BGF NEWS - June 8, 2021 - VOL. XLVII, NO. 2

In this week’s box:

Asparagus, last of the season!

Garlic Scapes, curly green bundle

Golden Oyster Mushrooms

Green & Leafy Mix (Amara & Vivid Choi), bunched leafy greens

Snow Peas

Strawberries!

Tapestry Salad Mix, zip-top bag

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

Broccoli:(Gypsy) small, early heads

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

Featured Recipes:  
Asparagus & Oyster Mushrooms

Garlic Scape and Mess o'Greens Pesto

Ginger Chicken with Oyster Mushroom and Snow Peas

BGF Garlic Scape Pesto see recipe below

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.00"

This isn't how I usually start a newsletter, but I have to tell you, I have been so tickled by the recent activity on the BGF Community Page on facebook. A number of folks have been posting photos or descriptions of recipes or whole meals made from last week's CSA delivery. These are things that make my little farmHer heart sing! The group is a great place to share your food triumphs and your questions. Our membership is a goldmine of veggie enthusiasm, knowledge and experience. If you haven't already, you can find the group here: Blue Gate Farm Community. 

Now back to our regular program...The theme of the past week (and the week to come) on the farm was/is IRRIGATION! We have a nearly unending cycle of irrigation lines installed and running on the crops, both to germinate new crops and to keep the established crops alive and growing. Trying to keep the farm crew "irrigated" is even more important in this weather. Keeping crops, livestock and crew healthy requires vigilance when we are this hot and dry so early in the season. The graphic below shows the departure from normal rain levels across the state for the past 2 months. 

We are more than 4" below where we should be right now. Lots of places are worse off than we are, but that doesn't make growing food any easier.

Our cool-weather/early season crops are particularly offended by the hot temperatures. It makes them think their time is done and they should flower and go to seed. This ends their use as food crops. We've already lost our spring choi crops to this fate and there are others That are likely to follow soon. It's pretty frustrating when it happens before the crop is ready to be harvested. The Amara in your leafy-greens bunches is doing just that, so we will harvest what we can from it today and then we'll pull it and make room for the next crop. Don't worry, there's still plenty of things to come...like strawberries!!!

The past week was a productive one. We harvested the last of the asparagus for the season and started harvesting strawberries and garlic scapes. 

We got lots of seeds sown including: winter squash, summer squash, melons, komatsuna, edamame, beets, carrots, sunflowers, clover and choi. We transplanted additional head lettuce, broccoli and collards and re-planted our entire popcorn patch, due to poor germination.  We've been cultivating, hand weeding and hilling potatoes as well as the aforementioned irrigation work. 

Now if it would just rain, in a timely and reasonable fashion, that would be great!

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. 

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.

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:

 Besides basil, most herbs keep best standing upright in a glass of water in your refrigerator with a loose plastic bag over the top. To use, simply pull a stem between your fingers and the leaves usually shear off. Chop with a sharp knife and add to your favorite recipes.

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.

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.

Strawberries keep best in your refrigerator in a vented container. Use within 3-4 days.

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)

Indigo, Luci & Sky

BGF Garlic Scape Pesto
1 bunch tender scapes, cut into pieces, and processed in a food processor until finely chopped
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.

Arugula (in the small bag) Asparagus Braising Greens Mix (Tatsoi, Tokoyo Bekana & Amara) (in large bag) Braising Greens Mix Garlic Scapes (the curly green things) Head Lettuce: assorted red & green Mountain Mint Napa Cabbage Strawberries Swiss "Cheese" Chard: please forgive the extra holes and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE after "A Little Detail...) Snap or Snow Peas For those with the Egg option [full 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: Strawberries with Lemon and Mint Simple Garlicky Greens Garlic Scape Pesto Lime Cabbage Salad *see recipe below

BGF NEWS - JUNE 9, 2020 - VOL. XLV, NO. 2

In this week’s box:

Arugula (in the small bag)

Asparagus

Braising Greens Mix (Tatsoi, Tokoyo Bekana & Amara) (in large bag)

Braising Greens Mix

Garlic Scapes (the curly green things)

Head Lettuce: assorted red & green
Mountain Mint

Napa Cabbage
Strawberries
Swiss "Cheese" Chard: please forgive the extra holes

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

For those with the Egg option [full 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:  

Strawberries with Lemon and Mint

Simple Garlicky Greens
Garlic Scape Pesto
Lime Cabbage Salad *see recipe below

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.45"

As I write this, the first sprinkles from what was Tropical Storm Cristobal have begun. This has been our driving force for much of the past 5 days as a predicted 2-3" rain will keep us out of the fields for several days, at the very least. 

To that end we have been harvesting, cultivating, sowing and transplanting as fast as we could in the heat, all the while running "round robin" with the irrigation, trying to keep everything watered until it rains. 

To give you an idea of how dry we were, the photo on the right is what it looks like when you till & cultivate on a windy,  90° day. This was on the inside of my work pants. I definitely should have hosed down before coming in the house! 

But it was a successful, if hot, week and we were able to cross off many items from the to-do list. We transplanted: melons and okra, plus more cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, lettuce and flowers. We also sowed new beds of edamame, arugula and choi and cultivated much of the gardens and fields. Finally, the last of the irrigation system went in, just in time for the higher temps.

