BGF NEWS - June 27, 2023 - VOL. 50, NO. 4

IN THIS WEEK’S BOX:

Basil Tips: assorted varieties

Cabbage: Farao

Garlic Scapes
Head Lettuce: asst var.

Kale Bouquet: asst var.

Sugar Snap Peas
Snow Peas
Summer Squash: 8 Ball, Golden Glory, Slik Pik, Zephyr
Turnips: Hakurei

and at least one of the following: (please see **NOTE after "A Little Detail..." below)
Bean Mix: Empress (green) & Carson (yellow)

Broccoli: Gypsy
Cauliflower: Song (Japanese cauliflower)

Cucumbers: Covina

Herb It! option: will start next week
Bread Share: Tavern Fare

Featured Recipes:
Cabbage Hash Browns

Summer Squash Basil Pasta

Lime Cabbage Salad **BGF Favorite (see recipe below)

WHAT’S UP ON THE FARM?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.35"

Just a reminder, there will be No CSA delivery on July 4th. Don't worry, it doesn't mean fewer vegetables for you, we'll tack an extra week on to the end of the season.

Well again, we did get rain this week but even less than last week. All the crops definitely appreciated the little moisture we got and it was enough to trigger a few more winter squash seeds to germinate but wow, it is crazy dry out there.

We rigged a pipe to our outside wash station this week to capture all our waste water in a mobile tank so that our fruit trees and bushes can be watered. When a drought gets this deep it affects even the deeply rooted plants. 

Most of the crops continue to look pretty good despite the drought due to the nearly non-stop irrigation running. 

Our first sowing of beans is maturing nicely and we are sending the first small harvest out in a few boxes today. 

Our second sowing of beans is struggling to germinate, so we'll have to see what happens with them. The main crop of napa cabbage succumbed to the challenging weather conditions and we had to send it to the compost pile unharvested.  The tomatoes and peppers are setting their first fruits, but we are still about a month away from harvesting those. Our basil has finally started putting on some growth and needed to be pinched back, so everyone is getting a little taste of basil this week, just to get you excited about basil season! One of the high tunnel cucumber varieties is fruiting and has sized up enough to send a few of those out this week as well.

This is the time of the year that our main focus moves to harvesting. Many of the current crops need to be harvested at least 3-4 times a week to keep them in prime condition. Luckily we are in pretty good shape with our weeding efforts that we should be able to maintain good field conditions with less time and effort now. But the crew would probably tell you that the cultivating tasks never end. 

It's hard to believe, but this past week our calendar said that it was time to start the fall crop transplants. So far, we've sown broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, head lettuce and kohlrabi. Soon we'll add Napa and more head lettuce to the mix, followed by  leafy greens like kale and chard. These are crops that we plan to harvest in October and November. Sometimes it feels like a merry-go-round of crops around here!

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 glass or plastic container 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.

Beans: Fresh beans are an easy "store." Just leave them in their plastic bag and keep them in the produce drawer. Can last up to 2 weeks.

Broccoli/Cauliflower: Wrap loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak 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 soaked 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.

Cabbage: Store dry, unwashed cabbage in the refrigerator, preferably in the vegetable bin. The outer leaves may eventually get floppy or yellowish, but you can remove and discard them to reveal fresh inner leaves. Cabbage can keep for more than a month. Once it’s cut, seal it in a plastic bag and continue to refrigerate for several weeks. Rinse the cabbage under cold running water just before use. Peel away a few of the outer leaves, then cut the cabbage according to your needs with a big, sharp knife, and then chop, sliver, or grate.

Cucumber: Store unwashed cucumbers in a sealed plastic bag in the vegetable crisper bin for about a week. Keep cucumbers tucked far away from tomatoes, apples, and citrus—these give off ethylene gas that accelerates cucumber deterioration. You can do a lot of fancy things to the skin of a cucumber, but when it is young, fresh (and unwaxed), it really only needs to be thoroughly washed. However, if the skin seems tough or bitter you can remove it; if the seeds are bulky, slice the cucumber lengthwise and scoop them out.

