Beautiful Mayan Jaguar lettuce. It’s a romaine, so when it grows up a bit more, it will be a carnival of crunchiness.
THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Lots of Lettuce Heads
• Red Russian Kale or Swiss Chard
• Green Onions
• Snow or Sugar Snap Peas
• Basil
LARGE SHARES:
• Nasturtium Flowers (to spice up your salad)
• Beet Greens with Baby Beets
• Fresh Garlic
Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.
COMING SOON: Peas, Fava Beans, Cilantro, Napa Cabbage, Torpedo Onions, Fennel, Carrots
I know we have a lot of new subscribers this season. Welcome!
The beginning weeks of our summer season are a sort of warm-up—because many people aren’t used to eating vegetables they’re not used to, and many families just don’t eat many vegetables at all! THAT is about to change, for the better.
Right now, we have a lot of lettuce. Make lots of salads! Actually, this is the only time of year I really LOVE salad, and so we eat a lot of them. We typically use 2-3 heads of lettuce for a dinner. For three adults and two kids. I like a big salad, and when the lettuces are succulent, sweet, and delicious it’s so easy to be a pig about it. Lettuce, a few herbs, and a good dressing. I’m trying a BLT salad tonight—I’ll take a picture and share it, but it sounds delicious. And I’ll be making my own mayonnaise! Finally ran out of the jar.
Greens are typical for early summer. But the carrots, potatoes, and beets are growing, the squash and cucumbers are flowering, and the beans are about to bloom. Our early planting of peas is always a gamble, but this year’s March planting paid off and we have some to pick. Not a lot, mind you, but there were enough this week to give everyone a taste of snow peas (some got sugar snaps because we ran out) for a tasty stir-fry, perhaps.
There has been enough of some things, that I have been stashing leftover bits away in the freezer already. Unheard of in June! But I got a bit of kale and peas frozen, and some leftover berries and rhubarb from a farmers market. Little by little I can store up enough food to get us through the dearth of winter. I love my vacuum sealer, and just a few bags each week of green things gets us through the doldrums of January/February/March, until growth starts again in April.
It’s that time: I’m already putting away extras for winter. Strawberries, peas, that leftover bunch of spinach. Whatever. I just stash it away in a freezer bag for later.
Because we opted for a higher-grossing Seattle market on Saturdays, we are not participating in the Kent Market this year. Instead, Cosmo has opened a farm stand! He is open from Noon-2:00 on Saturdays. Next week he will also be open on Thursdays from 5:00-7:00. He had a great opening day, and thank you to everyone who came to support his new venture!
Cosmo opened his farm stand last Saturday. He will be open every Saturday between noon and 2:00. We are working on a weekday post-work time as well. Probably Thursdays. We’ll keep you posted.
We’ve had some adventures of late with the cows. Many of you have heard the frightening tale of the young bull who finally found himself and turned into a crazed beast overnight. Well, this week’s escape was much milder—he is now in the barn, having been vetted and fixed, but the girls all escaped to visit. They were well-behaved though, and we found them all waiting by the gate to be let in. The next morning we followed their tracks all over the farm, and luckily nothing was damaged. This time.
The cows escaped and went walkabout the other night. It’s always interesting to see where they’ve been.
Early summer is also the height of weed season. The alternating spells of sun and rain make our crops grow like crazy, but the weeds are even more vigorous. We are looking for a weeding crew, and will pay. Let us know if you’re interested—or we will resort to a Weed Dating party!
What do you think? Should we try this?
Have a great week!
Whistling Train Farm 