Produce Subscription (Week 23)

Hey, who brought summer to the Midwest so EARLY! More greens, lettuce and now some broccoil this week. Everything is bolting (going to flower) extra early and thus throwing our best laid plans all a kimbo.

Your boxes will be in their respective drop site locations by 9am Wednesday. (Dropsite Location Details) Find the box with your name and have at it!

If you have any questions, please call Roger on his delivery phone 626 488 5437 (if before 10a) and the farm phone 715 426 7582 (if after 10am).

More greens and roots and the beginning of baby broccoli season in your boxes this week!

Broccoli These early sprouts take top billing. The heat brought them on quickly…too quickly! Almost missed them. Hopefully more to come.

Mesclun This salad mix might be a bit zingy; this heat! (I know, how can I belly-ache about “hot” after that winter!)

Braising greens, variety The heat has brought this harvest to a close pretty darn quick (quiet, ya’ll, their good for you!) We just enjoyed Cheezy Mac and Greens; give it a try!

Lettuce A pint-sized romaine and a big fluffy leaf-lettuce!

Parsnips Try them made simply; slice, place in pan with ½ of water and dollop of olive oil and tsp or so of dried dill weed. Simmer away until water is all steamed off. Mmmmm.

Potatoes, Purple majesty More of the queenly treats.

Boc choi, red These fellas are showing their dislike of the heat and the pesky flea beetles. Taste is still my favorite. Next year a different variety! (I’ll save these for the fall when they are beautiful.)

Radish, red rover I just love the color and the crunch…then the mouth zing gets me several minutes later.

Turnips, salad The pop of the red radish and the clean look of the crystal white turnips will jazz up your salads or dippin’ platter this weekend.

Chives Couldn’t pass up the floral bouquet; use them in a centerpiece!

Garlic Chives These little fellas are great; check out the recipe for Asian Chive Pancakes. Fab!

Rhubarb Just like my grandmother used to grow…literally! I give thanks to her for some wonderful heirloom rhubarb.

Recipes for your consideration

I just love biscuits. These are great as a side to a soup or even accompanying a savory breakfast (with a Gimme Lean Veggie Sausage patty sandwiched in between.
Chedda n Chive Biscuits

1 cup soymilk
1/2 cup green olives w/ pimentos
2 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp onion granules
1/4 tsp mustard powder
1/4 tsp garlic granules

1 1/2 cup unbleached AP flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or all AP is ok)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup minced chives
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven 400F

Place first 7 ingredients in blender and whiz until smooth.
In a large bowl, stir together remaining dry ingredients + chives. Make a well in the center and pour in the blended mixture. Stir until well moistened, but don’t over mix. It will be sticky.

Drop by spoonful onto parchment papered, oiled or non-stick baking sheet. Bake 15-20min or until just starting to brown. Cool on wire racks. Serve warm or room temp.

Adapted from: The Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak

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I was reading this great farm book and out of the blue they stuck a sidebar in with a recipe of my favorite thing…sorta (check out The Tea House in St Paul for Scallion Pancakes; close second.) These puppies are fab!!!¬

Asian Chive Pancakes

1 cup AP flour
1/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup cold water
1 Tbsp canola oil, plus extra for pan
1 cup garlic chives, chopped into 1" lengths

1/4 cup soy sauce
3 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
Optional: sugar, hot pepper flakes, minced garlic, minced ginger root, toasted sesame seeds to taste

In large bowl, mix the flours together. Add water, a little at a time, until you reach the consistency of thin pancake batter. Add the 1 Tbsp canola oil and stir until smooth. Stir chopped chives into batter, tossing to coat.

Heat large frying pan over medium heat and coat with oil. Add batter to hot pan to make 1/4" pancakes. Cook over medium heat approx 4min; flip and repeat on that side. Serve hot with dipping sauce.

Dipping sauce: Whisk together all ingredients; add extras as you prefer.

From: The Season’s on Henry’s Farm by Terra Brockman

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This is quite incredible! I was introduced to it with asparagus spears, then adapted it to lightly braised/steamed boc choi. Mmmmm good.¬

Toasted Sesame Aioli

1/4 cup Veganaise or Nayonaise
1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted
1/2 tsp ginger root, zested/grated
1 clove garlic, minced

Whisk all ingredients together; served chilled with steamed vegetable of your choice. Asparagus and boc choi both work great!

Everyone feel free to add your favorite recipes to the website.

For Your Reading Pleasure

The Season’s on Henry’s Farm by Terra Brockman.

This is a great read that puts you into the flow of a working vegetable farm thru all seasons. Recipes accompany the changes in seasons after reading about the harvests. Well done and good insight into where our produce comes from…or “should” come from. (just a little soapbox ? )

Farm News

Working on empty tonight, so not wit and wisdom from this end right now. We may need to make some delivery adjustments next week for CSA/subscription members and the Online Market may NOT open this weekend. Rog is going in for some quasi-elective/not-so-elective surgery on Friday and will be in the hospital at least thru Monday if all goes well. His little wifey-poo will be there making the doctors and nurses toe the line.

So this puts a bit of a crimp in the flow of things. There may be an abbreviated box or none at all next week, so be advised. I’ll keep ya’ll posted, as I sit and pull my hair out down at Mayo this weekend! (More than you wanted to know, I know!)

He’s gonna throttle me when he sees this!
Ok, a little bit of wit. :)

Please bring your boxes back this week. Reduce – Reuse – Recycle (thanks!)

Have a wonderful week, and enjoy the vegetables.

Roger and Lara