Showing posts with label garlic scapes. Show all posts

The Cusp of Summer

The sun has been out, the days have become hot and incredibly long, the storms have receded and we are starting to pick a LOT of scapes.  The garlic greens are crisping at the edges, a sign that they are dying back and it is almost time for the great Garlic Pull (it's still a few weeks away though; but soon!).  It must mean summer is here, or at least that it will be soon enough.  This week is indeed the week of the Summer Solstice, as it approaches us this Friday.  It is a day many know and dub the longest day of the year, or some people may just know it as a day that the Celts might really like for some reason.  For us farmers out here, we sometimes don't really know how to feel about it.  On one hand, we dread such a long day, feeling impelled to work all hours of daylight and get as much as we can done.  Sometimes the sun feels like a really over-bearing, high-heat-exuding work supervisor who looks down from us at the sky and shakes his finger, saying "get to work!"  There is always some pressure to get things done while it is light, and the longest day of the year is no exception.  But on the other hand...it means that the days that come after will be getting shorter!

So we have a little announcement in regards to CSA's we will be offering, quite possibly at the end of this summer: we are introducing the University Student CSA Share!  The plan is still in formulation, but it will go something as follows: You don't have to be a student, not necessarily.  CSA duration will be from August until Nov./Dec. (TBA).  We have seen the need for many folks to want to sign on to our CSA Summer season in August, whether they are a U of Iowa student who wants some organic veggies or if you are away for summer....it don't matter!  More details to come, so stay tuned.

As for the here and now, CSA this week includes:

  • Salad Mix
  • Head Lettuce
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Cilantro
  • Dill
  • Green Onions
  • Collard Greens (or Kale)
  • Fennel

We are excited to bring you Fennel this week, and no, not the seeds....the whole bulb and fronds!  We have truly produced a gorgeous crop this year, and we will be providing you with some amazing recipes on how to prepare this delicious plant, considered both a vegetable and culinary herb.

Stay cool, and we'll see you at market!


Recipes 

Carmelized, Braised Fennel Bulb (www.huffingtonpost.com)

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 whole fennel bulbs, trimmed and quartered
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and gently bashed
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, toasted (optional)
  • 2 1/2 3 cups low-sodium chicken stock
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions

  • Place a large saute pan over high heat and add olive oil. Add fennel and garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes until slightly charred on all sides. Season with salt and pepper. Deglaze with white wine then add toasted fennel seeds and chicken stock. Depending on the size of your pan you may need to add more liquid so the fennel is about 3/4 covered. Bring to a simmer, cover and braise on stove top for 30 minutes until very tender.
  • Remove fennel from braising liquid. Reduce liquid on stove top for a further 3-4 minutes then add butter and swirl to dissolve. Serve as sauce on fennel bulb.


Sausage, Fennel and Asparagus Pizza (bevcooks.com)

What it took for 2 12-inch pizzas:
* 1 cup all purpose flour
* 1 cup whole wheat flour
* 1/2 Cup Bisquick
* 1 packet dry active yeast
* 1 cup warm water, divided
* 1 tsp honey
* 1 tsp salt
* 3 Tbs. extra-virgin oil, divided
* 2 cups cherry tomatoes
* 1/2 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed and diced
* 1 fennel bulb, end trimmed, core removed and sliced thinly
* 3 sausages or brats of your choice
* 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
* fresh basil for garnish, if desired

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast into 1/4 cup warm water and honey. Let sit 5 minutes, until nice and bubbly.
In a larger bowl combine the flours, the Bisquick and salt. Add 1 Tbs oil, the yeast mixture and the remaining 3/4 cup water. Mix the dough with a spoon or your hands for about 4 minutes, until you form a ball. If you need to toss in a bit more flour, go ahead. You want a nice smooth dough ball. Flip the dough onto a clean surface and knead for about 2 minutes, getting it extra smooth and awesome.
Put the dough ball in a large bowl with a little oil coating it, cover with a warm damp towel and let the dough rise for about 45 minutes.
Once the dough has risen, using a pastry cutter, divide the ball into equal smaller balls, 2 to 4.
On a floured surface, Roll out the dough to your desired thinness.
Preheat the grill to medium-high.
In the meantime, throw about 1 1/2 cup of the tomatoes into a mini food processor and blend until smooth. Then pour the puree into a small sauce pan and simmer with a pinch of salt, pepper, and a basil leaf or two for 5 minutes.
Heat the remaining oil in a medium skillet and toss in the sliced fennel. Saute until it starts to soften, 5 minutes. Add the asparagus and tomatoes and saute another 3 minutes, until everything pops and is crisp-tender. Add in a pinch of salt and pepper.
Back on the grill, add the sausages and grill until plump and lightly charred, roughly 20 minutes, depending on your sausages. Remove from heat and cut into small half circles. (You can always brown Italian sausage (casings removed) in a pan if you want. Which I normally want.)
Brush the grates with a little oil, and place each pizza crust right on it. Grill until the bottom is set, 3 minutes. Remove crust from grill and flip it over. Spoon out a layer of tomato sauce, followed by the fennel, asparagus, cherry tomatoes and diced sausages. Sprinkle with mozzarella and back on the grill it goes for another 15 minutes or so, until the cheese is nice and bubbly and the dough is cooked through. But keep an eye on it. Not all grills are created equal and I don’t want you to hate me if yours burns. Coo?
Top with more fresh basil if desired, slice and inhale.


