WILD HARE WEEKLY SPRING 5/12
Hi. My name is Katie Green, and I eat beets for breakfast. Oh, I know. It catches the ear all kinds of wrong at first. Wait, what did she just say? Beets? Not only does this woman expect me to actually EAT BEETS, she wants me to eat them for BREAKFAST?! Has this woman lost her ever-loving mind?

Maybe a little, but I would blame running the farm as a whole for that—not just the beets. You see, over the winter I hit a wall, and I realized that I needed to make a much more intentional effort to take better care of myself than I had for the prior four years of keeping this place going strong. This took the form of me “reconnecting with my why,” which a good portion of the time looks like me surrounding myself with a bunker of books, Matilda style. I’m not sure why exactly, but one of the cookbooks that I added to my fortress late last year shook something up for me in a way that I really needed. The book? Dining In by Alison Roman. The saturated photos, super chic flat lighting yet straightforward way in which she presents recipes had me hooked. It isn’t a health food book by any means, but it has done wonders for my heart and our kitchen. It is just my kind of book. The recipes in particular? A simple batch of Vinegar Roasted Beets and another for a savory Granola that has all of the elements of the perfect Everything Bagel minus the bagel. But here’s the kicker, for all of my enthusiasm and inspiration, the people with whom I live do not get excited about eating beets. So, I did what made sense to me at the time—I made it for breakfast, the meal that everyone in the house tends to do their own thing for anyway. And then I roasted up another batch and had it again and again. Since then, I’ve sprinkled Alison Roman’s “Decidedly Not Sweet Granola” on everything from roasted Rutabagas, to Broccoli, to Avocados and Cucumbers. And as a result, I’m starting my day with a batch-cooked (but somehow still indulgent) dish of dietary fiber, iron and all kinds of other nutrients that I don’t have to share with ANYONE else in my house. It is mom/wife/me time heaven, and a meal like this leaves me feeling remarkably good and ready to face whatever shenanigans the farm tosses my way. So that’s my advice. In a funk? Hit the library—and don’t just settle for having breakfast for dinner—eat those veggies for breakfast people—especially the ones your family members don’t love as much as you do. And when you’re ready to please a crowd again, take that Purple Sprouting Broccoli and make them some Smitten Kitchen Broccoli Pizza. Of course, the life-affirming, game-changing, serotonin-inducing recipes I’ve described are linked at the end of this week’s newsletter.

Have a great week!
Katie

WILD HARE WEEKLY SPRING 4/12
There’s no time for fooling around here—the egg count is looking fantastic thanks to our two hardworking flocks of hens. This means that in addition to CSA add-ons, we’ll have eggs for sale by the dozen at our farmstand going forward through the season. If you’ve driven past our farm along River Road, chances are you’ve seen at least one of our two flocks of girls out there doing what they do best—pecking around for bugs and bits of sprouting things, taking their twitchy dust baths in the sunshine and laying truly exceptional eggs. Just one look at those taut orange yolks and you’ll see what a difference living in the open air, scratching around on pasture and having access to quality organic feed from Scratch & Peck, mean for our birds. You might not realize it, but there are more than 600 hens living at our farm. You’re welcome to visit them when you come out, but please be advised that their movable fencing is electrified in order to keep them safe from our local band of coyotes. (They’re more of a brazen acapella group that likes to serenade us every time a siren or train whistle blows, lest we forget their menacing presence).

At any rate, I’m always excited when eggs are abundant again, because they are such a versatile source of protein and go so well with so many of our spring vegetables—particularly those sprouting and flowering broccoli and kale types. Mark has put this incredibly simple and delicious Breakfast Broccoli Bake recipe into the rotation as of late, and that my friends, is the sign of an easy Spring meal. When the farmer can hop off the tractor and whip up a meal from scratch in between hitching implements, he and his recipe are both keepers.

Best,
Katie

Greetings from the farm! There’s a sense of urgency now that the temps have come up. The Sugar Snap peas are “up” in more ways than one—we suspend the trays above our greens in the greenhouses every Spring so that hungry critters don’t devour them before we do. And beyond the peas, there are all kinds of greens and beets and things that are going to want to be out of trays and into the soil before we know it. Since it was time to make a little more room in the field, Mark and Luis dug the remaining bed of Parsnips today, making way for an afternoon of plowing and forward momentum. Like us, our friends Amy and Agustin of Four Elements Farm were looking to move some of their overwintered baby Collards this week. Ours are looking pretty tasty as of this morning too, so with our powers combined, we’ll have some overwintered leafy greens on the table this week. I love quick sauteed Collard Greens—they’re like Cabbage’s robust cousin that can hold up to all kinds of flavors—pepper, vinegar, ginger and peanut. Yum! Meanwhile, Parsnips are one of our more covetous root vegetables this year. They look like creamy white carrots, but their flavor is sweeter and more intense than carrots. And like so many things that have overwintered, they taste extra yummy this time of year. My rule of thumb still holds true in late March—a little of frost and a bit of heat make hardy vegetables nice and sweet. So whether you turn them into oven fries, or grate them up into a breakfast hash over the weekend, I hope you’ll find them a delicious treat.

Best,
Katie