Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has lettuce, salad greens, baby brassica greens, green onions, garlic scapes, radishes, herbs, asparagus, and strawberries.
Field Notes. Sunday we got rain! It had been dry, and Ken put off irrigating in garden and field when he heard we could get up to 2 inches. He is still irrigating greenhouses as needed. Prior to Sunday’s rain he was racing around getting all he could done before the soil became too wet – planting, cultivating, seeding, and some mulching.
Now that the garden and field are too wet to work Ken is working in greenhouses. Monday and Tuesday he is tying up tomato plants and staking peppers. He has a unique system of spools and twine so it can move with the mobile tunnel and move as plantings vary. once the twine and spools are in place he removes suckers and clips the tomato plants so the can grow and focus energy into fruit.
Once the soil dries out a bit Ken will be cultivating to break the hard crust on top of the soil from the hard rain we got. That allows the next rain to penetrate the soil. He will also disturb weeds when they are tiny instead of waiting until they are larger plants that need bending and pulling. Ken is vigilant about staying on top of the weeds early in the season so the crops can grow and form a canopy over the soil and stay ahead of the competing weeds.
From the Kitchen. This week we have some beautiful French breakfast radishes. Sometimes I hake a radish salad. Rinse, trim and slice. If you want the radishes softer or milder in flavor, mix with some salt and set aside for a half hour. Drain salt water – I use later in cooking or a dressing – and add any of the following: green onions, herbs, yogurt, a bit of vinegar or lemon juice, a pinch of honey or some sweetener, and some ground pepper.
This week I brought some asparagus when we visited my in-laws. I grilled some asparagus in a heavy cast iron skillet and topped with an Asian dressing with tamari, sesame and toasted sesame oil, mild vinegar, a bit of honey, powdered red pepper and toasted sesame seeds. It was a hit.
Garlic scapes are a seed head from the garlic plants. They are a wonderful preview to that great fresh garlic flavor. I mince them or run them through the blender for a paste. Ken harvests the scapes so the plants focus their energy o making larger bulbs
‘Til Next Time, Judith and the Gang