 Quick Braised Collards with Pot Liquor (www.huffingtonpost.com)

Ingredients

  • 2 bunches collard greens (about ¾ pound each)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup Chicken Stock or reduced-sodium canned broth
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

Directions

  • With a paring knife, cut the ribs out of each collard green. Stack and roll the greens up like a cigar. Then cut them crosswise into ribbons. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the greens for 5 minutes. Drain.
  • In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and cook until starting to turn golden, about 4 minutes.
  • Add the blanched collards to the pan, sprinkle with the salt, and add the stock. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the collards are very tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, sprinkle with the hot pepper flakes, and serve the collards with their pan juices.
  • VARIATIONS: • Add 1/2 pound diced smoked sausage when you sauté the collards. • If you want the smoked flavor without the heat, add some sweet smoked paprika to the collards as they’re sautéed. • Omit the hot pepper flakes and pass hot sauce at the table so diners can season the collards themselves.

  *************************
 Please tell us if you can't identify something on the market table, don't know what to do with a particular item, have a food allergy we should know about, or if you have other questions or comments. We love to hear from you!
fennel fennel recipes garlic pull
Share:

Garlic E-"Scape"-ade!

Greetings all!

Garlic season looms closer as our now tall, graceful alliums begin to put up their flowers!  For those of you who are unfamiliar, garlic flowers are popularly known as "scapes", which grow out of the top of garlic plants like little curly-q's, or perhaps like pig-tails.  Typically, scapes are prepared in raw recipes, such as pesto to which they frequently lend themselves; some folks cook them, lightly sauteeing them with butter or lightly pan- or oven-roasting....but over-cooking them can make them quite unpalatable.  But it can be done!  Stay tuned for some garlic scape recipes, one of which was contributed by a wonderful CSA member from last season!

We are also excited to bring to you, new this week: Sugar Snap Peas!  'Tis the season!

(*If the title of this newsletter confused you, no, we will not feature recipes of Garlic Scape Lemonade or Limeade beverages...that's a bit too experimental, even for us.)


On the table this week:

  • Salad Mix
  • Kale Bunch
  • Head Lettuce
  • Green Garlic
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Mint
  • Asparagus
  • Cilantro
  • Dill
  • Green Onions
  • Sugar Snap Peas

*Special this week: CSA members get a discount on gourmet Oyster Mushrooms from Oak Savannah Mushrooms sold right at our table, next to your CSA buffet!  $3 instead of $4 pints of the most beautiful mushrooms you'll ever see!


This time of year signifies somewhat of a shift in attitude and fluctuation for the Echollective.  This week is our last week of picking asparagus so make sure you grab some for your CSA share this week!  It'll be the last you get from us until next year.  Other crops will soon follow suit, such as our salad mixes, although we are going to make a great effort this year to grow shade-cloth lettuce....we can't make any promises, but we hope to be able to provide you all with fresh, cool salads all summer long!

For the last couple months of summer, a lot of focus will be given to our alliums, which is a fancy-latin word for our onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, and green onions.  We have already been dedicating a lot of time these past couple of weeks fighting off the weeds in our onion fields with all this rain, and were are quite positive that we will reap a considerable onion harvest, if all continues to go well!  Cross your fingers for us.  The recent rains have been super ideal for our alliums, although with a lot of rain and warmth come the weeds.  So our energy has gone a lot towards weeding and protecting our crops, along with picking them, while the bulk of our summer planting is behind us (although we are still popping eggplants, lettuces, and peppers into the ground!).

And how could we not mention the Great Garlic Pull?  It's not here yet....we have weeks worth of scapes to pick yet, but come July, we'll be pulling so much garlic that we'll be literally sitting in mountains of it.  Literally.

Echollective will soon have to open its own fruit stand, because our fruit trees are almost exploding with fruit.  Several apple and pear varieties have swelled due to all the rain and intermittent sunshine!  We expect our black raspberry bushes out in the woods to be doing the same this year!

There's a lot to look forward to, and we hope you look forward to our big spread this week, and other delicious produce in the future.  See you at market!


Garlic Scape Recipes

Following are a few garlic scape recipes, engineered by one of our very own CSA members, Elizabeth Hinds.  Thanks Elizabeth!
 
Beef Stirfry (with garlic scapes)

  •      ½ cup garlic scapes, roughly chopped
  •     1 med onion, halved and cut into 5mm slices
  •     1 lb stew beef, marinated in red wine vinegar* for at least 30 mins
  •     ⅔ cup peas (fresh or frozen)
  •     ⅔ cup broccoli (fresh or frozen)
  •     ¼ cup shoyu (can use soy sauce)
  •     ¼ cup hoisin (also called Peking sauce)
  •     1 tbsp raw sugar   
  •     3 tbsp butter

Melt the butter in a large wok and cook the onions over med-high heat until translucent, but still somewhat firm, about 5 minutes. Remove the onions, leaving as much butter in the wok as possible. Increase the temperature to high, add the meat (drain off most of the marinade first) and cook until just browned, about 2 minutes on each side. Remove the meat, leaving the juice, and add back the onions and other vegetables to cook for about 5 mins (if using frozen veg, add a few minutes for thaw time). Add back the meat and toss in the shoyu, hoisin sauce and sugar. Cook for 1 min, then serve over rice. Serves 3-4.
    *note: I usually make my own red wine vinegar from leftover wine. In a large mason jar, add red wine and spike with 1 tbsp  unpasteurized apple cider vinegar (Bragg’s works well). Cover with cheesecloth and screw on the band. Let sit on the counter for a couple of days before using and add red wine as available. 
Garlic scape pesto

