Monday, June 17, 2019

BGF News - June 18, 2019-Vol. XLII, No.3


In this week’s box:


Baby Choi: Joi & Shanghai Green
Garlic Scapes (curly green bundles)
Kale: assorted
Lettuce Bouquet: asst baby lettuces
Mountain Mint (small bundle of smooth, green leaves with firm stems)
Strawberries 

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail..." below)     
Asparagus, the final hurrah!
Snow Peas: Oregon Giant

For those with the Egg option [Full and 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:  ** indicates a BGF favorite 
Minted Simple Syrup

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 12 drops

There was a lot of rain around the state in the past week. Unfortunately, all we saw at the farm was a very brief sprinkle. While this did give us more opportunity to catch up on our seed sowing, transplanting and cultivating, the crops could sure use a deep drink of water. But since the universe presented us with dry conditions, we took advantage of it. We got the herb bed prepped as well as the new rosemary bed and all the herbs are tucked into their new homes. We transplanted the melons and the last of the field peppers and sowed winter squash and popcorn. We also decided to hedge our bets a bit on the potatoes and planted one more bed with the remaining potatoes we had in storage. While they will be late season potatoes, we hope they will yield well. We have spent a significant amount of time recently in the original potato plot trying to give any potatoes that germinated a fighting chance. The wet conditions that kept us from cultivating earlier were great for germinating weed and grass see in those beds, so it was a real challenge (literally crawling on hands and knees) scouting out the tiny potato plants and hand weeding around them so we could come back and hoe the beds without fear of hitting them. We are nearly through the beds, and continue to find more potato plants alive than we first thought. It will still be a smaller harvest than we planned, but hopefully it will be better than we feared.

We did have a very disappointing discovery late last week. After spending hours transplanting hundreds of very nice cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, the deer discovered them and overnight ate or destroyed about 90% of them. We are just sick at the amount of lost time and product and having dreams of venison sausage. We do have broccoli and cauliflower in another location that they didn't find, so those should be fine, but they ate pretty much every cabbage on the farm. We are scheduled to start sowing seeds for fall cabbage this week, so there should be heads during the later season deliveries, but it will be a couple of months away. This is a new crop for the deer to bother, so we will have to go to greater efforts to exclude them from the east plot where the cole crops seem to grow the best (in the absence of deer.)


We harvested the final asparagus for the 2019 season this week, even though we thought we had done that last week. We know the boxes are a little thin so we wanted to send out everything we possibly could, including one last sweet celebration of strawberries! So what is coming next? The snow peas are just kitting their stride, so we will continue to send those out. The spring turnips are sizing up and we anticipate those being harvest-able in the next couple of weeks. Baby beets are likely to follow after that. We have lots of beautiful lettuces, kale and chard coming along and the zucchini, summer squash and cucumber plants are all blooming and preparing to fruit as are many of the pepper plants. We have a couple of  nice beds of carrots that are probably 3-4 weeks from harvest and some new greens that we are anxious to introduce to you. So lots of fun things to come!




Just a reminder, you can request a 12pk of  recycled, regular size canning jar lids . They have been washed and are ready for reuse in your fridge, pantry or craft room. 



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.

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.

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)

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