Beyond the Blue Gate: June 2017

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

BGF News - June 27, 2017-Vol. XXXIII, No.4

In this week’s box:

Baby Carrots: Rainbow Mix
Green Garlic
Head Lettuce: Bronze Arrowhead and/or Green Towers
Napa Cabbage
Purslane
Scallions
Summer Squash: 8 Ball( round, green), Slik Pik (long, light yellow), Patty Pan (dk green, lt. green or yellow "flying saucer-shaped") or Golden Glory (yellow zucchini)

* and possibly one of the following:
Broccoli

A rainbow of carrots

For those with the Egg option [full shares]: one dozen free-range eggs (assorted colors)

For those with the Herb option: basil tips, peppermint, lovage

Featured Recipes: ** indicates a BGF favorite
Francis Lam’s Ginger Scallion Sauce**
Purslane Salad with Garlic Yoghurt
Veggie Mac & Cheese (no "mac") ** see recipe at bottom
Lime Cabbage Salad** see recipe at bottom

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 1.75"

This week features a much happier farmer working much-relieved crops. We worked hard last week to get some major cultivating done around the farm but especially in the east plots with extra time dedicated to the popcorn. Then the rain started...ah sweet, sweet rain! Then we got a break, did some more cultivating and hilled the potatoes again and low and behold, it rained again! Perfect! Then we used some of that time when the soil was too wet to work, to get caught up on our high tunnel chores. The spent lettuces were sent to the livestock and compost pile, beds cleaned up and trellises installed. We even did a little mini planting of some of our left-over field trial lettuce to see how it does in the heat of a summer high tunnel. Besides that small planting, the only new crops in the ground this past week were okra and the final planting of summer squashes, and they really appreciated nature's timely irrigation.

While the rain was much needed, the accompanying cooler weather is curious. The crew, livestock and early season crops love it. The mid-season, heat-loving plants, however are not so pleased. Minimum temperatures for full production of cucumbers is 50° and for tomatoes it is 55°. When I did morning chores today (wearing a lined sweatshirt) it was 49.3°. These temps wont kill any of the crops, but at the very least is slows their growth considerably and can decrease their overall production. I expected that we would be slammed with summer squash harvesting this week following the rain but while the plants are loaded with immature fruits they are just sort of wandering towards the "ready to harvest" mark. Nothing bad there, just unexpected. On the other hand, the head lettuces are loving the cooler weather and even the high tunnel peas are putting out a new flush of growth so we might be able to get a few more of those out in boxes in the coming weeks.

A beautiful harvest of head lettuce

Upcoming Events:

A reminder that we will not be delivering boxes next week on the 4th of July. We hope you enjoy your holiday with friends and family. And don't worry, we aren't shorting you a week, we've added it to the end of the schedule. See you on July 11th!

Save the Date!: CSA member Ice Cream Social- Sunday, July 23rd from 2 – 5pm at the farm. Come on out for an afternoon filled with fresh country air, homemade ice cream and farm-fresh desserts. We will send out an e-invitation soon, so keep your eyes open for it. We hope everyone can join us!

A little detail on your produce this week:

Due to the heavy rains we experienced in the past week, some of your produce will have soil lodged in the interior layers from splashing. While we do wash the produce, it isn't possible for us to get all the dirt out without tearing apart the layers or leaves of vegetables like Napa cabbage, lettuce and scallions. So all this to say, be sure to wash your produce before you use it.

Carrots: Remove the leafy green tops, leaving about an inch of stems. Refrigerate dry, unwashed carrots in a plastic bag for two weeks or longer. To use scrub carrots well (no need to peel) with a stiff brush just before using. Trim off any green spots, which can taste bitter. When slicing or chopping carrots for cooking, be sure to make all the pieces relatively the same size; this will ensure an evenly cooked dish.

Green Garlic: This is freshly harvested garlic that hasn't had time to cure yet. You will notice that the wrappers are soft and the garlic itself is very juicy. You can use it in any recipe calling for garlic. Store loosely wrapped in the refrigerator for best keeping quality.

Napa Cabbage: Store Napa cabbage whole in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to a week. These Napa are fairly immature and wont have a large formed head but are still tasty and can be used in any cabbage recipe.

Scallions (green onions)- are best kept upright in a glass with about 1" of water in it, more like flowers than vegetables. Loosely cover the tops with plastic and you will be amazed at how long they will keep. We like to throw a handful of chopped scallions into nearly any savory dish, right near the end of the cooking time.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week

and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator. If they are particularly wet, wrap in a cotton or linen dish towel before placing in the bag.

* NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..." These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time. We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item. On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm? Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and/or share your recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know.

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Blue, Luci & Indigo)

Lime Cabbage Salad

1/2 cabbage, finely shredded
2 limes, freshly squeezed
large pinch of sea salt
1/4 tsp cumin seed
1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil

Toss together & serve as a side salad or top with a saucy or spicy meat, like left over BBQ beef.

Recipe Source: Blue Gate Farm friend, Dana Foster

Veggie Mac & Cheese (no “mac”)

2 tbs olive oil

2-3 cups sliced summer squash (1/4” slices)

2 tbs green onions or garlic, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

3-4 tbs chevre cheese (we especially like chive or pesto flavored)

Pour oil in sauté pan. Add garlic and summer squash. Saute 1-2 minutes and add green onion. Cook an additional 1-2 minutes until squash are cooked through, but still firm. Remove from heat and immediately stir cheese into squash. Serve hot.

Recipe source: Blue Gate Farm

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

BGF News - June 20, 2017 Vol. XXXIII, No.3

In this week’s box:

Basil (Genovese and/or Italian Large Leaf, "just a little off the top")
Braising Greens Mix or Choi
Garlic Scapes
Head Lettuce Bouquets
Kale Bouquets
Oregano
Salad Turnips: Hakurei
* and possibly one of the following:
(please see note below:"A little detail on your produce this week")

Broccoli

Snow Peas

Summer Squash: 8 Ball( round, green), Slik Pik (long, light yellow) or Patty Pan (dk green, lt. green or yellow "flying saucer-shaped")

For those with the Egg option [full & half shares]: one dozen free-range eggs (assorted colors)

For those with the Herb option: Herb share will begin in a couple of weeks as herbs mature

Summer Squash Assortment

Featured Recipes: (** indicates a BGF favorite )
White Bean and Kale Ragout with Turnips and Sausage
Chickpeas with Spicy Wilted Greens
Flawless Kale Chips **
Summer Squash with Oregano

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 1.15"

We finally got a bit of rain this past week, it was a huge relief in more than one way. We were pretty desperate for the rain, but Thursday's storm also brought baseball-sized hail to our neighbors just a mile away. We feel terrible for their crop losses and damage, but were so very thankful to have missed that disaster on our farm. We did have dime-sized hail that night, so are seeing a bit of cosmetic damage on some of the crops, but nothing serious. The rain was so critical when it came and it made a real difference for the crops, especially those that hadn't yet germinated, but we are already ready for more and are back to running the irrigation systems in rotation. That 1" did make a huge difference though, we saw a nice growth spurt in the summer squashes, which are making a limited appearance in the boxes this week, with many, many more to come. The beans and cucumbers also put on a growth spurt and we spent several hours getting the trellises installed for those vining crops.The broccoli put on a "heading spurt" if not a growth spurt, so we are sending out the first bit of broccoli this week as well. The heads are quite small, but if you just think of them as really big florets, then they are much more impressive. The high tunnel basil needed pinching back to promote future growth, so we are sending out just a little taste of summer in the boxes this week. Be sure to take a look at the storage recommendations for basil (unless you plan to use it tonight!) Never fear, there is more broccoli and basil to come.The oregano is growing like crazy and needed to be cut back, so everyone gets to enjoy a little extra herby-ness with their share this week. Because of the heavy wind and rain last week, it might be a little gritty, so be sure to wash it, just before using. It will lose flavor if you wash it before storing it.

We are seeing germination on new sowings of beans, beets, popcorn and edamame. The melon and winter squash plantings are blooming and the pollinators are keeping up good traffic between them. Did you know that it can take up to 15 visits from a pollinator to adequately pollinate one squash blossom? That is just one example of why we need to do everything we can to help promote healthy pollinator populations. We are finally seeing some germination on one of our trial beds that is sown to a blend of pollinator-attractor plants. We are trialing this seed mix as part of a field study with Practical Farmers of Iowa and the Xerces Society.

Not surprisingly, the crops weren't the only growing things that appreciated the recent rains. The grass has started to green up again and so have the weeds, though they never really seemed to slow down. So our weed war continues on a daily basis. In this battle, we were fortunate this weekend to host the farmer families from the Gang of 5 Farms. Over the summer months we get together with our friends from Genuine Faux Farm, Grinnell Heritage Farm, Scattergood Friends School and Wabi Sabi Farm each month at one of the farms to do a work day, eat and enjoy each other's company. This month was our turn to host and the project of the day was weeding onions, leeks, winter squash and melons in our East Plots. This crew can slay a lot of weeds in short order. Huge thanks to all of them for their valiant efforts!