  •     ½ cup garlic scapes, roughly chopped
  •     ½ cup snow peas, roughly chopped
  •     1 oz raw cashews
  •     1 cup olive oil
  •     ⅓ cup grated parmesan
  •     1 tbsp lemon juice
Pulse together the scapes, peas and cashews until they are chopped into small pieces. Add the olive oil, parmesan, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Blend for about a minute, scraping down the sides as needed. Makes 2 cups.
 Infused Olive oil

  • 2 garlic scapes, cut to fit container and sliced in half lengthwise 
  • Sprig of rosemary
  • 2 cups extra virgin olive oil

Wash the rosemary and garlic scapes and let dry completely before beginning (any water in the oil will encourage mold growth). Drop the scapes and rosemary into a clean, dry, sealable glass container (~16oz) and cover with the olive oil. Store in a cool, dry spot out of direct sunlight. Oil will be ready to use after about 2 weeks.
Spring vegetable soup
  
  •     2 turnips, sliced into 4mm thick disks
  •     2 radishes, sliced into 4mm thick disks
  •     bunch of spinach, stems removed
  •     ¾ cup barley
  •     3 qts garlic scape vegetable broth

Cook the barley in the vegetable broth until tender, about an hour. Spread the turnips and radishes in a single layer on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Add all of the vegetables to the broth and barley and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add salt to taste. Serves 4-5.
Garlic Scape and Turnip Green Risotto

  •     ½ cup garlic scapes cut into 1cm rounds
  •     1 cup arborio rice
  •     ½ cup dry white wine
  •     4 cups vegetable broth
  •     2 tbsp olive oil
  •     ¼ cup chopped fresh sage
  •     greens from 2 turnips, chopped medium
  •     ½ cup freshly grated parmesan

Bring the vegetable broth to a simmer in a separate pot. In a medium saucepan, saute the garlic scapes in olive oil until lightly browned. Add the sage, turnip greens and rice, tossing to coat. Cook for about 2 mins before adding the wine. After the wine is completely absorbed, begin to ladle in the hot broth, about ½ cup at a time, and stir until absorbed. Repeat this until all of the broth has been added, then stir in the parmesan just before serving. Serves 4.

**********

Please tell us if you can't identify something on the market table, don't know what to do with a particular item, have a food allergy we should know about, or if you have other questions or comments. We love to hear from you!
fruit CSA garlic scape recipes garlic scapes
Share:

Garlic Party This Weekend!

Hi everyone!  Hope everyone has been successful at staying cool in this persistent summer heat as of late.  Nearly everyday, it's been 90 degrees!  And the hot nights don't help.  We at Echollective have been tending to take afternoon dips at a nearby waterhole during the hottest hours of the day.  Times have been sweaty and sticky, but we've been hanging in there.  Really early mornings and late evenings, even nighttime, have been our most comfortable work hours and we may all slip into siesta shifts.  It's just too hot in the middle of the day to get anything done!

The garlic pull rages on!  We appreciate everyone who has come out to help thus far.  Just today we have sold our first round of beautiful, pearly-white garlic cloves to the Co-op and the Motley Cow for their dinners.  Really good-looking stuff so far.  No problems with the dryness here!  And yes, this means you'll be seeing your first CSA garlic cloves.  Garlic will be in CSA this week!

Yup, the garlic party is still scheduled for this weekend!  Bring your tent, pants and gloves if need be, some food, maybe beer!  It'll be good times!  Garlic work will be scheduled for the evening, when it is less hot, and you may camp out here on the property.  The property is gorgeous and the firefly show is spectacular.  Everyone is invited, come out and join us for a farm day and night under the stars!

What else is new?  Rescued our bean bushes from a patch of nasty weeds, they are well on their way towards fruiting!  More eggplants have been transplanted into our greenhouses, and we have beds yet to prep for more pepper plants.  Our heirloom slicer tomatoes have just put out their first green fruits, we hope they set beautifully.  Last week we pulled up our first sizable Napa cabbage heads, a little surprise you all received last week at CSA.  Our kale plants have really flourished, producing enormous leaves!  This starts our kale bunching season, there will be plenty of bunches for quite a while now.  Our first broccoli crowns have formed and we have begun harvesting our largest ones!  Many of them look very nice, some of them a bit tinged with yellow due to the dryness.  A good crop so far.  Zucchinis, yellow squash, basil and sungold tomatoes are the crops really raking in the goods for us lately.  Cucumber sprouts are getting bigger!

This is our last call to those who might want a farm kitten!  All three available ones are being picked up July 10th by a very interested prospective owner.  After that, you've got a couple months to wait for our other litter to grow up!  However, it is on a first-come-first-serve basis, if you would like one come and get one before July 10th or they'll all be gone.  Please email us if interested.  These kitties really need homes, the sooner the better!

A big thank you to those who follow us in our Newsletter.  If you are just a passerby or casual reader, please feel free to sign up for this CSA Newsletter, especially if you are involved in our CSA!  We find that it has been very helpful to those who participate.

Hope to see you at market!

