CSA Newsletter and Recipes 4-4
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Farm News and Recipes from Paige
(recipes below)
I'd hate to lead you astray and begin my newsletter with something
other than the weather. It seems we can always complain about the
weather, too wet, too dry, too hot, too mild. Today in this
newsletter, I'm going to attempt staying positive about our recent
rains and our strangely cool spring. After all, I'd rather spend my
day with nice cloud cover weeding than I would scrambling to irrigate
each wilted and withered field.
It really is quite amazing how the moisture wakes up so much in
nature. Isn't it absolutely gorgeous out in the woods, along the
rising creeks and lakes, and along the roadways? Each day I try to
remember to listen to the new insects, amphibians, and birds and watch
as mushrooms and rare plants blossom. It's easy to love this deciduous region and
its incredible flora and fauna, especially in a spring like this one.
The
beauty of this rain is most exemplified on the farm with the abundance
of lettuces and root crops. Both are bursting with tender sweetness
that only the soil and the rain can co-create. Each harvest continues
to improve and I smile each time I think back to your surveys from last
year that led me to believe I needed to plant more spring broccoli, peas,
carrots, and lettuces. Hopefully mother nature will continue to provide the same bounty for
the remainder of spring. I have a feeling she will. |
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Farm talk: Tomatoes--maintenance time
Things on the farm are great. A brief farm walk on Friday indicated our first fruiting crops are about to take main stage. Our squashes and zucchini are popping out with vigor. With this rain, we'll likely be able to harvest in no time.
Over the long Memorial weekend while everyone else took a well deserved and short break, I took the quiet time to work alone in the fields. I spent several wonderful hours with our tomato crop.
 We prune and trellis these fruiting machines with the utmost care. With blackened hands from the staining plants and the aroma of the sweetest smell, I bent over and picked the 'sucker' stems off of each plant. I then began our trellis method that we know as the 'stake and weave' method. I'm pretty sure that if high schoolers got hold of that term, it may become a new dance craze.
Anyhow, since I've been thinking hard about tomatoes, I'll share with you, our CSA members and likely home gardener candidates, some tips and info on growing tomatoes.
First, there's the bed or soil preparation. Tomatoes like to grow. We just need to give them a happy place to do so. Our soils need a couple of basic nutrients and a whole host of others. Tomatoes need nitrogen for leafy growth and an abundance of phosphorus for fruiting. Lacking in many our native soils, calcium is a nutrient in large demand (especially in wet years). Tomatoes that suffer from calcium deficiency often first fruit with the dreaded blossom end rot. This creates a ghastly black scar on the blossom end of the tomato and makes the harvest unmarketable (still partially edible but prematurely ripened). A way to combat this is to make sure you have a soil with a decent pH, 5.6 to 6.5 will work. Also, it never hurts to give a little bit of extra calcium to your sweet plants. We apply calcium and phosphorus with bone meal (organic of course). Hi Calcium lime, argonite, and even household milk will work.
Second, there's planting. Tomatoes need a lot of space. We space ours 5 feet apart from row to row and 1.5 feet between one another. It's hard to believe that the 3" maters will eventually fill up the whole trellis. Here's a planting tip: make sure and bury your tomato plant very deep. Each leaf that you bury increases the root structure significantly.
Next, we have disease and pest issues to contend with. Check out your plants every so often to scout for bugs and be sure to mulch! Straw mulch works great. Most of our tomato diseases are soil borne, caused by the splashing of soil onto the leaves. Prevent that with a covered soil and also save on irrigation (haven't heard that word in a while!).
 Then the most time consuming part of tomato growth, the maintenance. This includes pruning and staking or trellising. To prune your tomatoes (don't prune determinate varieties!!), pinch off each 'sucker' stem. These will occur in the 'crotch' or axil of each plant. These suckers will fruit, but we choose not to let them grow so that our tomato leaves get adequate sunlight (creating sugars for the tomatoes), so that the tomatoes will increase in size, and so that there is ample air flow to prevent disease and pests.
The staking of tomatoes in a home garden is much easier than a long 200' bed. I'd recommend tomato cages, or tomato clips with a sturdy post. We use the aforementioned stake and weave method (also known as the Florida weave--see to the right).
So all this talk of tomatoes makes me want a BLT. Patience is a virtue and we'll soon see our flowers turning to swelling green to red tomatoes. I'm not a huge tomato fan (gasp), but I do value them and agree you can't beat a wonderful heirloom with a touch of salt. They yield more $ per square foot than any other crop, but grow with much attention, cost, and skill. They are also the most time consuming crop by far on the farm. After growing 38 varieties last year and wanting to size down, I made the ridiculous decision to grow 45 varieties this year. Me : seed catalogs :: kid : candy store.
I'll leave you with an interesting tomato fact:
The tomato is the 2nd most consumed vegetable only behind the potato. Also, the tomato is the most widely grown crop in home gardens.
Enough about things to come. Let's enjoy what's on our plates tonight.
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This week's share:
1 bu or head broccoli
1/2 lb sugar snaps
1 bu dill
2 heads lettuce
1 bag lettuce mix
1 bu Chinese cabbage
1 bu leeks
1 bu carrots
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Dilly
Peas
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1/2 lb peas 2 T butter 1 tsp dill 1/4 tsp salt 1 T Allium (finely minced leek or green onion or clove green garlic if you've got any left from last week)
Preparation: Snap ends off peas and pull small strand from each side of the pea (if you desire).
Steam peas. (I make a steamer with a colander and a pot of boiling water.)
Combine
butter, the allium and dill by hand, with a food processor, or an immersion blender.
Add dill compound butter to the top of the hot peas, toss with salt to taste and enjoy!
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Justin's
Superb
Asian
Slaw
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3 cups shredded chinese cabbage
1 cup
carrots, finely julienned
1/2 cup sugar snap peas, finely julienned
1/3 cup chopped scallions
1/4 cup finely chopped
cilantro
1 tablespoon minced ginger
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2
tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons sesame
oil
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame
seeds Directions:
Place the cabbage, carrots, sugar snap, peas, scallions, and cilantro
in a large mixing bowl.
In a small bowl, mix together the ginger, rice
wine vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice, sesame oil, hot chili paste, and sugar.
Whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and
toss to mix evenly. Let sit for about 30 minutes, tossing occasionally, to allow
the vegetables to absorb the flavors of the dressing.
Serve, garnished
with the sesame seeds or peanuts. |
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Creamy
Dill
Salad
Dressing
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2 cups mayonnaise
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 T dill(or to taste), minced
Serenbe Farms green garlic
1/2 cup buttermilk
In a medium bowl, whisk together the
mayonnaise, lemon juice, dill and buttermilk. Chill until serving.
Serve over the tender lettuce mix or over other soft head varieties.
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Fast Sauce
for Anything |
This came from the folks at High Mowing Seeds:
This is my all-time favorite sauce.
Here is what you need:
¾ cup tahini
A few tablespoons hot water (to thin the tahini)
Tamari or soy sauce, to taste
Cayenne pepper
1-2 Tbs grated fresh ginger root
A few cloves minced garlic cloves or chopped garlic greens
Here is what you do:
Add the tahini to a small mixing bowl. Add hot water and thin to desired
consistency. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Mix with steamed
vegetables, sautéed tofu chunks, and rice or noodles for a great meal.
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