Hello Folks!

With temperatures already in the 90s, this week finds your farmers working hard to keep things irrigated during the heat wave. Its a challenging time to be a farmer as we are still technically in the spring season and many of our spring crops do not do great in the heat. The heat makes many veggies including radishes, spinach and arugula want to bolt, so unless things cool down here soon, we may have a shorter season for some of those spring veggies than we anticipated. In addition to irrigation, this week finds your farmers seeding fall parsnips, picking peas, trellising tomatoes (again!), and weeding just about everything. June is one of the busiest months on a vegetable farm as we are still pushing forward on plantings, but also starting to spend more time harvesting. As Dennis Stenson often describes it: It's a bit like juggling while sprinting.

Lots of delicious stuff at the market stand this week! Sugar snap peas are just starting to come in. We will have a small quantity at the farmers market this weekend and expect to have them in the stand by next week. I rarely cook with them as they are great just as a snack or as an addition to a raw veggie plate...but if you must eat them cooked I would recommend them flashed cooked in a stir fry.

This year's kohlrabi is sweetest I've ever had. So sweet that my almost three year old son ate all of his in his lunch yesterday (if you have kids, you know this says a lot). Again, I don't often cook my kohlrabi, but instead put it in salads, raw spring rolls, on tacos, or served among other veggie friends on a platter. Just peel off the alien-like skin and slice into rounds or match sticks. Delicious!

The early cucumbers and zucchini are in! We have been having some serious pest issues with both plants over the years so we are only doing one early rotation of them this year. I anticipate having these popular summer items until mid July, so make sure to get your fill before then. We made a big batch of cucumber and dill yogurt sauce for our greek tacos last night and I'm pretty sure I'm going to just slather the left over sauce on everything I can think of in the next few days...including some kohlrabi and zucchini fritters. Be sure to make a big batch as I'm already hiding the left overs from my husband and son. Its popular in our house :)

As many a good Italian knows, broccoli rabe is a fly by night veggie in the spring. This will be the last week for it until the fall, so if you didn't pick some up last week, don't delay. Sautéed zucchini, rabe and spicy sausage served over left over orzo was a big hit in our house this week. We also chopped some up and served it raw as another topping for our greek taco night...not for everyone but we love it!.

Looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

Katie

Week 4's Harvest:

Kale

Collard

Chard

Spinach

Salad Mix

Arugula

Spicy Mix

Zucchini

Cucumber

Radishes

Hakurei Turnips

Kohlrabi

Broccoli Rabe

Baby Bok Choy

Sugar Snap Peas

Farmer's Journal