This week's CSA:
  • Kale bunch
  • Sungold cherry tomatoes
  • Napa cabbage
  • Zucchini
  • Yellow Zephyr summer squash
  • Garlic
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Basil
  • Pea Tendrils


Garlic Scape Recipes

This week we are dedicating our recipes to the eccentric, exotic, yet delicious garlic scape, thanks to one of our CSA members, Elizabeth Hinds, who took it upon herself to experiment with this unusual vegetable.  Not just anyone can say they know what to do with garlic scapes, but as Elizabeth put it, after messing around with it you wonder "what CAN'T I do with garlic scapes?"  These recipes are of her invention.  Thanks Elizabeth!


Beef Stirfry (with garlic scapes)
  •      ½ cup garlic scapes, roughly chopped
  •     1 med onion, halved and cut into 5mm slices
  •     1 lb stew beef, marinated in red wine vinegar* for at least 30 mins
  •     ⅔ cup peas (fresh or frozen)
  •     ⅔ cup broccoli (fresh or frozen)
  •     ¼ cup shoyu (can use soy sauce)
  •     ¼ cup hoisin (also called Peking sauce)
  •     1 tbsp raw sugar   
  •     3 tbsp butter

Melt the butter in a large wok and cook the onions over med-high heat until translucent, but still somewhat firm, about 5 minutes. Remove the onions, leaving as much butter in the wok as possible. Increase the temperature to high, add the meat (drain off most of the marinade first) and cook until just browned, about 2 minutes on each side. Remove the meat, leaving the juice, and add back the onions and other vegetables to cook for about 5 mins (if using frozen veg, add a few minutes for thaw time). Add back the meat and toss in the shoyu, hoisin sauce and sugar. Cook for 1 min, then serve over rice. Serves 3-4.
    *note: I usually make my own red wine vinegar from leftover wine. In a large mason jar, add red wine and spike with 1 tbsp  unpasteurized apple cider vinegar (Bragg’s works well). Cover with cheesecloth and screw on the band. Let sit on the counter for a couple of days before using and add red wine as available. 


Garlic scape pesto
  •     ½ cup garlic scapes, roughly chopped
  •     ½ cup snow peas, roughly chopped
  •     1 oz raw cashews
  •     1 cup olive oil
  •     ⅓ cup grated parmesan
  •     1 tbsp lemon juice

Pulse together the scapes, peas and cashews until they are chopped into small pieces. Add the olive oil, parmesan, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Blend for about a minute, scraping down the sides as needed. Makes 2 cups.


Infused Olive oil
  • 2 garlic scapes, cut to fit container and sliced in half lengthwise 
  • Sprig of rosemary
  • 2 cups extra virgin olive oil

Wash the rosemary and garlic scapes and let dry completely before beginning (any water in the oil will encourage mold growth). Drop the scapes and rosemary into a clean, dry, sealable glass container (~16oz) and cover with the olive oil. Store in a cool, dry spot out of direct sunlight. Oil will be ready to use after about 2 weeks.


Spring vegetable soup
   
  •     2 turnips, sliced into 4mm thick disks
  •     2 radishes, sliced into 4mm thick disks
  •     bunch of spinach, stems removed
  •     ¾ cup barley
  •     3 qts garlic scape vegetable broth

Cook the barley in the vegetable broth until tender, about an hour. Spread the turnips and radishes in a single layer on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Add all of the vegetables to the broth and barley and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add salt to taste. Serves 4-5.


Garlic Scape and Turnip Green Risotto
  •     ½ cup garlic scapes cut into 1cm rounds
  •     1 cup arborio rice
  •     ½ cup dry white wine
  •     4 cups vegetable broth
  •     2 tbsp olive oil
  •     ¼ cup chopped fresh sage
  •     greens from 2 turnips, chopped medium
  •     ½ cup freshly grated parmesan

Bring the vegetable broth to a simmer in a separate pot. In a medium saucepan, saute the garlic scapes in olive oil until lightly browned. Add the sage, turnip greens and rice, tossing to coat. Cook for about 2 mins before adding the wine. After the wine is completely absorbed, begin to ladle in the hot broth, about ½ cup at a time, and stir until absorbed. Repeat this until all of the broth has been added, then stir in the parmesan just before serving. Serves 4.

**********

Please tell us if you can't identify something on the market table, don't know what to do with a particular item, have a food allergy we should know about, or if you have other questions or comments. We love to hear from you!
broccoli garlic harvest Garlic party
Share:

Garlic Scape Surplus!

Greetings folks!  Seems like the beginning of summer sure has had its ups and downs already.  It's as if it can't decide whether to completely do away with all the cool spring dusk and dawn, those chill nights where the windows must be closed, or to flip the heat switch all the way to the extreme.  We've experienced hot, grueling days out there in the fields, and finding ourselves wearing sweaters once the sun is down!  Quite strange, but I have to say, pretty refreshing.  Today's high up in the 70's was a perfect work day!  Sunny and warm, but not too much to the point of drying you out...with a few cool refreshing breezes here and there.