The Gang of Five, Weed Warriors!

So, all in all it was a pretty good week on the farm, though it wasn't all great news. It appears that we did lose the chard this week to the battle of the bunnies. We started with 300 row feet of chard and were never able to slow the tide of hungry eaters that found it irresistible. So the sad news is that the bunnies won, the chard is mostly gone and now we have to start over. We expect to lose a small percentage of chard every season, but we have never seen whole crop destruction like we have experienced this year. We do anticipate chard making it into the boxes this season, it will just take longer than planned. The edamame and bush beans seem to be recovering from the earlier bunny onslaught. Rabbit stew is sounding better and better all the time!

Keep up those rain dances, and if your personal rain dance includes a hail and damaging wind exclusion, all the better!

A little detail on your produce this week:

Basil hates the cold and will turn black with exposure. Keep long stemmed basil in a glass/vase of water on your counter top (out of direct sunlight). Stems that are too short (trimmings/tops) should be placed in a plastic bag, with a dry paper towel. Then put inside of a paper bag (for insulation) and put in the warmest part of your refrigerator (usually the door) or on the top shelf towards the front.

Braising Greens: A combination of greens that are used mostly in cooked dishes. Store like other greens, in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

Broccoli: Wrap broccoli loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak broccoli, head down, in cold, salted water (1 teaspoon salt to a 8 cups of water) for 5 minutes. Any [organic] critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death. (Note: If you soak broccoli in salt water before storing, it will become too rubbery and wilted to enjoy.) Slice the juicy, edible stems and use them wherever florets are called for. Peel particularly thick skin before using.

Choi (a.k.a. - pac choi, bok choy or pok choy) is the large, structural-looking vegetable. It is a member of the cabbage family and is a traditional Asian stir-fry vegetable. Both the stems and leaves of choi can be used and are especially tasty in cooked recipes. If cooking them, separate the leaves and stems, and begin cooking stems first to avoid overcooking the more tender greens. You can also use the leaves like any green-leafy vegetable and the stems like celery. We tend to use choi leaves as a sandwich wrap, or just roughly chop the whole thing and sauté with garlic and/or onion. Cook until stems are tender and dress with a little seasoned rice vinegar. Store choi loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in your produce drawer.

Garlic Scapes: One of our favorite crops of the year. These curly green things are the emerging flower stalk from a hardneck garlic plant. We remove them to redirect more of the plant's energy into the bulb, but it also provides us with a delightful fresh garlic treat. These keep very well in a plastic bag in your produce drawer and can be used in any recipe calling for garlic. They would be perfect in last week's garlic salt recipe, make a great pesto and can be minced and added to room-temperature butter, which is then stored in log shape, in the freezer for a last minute dollop of goodness for vegetables, breads or meat.

Herbs (other than basil): Most herbs keep best in a glass of water in the refrigerator, loosely covered with a plastic bag. You can keep them in a glass or base on your kitchen counter for a couple of days if you change the water daily.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week

and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

Turnips: keep best if separated from their greens. Greens are stored in a plastic bag and can be cooked like mustard or collard greens (you can add them in with your Braising Greens Mix). Trimmed roots can go into a lidded container or zip-close bag. These aren't your grandma's turnips. These are a sweet, Japanese salad variety that is particularly tasty for fresh eating. They will still work great in cooked dishes, but we love to eat them raw, often right out of hand, like an apple. One of the farm crew's favorite mid-field snacks.

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

* NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..." These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time. We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item. On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know.

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Blue, Luci & Indigo)

Labels:

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

BGF News - June 13, 2017-Vol. XXXIII, No.2

In this week’s box:

Amaranth Greens (bundled greens with bright green leaves)
Garlic Scapes
Lemon Balm (rough green leaves with a strong lemon scent)
Lettuce Bouquets (bundle of assorted lettuce varieties)
Purslane (bundle of succulent leaves on reddish stems)
Radishes: Rainbow Mix
Tapestry Salad Mix
* and possibly one of the following:
(please see note below in "A little detail on your produce this week")

Snow Peas

Snap Peas

For those with the Egg option [full shares only]: one dozen free-range eggs (assorted colors)

