Irrigate Everything.
A lot.
That’s been our mantra for the last three days. I think we’re all recovering still from the heat wave. I’ve noticed that everyone has been operating a little slower over the past few days.
Tuesday is supposed to be lovely. 75 degrees. We’ll have loads of veggies at market. Everything grew by leaps and bounds the last three days.
Very interesting weather this spring. More on this later……
Oh Kale,how I love thee-
GREENS AND BULGUR GRATIN
1/2 cup coarse bulgur*
2 pounds assorted greens such as kale, collard, escarole, spinach, Swiss chard,
and/or mustard greens
6 large garlic cloves, minced or 1 bunch green garlic!
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan (about 1 ounce)
6 ounces chilled whole-milk or part-skim mozzarella, grated coarse
For topping
1/2 cup fine fresh bread crumbs
1 tablespoon olive oil
*available at natural foods stores and specialty foods shops
In a heat proof bowl pour enough boiling water over bulgur to cover by 1 inch. Cover bowl with a
plate to trap steam and let stand 20 minutes. Drain bulgur in a large fine sieve, pressing out excess
liquid, and transfer to a bowl.
Keeping each variety of green separate, tear greens into bite-size pieces, discarding stems. Still
keeping greens separate, wash thoroughly by dunking in a sinkfull of water and transfer to a colander
to drain.
Put coarser greens (kale or collard) in a 4 1/2- to 5-quart kettle and steam in water clinging to leaves,
covered, over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until wilted, about 4 minutes. Add delicate greens
(escarole, spinach, Swiss chard, and/or mustard) to coarse greens and steam, covered, stirring
occasionally, until just wilted, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain greens in colander, pressing out excess liquid.
In a large heavy skillet cook garlic in oil over moderate heat, stirring, until softened but not golden.
Stir in greens and bulgur and season generously with salt and pepper. Stir in Parmesan and remove
skillet from heat.
Preheat oven to 400¡F. and lightly oil a 1 1/2-quart gratin dish or other shallow baking dish.
Spread half of greens mixture in dish and sprinkle evenly with mozzarella. Spread remaining greens
mixture over mozzarella and smooth top with a rubber spatula. Gratin may be prepared up to this
point 8 hours ahead and chilled, covered.
Make topping:
In a small bowl with a fork stir together bread crumbs and oil until crumbs are evenly moistened.
Sprinkle topping over greens mixture and bake in middle of oven 30 minutes, or until bubbling and
top is browned lightly.
Gourmet
September 1995
Italian Pork Chops with Kale
2 lbs kale
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
4 thick pork chops
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
1 cup hot water
1 small can tomato paste
1. Soak kale and rinse it thoroughly then simmer for 20 minutes in pot of salted water.
2. While kale is cooking, heat oil in large, deep skillet. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes over low heat. Add pork chops and saute for 5 minutes on each side, then season with salt, pepper, and fennel seeds.
3. Dissolve tomato paste in hot water and add to pork chops. Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes, adding water if sauce gets too thick.
4. Drain kale and stir into tomato sauce. Cover and cook for another 10 minutes.
Torte of Greens and Cheese
(adapted from Cooking in Piedmont by Roberto Donna)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a large saute pan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium, and add oil. Add greens and saute, stirring often until they wilt. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. (Dish can be made through this point and refrigerated. Remove from refrigerator an hour before baking. May need extra baking time.)
Stir egg with cheese and flour to blend well. Stir in vinegar, and mix with greens. Oil an 8- or 9-inch springform pan and spoon greens into it, spreading evenly. Bake 10 minutes, until mixture is firm. Remove from oven, cool 2 minutes and remove springform pam. Cut into wedges and serve. Serves 6 as a side dish.
It’s going to be 98 degrees this Friday. And this morning it frosted. Go figure……
We’re ready for anything these days.
So things are finally growing and we have some great stuff heading to market:
We’re really glad the spring (summer) is finally here. I can’t believe we’ll be planting eggplant and peppers soon. See you at market!
This is always the busiest time of the year. Planting everything and weeding everything. But luckily we have a top notch crew to contend with all of this. This allows me to get other things done that normally might be left behind. One of those things being the cover crop at the leased land along the river. It was where all of our overwintered veggies had been growing, interspersed with vetch and rye that had reseeded itself. Worked out well. So yesterday I mowed it all down. 3.5 acres worth. I’ll be tilling it this week to prepare it for another cover. We’ll be bringing it back into the growing rotation at the end of the season or next season.
Here’s the before mowing shot.
And the after shot. It was kind of like cleaning up my room as a kid. I didn’t know that I really wanted to mow it all but after I finished I sighed a big “Whewww! , Nice.”