This week we see the continuation of mass scape and spring pea-pickin'.  Our walk-in cooler is filling up with big boxes of these tasty garlic flowers!  We've picked another huge round of our sugar snaps and if another rain permits, we may get yet another phase of sugar snaps for our CSA members and at Farmer's Market table.  We've sold a few to restaurants here and there today.  But our farm is literally overflowing with scapes!  Large batches of home-made scape pesto still haven't made much of a dent in them.  CSA members, Farmer's Market, Co-op and restaurants are all buying them, but we still rake them in by the loads every day (thanks to our diligent scape pickers these past couple weeks: Louie, Devika, Jesse, Blake, and Randall, and member of the River City Housing Collective...thanks guys!).  We are also happy to announce our selling of them through the Iowa Valley Food Co-op!  We haven't been able to sell much stuff through them, as much as we like to...the trick with them is knowing how much produce you will have two weeks in advance (which is difficult!)  And hey, we've got way more than enough scapes and we'll still be sitting in mountains of them come two weeks!  If you'd like to get your hands on large amounts of our garlic scapes to get your winter's worth of pesto batches going, order them online at www.iowavalleyfood.com!  We are also happy to be featuring farmer Will's delicious oyster mushrooms for sale through the co-op as well, don't forget to get your hands on some of those sometime!

As the hot weather has become more dominant, this will see the last of our lettuces, salad mixes, bok choy and spinach pretty soon...but don't worry, we've still got a few weeks!   Our asparagus plants have already given us as many spears as they have been able to this season and we are letting them retire and go to flower.  We will soon usher in our hot crops!  Our basil is growing fast, and our zucchini plants have put out their first flowers.  I can already see the green swellings at the base of some of their petals, the sign of ripe zucchinis to come.  Our peppers have also begun to flower, and tomatoes have already put out their fruits.  In time our first sun-gold cherry tomatoes will be ripening.  Our first round of beans have poked up a couple inches from the ground and seem to thrive in the heat!  We have still been pulling up a lot of our root crops,  turnips and beets, though it seems we are at the end of our delicious radishes.  Some of our turnips we've pulled up are enormous!  Potatoes are coming along, getting bigger as we keep the weeds and thistle at bay.  Our newly transplanted broccoli is doing well and our older plantings of broccoli have gotten very big, fanning out their huge green leaves.  We'll see how their crowns turn out this year.  Kale seems to be doing real well too, we've been getting plenty for our braising mixes.  That splash of purple from our redbor kale really does the trick to make our cooking greens look beautifully appetizing.

Thanks to our Echollective mechanic Michael Webb, we finally have a reliable watering system again!  Don't know if this was talked about in the last newsletter, but one of our underground waterlines blew a seam or something to that extent.  The driveway became flooded and we had to switch up our whole watering system, quite a complicated and painstaking task, actually.  Mike swooped in once to fix it and all seemed well for a day or two, when suddenly the hole that was dug to reach the broken (but now supposedly fixed) pipe started to overflow with well water and head straight towards the house!  Once again, our water system had to be switched up again.  A bit of a pain in our butts, yes, and a bit of a hazard to some of our crops.  A very few crops didn't make the water switch simply due to lack of time as a consequence, we just couldn't get around to saving them.  But for the most part, everything is doing well, and our waterline has officially been fixed (for real!) and our watering routine and our lives are back to normal.

 Macy's five kittens are getting bigger by the day, and they really are making quite the ruckus!  Jumping on boxes, climbing up shelves, attacking each other and their mom.  Their older sister, Survivor (named because she was the only survivor of her litter) really can't stand their antics...maybe it's the only child syndrome and she really can't accept the idea of siblings.  Which is why we extend an invitation to anyone who would like to take home a kitten in just a few weeks?  We have three that we would like to give away, we don't know if we can handle a barn full of cats, however cute they may be!  A couple will be sticking around here to keep tabs on the mice...but we think at least three cats is quite enough.

Well, that's the most we have in what's new out here at the Echollective.  We just keep chugging along!  Hope to see you soon!

 On the table this week:


  • Braising Mix
  • Salad Mix
  • Turnips
  • Nettles
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Mint
  • Head Lettuce
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Pea Tendrils (pea shoots)

Recipes

Sesame Pea-Shoot Salad Recipe (www.epicurious.com)
  • 1 cup sugar snap peas
  • 1/2 cup snow peas
  • 1/2 cup fresh or thawed frozen green peas
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon Asian (toasted) sesame oil
  • 2 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted lightly
  • 1/2 to 1 tablespoon firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons soy sauce
  • 6 cups pea shoots, washed well and spun dry
In a kettle of boiling salted water cook sugar snap peas 2 minutes. Add snow and green peas and cook 1 minute. Drain peas in a colander and rinse in cold water. Pat dry on paper towels.
In a small bowl whisk together vinegar, oil, sesame seeds, sugar, and soy sauce until sugar is dissolved.
In a bowl toss pea shoots and peas with dressing.

 
Rudy's Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe (allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

  • 6 garlic scapes, chopped
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated Asiago cheese
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Place the garlic scapes, Parmesan cheese, Asiago cheese, lemon juice, and pine nuts in the bowl of a food processor. Drizzle the olive oil over the mixture. Blend until the pesto is a brilliant green color and smooth in texture. Season with salt and pepper.
 
Nettle Frittata (www.mariquita.com)
 by Mark Gordon of Terzo in SF

Yield: 6 portions

  • ½ # Cleaned Nettle Tops 
  • 4 Tbls Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 Garlic Clove, Chopped
  • 6 lg Organic Eggs
  • ¼ C Heavy Cream
  • Salt & Pepper to Taste

Preheat oven to 300º.Cook 1/3rd of the nettles in one tablespoon of the olive oil in a non-stick pan. Cook until tender adding a small amount of water if needed. Repeat this 2 more times adding the garlic on the third batch. Place all of the cooked nettles on a cutting board and chop finely. Place the nettles in a bowl of a food processor with the eggs, salt, pepper and process until the nettles are incorporated into the eggs. Add the cream and process for 10 seconds. Heat the non-stick pan on medium with the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add the nettle mixture and with a rubber spatula move the eggs around to get the entire mixture warm. Place into the oven and cook for about 12 minutes. Let cool for 3 minutes then turn the frittata out onto a plate and cut.