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.

Peas: We grow snow peas (flat pod with little bumps showing immature peas inside) and sugar snap peas (rounded pods with mature peas inside). Both have edible pods and can be used interchangeably in recipes. They are particularly good in stir-fries and salads, though we tend to eat them fresh as a snack. Peas keep best in their plastic container in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

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.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you? Do you want to read more about our life on the farm and see more pictures? Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm or on Instagram at bluegatefarmfresh. CSA members can also connect with other BGF members to share recipes or ask questions on our FB community page at Blue Gate Farm Community.


That's about it for now.
If you have any questions or comments, be sure to let us know.


Best from the farm,
Jill & Sean (and the whole BGF crew)

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 or pulled pork.

Recipe Source: Blue Gate Farm friend, Dana F.

BGF NEWS - June 20, 2023 - VOL. 50, NO. 3

In this week’s box:

Beets: Cylindra

Baby Choi

Fennel

Garlic Scapes
Green Garlic

Head Lettuce, assorted varieties

Purslane

Sugar Snap Peas  

Snow Peas

Summer Squash: 8 Ball, Golden Glory, Slik Pik, Zephyr

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

Cauliflower: Song (Japanese cauliflower)

Herb It! option: will start in a couple weeks as the annual herbs mature
Bread Share: Apple Bread

Featured Recipes:

Roasted Beet and Fennel Pasta

Fennel Frond Pesto

Chinese Purslane Stir-fry

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.45"

Well, technically we got our wish this week, it did rain. We got a little less than 1/2 inch between Saturday and Sunday. It was a lovely sight, but unfortunately just a "drop in the bucket" as the saying goes and we were back to playing round robin with the irrigation that day. 

We spent much of the past week in the tomato plot. Installing posts for trellising, pruning plants and putting in the first couple of rounds of trellising twine. This system is commonly called Florida Weave and it allows us to manage and harvest the plants more easily that using tomato cages. It does take more time and effort to install and manage than cages. We put in more than 250 tall steel posts to provide the structure and then by the end of the season will use about 32,000 feet of twine. However the plants have better airflow (less disease potential), are easier to harvest and much easier to manage for pest control and we don't have to store 700+ cages over the winter!

You won't be surprised to read that the balance of our week was filled with irrigating, cultivating, harvesting, a bit of hand weeding, clearing spent crops and transplanting head lettuce #6.

Harvesting time is increasing as we are now picking peas and summer squashes every other day. The high tunnel cucumbers will be added to that list later this week. Just one variety is producing right now and it will be a couple of weeks before the rest join in, but hopefully there will be many cucumbers in the not-to-distant future!

We are SO pleased with the photos that members have been submitting for the weekly "Show US Your Veg" photo contest! Thank you to everyone who has shared a pic and/or who have posted recipes/cooking ideas on the Community page. We love to see your ideas and meals! Keep up the great work!

A little detail on your produce this week:

Beets: Cut off greens, leaving an inch of stem. Refrigerate the unwashed greens in a closed plastic bag and use with your chard mix as beets and chard are closely related. Store the beet roots, unwashed, with the rootlets (or “tails”) attached, in a plastic bag in the crisper bin of your refrigerator. They will keep for several weeks, but their sweetness diminishes with time. Just before cooking, scrub beets well and remove any scraggly leaves and rootlets. If your recipe calls for raw beets, peel them with a knife or vegetable peeler, then grate or cut according to your needs baby/young beets usually don't need to be peeled.

Broccoli/Cauliflower: Wrap loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak 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 soaked 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.

Fennel: Cut off the stalks where they emerge from the bulb. To use the feathery foliage as an herb, place the dry stalks upright in a glass filled with two inches of water, cover the glass loosely with a plastic bag, and store in the refrigerator for up to five days. The unwashed bulb will keep in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for at least a week. To use, remove any damaged spots or layers. Cut the bulb in half lengthwise and check the inner core. If it’s tough, remove it with a paring knife. Fennel should be washed carefully, because dirt can lodge between the layers of the bulb. Chop or mince the leaves.

