Beans for canning or freezing?

We have a lot of Green Beans right now. They are for sale to CSA members for $1.50 per lb - half off the normal price. Let us know if you are interested!

Hot weather crops

Are coming on strong. The melons are very early and of great quality! Let us know if there's ever a problem with ripeness. We do our best and try to only grow the varieties that are easier to pick.

Sweet corn is bountiful. We've been through the Spring Treat (2 different plantings) and are now picking the Tuxedo. Kandy Korn will be next week, and an old heirloom Silver Queen will be the last variety.

Tomatoes! No blight in sight! But we are having some trouble with blossom-end rot and splitting because of uneven rains and watering. The Heirlooms coming this week are Costulato Genovese, Prudens Purple, Kellogg's Breakfast, Old German, Cherokee Purple. One of the best sites to look at pictures of the different varieties and read about them is www.tomatofest.com. There are paste tomatoes, yellow slicers, red slicers and smaller cherry and oval tomatoes, too. Finally!

Thursday - Saturday shares are getting a Jenny Lind muskmelon. The flesh is light green and they have a turban-like blossom end, and are quite sweet.

Whew!

I haven't written anything here for awhile. We've been plugging away, doing a lot of picking and a lot of planting and maintenance. This is the time of year when we have to get seeds in if there's a hope of a late crop before frost and snow. More beans, carrots, lettuces, beets have all been seeded. And we are putting in flats and flats of brassica plants: broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower. These are all cool-weather crops and can usually withstand a little cold weather.

Tomatoes are getting strung up every few days to keep them up off the ground and staked. They are starting to ripen more each day. We've had a lot of blossom end rot but no late blight! And the tomato worms are wreaking havoc. They are so gross.

What you are getting: still some early red varieties: Sophie's Choice, Belii Naliv, Siletz and others. The Glaciers and Yellow Taxis are done, tho more Taxis are coming. A few shares are getting an early heirloom Costoluto Genovese - red, smaller and ruffled. The red ovals are Juliets, one of my favorites for salads, drying or cooking. The little tomatoes are red Sprite (grape shape), Sungold (orange round), Principe Borgese (round red). We picked a few Kelloggs Breakfast (I think) and Cherokee Purple that had blemishes but were still good enough for lunch!

Sweet Pepper Bonanza!

There are multiple kinds of sweet peppers in the CSA boxes today ~~

• Jimmy Nardello are the ones that look like chili peppers only they are green. They are called frying peppers.
• Mild Jalapenos look like hot jalapenos, but they aren't! They have great flavor for eggs.
• Cubanelle are the light green long peppers.
• New Ace are the standard green peppers.
• Lilac are the beautiful purple peppers.
• Feherezon are the small yellow ones.

Hot peppers are available to help yourself at the Farm, or in ziplock bags in boxes, marked HOT.

We certainly should get a good crop of red peppers this year! We have Ace Red, and medium red bell, Carmen, an elongated type, Lipstick, a smaller pointy pepper, and Red Knight, larger bell-shaped. Last summer was so cool we hardly got any red peppers.

The potatoes are French Fingerlings - a favorite. We don't have as large a crop as last year so this is the only time you will get these. They are a gourmet variety, just need to be steamed or boiled and served simply with olive oil or butter, salt, garlic, pepper.

Check out those boxes today!

Wow, it looks like a taste of summer! We had enough little sweet peppers to give one to everyone! And cucumbers and tomatoes! We checked - we didn't have tomatoes and peppers to give out till Week 10 last summer, Week 8 the summer of 2008, so we are really early this year. It looks like eggplant may be ready next week!

The garlic bulbs are small. They were supposed to be green garlic (like scallions), but because of the heat they bulbed up right away. Even tho it doesn't look like they have skins, even the individual cloves have to be peeled.

See the post below for info on the potatoes.

The onions are a very early variety. The smaller ones can be cooked whole or any of them can be used like any kind of onion.

This is the last big week for peas. There may be a few straggling in next week.

Please let us know if you would like any herbs. A lot are on now and ready for harvest.

Not-Very-Pretty Potatoes Today

We tried out growing potatoes in black plastic, and while they grew well and produced an early crop, they do not look as nice as usual. There's a small amount of these for everyone, and we will start digging the field-grown potatoes in a week or so.