****************
 
Please tell us if you can't identify something on the market table, don't know what to do with a particular item, have a food allergy we should know about, or if you have other questions or comments. We love to hear from you!
 
 
garlic scapes Iowa Valley Food Co-op oyster mushrooms
Share:

FarmHack IOWA and IRenew

Hi everyone! 

We're doing rather well out here, what with all the recent rain!  Hopefully it keeps coming.  We have less watering work to do, and less worry about keeping our plants alive.  Good news for both you and ourselves!  We've also had the chance to transplant more plants into the ground.  What better time to do it than when mother nature takes care of the rest.  I had the opportunity to have my mom come out and visit and do some farm work!  We transplanted a good deal of broccoli together, and quite conveniently, the sky opened up for some rain right afterward to give it a good watering!  It was great to see her and have the help.  We've also put in more kale, winterbor and lacinato (dinosaur) varieties, as well as plenty of onions!  We have all that to look forward to.

A couple notable events coming up:  

FarmHack IOWA is holding an event Wednesday, June 20th involving creative D.I.Y. strategies for small farmers with low resources.  Electric tractors, farmer-built machinery, WVO/biodiesel, micro-wind, micro-hydro, wood gas/producer gas fuels, and out-of-the-box farmer hacks will be among the event's topics.  The post-event social will be hosted out here at Echollective!  New Belgium brewery will be sponsoring with much beer...we think it'll be a good time!  Check it out at their website: http://www.farmhack.net/forums/farm-hackiowa-schedule-events.

The UrbFarm stand will be at the Iowa Renewable Energy Exposition!  Run by Derek Roller, tasty food featuring a lot of produce from Echollective!  For more info on the event: www.irenew.org/expo.html.

Sun Gold tomatoes are tall enough that we have already trellised them, and some are bearing their first fruits!  Cherry tomatoes on the way.  We have more garlic scapes than we know what to do with!  You'll be getting those at CSA and you can always buy more at our Farmer's Market stands, we have bushels upon bushels of them.  Not familiar with garlic scapes?  Well, scapes are just another name for the garlic's flower, which it sends up in late spring.  For garlic to flower, it must redirect its energy from rooting and bulbing up to its uppermost leaves.  We don't want that!  So we pick off the flowers so the plant redirects its energy back into the bulb, producing the best garlic bulbs possible.  I know, it seems a little cruel to ruin a plant's chance of getting some bee action and pollination, but truth be told, garlic flowers are sterile!  So sending energy to the flower would all be a waste anyway.  We'll include some tasty scape recipes in this newsletter!  The interesting thing about scapes is you don't cook them, like garlic bulbs...you eat them raw.  Heat destroys their consistency and flavor.  So we'll include a raw recipe for you, as well as one that involves some mild baking!

Your CSA box will also feature some lavender blossoms.  Lavender can be cooked with, and also has many beneficial medicinal effects...it is a cleansing astringent, great for skin and hair, with a soothing effect on the nerves...and a wonderful smell, of course!

Another interesting pick we had this week were pea shoots, or tendrils!  We have the honor of providing produce to the Lincoln Cafe in Mt. Vernon, and these were featured in their order today (by they way I recommend eating at Lincoln Cafe, I've eaten there!  I bit pricy but most of their meals are local and organically sourced, and totally delicious).  The top four or five inches of a maturing pea plant, along with its tiny little feelers it sends out in order to climb and latch, are tender and tasty...and may I add, quite beautiful.

We also had the first on-the-farm oyster mushroom inoculation last night, which typically happens over at our sister farm, Dirty Face Creek Farm.  Oh yes, we did it in the dark!  With the aid of car headlights and a cheap-o headlamp purchased at Paul's, as well as the blinking lights of several thousand fireflies!  They are really going crazy at this time of year.  It looks like flash photography our in our fields.  We first pasteurized  switch-grass straw on which the mushrooms will grow in a food-safe stainless steel barrel, in order to stifle any chance of competing fungi to get a hold and possibly lessen the chances of a good mushroom flush.  Then we mix the oat-grain mushroom spawn (basically the "root" system of the fungus growing throughout the mushroom grains) throughout the straw when it finally cools.  We then pack the straw tightly into food-safe plastic poly-tubes, and they end up kind of looking like straw sausages!  Holes are poked in them through which the mushroom can fruit out and express themselves, and then be picked....but we must wait a week for the grain spawn to spread throughout the straw in the bag and become fully formed again.  The bags are usually hung up in a cool, dark, humid place.

This past weekend we also received a visit from a prospective intern, Lucas, who graduated from Drake University in Des Moines.  He has farmed out in Palestine and plans to do PeaceCorps work out in Senegal, Africa, where he will be doing farming as well.  We all liked him and he seemed very capable and interested in farm work, which is always good, and we really liked his work ethic.  He plans to return and commit to a two-month internship to prepare him for his time in Africa.  We look forward to his help and time here.

Produce tip of the week: What do you do with all this salad mix you get in your CSA box?  What if you don't want to eat it immediately?  How do you make it last while keeping it good?  Well, here's a tip.  Take a paper towel, fold it up and place it inside your salad mix bag!  Lettuces and other leafy veggies in your salad tend to go bad due to excess moisture.  The paper towel will suck that right up.  On the other hand, if somehow your salad mix seems like it's somehow drying up, adding a moist paper towel to your salad bag will help it crisp up.