For those with the Herb option: Herb share will begin in a couple of weeks as herbs mature

rainbow radishes

Featured Recipes: ** indicates a BGF favorite
Lemon Balm Pesto
Amaranth Greens Recipe
Sauteed Radishes with Greens and Garlic
**BGF Easy Black Beans and Rice Recipe (recipe at the bottom)

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.00"

A week ago I commented that things on the farm were green and lush, but yet another week without rains coupled with high temps and blustery winds has really pulled every bit of moisture out of the ground. The grass is dry and looks more like August than early June. Even NOAA is reporting that this is the driest start to June on record for central Iowa. Thanks to irrigation lines in most of our beds, the crops are progressing, albeit more slowly due to the stressful conditions. Don't worry, this isn't a gloom and doom story, but we are not where we like to be moisture-wise, which translates to not where we'd like to be crop-wise or in your delivery boxes. It will rain at some point, and we will continue to irrigate, but if anyone has mad rain dance skills, this would be the time to show them off! Like everything else, the garlic is stressed by this weather and seems to have thrown all its scapes up at once, so everyone gets to share in the great garlic scape bounty! Don't worry, they keep for months in a bag in your produce drawer, so you don't need to use them up immediately.

Besides irrigating and harvesting, much of the past week has been focused on cultivating (and hand weeding where necessary) to try and get ahead of the weeds while they are weakened by the lack of rain. Obviously, anywhere that we are irrigating, we are also watering the weeds, so we try to focus on those areas first. Our goal is to start with the largest tools first, usually the walking tractors, as they are the most efficient, then work our way down to the smallest tools (our fingers). Hand weeding is the slowest and least efficient method of weeding, but sometimes it is the only thing that will do the job. It does give the crew a chance to sit down a bit, which we don't do a lot of at this time of year.

We didn't plant many new crops last week as the conditions weren't very friendly to new plantings. We did transplant a bed of summer head lettuce that we are trialing with Practical Farmers of Iowa. We are hoping to identify a lettuce variety or two that will hold its quality over the summer when most lettuces get bitter. We will do three successive plantings for this trial and hopefully, this will result in beautiful heads of lettuce in your boxes in July and August! We did get another sowing of beans and a sowing of tetragonia (greens) in, in hopes that it will rain on them this week.

We are starting to see nice development on the summer squashes and broccoli, so we hope to be able to start sending those out in boxes in the next couple of weeks.

Baby 'Slik Pik' summer squash

Deer-grazed chard

The cucumbers, peppers and high tunnel tomatoes are just starting to bloom, with the first few fruits setting, which is always good to see. The melons and winter squash are putting on decent growth and will likely start blooming within a week or so. Cabbages and onions are looking pretty good, but are in the fields that don't have irrigation. We will be working to remedy that situation later this week. The field tomatoes, edamame and the chard are trying to recover from the deer invasion. If we can keep the deer out, we think they have a good chance.

A little detail on your produce this week:

Amaranth: A delicious leafy green (and grain) that is a dietary staple in many areas of the world. Young leaves can be added to salad mixes and sandwiches, while larger leaves and shoots are perfect for steaming, braising or sautéing. You can use amaranth in any recipe that calls for spinach.Store like other greens, in a plastic bag in your produce drawer.

Garlic Scapes: One of our favorite crops of the year. These curly green things are the emerging flower stalk from a hardneck garlic plant. We remove them to redirect more of the plant's energy into the bulb, but it also provides us with a delightful fresh garlic treat. These keep very well in a plastic bag in your produce drawer and can be used in any recipe calling for garlic. They would be perfect in last week's garlic salt recipe, make a great pesto and can be minced and added to room-temperature butter, which is then stored in log shape, in the freezer for a last minute dollop of goodness for vegetables, breads or meat.

Lemon Balm: a fragrant member of the mint family. Delicious in teas and pestos. Makes a wonderful "bed" for cooked seafood or poultry as the heat of the cooked meat will release the essential oils in the leaves. Store in a glass of water on the counter or in the fridge loosely covered with a plastic bag.

Purslane: This succulent plant is a valued green in many parts of the world, though here in the US, it is mostly known as an invasive weed. It is rich in vitamin E, vitamin C and beta carotene, and quite high in protein. Most noteworthy of all, it is considered a better source of essential omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy plant. Enjoy raw or cooked in any recipe calling for greens, it is also ideal for juicing and green smoothies. Makes a terrific replacement for lettuce on tacos. Store in a paper towel (or cloth)-lined plastic bag in your crisper drawer and use within a week.