Harvesting garlic scapes

This heat is really pushing some of our earliest crops and will mark the end of a number of crops including asparagus, braising greens and early choi. We've started clearing beds and replacing them with warm-weather crops. The heat isn't all bad though, as long as we can stay ahead with rain or irrigation it really pushes the warm weather crops forward. The summer squash and zucchini plants are all blooming and starting to set fruit and the strawberries...holy berries, Batman! We spent a couple of hours harvesting strawberries yesterday and this was just the first big ripening. So now we have a bit of a problem and are suddenly short on berry containers. In response to that shortage, you will notice that your strawberries are in some nice blue quart containers, please, please return those at next week's delivery. They were intended for use in market display (which will eventually start up again) and are expensive to replace. 

Also, if you have any (clean) quart or pint berry containers, we would love to put those back to work. We really only need the pint and quart sizes, if you have others, please recycle those. A reminder that we will also accept returns of your clean egg cartons. 

Another reminder, there is still time to sign up for any of the options with your CSA share. Egg and Herb Shares from BGF are still available, as are the Partner Shares we are coordinating with our talented friends at other local farms including:

Des Moines-Ebersole Cattle Co (Meat) & Lost Lake Farm LLC (Cheese)

Knoxville- Crooked Gap Farm (Meat) & Farmyard Fancies (Bread)

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 "springs" 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 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.

Mountain Mint: not a true member of the mint family, Mountain mint has a softer mint flavor and can be used in any recipe calling for mint. We like it in mint syrup and in fruit salsas or as a refreshing iced tea. Store upright in a glass of water, loosely covered in the refrigerator.

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.

Peas

are best kept in a plastic bag or glass container in your refrigerator. Use within a week.

Strawberries keep best in your refrigerator in a vented container. Use within 3-4 days.

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)

Indigo, Luci & Sky

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

BGF News - June 12, 2018-Vol. XL, No.2

In this week’s box:

Basil Tips (in the small plastic bag)
Braising Mix: Osaka Purple Mustard, Senposai & Tokoyo Bekana (bunch of large leaves)

Baby Choi: Shanghai Green or Joi Choi

Garlic Scapes (green curly things in a twist tie)

Head Lettuce or Lettuce Bouquets: asst varieties

Ginger Mint

Wild Things Mix: Amaranth & Lambsquarters (bunched, with small leaves)

and perhaps one of the following:
Summer Squash: Slik Pik (yellow), Zephyr (yellow & green) or Patty Pan (round, green)
Tapestry Salad Mix (zip-top bag) (please see note in "A Little Detail..." below)

Summer Squash 'Zephyr'

           

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

Featured Recipes:  ** indicates a BGF favorite 
BGF Wild E'Scape Dip **
Cold Sesame Noodles with Mustard Greens ** (we like scapes in place of scallions in this)
Lemon Garlic Bok Choy
Peppermint Syrup
Roasted Parmesan Summer Squash

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 1.75"
 

What a strange weather week on the farm. We were lucky to miss the worst of the storms, though we did have enough wind to damage both fan units on the big tunnel. An easy trade off, since our friends at Grinnell Heritage Farm lost 2 high tunnels in the same storm! We also missed the big rain events, but the totals for the week added up nicely. The drying time between the rains was perfect for us to get some good weeding & cultivating work done in the fields and a rainy Monday gave us the prime opportunity to spend most of our crew hours in the high tunnels getting them well weeded and maintained. We also pruned and trellised all but the last planting of  tomatoes in the tunnels. 

The crew does like their braising greens!

It looks like we will get a couple days of "normal" temperatures and then the summer heat returns for the an extended stay. This is going to finish off our early season greens so we are sending out some extras in the boxes today, so you get a chance to try them. The braising greens and Wild Things can be used interchangeably (or mixed together). In most any recipe. They are both best as cooked greens. We hope you will take the opportunity to try our new "E'scape" dip as we are loving it! It's a great way to get folks to eat some healthy greens and is awesome on a good crusty bread, but would also be good as a side dish, on a baked potato or on pasta.

Wild E'scape Dip! One of our new favorite recipes!

The summer crops are coming along nicely and this nice moisture along with the heat will really push them forward. The basil plantings in the field and high tunnel are coming along nicely. They have put on enough growth that they were ready to be pinched back to help them produce more full growth. So you are the lucky recipients of a little early basil harvest! There was a lot of soil splashing around during last night's rain, so your basil is a bit dirty. It ruins the quality of basil to wash it before storing, so we didn't. Just rinse it off prior to using.  We harvested the very first summer squash this week but there lots more that are coming. We love summer squash season as they are just such an easy vegetable to use: grilled, sauted, roasted, fried...they are all delicious! 

Amid the weeding and rains, we also got some additional crops sown including successions of fennel, beets, beans, lettuce, chard, tetragonia and edamame. We transplanted more melons and basil. We are seeing the first fruit set on the peppers and the earliest tomatoes, so there are lots of good things to come!

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. 

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.

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.  

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!

* 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)

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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. 

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.

 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.  

* 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)