Thank you for your support and membership.  We hope you have been enjoying CSA so far...and we hope to see you soon!

What to expect this week:
  • Braising Mix
  • Salad Mix
  • Spinach (bag)
  • Beets
  • Turnips
  • Nettles
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Pac Choi (head)
  • Radishes
  • Head Lettuce
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Lavender 

Recipes
  
Garlic Scape Tart (www.seriouseats.com)

Ingredients

  • For the Crust
  • 1 cup teff flour
  • 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
  • 4 to 5 tablespoons ice water

  • For the Filling
  • 1 cup thinly sliced garlic scapes (from 15 to 20 scapes with bud ends removed)
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup good quality fresh ricotta cheese (bought or homemade)
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon thyme plus 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest)
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Procedures

  1. Place the flours and the salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the largest pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle four tablespoons of the ice water onto the dough. Pulse until the dough begins to hold together. Add the additional tablespoon of water and continue to pulse if the dough is otherwise too dry to hold together. Turn the dough out onto a piece of waxed paper and shape into a disc by pressing quickly and firmly with your hands, repairing any cracks as you go. Wrap the dough in the waxed paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  2. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll out the dough into a 12-inch-diameter circle about 1/4-inch thick. Press into the bottom and sides of a fluted 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Roll your rolling pin over the top of the pan to remove any excess dough. Prick the bottom of the dough all over with a fork, then line the dough with parchment paper and fill with dried beans. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove the parchment and beans and bake for 7 minutes more.

  3. While the dough bakes, make the filling. Place the scapes, eggs, ricotta, lemon thyme, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Beat with a fork until well combined. Pour the filling into the partially baked tart shell and return the whole thing to the oven for 30 minutes, until the filling is set. Cool to warm or room temperature before slicing and serving.


Garlic Scape Hummus (umamigirl.com)

  • 2 15.5-oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 6 garlic scapes, thinly sliced
  • Juice and zest of 1 1/2 lemons
  • 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika

Combine all ingredients in a blender, with the liquids on the bottom. Blend until completely smooth. (Note: My blender is industrial – I keep it next to my World’s Biggest Geek apron – so I hope this works in a regular blender. If you make it, let me know!)


Lavender Aioli  (www.herbcompanion.com)

Note: Aioli is a sauce typically served on top of cooked fish, such as cod, or with cooked vegetables, or in fish soup.  To use as a delicate sauce for summer vegetables, thin with 1 to 2 additional tablespoons lemon juice.

• 1 cup olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, unpeeled and crushed
• 2 fresh lavender sprigs (leaves and flowers) bruised
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
1. In a small saucepan, gently heat the oil with the garlic and lavender over low heat for about 15 minutes.
2. Remove from heat just before oil starts to bubble. Allow to cool to room temperature.
3. With a sieve over a small bowl, strain the lavender oil, pressing with a spoon to extract soft solids from the garlic and lavender. Discard herbs.
4. In a food processor or blender, process the eggs and lemon juice until well blended. With the motor running, add the lavender oil a few drops at a time, then in a thin, steady stream until all the oil is absorbed and the mixture has thickened.
5. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
6. Refrigerate for up to 2 days or use immediately. Aioli thickens on chilling.

***************

Please tell us if you can't identify something on the market table, don't know what to do with a particular item, have a food allergy we should know about, or if you have other questions or comments. We love to hear from you!
FarmHack IOWA farming interns fireflies
Share:

Sugar Snap Peas and Garlic Scapes!

Hello Echollective followers!

We're still having quite the time fighting through this dry spell!  At least it's been dry where we are...these storms lately are just missing us!  Oh well.  We warmly welcomed the cooler weather we experienced today, and that which is to come in the next couple days...along with a rumored storm.  Hopefully it hits us this time!  We've got sprinklers running through our garlic and potatoes (usually quite self-sufficient crops with intermittent rain) and hitting our plant starts every few hours.  By the way, our potato plants have gotten big.

Radishes, turnips, and beets have all been coming in by the armful!  Our beets this year are quite good-sized and plentiful.  What else is on the way...our broccoli is growing fast, ready for harvest in a month or so.  Our most recent round of transplanted kales will be featured in this week's braising mixes, sold at Co-op, Iowa City Farmer's Market, and which will be in the next CSA box...redbor and winterbor!  Redbor is a beautiful deep green hue with many tinges of purple.  Winterbor is your classic tasty blue-tinted kale, with ruffled edges (redbor is ruffled too).  Soon we'll be selling them by the bunch!  Braising mix will also feature some Napa cabbage leaves and Red choi leaves as well.  Ever heard of red choi?  I believe it is a pac choi/komatsuna hybrid.  The leaves have the mild spice of pac choi, with a peppery after taste.  Very interesting, and a very delicious touch to braising mixes!  It was in the salad mix last week for Saturday CSA folks, but now it is in both salad and braising mixes.

Basil plants are steadily getting bigger, and really liking the heat...tomatoes too, which are pretty close to needing their trellises.  Zucchinis have spread out a few inches and are now sporting their more mature leaves.  With such hot days, you really see plants like tomatoes and basil grow happily...you just gotta give them tons of water too.

