Week 5

A member shared this recipe for Kale soup, I am going to freeze some kale for soup this winter!    Most of the ingredients are in the share this week, and if you would like to come out and get some fresh herbs from the herb garden, just let me know!

Lots of members have made the kale chips.  Some tips they have shared are "don't over do it with the oil" and "sprinkle the salt after while they are warm."

Usually I roast my new potatoes.  Another of my favorite way to cook new potatoes is scrub them, half the larger ones (or quarter) cover and boil them on med-low with onion, garlic, fresh dill, thyme and salt and pepper.  When almost done (but still firm) drain off water and add butter and simmer in butter.  Fresh green beans or sugar peas will make this an even better meal.

Both recipes are from allrecipes.com

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/savory-kale-cannellini-bean-and-potato-soup/detail.aspx 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-kale-chips/detail.aspx

Share this week includes:

New potatoes 

Carrots

New Onions

sugar peas / snow peas

kale

lettuce

Swiss chard

spicy mustard mix with bok choi 

lemon cucumber

fresh garlic

basil

Savory Kale, Cannellini Bean, and Potato Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 3/4 cup diced carrot
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup white wine
• 3 potatoes, halved and sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 (16 ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups finely chopped kale leaves
• 1 small red chile pepper, seeded and chopped fine
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat; cook and stir the onion until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the carrot and garlic, and cook for 5 minutes more.
2. Pour in the chicken broth, water, and white wine; stir in the potatoes, rosemary, sage, and thyme. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Add the cannelini beans, kale, chile pepper, and black pepper, and simmer, covered, for 30 more minutes.

 

Baked Kale Chips

Ingredients

• 1 bunch kale
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes. 

Week 4 and 16 to go!

Week 4 and we still have spring greens!  After last week's hot weather the lettuce has a bit of a bite to it.  A little vinegar or something salty will help counteract some of the bitters, and a little sweetness will help balance the tart vinegar.  So try some stronger dressing with the salad, and add a splash of vinegar to the wilted greens (we like balsamic and seasoned rice vinegar). 
This weeks share included:
Large head green lettuce & mixed lettuce
sugar snap peas
snow peas
broccoli
garlic scapes
Swiss chard
radishes
spinach
cilantro and mint
We have lots of herbs that I have been picking at the farm, let me know if you would like any oregano, sage, tarragon, Thai basil, mint (many kinds) or thyme.  Cilantro is in limited quantities, but it is growing quickly (it just bolts so fast!) The dill and basil I put out late and it will be another week before we start seeing any. 
The summer squash is loaded with blossoms and baby's and the green beans are flowering.  Before long comes the yummy grilled squash and backaches from bean-picking!
The potatoes are looking good, I will start to dig some new potatoes to go with the green beans (yum!).  The tomatoes are looking wonderful as well, loaded with lots of early little red zebra's, green zebra's and cherry tomatoes.  My oldest son asks me daily if we have any tomatoes yet.  I almost forgot about the carrots and beets! Another couple of weeks and I will try for those.
For those of you who did not come to the Sunday pick-up at the farm, Mom (Brenda) and I will be at the Charleston Farmer's Market from 6:30-9 am on Wednesday morning.  My permanent spot is on the north side of the courthouse in front of the steps.  This will be my seventh year at the market, and my mom has joined my for most of those years.  She is my most loyal and hard working volunteer, I am happy she can be there peddling produce with me.
See you all soon! 

More bok choy is on the way! This is similar to napa cabbage salad, yummy with sesame seed and sunflower seeds also. I would recomend slicing the larger ribs of the bok choy like celery for this salad.

 Potatoes and garlic are looking fantastic!

Iris and tarragon in the herb garden

Farm Tour and Charleston Farmers Market Growers Associaiton

Happy Spring Everyone!