Tomato plants are on the left with their stakes and the first few lines of string. Then there are rows of potatoes, hilled and mulched. We have 3 kinds of fingerlings, russets, red norlands, kennebecs in. You can see a bit of onions, leeks and garlic on the right edge of the photo.

Cows and calves, hanging out in the shade.

Update

Please remember there are no CSA veggies this Thursday, Saturday, or next Monday and Tuesday. We will resume CSA veggies with Thursday shares on July 8th. We will be at Sweetwater Market on Saturday from 9am till 1pm with whatever will not hold till next CSA Day.

In the meantime we are getting hay baled, weeding weeding weeding, planting later summer and fall crops in cells for transplanting in a few weeks, and seeding some things directly in the ground, doing bug patrol and spraying with the biological controls when needed, making compost, stringing up tomato plants, mulching. Etc. etc. etc.

When CSA resumes, we will have yellow and white early onions, potatoes, more peas, and summer squashes ready. We will also have peppers and cucumbers soon. We've picked 4 sweet peppers, and the cucumbers are almost ready to snitch some early ones. We ate fresh-dug Red Norland potatoes a few days ago - so creamy and flavorful! Can't wait to share them with you all.

On Saturday, July 3rd the Sweetwater Local Foods Market celebrates its 5th Birthday (since founding in 2005) with cake and music in celebration of the 100th birthday of our official "Queen of the Market" - Jeanette Keiser of Marne. Jeanette's son Paul is a regular vendor and brings his mom to share in the fun. She still gets a long pretty well and is a joy to be around. We will also begin a month-long "Pasture-Raised Local Meat" sale with samples of Creswick Farms sausages.

For CSA share holders, remember you can stop by the Market and pick up fresh herbs any Saturday. I'd appreciate an email on Friday letting me know what you want so I can be sure to bring enough. And if you let me know ahead of Earthly Kneads deliveries, I can add special order herbs to your box. We have Italian Parsley, Dill, and Basil in quantity now.

Farm work and veggies coming soon:

Snap peas. Beets with greens. Cabbages. More carrots, scallions, snow and shelling peas. Cucumbers are about 1 inch long. We've picked about 10 summer squashes and 3 smallish green peppers. Melons look great and are blooming and setting fruit.

We have gotten about a half inch of rain in the last 2-3 weeks - all the storms have gone south or north of us. It's quite dry here, but we have the irrigation hooked up to most of the gardens now.

The summer onslaught of weeds and weeding is in full pull-and-hoe mode. If we don't keep ahead of them now, we are behind all the rest of the growing season. We bought a new weeder this year that pulls behind a tractor with a person riding it and controlling the tined weeders. Very cool!

A woodchuck has been eating beans and carrot tops. We have the live trap set and the guns loaded. They are so destructive. They also dig huge holes in fields that will break a cow's leg.

All the melons are planted now, and doing well. We still have more cucumbers to plant, many more beans to plant. All the winter squashes are in, and pumpkins, too. Corn is growing well. The tomatoes are in need of trellising but are doing well. We are picking and eating a few each day and hope to have them for you all soon.

Laughing Tree Brick Oven Bakery

Will have bread available for sale at Thursday's CSA pickup. Try some samples! Buy some to treat your family to more wholesome food! Read the post from a few days ago to know more about this delicious opportunity.

A week off

Remember we are taking a week off of CSA around July 4th. There will be no pickup on July 1st or 5th, and no deliveries on July 3rd and 6th. We are not going out of town, but this gives us time to catch up on the maintenance and get the Fall crops planted. We are also usually putting up hay and doing large farm work, too. AND maybe, just maybe, we will get time to go to Lake Michigan, visit friends, have a few days off. We haven't been to the lake yet - Farming doesn't allow for much leisure time in the normal vacation time of Summer.

We will still be at Sweetwater Market on Saturday, July 3rd, selling the things that won't keep till next CSA day, July 8th. Come visit us there!

Laughing Tree Brick Oven Bakery!

Greetings members of Earthscape/Full Circle Farm!

My name is Hilde Muller. My husband Charlie and I are former CSA members (and farm workers) at the Bobier's farm. We are currently in the process of opening a small Bakery adjacent to our home in Elbridge township.We are calling the bakery Laughing Tree Brick Oven Bakery and we aim to take bread and other goodies to various farmers' markets by mid-July. As a way of gearing up for our official bakery debut in July, we are conducting a series of trial bakes in our Wood-Fired Brick Oven. This hand-built oven utilizes wood-fire heat that is stored in 15,000 pounds of masonry! Traditionally, ovens of this sort have been used all over the world for professional and communal bread-baking. To our understanding, there are only forty of these ovens in use in the United States and now we have one right here in our own backyard that Charlie built last winter! We are very excited to be baking in this oven and to be producing handmade, full-flavored bread for the good people of Oceana County.