Radishes: keep best if separated from their greens. Greens are stored in a plastic bag and can be cooked like mustard or collard greens . Trimmed roots can go into a lidded container or zip-close bag.Given the recent high temperatures, the radishes will tend to be fairly spicy. These are perfect for cooking/roasting.

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

* NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..." These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time. We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item. On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know.

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Blue, Luci & Indigo)

BGF Easy Black Beans and Rice Recipe

Serves 6.

1 cup uncooked white rice

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

3 cloves minced garlic (or garlic scapes)

2 16-ounce cans of black beans, rinsed and drained

2 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

A few dashes of Sriracha sauce or Tabasco or 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 heaping Tbsp chopped fresh oregano

1 handful of purslane, in bite size pieces (or other hearty greens like mustard and/or senposai)

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional Lime wedges for garnish

Cook rice according to package instructions. White rice usually takes 15 minutes to cook once the water is simmering, and 10 minutes to sit.

Heat oil in a large skillet on medium high. Sauté onions and bell peppers for 3-4 minutes, until just beginning to soften, then add garlic and sauté a minute more. Add the black beans, vinegar and Tabasco or cayenne. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Stir in rice and oregano. Add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, place purslane on plate and top with beans & rice mixture

Recipe Source: adapted from a recipe at simplyrecipes.com/recipes/easy_black_beans_and_rice/

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

BGF News - June 6, 2017-Vol. XXXIII, No.1

In this week’s box:

Asparagus
Braising Greens: Senposai (green), Tokyo Bekana (chartreuse), Osaka Purple Mustard (purple)

Choi
French Sorrel (bunch of flat, arrow-shaped leaves with a tart, lemony flavor)
Garlic Scapes

Kale Mix: Red Russian, Toscano, Olymipc Red, Beedy's Camden (large mixed leaf bundle)

Tapestry Salad Mix (in the zip-top bag) ## (please see note in "A Little Detail..." below)

Turnips: Hakurei

For those with the Egg option [full & half shares]: one dozen free-range eggs (assorted colors)

For those with the Herb option: Herb share will begin in a couple of weeks as herbs mature

garlic scapes

Hakurei turnips

Featured Recipes: ** indicates a BGF favorite

Braised Greens with Green Garlic and Lemon
Sesame Noodles with Mustard Greens **
Dan Barber's Kale Salad **

BGF Garlic Scape Pesto **
1 bunch tender scapes, cut into pieces, and processed in a food processor until finely chopped
1-3 sorrel leaves, rough chopped and processed with the scapes

Add the following and process until well blended:
1/3 cup olive oil (add more if you like a thinner pesto)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup sunflower seeds

optional, toss in some basil for additional pesto flavor if you have it.

This can be served now or frozen for future use. I freeze it in small (1/2 c.) zip-top plastic bags, flattened. Then you can just break off whatever amount you need. Delicious as a pasta or pizza sauce, dip, sandwich spread or add a little seasoned rice vinegar and it becomes a tasty salad dressing.

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.13”

Welcome to the first delivery of the 2017 season and the start of weekly newsletters! The CSA boxes are a little light at this time of the season and you will notice the abundance of greens and not quite as much variety as we like. This is part of the joy of eating fresh, seasonal foods. As the season continues the weight and variety of the contents will increase with the arrival of heavier crops including beans, tomatoes, potatoes and squash. One thing that does remain somewhat consistent is the presence of some cosmetic damage caused by our local insects. This is another of the indications that we are truly a chemical-free farm. We try to keep the insect population under control, but they are simply a fact of life in a naturally grown system. We hope you can overlook some minor leaf damage and we will do our best to keep it to a minimum. Also we do our best to provide you with clean produce, but you may find a little dirt here and there or, yikes, possibly an insect. We do wash the produce and sort it to the best of our ability, but we are processing a significant volume and it is possible that at some point you will find a little “nature” in your box. If and when it happens to you, we apologize ahead of time and hope you will forgive the oversight. Remember, while we do clean the produce, it is always good practice to wash your vegetables before using.

A big thank you to our pick-up site hosts: Peace Tree Brewing Co - Des Moines and the Grand Theater in Knoxville. Over the course of the season please consider supporting these independent, local businesses who offer us a great place to deliver your produce.