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.

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. The flavor is so fresh and green that we like to use them in recipes that really highlight the flavor, like pesto or garlic butter.Store loosely wrapped in the refrigerator for best keeping quality.

Peas: We grow snow peas (flat pod with little bumps showing immature peas inside) and sugar snap peas (rounded pods with mature peas inside). Both have edible pods and can be used interchangeably in recipes. They are particularly good in stir-fries and salads, though we tend to eat them fresh as a snack. Peas keep best in their plastic container in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

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.

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!

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? Do you want to read more about our life on the farm and see more pictures? Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm or on Instagram at bluegatefarmfresh. CSA members can also connect with other BGF members to share recipes or ask questions on our FB community page at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That's about it for now.
If you have any questions or comments, be sure to let us know.

Best from the farm,
Jill & Sean (and the whole BGF crew)

BGF NEWS - June 13, 2023 - VOL. 50, NO. 2

In this week’s box:

Beijing Express
Chard

Collards

Garlic Scapes (the green, curly things)
Head Lettuce, assorted varieties

Lemon Balm

Scallions

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE after "A Little Detail..." below)
Cauliflower: Song (Japanese cauliflower)
Snap Peas
Snow Peas

the first few broccoli and baby summer squashes might also make an appearance in a couple of boxes this week.

Herb It! option: will start in a few weeks as the annual herbs mature
Bread Share: 7-Grain Bread

Featured Recipes:
Garlic Scape and Mess-o-Greens Pesto

Garlic Scape & Lemon Balm Pesto

Pickled Garlic Scapes

Chard Wrapped Grilled Mozzarella (a BGF favorite!)
Grilled Scallions *see recipe below (a BGF favorite!)


What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.15"

While Kermit the Frog would tell you that it's not easy being green, your farmer will tell you that at this time of the season it's very easy, in fact almost everything we are harvesting right now is green. Leafy greens, green onions, green peas, green garlic, green...green...green!

That's just the way it goes eating seasonally in the spring. I personally LOVE greens but not everyone is my household does so we try to find easy ways to use lots of them. Salads are a cinch, but what about greens that are better cooked? My go-to response is "saute them in garlic and olive oil. We also add lots of them to eggs and pasta, or use them in place of lettuce on a sandwich, sliced finely and added to chicken or egg salad. They are tasty on tacos or in burritos and we always use them as the base when we serve beans and rice! And there is always pesto! 

The Beijing Express we are sending out today is a favorite new green (both with us and the bugs!). Technically a choi it makes a great replacement for romaine lettuce in salads. A big, beautiful, deep green, upright variety with sweet, tender choi flavor. Delicious raw in salads, added to smoothies or cooked in any of your favorite greens recipes. Check out a couple of the linked recipes for some detailed inspiration there. And I promise, there are lots of great things to come, in addition to the greens.

Cauliflower is making it's first appearance this week in some of the boxes. This earliest variety is our favorite and it's a little different than your typical grocery store version. "Song" cauliflower is from Japan and it's a little sweeter and more tender than others. It's form is more open and it's much easier to cut apart into florets. And don't automatically compost the stem, many times it's tender enough to enjoy sliced along with the "curds." We're pretty excited about our Japanese scallion variety too. It was a discovery last year and we think they are amazing!

We were SO hopeful about last week's rain chances, and it did indeed rain on the farm, but it didn't last long and didn't add up to much. May and June are supposed to be the rainiest months, but it just isn't happening for us. We are trying to till as little as possible right now to conserve as much soil moisture as we can. The conditions are perfect for cultivating so our weed pressure is probably the lowest it's ever been. Hooray!! The irrigation system is the only thing keeping many crops alive right now. We don't typically irrigate our winter squash but the seed has been in the ground for nearly a month and there has been little germination due to the lack of moisture, so we may have to add some drip lines if we don't get rain by the end of the week.

