Let's hear it for ... GARLIC SCAPES!

Hello Friends!

I hope that this is the last time that you’ll be getting this emailed blog announcement from me via dial-up internet. I’m generally in favor of patience and a zenlike acceptance of things beyond my control, but dial-up would irritate the most seasoned yogi. I mean really … when I go to upload the pictures onto the blog, I hit “send” and then can eat my dinner AND do the dishes before it’s done loading. And after all of that, sometimes the internet disconnects. I have actually screamed when that happens.

So we’re finally considering the plunge into expensive high speed internet. (Now that Noah is finishing his expensive preschool career, we need something new to do with our fortune!) I’m not even sure how we’re going to do it. There’s something called “dtn speednet” or something like that, and then there’s some weird cell phone technology that’s been working for our neighbor. Satellite is no good because you still upload via your dial-up connection. I consider shopping around for an internet plan to be less pleasant than shopping on the Veterans Parkway strip on a hot July afternoon … so if you have any suggestions for the best plan of attack, please let me know!!

And while we’re throwing our money around, we’re also talking about getting a box truck. We’ve FINALLY outgrown the little Toyota pickup and homemade trailer. (The trailer was purchased, but the big red box on top is an original design by Bill!) This season has just been phenomenal for Bill, especially on Saturdays. In previous seasons we only filled up the trailer and truck (thus requiring the Toyota Corolla to save the day!) for a couple of weeks in August when both tomatoes and watermelons are in season. This past week we already had to bring in the Mighty Corolla. It’s astounding. And we’ve been selling almost all of what we’ve brought. I’d love to hear your thoughts on why people are buying more produce at the market this season – post your thoughts to the blog so that everyone can ruminate together.

Speaking of the Saturday market, one of the tasty new treats this week is GARLIC SCAPES! Rock on! (That’s what former farmhand Dusty Roads, as we called him, would say about most things.) Are you familiar with scapes? They are a cult vegetable, somewhat along the lines of ramps (wild leeks). You just can’t get these very easily, and the season is very short … about 3 weeks. I Googled scapes this evening and found a Washington Post blog entitled “My Friend the Garlic Scape.” Not kidding. The author describes scapes as “the garlic lover’s nirvana.”

What is a garlic scape? It’s the flower stalk of a hard-neck garlic. If you don’t pick it, you end up with a smaller garlic bulb. Thus, Bill will be picking all of the scapes from the hard neck garlic varieties that he has planted. (He primarily grows soft-neck varieties because they’re easier to grow and sell.) Bill has read in many places, including the Washington Post blog, that the premier way to eat scapes is in pesto. Here’s the recipe:

Garlic Scape Pesto

1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into ¼-inch slices
1/3 cup walnuts
¾ cup olive oil
¼-1/2 cup grated parmigiano
½ teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste

Method:
Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
For ½ pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated.

Here’s what else we’ll be bringing to the market:

Salad Mix
Spinach
Arugula
Head Lettuce
Beets
Garlic Scapes
Kale
Kohlrabi
Broccoli
Collard Greens
Carrots
Parsley
Swiss Chard
Radicchio

This would be the perfect week to try your hand with greens. We just have so many wonderful varieties … kale, collards, radicchio (not really green!), spinach, etc. We prepared a family favorite dish for friends over the weekend, and they were really impressed with how simple yet delicious it was. The recipe was a bean-and-rice dish with wilted greens. I’m including a recipe for rice below. Even though you can make rice with just water or a good stock, we find this recipe to really add something special to the meal without requiring a ton of work.

Basic Brown Rice I (Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon)

2 cups brown rice (long or short)
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 cardamom pods
4 cups chicken stock (or good veggie stock)
1 Tbsp gelatin (optional – I’ve never used it)
½ tsp sea salt

In a heavy, flameproof casserole, melt butter and olive oil. Open cardamom pods and add seeds to the casserole. Saute rice in butter and oil, stirring constantly, until rice begins to turn milky. (This takes about 10 minutes.) Pour in liquid, add salt and optional gelatin, and bring to a rolling boil. Boil, uncovered, for about 10 minutes until water has reduced to the level of the rice. Reduce flame to lowest heat, cover tightly, and cook for at least 1.5 hours or as long as 3 hours (I’ve only ever done it for 1.5 hours!). Do not remove lid during cooking.

While the rice is cooking, Bill simply sautes onions and garlic in olive oil with some salt and pepper. He cooks it slowly over a low heat so that the onions and garlic become somewhat sweet. He then adds sliced up greens … radicchio, endive, kale, etc. … to the pan and covers it to wilt the greens. He sometimes adds a bit of water to steam it all. If you’re a meat eater, a couple of pieces of fried and chopped bacon never hurts.

One last news item … we are switching over to biodegradable bags. This is a big deal for us for two reasons. First, they’re about four times as expensive. Second, we’re going to charge people 25 cents for 1-4 bags. (We could charge a dime per bag, but we generally work with quarters.) The goal is to reduce the number of bags that people use, not to make any sort of profit. The world is so full of plastic, and plastic bags in particular are choking our waterways, killing our wildlife, and degrading community aesthetics across the globe. Many countries are doing away with plastic bags almost altogether (i.e. Ireland, China), and many cities in the US are starting to tax the bags to reduce their prevalence. We do hope that you help us avoid bags entirely. After all, biodegradable bags aren’t really very biodegradable in a landfill!

The photos this week are of broccoli and Bill's nemesis ... the potato beetle. Bill is spending quite a bit of time knocking them off the plants and squishing them.

Don’t forget that we’re delivering fresh veggies to Common Ground and the Garlic Press on Tuesday evenings …

On Tuesday evenings Bill delivers produce to Common Ground in downtown Bloomington and to the Garlic Press in Uptown Normal. So if you miss a market or just run out of veggies mid-week, head to Common Ground! And if you need the veggies prepared into a fabulous meal, Garlic Press is right down the road.

We’ll see you at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. – noon. BRING YOUR BAGS!! We’ll also be at the Trailside Market in Uptown Normal, every Tuesday from 3:30 – 6:00 p.m.

Please pass along these emails to any friends that you may think would be interested. We plan to put out the email sign-up sheet during the market season again. Call us at 467-9228 if you have questions.

Thanks!
Mercy Davison