After finishing the mowing I checked out the strawberries. We should have berries really soon! I even ate a few of the first. Not too bad….
They’re looking good eh?
Well, we’re off to celebrate all the moms on the farm today.
The weather is finally cooperating with us. Sweet! Things are really starting to grow now and as we assumed it looks as if a lot of successions of veggies will end up being ready at the same time. This means lots and lots of produce. Not a bad thing.
We’ve been busy getting more transplants out into the field, including the 20,000 or so Onions we planted last Friday (our crew rocks!), direct seeding more veggies, and tilling in the remaining cover crops to open up the last section of the garden.
It’s really rolling now…..
So this week at market:
Chard and Collards are on the way. As well as Purple Top Turnips. And we’re looking at another week or so before Head Lettuces start rolling in. Maybe spring will stay around for awhile.
Here’s a picture of the new Kale taken as we were harvesting today.
I’ve decided to capitalize the names of vegetables from now on. I think they deserve “proper” respect. 
Melanie, Demian, and I were out checking the covercrop today to see where it was at in growth. We’ll be mowing it down and tilling it in this week. You can see the height on the oats (the grassy looking blades) and the peas (look like pea plants- ha!) compared to our little guy. Notice his cool shirt with the tug boat- Chuggin’ along! …. That’s what we’ve been doing all along……
One of our CSA members sent this link to me the other day.
I’d forgotten about it since I first saw it last year but really enjoyed watching it again.
There’s also another short film by the same folks called
Good stuff for sure. If any of you have links around the web you’d like to share, send’em my way and we’ll post them here for all to take in.
I really want folks to try raab because it is so darned tasty and good for ya! Here’s everything you might want to know about broccoli raab borrowed from some fellow farmers. :
RAPINI: also called raab, broccoli rabe, cime de rape, rape and brocoletti. It’s a form of turnip green. I found a one-page article about it in Cook’s Illustrated (Jan/Feb 1999) that told me more about rapini than a shelf of vegetable cookbooks. Here’s some thoughts and recipes from Anne Yamanaka who wrote the article:
After trying several ways of blanching the greens, she decided the best was boiling 1 bunch of rapini in 3 quarts of salted water. Here’s the official recipe:
Blanched Rapini (Broccoli Raab)
adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
Using a salad spinner makes easy work of drying the cooled blanched rapini.
1 pound rapini (broccoli rabe), washed, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 teaspoons salt
Bring 3 quarts water to boil in large saucepan. Stir in rapini greens and salt and cook until wilted and tender, about 2 1/2 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Cool empty saucepan by rinsing under cold running water. Fill cooled saucepan with cold water and submerge greens to stop the cooking process. Drain again; squeeze well to dry and proceed with one of the following recipes.
Rapini with garlic and red pepper flakes
2 T extra virgin olive oil
3 medium garlic cloves
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 recipe blanched rapini greens (above)
Heat oil, garlic and red pepper flakes in medium skillet over medium heat until garlic begins to sizzle, about 3 to 4 minutes. Increase heat to medium high, add blanched rapini greens, and cook, stirring to coat with oil, until heated through, about 1 minute. Season to taste with salt, serve immediately.
Rapini with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Pine Nuts
Follow recipe for Rapini with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes, adding 1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, cut into thin strips, along with garlic and red pepper flakes. Add 3 Tablespoons toasted pine nuts to skillet along with rapini greens.
Rapini with Asian Flavors
Mix 1 Tablespoon soy sauce, 1 1/2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon sugar in small bowl; set aside. Follow recipe for Rapini with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes, substituting vegetable oil for the olive oil and adding 1/2 teaspoon finely grated ginger along with garlic and red pepper flakes. Add reserved soy sauce mixture to skillet along with rapini.
What three other books had to say about rapini:
Broccoli raab is a leafy mustard green. It’s leaves and buds have a mustardy bite much like turnip greens. -The Joy of Cooking
This is an unusual medium-sharp flavored green widely grown in Italy. It has edible stems and small bud clusters. -The Victory Garden Cookbook, Marian Morash
In Roman times this ‘sprouting broccoli’ was very popular and considered a delicacy. A recipe from Apicus for broccoli raab: Mince the leaves with coriander, onion, cumin, pepper and oil, then serve them with boiled leeks, olives or pine nuts, and raisins. -The Vegetable Book by Spencer
PENNE WITH BROCCOLI RAAB, PINE NUTS, AND CURRANTS
1 lg. bunch
1/2 lb.
3 tbsp.
