Tuesday, July 26, 2011

week 7

july 26 & 27

today’s harvest

2 heads lettuce

1 bunch chard

1 bunch cippolini onions

1 bunch herbs

1 pound green beans

cucumbers

zukes and summer squash

Week Seven and We are in Veggie Heaven!

Black Kettle Farm is afloat in a gorgeous sea of green with bees buzzing, seeds popping and plants cranking in the absolutely endless sunshine. Last week certainly gave us a run for our rupees with sticky, sweaty mornings and afternoons that literally baked our skin and fried our brains. Things are shifting on the farm and yet again we will take on a new rhythm. We completed the last transplanting session of the season by getting the final round of lettuce that will fill our salad bowls in the fall into the ground just before the rain finally came yesterday. The greenhouse is vacant and the fans, that have been on continuously since I sowed the first onion and leek seeds in March, have been turned off. It’s silent and empty in there, the only plants left are random chard and bok choi volunteers growing out of the ground, so much different then the completely packed tables and glorious vibrancy of the last five months in there. With pretty much everything in the ground, we now change gears and spend a huge part of our days harvesting. Beans, squash, cukes, they just don’t stop. The there’s, the garlic crop, from whence the scapes came, that was planted with shivering fingers and serious nervous anticipation way, way, way back in November when I first moved to the ridge in Lyman and the next phase of Black Kettle really started to unfold. It all needs to be pulled, bunched and hung in the loft of the barn to cure after going in the ground last fall, and making it through the snowy winter, the wet and gross spring and the hot, hot, hot summer. It never ceases to amaze. The plants so know what to do, we are just here to love and support their experience.


Susan's Swiss Chard Tuna Salad

www.farmgirlfare.com

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (I like white balsamic)

1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives (about 10 olives)

2 teaspoons brine from the olives (or more balsamic vinegar)

2 6-ounce cans tuna (oil or water packed), drained

3/4 cups chopped Swiss chard stems

2 to 3 cups chopped Swiss chard leaves

1/4 cup loosely packed chopped fresh parsley, preferably Italian flat leaf

1 cup (or more) chopped scallions (green onions), white and green parts (about 10 small)

Salt & pepper to taste

Optional:

Few handfuls of canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Combine mayonnaise, dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar and olive brine in a medium bowl and mix well. Stir in olives, tuna, chopped Swiss chard stems and leaves, parsley, and scallions. Add salt and pepper to taste and more mayonnaise and/or vinegar if desired. Stir in kidney beans if using. Tuna salad will keep for three days in the refrigerator.

Garden Zucchini Ginger Cookies

Brookfield Farm CSA recipes

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar or honey (add 1/3 cup more flour if using honey)

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp or more grated lemon peel

1 cup shredded zucchini (packed)

Optional frosting:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Cream butter and sugar or honey. Add egg and lemon peel and mix. Add dry ingredients; mix until smooth. Add zucchini. Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheet and bake 15 - 20 minutes, until lightly browned. If desired, glaze cookies with frosting while still warm.

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