Besides cultivating, we started clearing some spent spring crops this week. It was frustrating to pull out crops that hadn't been fully harvested (or harvested at all) but they had sped from "not yet ready" to past "harvestable" before we had a chance to use them. Sometimes, when conditions are challenging, that's just the way it goes. So, see you in the fall, Arugula and Vivid Choi!

But again, not all is gloom and doom! The main pea plantings are going gangbusters which is exciting because we love peas and they are also adding nitrogen to the soil for us. The cabbages are starting to head and look really good and the summer squashes and early cucumbers are setting fruits. There are SO many good things to come!

Finally, Farmyard Fancies still has openings for Bread Share! Cost is $120 (if paid with cash or check) or $125 (if paid with PayPal. Please email Angie at (farmyardfancies@gmail.com) to sign up . If you need one more temptation, Angie will be sampling bread in DM at today's delivery.

A little detail on your produce this week:

Broccoli/Cauliflower: Wrap loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak 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 soaked 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.

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: Generally, except for basil, set unwashed bunches of fresh herbs (with stems) upright into small jars filled with 1 to 2 inches of water, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to two weeks. Rinse fresh herbs right before use. To release their scents and flavors, rub them between your hands before mincing or chopping. If you have no idea what to do with fresh herbs, there is one great default answer "compound butter." Finely mince leaves and knead them into a stick of room temperature butter. Roll the butter into a log in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. Then simply slice off the amount you need to add delicious, ready-to-use flavor to vegetables, bread or meats.

Peas: We grow snow peas (flat pod with little bumps showing immature peas inside) and sugar snap peas (rounded pods with mature peas inside). Both have edible pods and can be used interchangeably in recipes. They are particularly good in stir-fries and salads, though we tend to eat them fresh as a snack. Peas keep best in their plastic container in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

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!

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? Do you want to read more about our life on the farm and see more pictures? Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm or on Instagram at bluegatefarmfresh. CSA members can also connect with other BGF members to share recipes or ask questions on our FB community page at Blue Gate Farm Community.
That's about it for now.
If you have any questions or comments, be sure to let us know.
Best from the farm,
Jill & Sean (and the whole BGF crew)

Grilled Scallions with Sesame Oil

Serves 2

8 scallions, greens trimmed to 5 inches, cut in half lengthwise

toasted sesame oil

salt

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the broiler or lightly oiled grill to medium-high heat. Arrange the scallions on a shallow baking sheet or aluminum foil.

Use a pastry brush to coat the scallions with a thin layer of sesame oil. Season with salt and pepper. Broil or grill until golden

brown on all sides, 3 to 5 minutes.

Recipe Source: “The Real Dirt on Farmer John Cookbook”

BGF NEWS - June 6, 2023 - VOL. 50, NO. 1

In this week’s box:

Asparagus

Baby Choi

Garlic Scapes (the green, curly things)

Head Lettuce, assorted varieties

Kale Bouquet, assorted varieties

Lemon Thyme

Misome (small, dark green bunched leaves)

Spinruts: Hakurei (baby Japanese salad turnips)

Tapestry Salad Mix

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

Snow Peas

Herb It! option: will start in a few weeks as the annual herbs mature

Jam It! option: Apple Jam & Lime Berry Jam

Spice it Up! option: Nunum Salt

Bread Share: Italian Herb

Featured Recipes:  

Microwave Asparagus and Lemon Risotto

Roasted Sweet Turnips with Thyme

Super Green Stir-fry

BGF Favorite Kale Salad (see recipe below)

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.2"

Welcome to the first delivery of the 2023 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 an indication 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 and in the packing shed/kitchen. We use long-term reusable totes for your CSA deliveries both for sanitation and low waste. You'll notice they have the name "Grinnell Heritage Farm" stamped on the sides. When our friends from GHF "retired" from farming a few years ago, we purchased their CSA totes. They met a need that we had, filled a need that GHF had and allowed us to not buy new plastic. We are continually looking to reduce our plastic bag use and we've switched over to twist-ties or rubber bands on products that we used to bag like chard, kale, herbs and lettuce bouquets. We haven't yet found a good solution for our baby greens like salad mix and arugula or things like green beans but we're always looking. So how can you help us on this journey?