Nearly all of our breads are naturally-leavened--this means that, rather than using commercial yeast, we cultivate a starter that captures wild yeast (yeast naturally present in the flour and in the air). A naturally-leavened bread is more easily digested by our bodies because it undergoes a longer period of fermentation. This long period of fermentation contributes to the development of extraordinary flavors!! Our breads are made with simple ingredients (organic flours and grains, sea salt) but the breads themselves are full-flavored and complex. Another wonderful benefit of a naturally-leavened bread is that it keeps for a week on the counter. Our bread also freezes beautifully if a whole loaf is too much for one to eat at a time!

The two breads we are baking on Monday that will be available exclusively to the members of Earthscape/Full Circle CSA at the trial bake price of $5/loaf are:

WEST MICHIGAN WHEAT. Our signature loaf. A rich, chewy crust and a creamy white crumb (interior) flecked with the sweetest hint of Michigan Whole Wheat (grown in Eaton Rapids). Perfect for bread and butter or memorable sandwiches--an everyday treat... Twenty-five hours from start to finish (from the time we feed the starter to the time we pull it out of the oven...)

GRIFF'S 8-GRAIN. A hearty 8-grain, 3-seed bread named for our hearty neighbor Jim Griffin. We don't know what we'd do without Jim and we don't know what we would do without this deeply satisfying loaf. Made with four Michigan-grown organic grains (wheat, rye, barley, kamut), plus four additional organic grains (millet, buckwheat, steel-cut oats, cornmeal), and topped with sunflower, sesame, and poppy seeds--this is easily our most complicated loaf! But well worth every ounce of effort (especially considering all those grains are soaked for 12 hours before the dough is even mixed!) We love this bread sliced and bare-naked...It doesn't even need butter! We mix a bit of raw Michigan Honey into the dough and it lends the finished bread just a touch of sweetness. Needless to say, this bread makes AMAZING toast. Also, twenty-five hours from start to finish...

So, Come to Monday farm pickup and sample a slice or two of bread!
We are delighted to be able to offer these trial-bake loaves to you and your family.

Peace be with you,
Hilde and Charlie Muller
Laughing Tree Brick Oven Bakery
farmlaughingtree@yahoo.com
873-9820

Chinese Cabbage and Carrots!

The carrots today are Mokum, an early, smaller, sweet variety that make me continually say "I need to grow more of these!" They win the taste test and are so fun to grow!

The Chinese Cabbage has tried to bolt (make seed), so rather than having 1 head for 2 weeks, you will get 2 heads today. If you have a Vegetables A to Z book, look up storage and recipes there. this is a Napa cabbage called Fun Jen. Chinese cabbage originated near the Beijing region of China, and is widely used in East Asian cuisine. Napa cabbage is lighter in color than pak choy.

In Korean cuisine, it is the main ingredient of baechu kimchi, the most common type of kimchi, but is also eaten raw as a wrap for pork or oysters, dipped in gochujang. The outer, tougher leaves are used in soups.

Stir fry it or make an oriental salad!

Raising good beef

As a meat grower, I disagree with the notion that bovines should never eat grain. Should humans never eat dessert? Our steers love to have all the grass and hay they can eat, plenty of land they can roam, even in winter, and a little home grown and ground-on-the-farm grain in their last few months. The natural diet of free ranging ruminants changes as the season progresses. Grasses and forbs lose their succulence, the stems become woodier, and the seeds mature. The seed of many wild grasses resemble and have nutrients much the same as the commonly fed small grains like oats, barley and rye. We believe the quality key is free-range pasture and a limited amount of non-GMO mixed grains as the animals mature. NO corn silage, crowded confinement or feedlots!

People always tell us our beef is more tasty and tender than other 'grass-fed' beef they've had.

Sweetwater Market today!

Come see us! If you are a CSA Shares family you should have received a parsley plant. I'll have some at the Market for anyone who missed out.

Turnip Greens Recipe (thanks, Heidi!)

