This week your basket contains: new potatoes, SNOW PEAS, broccoli, summer squash, fresh garlic, kale, cucumber, BASIL, onions, and lettuce.

We continue to be impressed by the way our plants handled the heat last weekend.  What we are seeing now is that while it was so hot most crops went into something like suspended animation and did pretty much nothing (good or bad).  Now that things are more or less back to normal the plants are starting to show their reactions.  The kale decided it had had enough and has started to make flowers, so we are taking it out.  This would be a great week to make kale salad (a great recipe if you like to play with your food!)  The key to this salad is to really massage the dressing into the leaves with your hands.

KALE SALAD

1/8 cup flax or olive oil

1/8 cup lemon juice

1 Tbs. soy sauce

1 bunch kale

1 small onion thinly sliced

shredded carrot

¼ cup  sunflower seeds

sesame seeds

sprouts (optional)

sliced mushrooms (optional)

Mix oil, lemon juice, and soy sauce.  Add the thinly slice onion and set aside to marinate while preparing salad greens.  Wash and coarsely chop the greens and place in a large bowl for easy mixing.  Add carrots, seeds, and any optional ingredients to the greens and mix gently by hand.  Pour dressing and onion mixture over greens and continue mixing by hand to insure even coating and aiding absorption of the dressing.  Let sit for 20-30 minutes before serving.

Much of the broccoli came through the heat unfazed.  We did try a new (to us) variety called Eastern Miracle that did not like our western heat.  It has thrown somewhat funny looking distorted, elongated heads.  We ate some last night and it was still tasty, though.  We have been having a good year for broccoli and you may be starting to have a backlog.  If so, it is easy to freeze broccoli for later use. 

BROCCOLI FREEZING TIP

Broccoli can be prepared for freezing very easily.  We cut the heads into florets and steam them for about 3-5 minutes.  At that point, they have turned dark green but are not fully cooked.  Then we rinse them with the coldest water possible and drain until dry.  We then put them in freezer bags and pop them in the freezer.  They will maintain their quality for several months and are quite welcome additions to winter soups and stews.

We plant two different crops of onions in the spring.  The earliest one is planted as “sets”: tiny onions that sprout and grow into full sized plants.  This year our sets came late, we had a warmer and drier spring than usual, and the weeds got ahead of us making this crop a bit of a disappointment.  The onions may be small, but they are packed with flavor and at this age the greens can be used like scallion.  We are keeping our fingers crossed and keeping on to of the weeds in the onions we planted from seeds and hope to have a better crop later in the year.

This time of year we love Salad Niçoise.  The outline below is really just a suggestion on how it can be made.  Use whatever you have on hand that strikes your fancy to complete the salad.  We’ve made it with salmon instead of tuna (both plain and smoked) and added many other veggies to it like shredded kohlrabi and broccoli.  Be creative and enjoy!

SALAD NICOISE

Steam the new potatoes until you are just able to penetrate them with a fork (this will be quite quick) and let cool.  Make a regular vinaigrette (see the recipe on our web site), but add 1-2 Tbs. of soy sauce.  Add chopped scallions, 1 tsp. dill weed and any other herbs you might like.  Drain one can of tuna and mix into the vinaigrette.  Add snap peas, capers, shredded carrots, chopped black olives and/or hard-boiled eggs and stir.  Add the potatoes, along with lettuce and/or spinach, toss well and serve.

Polly’s flowers did well in the heat.  If you want a beautiful bouquet (one time or as a standing order) just shoot us an email and we’ll include one in your basket for only $10.