Harvest Day on the Plot

Mondays and Wednesdays are long days for our team of workers.  Today we had the help of a cool breeze, three worker shareholders* and our regular staff of six.  Harvesting happens from 7 am to 6 pm.  On Monday and Wednesday night Todd packs up the truck and I finish up the weekly note before trying my best to get to sleep early. Tuesdays are tough because I get up at 4:00 am to assure my parking spot at market in Lincoln Square.  If you see that I am occasionally wearing my shirt backwards on market day, that is why.

*Curious about what a worker shareholder is?   A worker shareholder is a part of the farm team and is expected to come to work on certain days and put in a total of 50 hours of work across the whole season in exchange for an Individual Share.  On Mondays and Wednesdays, those hours are likely spent harvesting or washing and bunching vegetables.  On Saturdays, our other worker share day, people weed, transplant, seed flats or mulch.  Right now, weeding is a big one.  A couple worker shareholders help me at market in the city or at pick-up locations.  Click on this to go to the worker share page on our website.

Baby beet greens for salad this week!

Carrots right before the fork and the pull.

Free at last!
Carrots behave like other roots;
sometimes they send out "feelers" or legs for water.

Looking down a bed of carrots just harvested.

They are bunched in the field, soaked in cold
water and then sprayed clean.

Did you know we have bees, too?  We have bees.

Harvest day is a ten-hour day.  This is lunchtime with Jake.

Goldy!

Ah HAH!  We harvested our first squash for CSA members yesterday for delivery today.  This is summer squash, of course, the category where you will find zucchinis and yellow crooknecks and patty pans.  We grow three types of summer squash.

Costata Romanesco, an HEIRLOOM variety,
passed down from Italy and a taste-test winner.

Midnight Lightning
developed by our favorite organic seed company
High Mowing in Vermont.

The Plot Favorite
Goldy, a great friend and great fried with butter.

We get almost all of our seeds from High Mowing, a certified organic seed company.  Organic seed is much more expensive than non-organic, but as important to us as healthy soil.   High Mowing signs this pledge:

The Safe Seed Pledge:

"Agriculture and seeds provide the basis upon which our lives depend. We must protect this foundation as a safe and genetically stable source for future generations. For the benefit of all farmers, gardeners and consumers who want an alternative, we pledge that we do not knowingly buy or sell genetically engineered seeds or plants. The mechanical transfer of genetic material outside of natural reproductive methods and between genera, families or kingdoms poses great biological risks, as well as economic, political and cultural threats. We feel that genetically engineered varieties have been insufficiently tested prior to public release. More research and testing is necessary to further assess the potential risks of genetically engineered seeds. Further, we wish to support agricultural progress that leads to healthier soils, genetically diverse agricultural ecosystems and ultimately healthy people and communities."

Among the genetically-modified crops in the marketplace is a small amount of zucchini and yellow crook neck.  How to avoid them?  Buy from organic farms like ours that share our concern for the state of organic seed. 

Beets and Chard, Chard and Beets

This is the time of year when I get to talk about the relationship between beets and chard. Beets and chard are close relatives because chard is essentially a vegetable cultivated from the beet. You can think of it as a beet but with much more developed leaves and no bulbous growth underground (usually--once a mutant beet grew and surprised us in the chard bed). Beet greens  and chard leaves can be cooked together or both eaten raw. Like the skin on the beet itself, raw leaves in this family can be a little astringent. This quality is only bothered by some and can be avoided by cooking. To cook your baby beets, boil for around 25 minutes or until easily poked with a fork. Then cool and rub the skins off.  Don't worry, the color will come off your hands eventually. 

Baby Beets are like candy.

2 worker shareholders and 5 grinning staff members
put in loooonnnng hours out here.
We are grateful for their smiles and hard work!

Chard-a-rific.

Chard's long, thick stalks have wide, glossy green leaves that may be smooth or curly, depending on the variety. The stalk comes in many colors, from white to green to brilliant red, yellow, and pink. Not only is chard giving, it's forgiving too. It's much more heat-resistant than spinach, grows well under most weather and soil conditions, and is relatively disease resistant and bug resistant too. After harvesting, the inner leaves come back quickly, so you'll see chard from early June clear through Thanksgiving. 
Chard is as close to perfect as a vegetable can get--a low-calorie, high-nutrition green with a mildly sweet, clean taste. It's also a fast food. Tender young chard leaves can be eaten raw, adding a beet-like flavor to salads and sandwiches. Larger stalks and leaves can be blanched in boiling water, or sauteed up in a matter of minutes, quick and easy. Then toss the cooked chard into pasta with olive oil and garlic, add to omelets and frittatas, or use instead of spinach in your favorite recipe.

Remember even more ideas can be found on our Recipe page.  

