What’s in the box?

Zucchini, cabbage, garlic scapes, salad greens, radishes?

• The official start of summer is when we pick the first zucchini – at least to me. And here we are! We managed to find a few for market on Saturday, but then today, after a hot weekend we picked a lot of zucchini – enough for CSA!
• The first cabbage is also ready – a smaller size, delicious, crisp cabbage, excellent for slaw, salad, or stir-fry.
• First it was green garlic. Now there are garlic scapes. Scapes grow out of the top of the garlic plant and curl around in a loose coil. If we left them they would eventually flower and go to seed. But we prefer that the plant uses its energy to form large garlic bulbs underground instead, so we remove the scapes. They are delicious! Use them wherever garlic bulbs are used – raw or cooked. Their flavour is a bit milder. They are also great on the BBQ. Coat the whole garlic scape with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Grill for a few minutes on each side until well charred & tender.  Garlic scape pesto is also a good way to use the scapes. Here’s a link to an interesting article, “12 ways to add garlic scapes to your spring cooking routine”. https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/garlic-scapes 

• Your CSA share this week will again include 1 or 2 salad greens. You may question why we do not specify which green it will be. It’s because we are not always sure. Especially in extreme weather like we are experiencing right now, salad greens can mature faster than expected – or also decline faster than we would prefer. Lettuce, for example, can be tender & delicious one day, but tough & bitter the next due to heat. Spinach can go from being too immature to being the perfect size overnight. So we wait until the morning of CSA pick-up to make a final decision on what to pick, based on taste, size, quality, quantity … It means we might be traveling around the farm, tasting a lot of greens very early in the morning, trying to make our decision on what to pick for CSA that day (salad for breakfast – is that a perk or a drawback of our job?).
• Radishes – maybe – complete the box this week. See below for more details.

_______________________________

What is the easiest vegetable to grow?

I would say radishes. If not the easiest, they are certainly right up there (along with beans & peas).

Except radishes have NOT been easy for us this season. Our first planting got pelted with a heavy downpour just after seeding. They never even germinated. Same with the second planting. A few managed to sprout, but the ground was so hard after the rain that most never made it. We ended up harvesting about 25 bunches – not even close to the couple hundred we expected. The third planting is ready now and will be in the CSA box this week. The French breakfast type which is long & thin will be ready for Tuesday, and the common round, red radish will be in the box Thursday & Saturday. But the quality is poor. These tasty little roots were damaged – whether by insect or disease – despite being covered with insect netting.

We’ve been humbled & even embarrassed by the easiest vegetable to grow! But that’s the way it is sometimes. Grab a bunch at CSA pick up if you want. Fingers crossed that planting #4 turns out to be amazing!

___________________________

Around the farm this week …

The beginning of a hot day today.

The question today was whether to transplant vegetables or not. Two trailers full of seedlings ready to go – but the weather was so hot.

I chose to plant but the vegetables are struggling despite being watered several times. Hoping they make it.

The blackberries are in full bloom.

Our tulip tree is blooming for the first time!

Pea shoots & salad turnips – favourite vegetables for these guys!