Doorstep Harvest Newsletter 4-20-2013
News from the garden: salad mix is groaning steadily, I’ve got a heat tolerant variety up and started. The winter spinach is bolting, but my spring spinach is very happy. The cilantro is probably done, as it is bolting as well. The mizuna has bolted, we pulled up the last plants today to use as flowers in the salad. The same can be said for the arugula we planted. It bolted so quickly, we didn’t get to harvest it. The chard is really beginning to take off! It had stopped growing during winter. We uncovered my low hoop this week, as the plants under it can tolerate light frosting. With the rain and hail storm we got this week, all the spinach and mustard greens got shredded! We were able to get the good spinach and mustard greens, but it really lowered our yield. I planted four rows of peas this past week, as well as many potatoes. The peas I planted at my grandparents farm are up strong. I planted extra tatsoi (used in braising mix), kale, and arugula there as well. It is all happily sprouted. The fruit forecast for this year is uncertain to me. We have had several frosts since the trees bloomed, as well as a few light hails, but I’m still not sure if the fruits have endured. My tomatoes that I started indoors are ready to be transplanted, we are hardening them off this week 🙂 My squash, cucumber and eggplant starts are almost ready as well.
All produce this week is organically grown in my organic garden in town, as always this year.
Carrot: Obviously great eaten whole, or grated into salad. I added some delicious purple carrot to the mix. (Wiki-fact: Together with onion and celery, carrots are one of the primary vegetables used in a mirepoix to make various broths.)
Braising mix: Contains Red Russian Kale, White Kale, Mustard Greens, Chard (red and green), Beet Greens, and sorrel. Just stir-fry them. One tablespoon of Mirin, and a teaspoon of brown rice vinegar, added near the end, adds to the flavor. Adding sesame seeds also makes it taste great to me.
Salad mix: Contains encore salad mix, wood sorrel, baby beet greens, and arugula (white) and mizuna (yellow) flowers.
. The extra salad mix we planted is coming to fruition, so the salad is mostly encore salad mix.
Spinach: One of my spinach patches was shredded by the rain and hail in this past week.? (Wiki-fact: the United States Department of Agriculture states that a 180-g serving of boiled spinach contains 6.43 mg of iron, whereas a 170-g ground hamburger patty contains at most 4.42 mg.)
Herbs: Oregano, lemon balm, thyme, parsley, and green onions. Chop green onions and add to salads or soups. You can put lemon balm with hot water to make a relaxing tea. (WikiFact:
(for oregano) Oregano is an important culinary herb, used for the flavor of its leaves. Oregano’s most prominent modern use is as the staple herb of Italian-American cuisine. Its popularity in the US began when soldiers returning from World War II brought back with them a taste for the “pizza herb”, which had probably been eaten in southern Italy for centuries. There, it is most frequently used with roasted, fried or grilled vegetables, meat and fish. Unlike most Italian herbs, oregano combines well with spicy foods, which are popular in southern Italy.)
(thyme fact: is a fragrant, small-leafed, woody-stemmed culinary herb that is used frequently in Mediterranean, Italian and Provençal French cuisines. It pairs well with lamb, poultry and tomatoes, and is often used in soups, stews, stocks and sauces.)
A great way to store your herbs for long term use is to keep them in their paper bag on the counter, and let them air dry on the counter. For short term, just store in fridge.
Flowers: quince (pink), grape hyacinth (purple), tulip, and star of Bethlehem (white).