Clean & Return to Us
Plastic pint/quart containers
Plastic or paper berry boxes
Half pint, pint and quart glass canning jars

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 (or anything else)? 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.

So what have we been up to this week in addition to preparing for CSA delivery #1?

Irrigating, cultivating, planting, irrigating, cultivating, sowing, irrigating, cultivating, harvesting, and then irrigating and cultivating again. Repeat until October.

All of the main season crops are now in the ground and most are growing well despite the challenging conditions. The exceptions would be the most recently direct sown crops like winter squash, melons, and 2nd successions of beans and edamame. Those seeds are sitting in the soil waiting for rain. Most have been planted for at least a couple of weeks and we are seeing very little germination despite irrigating them. There is just too much dry soil around them to overcome. I don't anticipate we will see much change until we get a soaking rain (which we haven't seen since the 2nd week of May.)

Speaking of the lack of rain, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration we are now in Moderate Drought conditions, and the 30 day outlook doesn't show anything to improve that. We are starting to see cracks in the ground that we normally don't see until July or August. We are lucky that we can irrigate to keep most crops alive and producing but it's a challenge. The lack of rain almost certainly brought the asparagus season to an early end, so the bunch in your boxes today will be it until next year. The conditions are also causing a few of our spring greens crops to bolt prematurely (trying to flower and set seed which ends their use as edible crops) before we even had a chance to harvest them. That's why you are getting both baby choi and Misome today, those crops are starting to bolt and will be unusable by next week.

Not everything is gloom and doom though, most of the crops are growing ok thanks to the irrigation. Many of the transplanted warm-weather crops are starting to bloom and some of the summer squashes are even starting to fruit. The first little heads of broccoli are visible and the cabbage plants are starting to head. Carrots and beets are mostly surviving their popularity with the deer and rabbits and the potatoes are starting to bloom, which means they are starting to form potatoes underground. There are so many tasty things to come!

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.

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: Generally, except for basil, set unwashed bunches of fresh herbs (with stems) upright into small jars filled with 1 to 2 inches of water, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to two weeks. Rinse fresh herbs right before use. To release their scents and flavors, rub them between your hands before mincing or chopping. If you have no idea what to do with fresh herbs, there is one great default answer "compound butter." Finely mince leaves and knead them into a stick of room temperature butter. Roll the butter into a log in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. Then simply slice off the amount you need to add delicious, ready-to-use flavor to vegetables, bread or meats.

Peas: We grow snow peas (flat pod with little bumps showing immature peas inside) and sugar snap peas (rounded pods with mature peas inside). Both have edible pods and can be used interchangeably in recipes. They are particularly good in stir-fries and salads, though we tend to eat them fresh as a snack. Peas keep best in their plastic container in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

Turnips: 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. 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.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you? Do you want to read more about our life on the farm and see more pictures? Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm or on Instagram at bluegatefarmfresh. CSA members can also connect with other BGF members to share recipes or ask questions on our FB community page at Blue Gate Farm Community.
That's about it for now.
If you have any questions or comments, be sure to let us know.
Best from the farm,
Jill & Sean (and the whole BGF crew)

 BGF's Favorite Kale Salad  

Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings

2 tablespoons dried cranberries or cherries
5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, divided
3 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
a big bunch of kale (about 1 pound), center ribs and stems removed, leaves thinly sliced crosswise
2 tablespoons sunflower  or pumpkin seeds, (if using salted, cut down on the 1tsp salt above)
Parmesan cheese shavings

Place fruit 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