Farm News

Last weeks rains were a welcome treat, and we unhooked the irrigation wagon and hitched up cultivators to the tractors, revved the engines, and, in between downpours, started killing weeds as fast as we could. In late June through early August, weeds put on amazing growth spurts. Our main gate crasher to the garden party is pigweed, and it can put on several inches of growth a day in hot, humid weather. It is a truly amazing plant, capable of outgrowing most crop plants. After attaining a height of up to four feet, it produces up to 250,000 seeds per plant that can survive in the soil for decades. That means if you let just one field of pigweed go to seed, you have basically guaranteed yourself an amazing flush of pigweed seedlings every time you till a field, May through August, for the rest of your life. We do our very best not to let that happen, and use a variety of mechanical cultivators and hand tools. And of course, to get every last one, we get down and ‘crawl’ many of the 300 foot crop rows on the farm. The only weakness pigweed has is that when it is a very, very small seedling, a just barely visible white thread of root, it can be killed with a slight disturbance of the top layer of soil. That is why we try to pre-germinate the weeds in the top few inches of the soil, and then destroy them with our tractor mounted cultivators before we plant our crops. It’s great in theory and works most of the time in practice, but when we miss, you can sure tell by the green carpet of pigweed seedlings.

We have lots of broccoli this week. Broccoli is tricky to grow in the spring and many Eastern US organic veg farmers have stopped trying to grow, and this year I can see why. The color in our broccoli is a little light, probably due to the very wide swings in temperatures this spring. I’ve never seen this before but the broc tastes good so we harvested it. We will have it around for a few weeks, and then we will wait for the more dependable fall crop which we will plant this week for harvest in September.

Other than off-color broccoli, most crops are looking really great and this years chilly May weather is becoming a distant memory. I know of a farmer in Minnesota who basically gave up growing spring crops and just grows for summer and fall. I think after this year that sounds like a great strategy!

Hope you enjoy the harvest.

Your farmer,

Paul Bucciaglia, for Janine, John, Leah, Bob, and Jean.

New this week:

Garlic scapes: These are a very seasonal treat and won’t be around much longer. These are the flowers of our hard neck garlic, we snap them off so the bulbs will expand. You can eat almost the whole thing, just discard the ‘whip’ at the end and chop the rest up. Sauté in oil with other veg, or for the garlic lover, make into pesto, see last weeks newsletter (www.forthillfarm.com) for recipe.

Cabbage: This variety of ‘conehead’ cabbage is called Early Jersey Wakefield, its great for coleslaw, salads, or steaming.

Fennel: A great addition to any salad, just chop up the bulb and enjoy.

Swiss Chard: this versatile green is great sauted with scallions and garlic scapes in a little olive oil, or see recipe below.

Also in the box: lettuce, scallions, bunch spinach, broccoli, and summer squash.

BOX PICKUPS: Please pick up your box at the scheduled times only. If you are out of town and can’t make a pickup, feel free to have a friend pick up your box for the week, or call us and we will donate your share to the New Milford Food Bank with our weekly donation. Any boxes not picked up from a dropsite by 11AM Thursday morning will be distributed elsewhere. Thanks for your cooperation!

Recipes

Swiss Chard Pie, from “Asparagus to Zucchini: a guide to farm fresh, seasonal produce.”

One onion, chopped 6 eggs

1 garlic clove, minced 1 cup shredded cheese

2 tablespoons oil 1 teaspoon salt

1 bunch Swiss chard 2 pie crusts

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Brown onion and garlic in oil. Trim and chop chard, add to pan and cook down until wilted. Beat eggs in a bowl, mix in cheese, salt and chard mixture. Pour into pie shells and bake 30-40 minutesor until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Makes 2 pies. (Farmers Note: you can easily substitute scallions and garlic scapes in the above recipe).

Mama D’s Coleslaw, from “The Kripalu Cookbook”

(Farmers note: The Kripalu Cookbook has great healthy, vegetarian recipes. This recipe sounded good but has things in it I haven’t heard of and are definitely not on my kitchen shelf. If any of you CSA chefs out there comes up with a version that tastes great but has less exotic ingredients let me know).

7 cups sliced green cabbage (approx 1 head)

1 cup grated carrots

1/3 cup currants or golden raisins

2 tablespoons brow rice vinegar

2 tablespoons umeboshi vinegar

5 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

3 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots and currants. In a blender or food processor, blend together the remaining ingredients until creamy smooth. Pour the mixture over the cabbage mixture and mix together until well combined. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

Stuffed Squash, by Janine Meyer and Leah Smith

3 medium squash (zucchini or yellow)

1 cup ricotta cheese

½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 cup chopped fresh basil (1/2 cup dry)

½ cup chopped fresh parsley (1/4 cup dry)

1 TBSP. Lemon juice

a few sprigs of fresh Thyme minced (1/2 tsp. dry) *optional

2 cloves garlic, minced *optional

salt and pepper to taste

water for consistency

Preheat oven to 350. Cut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seed with a spoon, discard. Combine all other ingredients in a bowl and mix well (if using garlic, sweat first). Spoon mixture into the squash and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until squash is tender.