4 lg. cloves
1/3 cup
1/3 cup
broccoli raab
penne
olive oil
garlic, minced
currants, soaked in warm water until plump and drained
pine nuts, lightly toasted (or walnuts)
red pepper flakes (optional)
salt
freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Wash the broccoli raab well and separate the large stems and leaves. Bring several quarts of water to a boil. Blanch the large stems for about 1 1/2 minutes, until barely tender. Add tender stems and leaves and blanch 1 minute. Remove the greens to a colander to drain. Reserve cooking water. Salt the greens water and add the pasta. While the pasta cooks, heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and soften it. Stir the greens into the garlic oil and remove from heat. When the pasta is cooked al dente, add the currants, pine nuts, and red pepper flakes to the greens. Scoop the pasta from the water with a pasta scoop or sieve and transfer it to the pan of greens. Leave some water clinging to the pasta. Place the pan over high heat and toss the pasta with the greens. Add 1/4C or so of the greens/pasta water. Season to taste. Serve with Parmesan cheese. Serves 3-6
The Greens Cookbook
BROCCOLI RAAB PASTA
1 lg.
6 cloves
1 bunch
1/2 lb.
onion, thinly sliced
garlic, minced
broccoli raab
olive oil
romano cheese
red pepper flakes
salt
penne
red wine vinegar
Put on a large pot of water to boil. In a skillet, coated with olive oil, heat the onion over high heat. When onion is browning in spots, add the garlic, red pepper flakes and salt to taste. Toss briefly, then add the raab and a splash of water. Lower the heat and cook until tender, stirring frequently. Meanwhile cook pasta. Taste the raab and adjust the seasonings. Add a generous amount of olive oil and a splash of vinegar. Toss with the drained pasta and top with romano cheese.
Chez Panisse Vegetables, Alice Waters
BROCCOLI RABE AND CHICK-PEA PITA PIZZAS
2 lg. cloves
1/4 cup
1 can
1/2 cup
1 lg. bunch
1/2 tsp.
3 loaves
1/2 cup garlic, sliced thin
extra-virgin olive oil
(19-oz.) can chick-peas, rinsed and drained
water
broccoli rabe, coarse and hollow stems discarded and the rest chopped (about 9 cups)
dried hot red pepper flakes
6-inch pita, halved horizontally to form 6 rounds
freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)
Preheat oven to 400¡F. In a large heavy skillet cook garlic in oil over moderate heat, stirring, until pale golden. Transfer garlic and 1 tablespoon oil to a food processor. Add chick-peas, 1/4 cup water, and salt and pepper to taste and blend mixture until smooth.
Heat oil remaining in skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and cook broccoli rabe, turning it with tongs, until wilted. Add remaining 1/4 cup water and pepper flakes and simmer, covered partially, until broccoli rabe is crisp-tender and almost all liquid is evaporated, about 2 minutes.
Spread rough sides of pita with chick-pea purŽe and top with broccoli rabe and Parmesan. Arrange pita pizzas on a large baking sheet and bake in middle of oven 10 minutes, or until edges are golden. Serves 6 as an entrŽe or 10 to 12 as an hors d’oeuvre.
Gourmet, December 1994
Okay, so we’ve finally had some sunny warm days to make things grow a bit. First, I’d like to mention to all of our great CSA members a little about our weird spring…… When we decided to try our new hybrid CSA program I knew one of the challenges of the new style of program would be to make sure that there was food available for the CSA members at the beginning of the market day as well as the end of the day so folks didn’t feel pressured to get there as the bell rang to get the best stuff. So we’ve planned for this by planting another acre or so of extra veggies. This way we can have piles of food throughout the market.
Well this has been an unusually cold and rainy spring for all of us. Things are planted out in the field (a little over 3 acres already) yet many things have just been sitting there. It’s been too cold. So I wanted to apologize in advance and in retrospect to any of our CSA members who have come later in the past couple of weeks to find our stand nearly bare. We’re going to have obscene amounts of food very soon. Even tomorrow we’ll have more food than the last couple of weeks.
The other side to the supply problem is not really a problem. It’s actually amazing…. we’ve been bringing all the food we have, and even on rainy, windy, or snowy market days, the people are coming for their food. This tells me that people want our food as a source of nourishment. It’s not just a fad adhered to on perfect sunny days. “Oh let’s go to market, it’s nice out.” No. I imagine it’s more like, “I like to eat real food, let’s go to market.” What I’m saying here- another reason we keep running out of food at market is because people are eating it all. What a simple, yet beautiful concept.
So here’s what we have at market this week:
The field grown spinach is coming soon, head lettuce is working up it’s courage to grow fast, and our new rounds of kale, chard, and collards are cruising towards edibility. Oh, and we’re planting our tomatoes in the hoophouse on Wednesday. We’ll see if we can get some July 4th tomatoes again like last year.
Update: Oh and one more thing- in my continuing experiences with multimedia here’s a video I took with my phone while making growing beds the other day. Nuthin’ too fancy but hey…….