Things are moving right along at the farm, and we have several crops ready to pick.  The spinach this years is great- it must be this prolonged cool weather.  We are hosting a Charleston Farmers Market Growers Association farm tour this Saturday, May 21 at 10:00 a.m.  The CFMGA pledges to grow 100% of what they sell, no resale of produce.  We will tour the farm and answer any questions you may have about local produce. 
We will have produce ready for a pick-up after the tour (maybe 30 min, depends on the discussions) and you can take your first 2011 share home with you.  For those of you that cannot make it on Saturday, you can pick-up your produce on Sunday afternoon, I was thinking between 1-3 (let me know if it does not work for you).  Once we meet with everyone, and get things started I think it would be a good idea to have you come out to the farm every other Sunday for produce, and I will bring it to town on the alternate Sunday's - we can share the travel expense that way - let me know what you think of that. 
Shares this week should include:
Salad mix (lettuce, baby beet greens, bok choi, spinach, baby kale, baby Swiss chard)
Bok Choi for stir fry, whole babies
Spinach
Lettuce
Asparagus (we should have enough for everyone, if not we will do half of you next week)


Hope to see everyone this weekend!
Kim

Spring has arrived!

It seems as if spring has had a hard time getting here this year.  The soil had a hard time drying out due to the cool weather.  We were lucky to have out potatoes in by the end of March, and over half of the garden is planted. 
In the ground so far:
beets, carrots, peas, potatoes, spinach, onions, leeks, bok choi, pac choi, kale, chard, lettuce, arugula, and raab.
The greenhouse is full of plants, many ready to go out.   We set out 350 cabbage plants last night.  My dad also had the big tractor out to plant the sweetcorn, it is early but we decided to gamble it.  We could have some of the earliest SC in the county, or it could rot in the ground with cool cold weather.  I am hoping for the first.  I have a good feeling and it plants better with the larger equipment, 8 rows at a time. 
Many of our warm weather crop are seedlings and will be ready to go out in a couple weeks.  Everything looks so good so far!
We got some exciting news, NRCS is funding us a hoop house, 20' x 50' and I will be purchasing it this week.  This hoop house will extend our season, primarily for growing greens into the winter.  Last year we purchased 2 low tunnel systems and overwintered mustard, kale, broccoli, cabbage and napa cabbage.  It overwintered and is ready to pick right now.  If I can do that with 2 - 4' x 50' hoops, imaging what we can do with a big one.  We also purchased a used greenhouse, 20' x 50' a few weeks ago from a retiring farm in Casey.  It was the coldest day ever for my dad and Ken and I to load that up.  We have almost outgrown our greenhouse, so this big one is my dream come true 10 times over.  Very exciting. 
All the chicks arrived from the hatchery, and we have a really cool assortment of pullets - egg layers.  We also have 14 turkeys, bronze breasted.  And they have been hatching out of our incubator non-stop for several weeks.  We are overrun with birds right now, and they are smelly, stinking up my sunroom.

We are filling up fast, and have a few spots open, then it will be to wait and see what the weather brings!
See ya all soon!

Groundhog day Greetings!

What a storm!  Our house is surrounded by huge Siberian Elm's planted way to close to the house.  All night long we heard the frozen branches dropping on the house.  Our road is drifted over and no sign of a snow plow. It's hard to imagine in a few short weeks we will be getting ready to plant potatoes, cabbage and broccoli.  However, the greenhouse was 100 degrees just a few days ago because it was so sunny out.  We have 15 flats of onions started on the sun room - they are just popping out.  Next we will start the broccoli and cabbage.  I am skipping all cauliflower this year.  I have tried to grow it for the past 7 years and I have had maybe 3 good heads,  I'm throwing in the towel.  We are going to try some celeriac root and celery, Dr. Gordon Tucker gave me a nice big packet of celery seed he brought back from his trip to China.  I grew celery about 5 years ago and it grew nicely but not very big.  Celeriac root is a really ugly root that grows on top of the soil and is supposed to be great to cook with.   I think they will be best suited for the black soil of the kitchen garden.
Our big mama sheep is getting ready to lamb any day now, she is huge.  It will be our first lambing, and the weather could not be worse!  I hope she hangs on a little while longer.
CSA Memberships are rolling in as people look forward to spring.  If we do the Charleston Farmers market this year, we will be there on Saturday.  It's going to be an exciting busy season!