Join us on the farm for Homestead Harvest Day, October 23, noon to night!

Come find us here in Blanchardville, 1784 County Rd H. continued »

The lightning has driven us inside this afternoon. Rain is rather pleasant to work in on a warm day, and we always rue the sound of thunder as it warns us to take cover just when we were getting so comfortable. (We don’t so much mind taking cover in our adorable greenhouse.) But this on-again, off-again summer-ish weather is just perfect for growing a variety of things. Tomatoes overlapping with lettuce overlapping with cabbage – the best of spring, summer and fall all in one week! Here’s what’s in the box:

Purple Bok Choy – This unique Chinese cabbage is not only pretty – it’s delicious! Tender enough to eat raw at this size, stems and all, you can add it to a salad. Or try the recipe below.

Baby Lettuce – You’ve got a crisp green romaine and a butterhead red. Different textures and colors – play with your food!

Cucumbers – We picked the vines clean this week and doubt we’ll see any more cukes this year.

Tomatoes – We don’t know how things are going to go out there in the trellises from now on, but we sure found a lot we liked this week. We’ve put tomatoes in your box that aren’t entirely ripe in the hopes you can use them later. Use the very soft ones first. Use the oval-shaped ones for sauces and the round ones to slice for burgers and sandwiches. Use the small ones in salad.

Baby Napa Cabbage – Believe it or not, the biggest green in your box this week is just a baby! These lovely light Asian cabbages are growing at a shocking rate and crowding each other in the rows, so we decided to harvest some young and leave more room for the rest to head up. Use these big open rosettes just as you would a head of Chinese cabbage: shred or slice thinly and saute in stir fry, or use in salads such as the one we’ve printed below.

Giant Yellow and Zucchini Squash – We don’t normally pack such mature squash, though we do get requests for big zucchini from a few customers every year for making bread and cake. But this week Farm Member Pat brought us an amazing squash soup we still can’t get over. It’s gotten rave reviews from every kid who still lives here at home, and the veggie-skeptical husband. DO try the recipe below!!!!

Beets – These mature beets are just the thing roasted on a chilly night. But don’t forget about those greens! They don’t look great, but they’ll taste yummy added to a soup or the Swiss chard in the gratin recipe below.

Swiss Chard – This is a great time of year to try Alice Water’s hearty Swiss Chard Gratin. Save the recipe and use it with spinach, kale or other greens as the year progresses. This week you can add the beet greens.

Nasturtium Leaves and Blossoms – Though I think of Monet’s gardens at Giverny when I think of nasturtiums, these lily-pad-like plants actually originated in Peru where they were grown for salad. They also used the leaves as a tea to treat coughs, colds and the flu, as well as menstrual and respiratory difficulties. Being high in vitamin C, nasturtiums act as a natural antibiotic, and as such were used topically as a poultice for minor cuts and scratches. Nasturtiums are also used in Ayurvedic medicine. The leaves are rubbed on the gums to stimulate and cleanse them. We recommend just adding these to a salad, though. The leaves taste like pepper and the flowers are a bit sweeter. Another nice way to use these is to spread each leaf with seasoned cream cheese, then roll up to eat. This makes a pretty cool appetizer!

Herbs: Sorrel, Celery, Pineapple Sage, Chives – We had two tour buses of high school kids here this past week on a farm tour. They loved tasting all the different tomatoes, they thought the curly squash out in the field were cool, but they really really dug eating sorrel! I’ve never seen such an enthusiastic reaction to a vegetable. This week we’ve given you a few of the big, fragile leaves to cut in ribbons and add to a salad. They also make a wonderful, zippy garnish for soup or pasta.

Garlic

Spicy Shredded Napa Cabbage Salad

from Martha Stewart Living July 2010

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 red chile, thinly sliced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
1/2 head napa cabbage, shredded (about 6 cups – if you don’t have enough use the bok choy, stems and all, sliced thinly)
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Combine lemon juice and chile slices in a bowl. Pour in oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper. Toss together scallions, cabbage, and cilantro in a large bowl. Just before serving, drizzle with dressing and season with salt and pepper – toss.