Leon O'Neal's Turnip Greens Epicurious | April 2002

by Robb Walsh
Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook

At Leon's "World's Finest" In & Out B-B-Q House on Galveston Island, they serve tender ribs and tangy sauce with sensational Southern-style vegetables. "It's all in the seasoning," says Leon. Here's his recipe for turnip greens. Yield: Makes 4 servings 1 large bunch turnip greens 1 small turnip, peeled and diced Dash of sugar 6 slices bacon, diced 1 onion, diced 1 tablespoon lemon pepper Salt to taste Louisiana hot-pepper sauce Wash the greens in several changes of water in the sink until no more grit is seen. Chop the greens coarsely. Bring a large pot of water to boil and add the greens, the turnip, and the sugar. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain. In a large skillet, sauté the bacon until it gives up its grease. Add the onion and cook 7 minutes until the onion is soft. Toss the greens with the bacon and onion. Add the lemon pepper and salt. Serve with Louisiana hot-pepper sauce.

This is the perfect book for people who want to know more about vegetables. I purchase it to sell to you all and our customers at Sweetwater Market. CSA members get a reduced price ~~ $18 per book.

This informative and easy-to-use cookbook celebrates sustainable farming with a wide array of scrumptious recipes for seasonal, farm-fresh produce. From peas, peppers and potatoes to basil, bok choy, and burdock root, From Asparagus to Zucchini highlights the best of seasonal cuisine from around the country.

Revised and updated third edition features:

-- 420 recipes, 80% new, 100% are original

-- Recipes and information for more than 50 vegetables and herbs

-- Dishes from growers, farm members, and home cooks who love vegetables

-- Special sections on community supported agriculture, the benefits of eating locally, seasonal cooking, recipes for kids, and much, much more!

Today's veggies

Garlic Scapes are the seed heads of garlic that should be cut off in order to get bigger bulbs. They taste like garlic and make a yummy addition to anything that needs garlic flavor. You can also make garlic scape pesto, tho I don't think there's enough in your share box for a large batch of it. Simply grind the scapes with almonds or pine nuts, parmesan cheese, olive oil and sea salt.

Our turnip roots are not as blemish-free this year (hot weather mostly, as they are a cool weather crop). We tried to sort out only good ones for Shares. If there are any bad spots, it's pretty obvious and they just need peeling and trimming. We had mashed turnips for lunch today! I trimmed the rejects and cubed them. I sauteed some onion, added a little water and cubed turnips, some garlic and also some left over cauliflower. When it was all soft and mushy, I blended it together, added some butter, salt and pepper, and could hardly wait for it all to cool to eat!

Turnip greens are supercharged with so many different nutrients. They are an excellent source of vitamin A (through their concentration of carotenoids such as beta-carotene), vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin B6, folate, copper, calcium, and dietary fiber. They should be stored separately from the roots and used in 4-5 days. Wash them, trim out the rib unless you are cooking them a longer time in a soup. Chop them and steam or saute them. Here are some ideas for eating:

Serve sautéed turnip greens seasoned with some tamari, lemon juice and cayenne pepper.

Make a simple meal with a little Southern inspiration. Serve cooked turnip greens with beans and rice.

Healthy sauté turnip greens, sweet potatoes and tofu, and serve alongside your favorite grain.

Use turnip greens in addition to spinach when making vegetarian lasagna.

What's in your box??

If you are visiting this blog page, you will see the list of this week's share veggies on the right side. When the next week's veggies are posted, the list of veggies from the previous week moves to the very bottom of the blog under 2010.

I try to get this all updated by Monday or Thursday afternoon. Of course, Thursday update wasn't completed till this morning...

Feel free to email or call if you have questions about anything.

Intern!

Patti Kreilick joined us this past week! Her Dad lived in our Sugar Shack one summer when he was about her age. Everyone is glad for better housing now. Here's her bio:

I was born in Shelby in 1983 (note from Patrice: I was at her birth). As a baby in a back pack, I toured the cow pasture with Bill, and an interest was sparked at a young age. Most of my childhood was spent in Fremont, OH, where I lived on a farm as a young girl. After attending Miami University and achieving a degree in English Literature, I moved to Nashville for four years, working at The Tin Angel Restaurant. My interest in food, its production and preparation grew through this experience. I'm looking forward to getting back to my roots and experiencing life in Western Michigan as an adult.

We'll have to update her picture to Farmer Patti soon!