On Saturday afternoon, I watched Mark take off into the field on a tractor, hoping to make the most of a dry (enough) window of sky and soil to get a few beds ready for a round of Favas and Green Garlic to go in this week. After a few passes with various implements, he paused and rubbed his head a few times before he leaned back in the seat, turned over his shoulder, smirked and said, “Well, I guess the farm gets to tell me what to do for the next several months.” Days later, I’m still not sure if he’s all that mad about it. This was of course after he’d spent the week sorting out shipments of seeds, collating spreadsheets, shuffling pallets of long-awaited potting soil so that the crew could get tomatoes seeds sown and he could get a greenhouse seeded on schedule (which they did!). Somewhere in the course of things, he had to fix two separate broken pipes and make emergency repairs at dusk. That’s almost as sure of a sign of Spring’s imminence as a flourish of crocuses will ever be.
Read moreGreen Garlic Season is Here
Green Garlic might be my favorite Spring vegetable. Bunched up, it looks a whole lot like its cousin the green onion, but it is indeed garlic through and through. If left in the ground each stalk would eventually swell out into a fully mature bulb of garlic, but we pick it in its "green" state, because it is mild, tender and brings out the best in so many other Springtime foods and meals. It gets bonus points, because it takes very little effort to cook, which we find extra helpful during the busy planting season. So many good, last-minute meals start with a bit of olive oil, chopped Green Garlic and whatever random vegetables or proteins I've been neglecting in the fridge. Sprouting Broccoli...(again)? Into the garlic. Greens? Into the garlic. Nuts, Prawns, Tofu? Into the garlic. Potatoes? Asparagus? Pizza? Grains? Pasta? Salads? You get the gist. It is the perfect base to just about any stir fry and happens to be amazing chopped up and mixed in with your burger of choice too.
Read moreEat Your Greens!
Who is ready for some lovely leafy greens? The greenhouses are popping, and we've got to start freeing up room for the next round of planting. So, we have another leafy week ahead with Baby Barese (an Italian Chard variety that looks like Bok Choy), Dandelion and a mix of Mustards (including actual Bok Choy) that will make great stir fries, spicy salads and more.
Weeks like this can be a whole lot to take in after months of heavy roots and squash, and finding uses for new greens can feel really intimidating--especially when we start tossing around adjectives like bitter and spicy. So I, Farmer Katie, would like to offer you some of my tried and true, unsolicited advice. Here goes! Yes, you can comb through your cookbooks and search the web far and wide to dig up specific recipes for preparing specific greens in very specific ways. As a food enthusiast, I support this wholeheartedly if that is the type of approach that works for you. But, while I am that person a great deal of the time, I am by no means that person every day or even every week. I know--there goes my mystique. So, here's what happens with greens most frequently in our house: