In this newsletter:
An invite to our Summer Dinner and Concert (August 12th)
What's going on at the farm
Recipe ideas for kohlrabi, scapes and napa
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Farm Dinner and Concert: Allysann Foehring and Friends
FARM CONCERT:
We're having a farm concert and dinner on August 12th from 5-830pm. We'd love to see you. Allysann, a team member here at R&S for the past 4 years, will be playing with her band. We will be serving vegetarian pizza and vegan wraps and nanaimo bars and salad from the farm. See more information and grab your tickets here:
Spots are limited so hurry!!
Week 4 Already!!
We normally send a newsletter with updates from the farm every week. This year has been a bit nutty. Turns out 2 kids really is more work than one! Especially these days when they're sick for weeks at a time! Ah well, they're cute right.
Our team is stellar though. We have a lot of returnees so they know what they're doing. None of us would eat without them!
On the FARM:
There's been quite a bit of rain this year. The plants are loving it. So are the weeds, but that's cool. We're cool. Literally. It's so nice to not have to be irrigating 24hours a day.
We are super pleased with our greenhouse investments this spring. We're harvesting SOO much from them. We normally wouldn't see this many red tomatoes until August.
We started harvesting garlic today and finished planting our fall harvest crops last week. Just as summer ramps up we're starting to prep for winter!
Last week we finished planting all our fall-harvested crops. It's a crazy time of year as we harvest summer bounty and try to keep cool loving crops alive in the heat.
Recipe ideas for some of the "weirder" veggies
Scapes
Scapes are actually garlic flowers..or garlic flowerbud stems. We harvest them so the plant will put energy into the bulb, not the seed. If we didn't, the bulbs would be small and woody. The wonderful thing about scapes is that they're delicious and tender nd mildly garlicky when cooked. We put them in everything, using it much the same as garlic. If you find you're accumulating a lot, try making a scape pesto or an aoili: https://simpleseasonal.com/recipes/garlic-scape-aioli
You can also chop them, throw them in freezer bag and freeze for soups and sauttees in the winter.
Kohlrabi
A lot of new CSA members may not be familiar with Kohlrabi. I convinced my veggie-skeptical 5 year old that it was worth eating by calling it a field apple. It worked! They are really sweet and crunchy and delicious. I do not recommend cooking them.. you can, people do, but you're really losing out on that summery crunch. It's a great snack, just be sure to peel it as the outside can sometimes be tough.
Napa
Napa lasts a long time in the fridge, but once you get a taste for it, it probably won't need to store it. It makes a great summer slaw that you can eat the next day. cut it finely and toss with a nice dressing and lots of cutup veg (especially good with julienned kohlrabi). Or quickly sauté for a noodle bowl (see below).
Tops to
Recipe idea: NOODLE BOWL.
So good.
Rice noodles, egg noodles, pool noodles.. whatever is your favourite, plus a saucy sauce plus a whole bunch of veggies, chopped.
This is what I made the other day:
I panfried some grass-fed ground beef with a little salt and cumin, set aside.
I Sautee chopped scapes until tender, add radish leaves, wilt. I added sliced radish, chopped cilantro (a good handful), chopped beans and half a head of finely chopped Napa. Cooked till just tender. I added the meat (I often use tofu) and cooked rice noodles and added a dressing of soy sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar.
Here was my inspiration :https://ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/mee-goreng# . My version ended up being quite different. But that's OK. I love flipping open a recipe book to get an idea for a vegetable and using what I have on hand to mimic the recipe.
Join our Community CSA membership page for more tips on how to use your veggies:
https://www.facebook.com/rootsandshootsCSA
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