This week your basket contains: RADISHES, small onions or shallots or GREEN GARLIC, potatoes, cooking greens (collards and mustard greens), salad mix (lettuce, spinach, arugula, and endive), and Purple Sprouting Broccoli or cauliflower.

We have been thrilled by your reaction to supporting Fraga Farm cheese! Lise wrote us an email saying “if some of your customers order some of the time (as in every few weeks) all those orders are making up for all our restaurant orders…I just wanted to let you know that this has been an enormous help and weight off us.” We have figured out a system for cheese ordering on the fly, so here are a few details. First, cheese orders can be made by emailing us just as you would for other extras. (For the list of available cheeses, please visit pumpkinridgegardens.com and look at the last weekly note). We will also bill you in your monthly statement for the cheese. Second, cheese orders must be in two days before delivery because of the mechanics of the thing. Third, you can return chevre jars to get back your deposit. Please label the jar with a piece of masking tape with your name on it or place it in a paper bag labeled with your name. It is difficult for Tabitha, our driver, to keep track of what jars come from whom.

Speaking of Tabitha, she has become a hero to us! I (Polly) broke my ankle last Tuesday night turning off water and had to have surgery at the orthopedist’s office on Friday. Tabitha’s second job (Tree to Tree ziplines on Pumpkin Ridge) has had to close, so she is working on the farm on the days she doesn’t deliver. She is a great worker and will help us get through this time. I will be doing more of the office work (James usually does all that) and James will have to get his hands dirty more often (although he will be busy with tractor work mostly in the coming weeks). It’s good for us to learn the other’s job. I can still seed sitting down and I hope to be able to crawl for salad harvest and weeding soon.

Radishes make our heart sing because they are the first brand new crop seeded after the beginning of the year to be ready! This means other new crops are not far behind. Try these sweet, mild beauties sliced in your salad or on bread and butter. The greens are edible too, best cooked because they are a little hairy. They are very mild tasting and cook very quickly like mild mustard greens. Here’s a recipe where the greens stay raw:

ASIAN RADISH SALAD

15-20 radishes, with greens

1 small shallot or onion, minced

2 Tbsp. rice vinegar or lime juice

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. fish sauce

½” knob ginger, peeled and grated

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. sugar (optional)

½ tsp. toasted sesame oil

2 Tbsp. olive oil

Soak chopped onion or shallot in vinegar or lime juice while preparing the rest of the salad. Slice radish roots and greens thinly. Whisk remaining ingredients into onion-vinegar mixture. Taste for balance and add radishes. Serve.

Purple sprouting broccoli is also a joy of the season. Make sure you eat the leafy greens as well as the tops and stems. Here is a simple recipe to enjoy:

PURPLE SPROUTING BROCCOLI SALAD

 1lb purple sprouting broccoli

1 yellow onion

2 Tbs.  olive oil

1 Tbs. lemon juice

grated Parmesan cheese

salt & pepper

Blanch purple sprouting broccoli in salted boiling water for 30 second to 1 minute.  Refresh immediately in ice water that you have prepared ahead of time.  Slice yellow onion into half moons, sauté in olive oil until clear (5 minutes over medium heat).  Remove from heat, add refreshed broccoli, mix, season with salt and pepper.  Add fresh lemon juice, mix in Parmesan and serve.  You can add cooked pasta such as penne or orecchiette to make into a main course dish.

Another sure sign that true spring is right around the corner is that TULIPS AND DAFFODILS are on the verge of blooming!  Polly will be offering bunches of 10-12 blooms (plus greens) for only $6.  Order now via email (see below) and we will send them along as the are available.  In addition, RHUBARB is ready.  We’ll send along approx. 1 Lb. for $3.  Just email to order. 

Just a note: we appreciate you, our community, so much during this time. You have been an incredible support to our little farm for many years in many cases. You all are trailblazers! We hope that the appreciation for local production that many people are just starting to discover will continue after the COVID-19 crisis. Stay healthy!

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