Saturday, 10 June 2017

Week 3 Vegetable Delivery 2017


June 9, 2017
Week 3

Here are some of the items you may be receiving in your delivery this week:
French Breakfast Radish, Arugula, Lovage, Rhubarb, Mustard Greens, Red Russian Kale, “Ella Kropf” Head Lettuce, “Bunte Forellenschuss” Head Lettuce, “Yugoslavian Red” Head Lettuce

Hello Everyone,

This is the last week for radishes for a while. The arugula seems to be hanging in but with the huge changes daily in temperature the plants are suffering from the stress and going to seed before reaching full maturity. I am hopeful to get one more week from the rhubarb. The amount of amazing recipes I’m finding for this early “fruit” from the garden has been so yummy, I’m thinking of starting its own board on my Pinterest.
Here’s a couple of my favourite:
And

This week we have Mustard Greens and Red Russian Kale, both wonderful sautéed as a side dish. Lovage has arrived. This is a large herb with a celery/parsley flavour. It can be used for soup, butter, flavoured salt, and vinegar. It’s very easy to dry, simply hang upside down and then crumble the leaves into a mason jar to use as a dried spice. The Lovage, Carmelized Onion and Potato Fritata recipe featured in the Wall Street Journal is super delicious:

Lovage, Caramelized-Onion and Potato Frittata
Potatoes and lovage are a natural pairing. Here, onions cooked to a dark brown balance the herb's pungency with caramelized sweetness.
Total Time: 45 minutes Serves: 8
Lovage, caramelized-onion and potato frittata JAMES RANSOM FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, FOOD STYLING BY ANNA KOVEL, PROP STYLING BY LIZ ADLER
Ingredients
6 small potatoes (about ½ pound)
5 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, smashed
4 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon lovage leaves, chopped, plus additional for garnish
What To Do
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rub potatoes with 1 tablespoon oil. Place on a baking sheet and roast 30 minutes. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice thinly crosswise. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a 9-inch nonstick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons each oil and butter over medium heat. Add 1 clove garlic and cook until beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add onions and salt and pepper to taste. Sauté, stirring often, until darkly caramelized, 10-15 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove garlic and discard. Remove onion mixture from pan and set aside.
3. Preheat broiler to high. In a large bowl, whisk eggs. Stir in potatoes, onions and chopped lovage, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Rinse and dry skillet. Place skillet over medium heat and add remaining butter and oil. When butter begins to foam, reduce heat to lowest possible setting. Add egg mixture and cook until set and only top surface of frittata is runny, 10-15 minutes. Set skillet under broiler until top is just set and only lightly browned, 30-60 seconds. Loosen edges of frittata with a spatula and slide onto a platter. Sprinkle with chopped lovage. Serve warm or at room temperature.

This week has been difficult on the farm starting Saturday. We came back from staying the night in the city to be told by a neighbor that a hail storm had come through. Thankfully the greenhouse seems to have survived alright but the field took quite a beating. All the broccoli, Brussel sprouts, spinach, baby swiss chard, peas and nasturtiums I had planted were shredded. I am restarting everything and hope that the fall will find us enjoying it all. Broccoli and definitely Brussels sprouts take quite a while to grow so we will see.

The longer hours due to also having a part time job have been pushing my body to the limit. School is over for us at the end of the month where I will be able to fully focus during the day on the farm instead waking up at 6, taking care of the boys and farm chores, off to my job at 8:30 until 2:30 and then coming home to work at the farm most nights until 9pm, unless the boys have school activities. Thursdays and Fridays start even earlier and end later. It was fantastic sleeping in until 7 this morning!
Monday found us without a working lawn tractor. It has a belt issue and needs some attention which found me using the weed wacker. We have plastic blades on ours which cuts down the harder stalks. Headphones under Safety Ear Muffs work great. Loved listening to my favourites on YouTube and it kept me moving.

We have half the wood cut, split and stored from our wood lot for the winter. I am so excited to be using wood off our own land! I’m hoping to get more done soon.

I was proud to come back this morning to see my driveway had not suffered from the rain yesterday. I had 10 minutes in my schedule to find the pick and dig out the trench at the top so the water wouldn’t wash it out.

The week ended with my car breaking down on the way to Halifax for deliveries Friday. I was able to get to the shop in Bedford after 2 hours of limping the car into the city. David rescued us there and helped me make sure you all received your deliveries! Yea!!! Love my man, so lucky! I am also very thankful for all the support I have from my friend Catherine too who played a huge part in taking care of me, checking in to make sure I got into the city and then later her and her husband Bryce had me over to watch a movie, Mad Max.
I will find out what the damage is on Monday. Unfortunately I will probably be looking for a new one if it proves too expensive. C’mon Auto Trader.

Tonight the boys and I are hoping to have bon fire. I got two cast iron pans for my birthday last week which I’m excited to try out. Anthony declared he wants to have as many meals on the fire as possible this summer including breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and dessert. So we have started figuring out ideas, you can only have sausages and s’mores so often and I’d like to try baking over the fire.

I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend and week ahead. Looks to be beautiful weather!
If you have any questions as always please feel free to contact me.

Your Farmer,

Amber

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