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"The spirit cannot endure the body when overfed, but, if underfed, the body cannot endure the spirit." ~St Frances de Sales
Shared Inspiration
This weeks share will include another wave of the bumper crop of snow peas this season. Last weeks share include two pounds bags for each of you and this weeks share will as well. If that is more than you care to consume in a week, freeze them! You will be grateful during the barren winter months to have the memory and flavor of the spring harvest. They are wonderful in stir fries. I have been adding them to sandwiches for a little crunch, dicing them up in salads, and heaping them on my children's plates everyday for lunch. Just when I find myself tiring of something, the season changes and brings on a new beauty. As the snow peas fade, the garlic scapes are spiraling up.
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Garlic Scape
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They are the next crop rising up in multitudes. We planted 11,000 bulbs of garlic last year, so that would produce about the same number of scapes! Good news is they do not all need to be harvested at once. We intend to pick many of them over the next couple of weeks and disperse them as we cut. The garlic scape is the flower of the garlic plant, less commonly known then the bulb, but edible and delicious just the same. It has a subtle flavor of the bulb and can be used in a variety of ways. Dice it up fresh and add to a salad, stir fry or eggs; any dish really that would be complimented by garlic. We also enjoy using a food processor or high energy blender to create pesto or sauces with them. You could blend up the whole bunch with olive oil, parmesan, salt, and a little spice for a tasty sauce or spread. Hope you enjoy experimenting with them.
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Pepper Flowering
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As the peas fade, the lettuce and spinach is bolting (going to flower). The heat of summer is upon us and the garden is quickly
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Jesse and the crew transplanting head lettuce under shade cloth
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reflecting the change of the season. While the flowering of the leaf crops puts them to rest for harvest season, it signifies the beginning of the summer crops. The pepper, tomatoes and squash are in full bloom along with many others, and bearing many young fruits. Romaine and Bibb head lettuce was transplanted in to a tunnel covered in shade cloth today, in attempts to have some more for mid-summer salads. The last of the spring lettuce harvest will come home tomorrow.
We also have bunches of beets and sweet white turnips to pull. As it warms up and raw foods often feel more attractive then cooked meals, grating the roots in a salad is a welcome option. Grated beets and carrots with a little lemon juice, ginger and honey is a favorite of mine. The turnips are wonderful grated with apples. The leaves are still best sautéd or steamed in my opinion.
"I cooked the turnips with a large potato to make a delicious mash
to have with bright green peas and steak. I had not eaten turnips before or for a long time so it was interesting to try them. I made an interesting kale/turnipgreen tops and some of the other greens with crumbled bacon quiche pie! I had only had kale once before and I had to go into my internet recipe files to find some suggestions. This is definitely is getting me out of my usual comfort cooking zone and into trying new ways to use greens." (Nancy, CSA Member)
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Garlic, scallion, joi choi, butter, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper , egg whites
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We have received messages from a few members this week sharing their new found creative exploration in the kitchen with the produce they receive from the shares! It is a wonderful and inspiring feeling to receive them, having been so intimately connected to the growth of the harvest. We all get in our routines in the kitchen, so it is refreshing to know that the harvest is both inspiring health and creativity. Hope sharing it here will carry it onward to all of you in inspiring new meals in your kitchen.
Cooking is a form of art. It is so easy to slip into the mind set of the  | |
Spinach, Mango, Cream and Honey
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kitchen being a "chore". I invite all of you, including myself, to allow the kitchen and the art of cooking, to become a place of mindful meditation, creative exploration, and physical healing this week. The energy we put into preparing meals returns to us to nourish both body and soul as it moves through our bodies, infusing us with the energy to carry on with health and vitality. From elaborate meals to simple shakes, go slow and enjoy the process. Use a beautiful dish or sit in the sun and give yourself the gift of self care, it spills over.
Thank you for receiving the fruits of our garden and planting your seed of good intention in the soil of this earth. May it bear you many rewards.
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Summer Squash Tendril
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With Peace and Blessings,
Halima Jen Willett
Farm of Peace
1212 Haven Lane
Warfordsburg, PA 17267
717-573-2956 (Farm house)
717-404-0326 (Cell Phone)
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