This week will be our first sugar-snap pea week!  Expect some sugar snaps in your boxes, folks.  Our peas blossomed over a week ago, and this last week our oldest planted peas showed tons of fruit!  We are also picking our first garlic scapes!  Scapes are the flower part of garlic.  They can be picked off and taste delicious cooked...when eaten raw they are pretty strong and pungent!  When picked, it also helps the garlic plant focus its energy back down to its roots, and thus the bulb, to form the biggest and best-tasting garlic you can grow.

We've still got head lettuce in spades, and in spite of the hot weather we are planting more!  The variety you all have been receiving from us is called the "New Red Fire" variety.  We are trying out another variety called "Ruby Sky" this year.  Head lettuce has appeared in your CSA boxes the last couple weeks.  With this hot hot season, lettuce easily wilts more than any other vegetable, and it can be a challenge to keep that lettuce crisp and fresh, just how you like it.  Here's a few tips for you on how to keep your lettuce good for longer!  You may notice that when we package the head lettuce for you, the outermost leaves look brownish and unappetizing.  We leave them on there as a sort of "protective guard" against other items packed in with it to preserve the best, innermost leaves of the lettuce head until your mealtime; then you can just peel those leaves off, and serve/eat the good stuff.  You may also notice we leave a chunk of the root stalk on the lettuce head!  If leaves ever look wilty at all, place the lettuce head in a bowl, pitcher, or whichever container you like full of water, submerging only the root stalk.  A container full of ice works, too.  In a bit the lettuce will perk up and look full and beautiful again!  Placing the lettuce in a cool place (refrigerator/freezer) with the root stalk in contact of ice also maintains its freshness and aesthetic beauty.

As for the animal news on the farm: Survivor's leg is healing nicely, and we are continuing to keep a close eye on her!  Randall's chickens have gotten quite plump, and I believe they are about reading for the chopping block.  Doctor K(aporkian) and Merlock have been getting it good lately, dining on pac choi, arugula, breads, lettuces and all sorts of treats we can find them.  They are adorable and quite happy.  They let you pick them up sometimes!  Macy and her kittens are doing well, they are now starting to jump around and play with one another...they get curious about what we do all day with wash bins and piles of vegetables.

Hope you are well, and thank you for letting us be your farmers.  Hope to see you at market!


What's on the table this week:
  • Braising Mix
  • Salad Mix
  • Arugula (bag)
  • Beets
  • Turnips
  • Asparagus
  • Nettles
  • Radishes
  • Head Lettuce
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Garlic Scapes

Recipes


Beet, Citrus and Avocado Salad (www.nytimes.com)

This is a beautiful salad of contrasting flavors and textures. The juicy, acidic grapefruit plays off the earthy beets and the creamy, nutty avocado.

For the dressing:
  • 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly toasted and ground
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon walnut oil
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil

For the salad:
  • 1 bunch beets (about 1 pound), scrubbed and roasted
  • 1 pink grapefruit
  • 1 medium-size or large ripe but firm Hass avocado, sliced
  • 2 tablespoons slivered fresh basil

1. Mix together the lemon or lime juice, the ground cumin seeds, salt, pepper and Dijon mustard. Whisk in the walnut oil and canola oil.
2. Peel the roasted beets, and slice or cut in wedges. Toss with 2 tablespoons of the dressing.
3. Cut away both ends of the grapefruit so that it sits flat on your work surface. Cut the skin and pith completely away from the fruit, following the natural curve of the fruit from top to bottom. Hold the grapefruit in your hand over a bowl to catch the juice, and cut away each segment from between the membranes.
4. Arrange the beets in the center of a platter, and surround with the grapefruit and avocado slices. Drizzle on the remaining dressing, and drizzle any grapefruit juice in the bowl over the grapefruit and avocado. Sprinkle on the basil, and serve.
Yield: Serves four.
Advance preparation: Roasted beets will keep for three to five days in the refrigerator. If you have them on hand, the salad is very quickly thrown together.


Pasta with Sugar Snap Peas, Asparagus and Parmesan
  • 1 lb. asparagus, trimmed, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
  • 1/2 lb. bow-tie pasta
  • 1/2 lb. sugar snap peas or snow peas, trimmed
  • 3 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Add asparagus to large pot of boiling salted water. Cook until just crisp-tender. Transfer to bowl of cold water using slotted spoon. Cool asparagus slightly and drain. Add pasta to same pot of water and boil until just tender but still firm to bite. Add sugar snap peas and boil 2 minutes. Add asparagus and heat through. Drain well. Return pasta-vegetable mixture to pot. Add oil and toss to coat. Add 1/2 cup cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately, passing additional cheese separately. Preparation time: 20 minutes. Serves: 4.
Crispy Turnip 'Fries'

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds turnips
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with a piece of aluminum foil and lightly grease.
  2. Peel the turnips, and cut into French fry-sized sticks, about 1/3 by 4 inches. Place into a large bowl, and toss with the vegetable oil to coat. Place the Parmesan cheese, garlic salt, paprika, onion powder in a resealable plastic bag, and shake to mix. Place the oiled turnips into the bag, and shake until evenly coated with the spices. Spread out onto the prepared baking sheet.
  3. Bake in preheated oven until the outside is crispy, and the inside is tender, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.
**********
Please tell us if you can't identify something on the market table, don't know what to do with a particular item, have a food allergy we should know about, or if you have other questions or comments. We love to hear from you!
 
garlic scapes how to keep head lettuce crisp napa cabbage
Share:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)