlic and spinach, one handful at a time as it wilts, adding a little water as needed to prevent sticking. Spinach should be moist, with loose leaves, not clumped together.
Mix black beans and chili powder in a bowl. Layer ingredients as follows in 2-quart casserole: half of spinach, all of the rice, all of the beans, remaining spinach.
Sprinkle cheese on top. (At this point, casserole may be tightly covered and refrigerated until ready to bake.) Cover and bake at 375F until sizzling, 45 minutes. Or heat in microwave about 10 minutes then let stand 5 minutes. Serve by spooning into warm flour tortillas. Optional garnishes: salsa, avocados, guacamole, sour cream, Tabasco pepper sauce, chopped fresh cilantro, lime wedges.
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