The spirits of the farm have lifted this week. The clouds cleared on Saturday morning and it was as though heaven shone down on us. We were so happy to see the sun returning to kiss the garden good morning. All that rain and all this sunshine is making everything take off very quickly this week. It’s amazing how you can literally watch the plants grow this time of year if you were to take the time to plop a squat in the broccoli patch.
Harvesting schedules are about to become more demanding. Many of our favorite summer veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, zucchini and summer squash need to be harvested every 2 days to prevent over-ripening of the highly perishable products. The long days and increased heat is wanting to make our delicate lettuce heads bolt for seed production and our bulbing roots swell in size.
The smells of the garden seem to be coming alive as well. This week we snapped hundreds of garlic scapes off the tops of the garlic plants covering our harvesting fingers with garlic slime. We harvested cilantro on Monday evening and enjoyed the fresh, pungent smell of the coriander leaf. Last week we harvested our first dill plants and were loving even the boring and often excused smell of dill. We even did our fair share of stand-up hoeing around the fragrant celery and parsley plants this week snapping off a stalk here and a stem there, teasing each other with the delectable smells of summer. Upon filling our cooler with all of the harvests of the week, we wafted the smells of strawberries, lettuce, garlic and cilantro in one very nice feeling and smelling room.
Aside from the smells of the fresh produce comes the smells of the earth that rise from the roots of each weed or cultivated plant that is pulled. The smell of the earth is so real. Truly it reminds me of my grandmother’s geranium beds which are my earliest memories of playing in the soil and noticing the rich smell it contained. My dirty work jeans smelled of garlic, cilantro and earth. Our worn work shirts smell of sweat and labor and sunshine, unique to this time of year. The smell of fresh-cut grass and peonies. It is as though someone turned up the volume on the smell lever. I suppose that it could be a pregnancy thing, but I suspect that you all ‘catch my drift’.
Kohlrabi- You may have received a purple or a white kohlrabi. They’re the same thing on the inside. Peel the tuff skin off the kohlrabi with a pearing knife and eat the white, crunchy flesh raw with some ranch dip or sprinkled with salt or lemon. Their texture is similar to an apple, but their flavor is closer to cabbage…sort of…but more mild. This is usually a new veggie for some folks. They can also be added to a stir-fry and cooked once peeled. The greens to kohlrabi can also be used. Strip the greens off of their spine and use as a cooking green like you would spinach, kale or chard. It’s great when added to soups, stir frys or quiche.
Snap/Snow Peas- Our second giving of spring peas. An extremely time consuming harvest that doesn’t reveal the rewards you might like after so many hours bent over. You may have recevied the snap peas or the snow peas. Both varieties are edible pod varieties. We loved them in stir-fry!
Lettuce- Lotts of lettuce this week! One member told us that their household now has a new and very strict regimen of two salads per member of the household per day. Are you using it all up? Check out our home-made ranch dressing recipe. Remember that lettuce keeps better in a plastic bag in the fridge to preserve the moisture. Refrigerators will dry out your greens if they’re not kept in the fridge.
Collards- More cooking greens. I receive a couple very kind and appreciative e-mails from folks who love all the cooking greens. Green keep best in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Garlic Scapes– These are the tiny little shoots that come out of the top of a garlic plant. The scapes are the garlic plants effort at making a seed pod. We snap them off shortly after we see them coming on to encourage the garlic plant to put more energy into making a nice sized garlic bulb beneath the ground rather than making seed pods above the ground. Each plant makes 1 scape each year. What’s wonderful is that they are edible during a season where our stored winter garlic from the previous year is long gone and it will still be a bit longer until we have the real deal. The most desireable part of the scape is from the bottom of the scape up until the lime-green nodule. The whole thing is edible, but the tops are a bit more chewy. Have fun using it like you would use garlic!
Cilantro- Taco night! Keeps best in a plastic bag in the fridge to preserve moisture.
Strawberries- These yummy red berries need very little introduction! They are one of the few items that we buy to help fill our CSA boxes in the early spring along with Asparagus. Fresh Strawberries don’t keep well, so eat them up quick!