It has been a busy week on the farm. The warm-up in the weather pushed us into high gear for transplanting, weeding and mulching. Most of our earlier sown crops are looking pretty good, although the rabbits are causing some significant damage, which means our dogs are getting lazy. So far the little furry beasts have shown a decided preference for peas and cauliflower. The cauliflower is gone, until fall when we will try again, as are 200 row feet of peas in the field. We do have peas remaining in the high tunnel, so all is not lost there, but we certainly wont have the volume we have had in some years.The tomatoes are all in, though we have to go back and replant about 20% of them as the deer came through and pulled them right out of the ground. We didn't discover this little prank until it was too late. Luckily we had plants left over from the original planting so have stock to use. It's been years since we saw this level of plant damage. We are chalking it up to a combination of a mild winter and aging farm dogs. We're going to have to work on making the crops less appealing to the bunny and deer. The sudden hot weather is also causing some issue for the cool weather-loving crops. The spinach overheated last week and is done until fall. The choi is also surrendering early with about 260 row feet of new plants bolting they are a bad influence on their neighbors the braising greens. This means by next week they will no longer be worth eating, so we are sending them out in boxes this week so they aren't a total loss.


Braising Greens and Choi

The garlic is "scaping"! For those of you who are new to the CSA, scapes are the emerging flower stalk on a hardneck garlic plant. We remove them to redirect more of the plant's energy into the bulb, but it also provides us with a delightful fresh garlic treat. It is one of our favorite crops of the season and we hope you enjoy their curly, garlicky goodness as much as we do. They are a short season treat though, so we will likely have them in boxes for the next two weeks and then they will be done and we will go on to the next stage of garlic happiness.

Other things on the farm are rolling forward. We've cleared most of the early crops from both high tunnels and are nearly done switching over to warm season crops in there. The majority of the irrigation system is installed. Amid planting, sowing, irrigation work and harvesting, we've also managed to get a fair amount of cultivating done and the weeds are being discouraged almost daily (they do seem to have a lot of encouragement from somewhere though). It seemed like just a couple of weeks ago we were so wet that we couldn't work soil and now we are starting to choreograph our rain dance. Such is the life of a vegetable-grower in Iowa.

All in all things are looking very lush and green here at the farm. We hope you enjoy this first delivery and are looking forward to this season as much as we are.

We hope you enjoy the new newsletter format. One of the goals for this change is so you can go to the blog/newsletter at any time and search for specific vegetables, that should allow you to see any archived recipes for that item. It also allows us to include photos and links to more recipes and information. As we mentioned in the recent newsletter, in addition to the regular BGF Facebook page, we also have a Facebook page for CSA members. You can find it here: Blue Gate Farm Community. If you have a Facebook account we encourage you to post recipes, photos and questions about your weekly produce box adventures. If you don't have an account, don't worry, you can still see/read anything on the page, but you won't be able to post anything. We will keep an eye on the page and try to answer questions in a timely manner, but really this is to encourage the "Community" aspect of CSA and to provide you all a venue to share and connect with each other.

A little detail on your produce this week:

There might be a few unfamiliar items in your box this week, especially if you are new to the CSA.

Asparagus: Keeps best stored upright in a glass with about 1" of water, in the refrigerator. Delicious raw or cooked.

Braising Greens: A combination of greens that are used mostly in cooked dishes. Store like other greens, in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

Sorrel: a traditional herb in French cooking, sorrel has a bright, lemony flavor that pairs well with other greens, potatoes, eggs and poultry. We like it added to pestos, in egg salad (or any egg dish) and as a lettuce replacement on sandwiches. Store like other greens, in a plastic bag in your produce drawer.

Tapestry Salad Mix: our signature salad mix with a combination of lettuces, greens, wilds herbs and flowers. Yes, you can eat the flowers. Store in your produce drawer with other greens. Special note this week: our salad spinner broke down this week so your salad mix contains more moisture than usual. Please add a paper towel or cotton napkin inside the bag (slide along one side between greens and plastic). This will help absorb excess moisture and keep the greens from getting too soggy. We hope to be back up and running with the spinner by the end of the week (fingers crossed!)

Turnips: keep best if separated from their greens. Greens are stored in a plastic bag and can be cooked like mustard or collard greens (you can add them in with your Braising Greens Mix). Trimmed roots can go into a lidded container or zip-close bag. These aren't your grandma's turnips. These are a sweet, Japanese salad variety that is particularly tasty for fresh eating. They will still work great in cooked dishes, but we love to eat them raw, often right out of hand, like an apple. One of the farm crew's favorite mid-field snacks.

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know.

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Blue, Luci & Indigo)