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.

This week, pirates.

Artsy photo of Pirat Lettuce, a butterhead..

The lettuce this week is called Pirat.  You may either affect a French accent and say “pee-RAH” lettuce or you may add an “e” at the end and say “Arrrrrhh.”  I’m going to go the pirate way at market, I think, although my mood may change.

This variety of lettuce is an heirloom variety which means the seeds have been passed down from generation to generation for at least 50 years. I have never seen this variety in the grocery store.   More on the significance of heirlooms in the weeks to come.  But now something just as important:

The Importance of Eating Organic Potatoes Like Ours

Potatoes are one of the “Dirty Dozen.”  This means that, if conventionally grown (meaning NOT organic), they are among the twelve most pesticide-contaminated specialty crops.  Persistent, toxic chemicals.

Root vegetables absorb herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. In the case of conventionally-grown potatoes (not ours!), they're treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they're dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting. Yikes!  

Jeffrey Moyer, the former Vice Chair of the National Organic Standards Board’s Crops Committee, once said:  "Try this experiment: Buy a conventional potato in a store, and try to get it to sprout. It won't," says Moyer.  "I've talked with potato growers who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals."  Yikes, again.

The solution?  Buy potatoes that are organically grown from farms like ours.

Also in the share this Tuesday is more chard and kale.  (The chard is the spinachy, beet greensy bunch of leaves with yellow, majenta or white stems.) 

STORING: All greens go in a re-usable container/bag in the fridge!
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!

Blue Potato.  Tastes blue.

Chard! A descendent of the beet.

More chard.  The ribs/stems can be eaten, too, 
but might take a little longer to cook,
depending on your own personal mouth.

Hey HEY!  Goldy squash is on its WAY.

Dinosaurs or Russians?

This week some CSA members got our Red Russian friend.  An unruly relative of the refined “Lacinto” aka Dinosaur kale, Red Russian kale is flat with fingered leaves (pudgy little fingers), tender with a distinct edge.  Tastes just like...kale.  A good percentage of this variety was underwater several days this spring and so we didn’t have the huge yield we were expecting.  The crop is starting to look a lot better now so everyone will see more of it.  Thursday folks, you got the delicious Dinosaur variety.  Chefs go bizerko over it and--did you notice-- it can be cut into strips more easily than any other kale.

Farm is looking good.  Storm action has us a little more on guard than usual (what am I saying, we are always basket cases!) but we skirted an honest-to-goodness tornado this season so we are feeling lucky.  Todd’s son Max has joined our team of workers so we are additionally fortified and ready for anything.   Tons of squash have been getting in the ground on the farm, plus plantings of lettuce and radishes and beets are getting to size despite soil compaction by heavy rains.  Things are good and getting better.  

Eat your kale with FRESH YOUNG garlic bulbs this week!   They are juicy. More difficult to peel but well worth the effort.

STORING FRESH GARLIC: The best way I think is to just keep it on the countertop without touching anything (and not in the fruit bowl).  Eat within the week if you want the juiciest experience. Good ventilation will start to dry or cure the garlic, condensing the flavor and making it easier to peel.

Also in the share this week are mixed salad greens and a small bunch of delicious chard and a tiny leprechaun.  Chard basics and an archive of recipes can be found here:  http://www.peasantsplot.com/recipe_chard.html

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.

Good luck from your lucky farmers!  See you in July!