Summer Squash Cream Soup
A million thanks to Farm Member Pat for introducing us to this surprising, delightful and delicious soup.

1 large mature summer squash (yellow, zucchini or otherwise), with skin not yet hard
1/2 stick butter
1 large onion, or 3 shallots, diced
3 or 4 cloves garlic, pressed
4 bay leaves
Sea salt and fresh pepper
1 or more teaspoons nutmeg

Melt butter in the bottom of a heavy large soup pot. Saute onion in butter until barely browned; add garlic for a minute, stirring. Wash squash, cut off top and bottom ends and discard. Peel if the skin can’t be bruised with a fingernail. Cut squash into 2-inch pieces and add to pot, add water til nearly covered. Add bay leaves and 1 teaspoon of salt and simmer for several hours until squash is tender and soup is getting thick.

Take off of heat and fish out bay leaves. Using an immersion blender or a drink blender, puree soup until smooth and creamy. Add bay leaves back in, add nutmeg. Taste and add salt, pepper and nutmeg if desired. Serve warm or cold – pass parmesan cheese to top with, and enjoy!

Wilted Bok Choy with Cashews
This simple recipe is from the Food Network.

1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 bunch bok choy, sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch thick slices
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and ground black pepper
1/2 cup cashews

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add bok choy and saute 3 minutes. Add soy sauce and red pepper flakes and cook 2 more minutes, until bok choy stalks are tender-crisp and leaves are wilted. Season, to taste, with salt and black pepper. Arrange bok choy on plates and top with cashews just before serving.

Chard Gratin
From Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food

1 1/2 bunches of chard (or spinach, kale, beet greens, turnip greens, etc…)
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons melted butter
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, diced
Salt
2 teaspoons flour
1/2 cup milk
A few strokes of freshly grated nutmeg

Wash and stem the chard. Save half the stems and slice them thin. Bring 2 quarts of salted water to a boil and cooked the sliced stems for 2 minutes. Add the chard leaves and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain and cool. Gently squeeze out the excess liquid from the stems and leaves and coarsely chop them.

Toss together the breadcrumbs and the melted butter. Toast on a baking sheet in a 350-degree oven, stirring now and then, until lightly brown, about 10 minutes.

Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed pan and add the diced onion. Cook over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chard and season with salt. Cook for 3 minutes. Sprinkle with the flour and stir well. Then add the milk and nutmeg and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more milk if the mixture gets too thick. The chard should be moist but not floating in liquid. Taste and add salt if needed.

Butter a small baking dish. Spread the chard mixture evenly in the dish and dot with the remaining butter, cut into bits. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs evenly over the top. Bake in a 350-degree oven until the gratin is golden and bubbling, 20 to 30 minutes.

Mmmmm. To my palate, these weeks in the year create the best eating. The intersection of hot and cool season crops makes for terrific variety in the gardens, while the combination of warm days and cool nights makes playing in the kitchen lots of fun when work is through. Plus when the temperature eases off, all the vegetables seem to get a little more comfortable and put on their best flavors. And colors! Everything is changing and we love to see the deeper hues in the woods and on our plates. This week’s favorite color? The pink tips on the bronze fennel. Enjoy! Here’s what’s in the box: continued »

Whew! We almost got blown away during our harvest this week. The weather right now is rather wild and out-of-control, and all that whipping wind makes us feel a bit panicked through the day. We are glad to get inside in the evening and do something civilized – like cook a thick soup or slow cook a beef roast with potatoes! Here’s what’s in the box: continued »

I don’t think we can call it fall just yet, but the season is certainly shifting. We see it in the color of the sky, we hear it in the call of the birds, we taste it in the vegetables. I am endlessly thankful for the four seasons we enjoy here in southern Wisconsin. So many different kinds of days, so many different flavors. So many blessings! Here’s what’s in the box: continued »