This week your basket contains: Lettuce, snap peas, cucumbers, summer squash, broccoli, onions, beets, Swiss chard, garlic, and potatoes  

Broccoli is rapidly reaching its end.  It has been quite a season, though.  The size of most of the heads has been amazing and we have been having a hard time keeping up with it.  Your broccoli may have a bit of yellowing (mostly in the very center) but we worked to make sure there was plenty of good florets on any head we harvested.

When we started farming 30+ years ago garlic was a simple crop.  We just threw cloves in the ground in October, left it alone until June or July then harvested beautiful heads that would last us through the winter.  That is no longer the case.  Over the last few years we have been running into storage problems we just don’t understand.  When we harvest things look great, but after drying down in the barn we find cloves on many of the heads going soft and then molding.  We’ve sent samples to OSU for diagnosis without getting any good answers and are continuing to look into ways to get back to the way it used to be (soil analysis, fertilization, and pre-planting treatment, etc.) but have no answers as yet.  This situation is not unique to us.  One grower we know from Corvallis stopped growing garlic outdoors and went entirely to planting in a hoop house.  We aren’t at that point, yet.  In the meantime, we take time to feel each head before we put it in your basket, but can’t catch every bad clove.  We’ll be giving you garlic quickly in hopes to get as much good garlic to you as we can.  Its sad, but it really seems to be a “use it or lose it” situation. 

Summer squash is starting to do its thing!  This is a great recipe for even the larger zukes.  It gets better after a day or two in the fridge.

GREEK TAVERNA ZUCCHINI WITH LEMON

4 zucchini

3 garlic cloves

large pinch of salt

large pinch dried oregano

juice of ½ lemon

4 Tbs. olive oil

freshly ground pepper

15 olives

Slice zucchinis in half lengthwise then cut into large chunks.  Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add zucchini and cook 10-15 minutes or until quite soft.  Drain.  Crush the garlic in a mortar in pestle with the salt, then rub it into the cut surfaces of the zucchini.  Sprinkle with oregano, lemon juice and olive oil.  Season with pepper.  Garnish with the olives and serve at room temperature.  Serves 4.  From The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook vol. 2 

MORSHAN (North African Chickpeas and Swiss Chard)

¾ lb. swiss chard leaves, stemmed, washed and torn

2 cloves garlic

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground coriander seeds

1 small red chile

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

½ c. minced onion

2 tsp. tomato paste

1 cup cooked chickpeas

¾ c. vegetable broth

1 lemon, cut into wedges

Steam or blanch Swiss chard until tender, about 5 minutes.  Set leaves in colander to drain, squeeze out excess moisture, and coarsely shred.  Crush garlic in a mortar with salt, coriander seed and red chile until a thick crumbly paste forms.  Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add onion; saute until pale golden, about 3 minutes.  Add garlic paste and tomato paste; stir them in oil until sizzling.  Add Swiss chard, chickpeas and broth; cook, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and let stand until ready to serve.  Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold, with lemon wedges.  Serves 4.  Adapted from Mediterranean Cooking by Paula Wolfert. 

This would be a good week to make one of my favorite salads; Beet & Broccoli Salad.  We steam the broccoli and beets together with the sliced beets on bottom.  Generally, when the broccoli is done (i.e. just turned dark green and starting to get tender) the beets are also done.  We then toss them in a simple vinaigrette and can serve either warm or cold.  Check out the vinaigrette recipe we use on our web site in the recipe section.  See the address and password below.