Come Hungry!!

Hello Friends!

I’m typing with a 4-year-old boy in my lap. It’s like having a really heavy cat. He just insists upon this arrangement every now and then, and I figure I’d better make the most of it while he’s still interested in me at all!

We all went into the field over the weekend to do some weeding. I used Speedy Weedy for the first time – it’s a crazy little machine that that our friend Dave made. It moves forward very slowly with the wheels straddling the bed. It has a pad that you lay on, facing the ground. From that position, you weed away. It saves your knees and your back, but you end up with funny sun burn marks on the backs of your legs if you’re not careful!

This is the LAST WEEK for garlic scapes! Be sure to snatch them up because it will be another year before they’re available again. They are a wonderful seasonal item!

NEW ITEMS AT THE MARKET!

1. Cabbage

This week we are bringing a new vegetable to the market. It may well be the most underappreciated vegetable that we grow: cabbage. Many people see cabbage as merely survival food, or something you eat on occasion just because it’s there. The cabbage in the store feeds into that notion – cheap and bland.

According to the book “From Asparagus to Zucchini,” cabbage is possibly the most cultivated member of the brassica family in the world. Fermented cabbage in northern Europe and Korea was a traditional preservation method – consider sauerkraut and kim chi as two prime examples. The spicy/sweet flavor of cabbage comes through when eaten raw or cooked, although if overcooked it can result in a strong odor and flavor. Alice Waters serves cabbage with duck and pork and even wraps fish in it for steaming. (The cabbage traps the juiciness and flavor.) Our friend Saad uses cabbage as a “vehicle” for other food. He simply lays out cabbage leaves on a plate and uses them to transport a variety of side dishes such as tabouli from plate to mouth.

Bill and I have made wonderful sauerkraut with our cabbage, and it’s very easy to whip together coleslaw. For a twist on the traditional coleslaw, try this recipe from Alice Waters:

Warm Cabbage, Onion and Apple Slaw

1 medium red onion
1 medium red or green cabbage
2 large crisp, sweet apples
olive oil
salt and pepper
vinegar

Peel and slice the onion very thinly. Trim the cabbage, core it, cut in half, and slice into fine chiffonade, as for coleslaw. Peel, core, and slice the apples very thinly.

In a large sauté pan, heat a little oil and begin to sauté the onions. When they are translucent and just beginning to brown, add the apples. Saute about 1 minute so everything is sizzling, and add the cabbage, the seasoning, a dash of vinegar, and a little water. Stir on a hot flame just long enough to barely cook the cabbage. It should retain a little crunch and the sweetness of fresh cabbage.

Serve with pork, roast chicken, or duck; a savory grain and legume pilaf or roasted potatoes; or by itself, cold.

Serves 8-10.

Cabbage varieties have many different colors, shapes and flavors. Bill will be bringing “Tendersweet” and “Super Red” cabbage. Tendersweet has an oblong/flattened shape and is light green. As the name implies, this cabbage is amazingly tender and sweet. Super Red is round and dark purply red.

2. New Potatoes

Finally, we have the season’s first new potatoes at the Blue Schoolhouse. We’ve eaten them once in our favorite dish …

New Potatoes
(Local Flavors by Deborah Madison)

Scrub, but don’t peel, the potatoes. Boil 3 qts water with 2 cups sea salt. Add potatoes. Boil until fork-tender, 15-30 minutes, depending on potato size. Drain and then toss potatoes with ½ cup unsalted butter (melted) and 1.4 cup finely chopped mixed herbs (marjoram, chives, lemon basil, etc.) and freshly ground pepper. It’s really delicious!

You can also roast new potatoes with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper. They’re just so tasty and moist that it’s hard to mess them up.

3. Garlic Heads

We had a few heads last week, but now we’re in full swing. One customer last week said that he couldn’t believe how moist our garlic is, given that the heads in the store are frequently dried out. Bill’s garlic is also more flavorful. The heads in the store are all softneck garlic, and most of it is grown in China. (I have no quarrel with China but I do know that shipping veggies from half way around the globe takes a heavy toll on both the vegetable and the environment.)

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Would you like to help harvest garlic? It’s quite fun pulling them out of the mulch, cutting them, sorting by size, and hanging them in the garage. A day of garlic harvesting typically involves beer around 5 p.m.! Let us know if you’re interested in helping us our even for part of a day. We will be starting to harvest on Thursday and will continue through Monday of next week. This is one of Bill’s largest tasks every season and ensures that we will have garlic every week of the rest of the season and enough cloves to plant more next year.

4. Basil

We had basil about two weeks ago from a bed-thinning event, but now we’ll have the regular-size bunches until the first fall frost. Basil is an amazing herb with a distinctive, refreshing flavor. We love to sliver it onto anything involving tomatoes.

Basil makes a great pesto. (Did you know you could make pesto out of any other green, including parsley, arugula, cilantro and others?) Here’s the pesto recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook . . . Place 3 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves and 3 garlic cloves into a food processor and mince well. Add 1/3 cup pine nuts, walnuts, or almonds (we use almonds) and keep blending until ground. Drizzle in 1/3 cup olive oil while machine is still running, until you have a smooth paste. Transfer to a bowl and then add in 1/3 cup parmesan. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you want freeze the pesto for later use, leave out the parmesan, which can be added when you thaw out the pesto. We freeze pesto into ice cube trays and then put the pesto cubes into freezer bags. Then we thaw cubes as needed.

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

Head Lettuce
Beets (Traditional, Golden, and Chioggia)
Garlic Scapes (LAST WEEK!)
Kale
Kohlrabi
Broccoli
Collard Greens
Parsley
Swiss Chard
Japanese Turnips (white and pink)
Summer Squash
Cucumbers
Carrots

What happened to the radicchio? The d**n deer ate it last night. After two months of growing with no incident, the radicchio was taken out over the course of a few hours. Two words spring to mind … deer burger. So no more radicchio for a very long time. Sniff sniff.


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 let your friends know about the blog. We plan to put out the email sign-up sheet during the market season again. Call us at 467-9228 or email us at blueschoolhouse@yahoo.com if you have questions.

Thanks!
Mercy Davison