Tuesday, June 4, 2019

BGF News - June 4, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.1


In this week’s box:

Baby Choi: Joi (white stems) and/or Shanghai Green (lt. green stems)
Golden Oyster Mushrooms (in plastic clamshell)
Green Garlic
Kale Mix  (large mixed leaf bundle)
Potatoes: Kennebec/Carola mix
Sorrel (bundle of long, dark green leaves with a tart, lemony flavor)
Tapestry Salad Mix (zip-top bag)

 and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail..." below)     
Asparagus

For those with the Egg option [full & half shares]: one dozen free-range eggs (asst. colors)
For those with the Herb option: Herb share will begin in a couple of weeks as herbs mature


Featured Recipes:  
BGF Favorite Kale Salad (see recipe below)
BGF Sorrel Soup (see recipe below)
Bok Choy and Oyster Mushroom Stir Fry

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in May: 9.1"

Welcome to the first delivery of the 2019 CSA season and the start of weekly newsletters!  The boxes feel 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 expect later in the season.  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 bit on our efforts be more mindful producers. Over the years we have tried to minimize our use of plastics and single-use products both in our field practices (we don't use plastic mulch, even though it would make our lives easier) and in the packing shed/kitchen. We use the waxed boxes for your CSA deliveries and encourage their careful use so they will last a full season. We use paper-pulp egg cartons not plastic or styrofoam and we have switched over to twist-ties or rubber bands on products that we used to bag like chard, kale and lettuce bouquets. We haven't yet found a good solution for our baby greens like salad mix and arugula. So how can you help us on this journey?

Clean & Return to Us
Paper egg cartons (clean ones only, please)
Plastic pint/quart containers
Plastic or paper berry boxes

Please don't return plastic produce bags or twist ties, we can't reuse those in the packing shed but we encourage you to wash and reuse them in your own home. The less waste we create, the less we have to clean up later.

Do you have questions or suggestions on our use of packaging materials? Please let us know!

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 crazy year on the farm already. The exceptionally cold, snowy winter rolled over into a ridiculously wet spring. We are running about 4 weeks behind in our field work due to our inability to work wet soil. This is the latest we've ever been and it is making the farmer a little twitchy! The crops we did get in: onions, leeks, shallots, lettuces, carrots, beets, collards, cauliflower, kale & chard are looking ok, but really need a break from the rain and a good week of sunshine to push them along. At the end of last week the soil was finally dry enough to get in a few more plants and the crew transplanted eggplant, peppers, broccoli, summer squash and zucchini. Yesterday we finally dried out enough to do a bit of tilling so we could plant cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, basil, roselle and celery. These last two are both new crops for us and we look forward to sharing them with you. All of these recent transplants would all appreciate some moderate late spring weather to get settled in. The potatoes are all in, but they aren't very happy about their situation. The early red potatoes are up and while small, look ok. The later potatoes aren't germinating well and I am worried about them rotting in the soggy soil. Only time will tell. Don't let the potatoes in today's delivery confuse you, they are the last of our storage potatoes from last season. They are still perfectly good, but they won't last more than a couple of weeks at room temperature, so use them promptly. The garlic is tall and lush and the bulbs are just starting to swell. At the end of last week we saw the first signs of garlic scapes, so those should be appearing in boxes in a couple of weeks. The high tunnel crops look the best of all the plantings, though we've likely lost the spinach in there to the water-logged soil on the border beds. 
Golden Oyster Mushroom

There is one bright spot to all this rain...a huge flush of golden oyster mushrooms in our timber! We've never been able to offer mushrooms as part of the CSA before so we hope you are as excited about them as we are. 

New wash station! 
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. We installed an awesome new wash station on the back side of the barn for cleaning root crops as well as all our harvest containers. It may not sound very exciting, but we are thrilled!


We hope we haven't scared you with all this talk of sodden soil and late crops. We are still optimistic about the season, but want you to understand the the current state of affairs on the farm. There will be delays in getting some crops into the boxes but know that we are doing our best to share the bounty the farm has to offer.  We hope you enjoy this first delivery and are looking forward to this season as much as we are.
3/4 of the farm crew. These ladies could pretty much run the farm on their own!

We hope you enjoy the weekly online newsletter. One of the goals for this format 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:


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

Choi (a.k.a. - pac choi, bok choy or pok choy) 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.

Green Garlic: is immature or "teenage" garlic and should be stored in the refrigerator, where it will keep for 5-7 days. Wrap the green garlic in a damp paper towel and place it in a plastic bag; or for a non-plastic alternative, stick the green garlic in a tall glass with some water in the bottom. You can use all of the tender white and light green parts in recipes calling for fresh garlic. Dark green leaves can be frozen and saved for stock, or used to add flavor to a soup (pop them in whole, like a bay leaf).

Oyster Mushrooms: To maximize the shelf life of raw mushrooms, refrigerate them in a paper bag; do not wrap in plastic or store in airtight container, as this will speed spoilage.  Properly stored, raw whole mushrooms will usually keep well for 4 to 7 days in the fridge. To use, trim off the stems as they are tough and either discard them or save to make a vegetable stock.

Potatoes: Keep unwashed potatoes in a cool, dark, dry place, such as a loosely closed paper bag in a cupboard. They will keep for weeks at room temperature, longer if you can provide their ideal temperature of 40 to 50 degrees. Beware: the low temperature of your refrigerator will convert the starch to sugars, so if you store them there, bring them to room temperature for 24 hours before using. Moisture causes potatoes to spoil, light turns them green, and proximity to onions causes them to sprout. (You can still use a potato that has sprouted, however; simply cut off the “eyes” before use.) Potatoes store best if they haven't been washed, so we send them out in their "dust jackets". Just before using, scrub potatoes well and cut off any sprouts or green skin. (Clean delicate new potatoes gently.) Peeling is a matter of preference.

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.

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 Luci, Indigo & Sky)

BGF's Favorite Kale Salad  

Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings

2 tablespoons dried cranberries
5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, divided
3 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 bunches kale (about 1 pound), center ribs and stems removed, leaves thinly sliced crosswise
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds, (if using salted, cut down on the 1tsp salt above)
Parmesan cheese shavings
Place cranberries in small bowl; add balsamic vinegar, seasoned rice vinegar, honey oil and salt and allow to soak several hours (overnight is even better).
Place kale in a large bowl, add cranberry mixture and toss to coat. Let marinate 20 minutes at room temperature, tossing occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with cheese shavings and sunflower seeds just before serving.

Recipe Source:  adapted from an epicurious recipe by Dan Barber 

Sorrel Soup

2 C. Chopped Sorrel Leaves
3 Tbs. Butter
1 Med. Onion-chopped
1 Qt. Chicken Stock
½ lb Potatoes-peeled and cubed
1 Tsp. Salt
1 C. Milk
2 Tbs. Flour
1 Egg Yolk
1/8 Tsp. Nutmeg

In a medium saucepan, heat butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 4-5 minutes or until softened. Add chicken stock and sorrel and cook, stirring for 10 min.  Add potatoes and salt. Bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for 30 min. Combine egg yolk and flour, then add to milk and mix well. Add egg mixture and nutmeg to soup, stirring to combine. Heat through, do not boil.  Delicious served with French bread.

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