Just click on whatever vegetable you need!

http://www.peasantsplot.com/recipe_misc.html

STORING BEETS:  Separate the roots from the greens.  You can save the greens to cook with (like chard) in a plastic bag.  For the beets themselves, once again turn to the plastic bag method, sealing the bag with a twist.  

STORING OUR BUNCHED GREENS LIKE CHARD:  Throw all greens into a reusable bag (can be the same bag) and in the crisper drawer in the fridge.  Avoid the back of the fridge because it can sometimes be too cold.

STORING RADISHES: Separate the roots from the greens.  You can save the greens to cook with in a plastic bag.  For the bright pink radishes themselves, once again turn to the plastic bag method (you can reuse bags specifically for this veggie storing purpose), sealing the bag with a twist.  OR Another method that is easy and encourages more snacking is this:  Wash the radishes, chop to whatever size you like for snacking, and then place in a dish with water and right into the fridge.  

STORING OUR SALAD GREENS:  Store in your crisper drawer with the bag slightly open.   the back of the fridge because it can sometimes be too cold.  Regulating moisture:  In the day(s) after harvest, the moisture from our initial washing will leave the bag. As you notice the greens losing this moisture, roll the bag down to seal it.  

Wash? Even though we do wash your mixed greens, we still recommend cleaning the leaves again before eating raw.  You can choose to do that immediately when you get home or you can wash them in small batches as you need them for salads.  Some people like to wash and then store their greens in their salad spinner.  If you don’t have a handy salad spinner of your own, you can simply lay the leaves on clean towels to absorb excess moisture from washing.  Do not let them completely dry out.  

STORING FRESH GARLIC:  The easiest thing is to keep it on the countertop with lots of air around it (not in the fruit bowl) and eat within a week for the juiciest experience.  It will continue to dry or "cure" until the flavors condense and the outer layers dry out, making it easier to peel.  Garlic will keep in this way for weeks and often months!

Patriotic Potatoes

We are harvesting All Red potatoes and All Blue potatoes nowadays.  We have white ones, too, and they will come out soon.

All Red, also known as Cranberry Red.

Potatoes are not mentioned in the Bible.   Long long ago ministers condemned them as evil. Some even speculate that it was a potato not an apple that led to all the antics in the Garden of Eden.  These voluptuous forms dug from the underworld have had to struggle for popularity. They were domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the Andes of Peru but for many years in Europe were thought of as evil, poisonous, "the one that makes the new bride weep" and the bastard version of the sweet potato (so wrong).

Potatoes are not related to the sweet potato. Like tomatoes and eggplant and peppers and belladonna,  they are members of the delectable Nightshade family.  Potato leaves actually resemble those of a tomato plant.  

"All Red's" are heirlooms cultivated for their ability to hold their beautiful color while not tasting bitter.  Cut open one and see a stunning pink which actually deepens when cooked.  All Blue's, on the other hand, were cultivated as markers (according to my book 100 Vegetabeles and Where They Came From by William Woys Weaver) in order for potato farmers to tell when one variety stopped and the other began.

It may be true that if you eat the leaves of a potato, you may get very very sick and possibly die a slow and uncomfortable death, but if you eat the tuber or the lumpy part we are giving you today, you will find...heaven.  

My favorite way:  

Slice thinly and fry in one layer over medium heat in plenty of oil, turning to brown both sides.  After browning, add some stock or white wine and cook for ten minutes more. 

Or boil whole until easily poked with a fork and toss with walnut oil, recommended for the All Red variety especially.

More recipes on our Recipes page.  Just click on the potato or here:   http://www.peasantsplot.com/recipe_potatoe.html

STORING POTATOES:  Simply keep your potatoes in the brown paper bag in a cool, dry place. Eat soon!  These potatoes are "new" and will be more tender, requiring less cook time, than your common Russet or 'storing' potato.  They were just dug up from darkness this morning and have dirt still clinging to the skins.  If you put them under a faucet today, the skins will fall right off.  They keep better with the skins on, so that's why we are leaving the washing to you.

Enjoy once again a nice bouquet of chard. 

STORING OUR BUNCHED GREENS:  Remember to throw the kale and chard into a reusable bag (can be the same bag) for its time in the fridge.

...and D'avignon radishes, a breakfast treat.  

D'avignon radishes.

STORING RADISHES: Separate the roots from the greens.  You can save the greens to cook with in a plastic bag.  For the  bright pink radishes themselves, once again turn to the plastic bag method (you can reuse bags specifically for this veggie storing purpose), sealing the bag with a twist.  OR Another method that is easy and encourages more snacking is this:  Wash the radishes, chop to whatever size you like for snacking, and then place in a dish with water and right into the fridge.  

Kohlrabi transplants.