This week your basket contains: Potatoes, carrots or raab,  ARUGULA, TURNIPS, GREEN ELEPHANT GARLIC, kale, and salad mix (lettuce, spinach)

GARDEN STARTS are ready.  You can purchase them for delivery with your veggies from our online store (PumpkinRidgeGardens.square.site WE HAVE AN EVER-EXPANDING LIST OF PLANTS, SO CHECK BACK REGULARLY FOR NEW ITEMS AS THE GET READY. 

RHUBARB is ready!  We can deliver a bunch (approx. 1 lb.) for $5.00.  Just email to order.

The turnips in your basket today are mild and sweet.  They are a Japanese variety called Hakurei that is very different from the purple-topped Swedish types you may be more familiar with.  When the first turnips of spring come in, it is something of a tradition here to make the recipe below.

MORROCAN TURNIP AND CHICKEN STEW

2 cups cooked chickpeas

2 small (2 1/2 lb) chickens

3 Tb butter

1 Tb oil

2 onions

5 cups chicken stock

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp powdered saffron

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 lb small  turnips

2 cups chopped turnip leaves and stems

1/4 cup lemon juice

salt and freshly ground pepper

Rinse chickpeas in water and rub lightly to remove skins; drain and set aside. Cut chickens into quarters, removing wing tips and backbones; put them aside for stock. Melt butter and oil in a casserole and lightly brown chicken on all sides, cooking in two batches if necessary. Slice onions and stir into butter and oil to color. Then add the chickpeas, stock, pepper, ginger, saffron, and turmeric. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add turnips and greens and simmer 20 minutes more. Remove chicken and turnips to a covered warm dish. Boil sauce to reduce, mashing some of the chickpeas against the side of the pan to thicken the sauce; it may take 10-15 minutes to produce a nice thick sauce. Add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Reheat the chicken and turnips in the sauce and serve.   Serves 6 to 8.  From The Victory Garden Cookbook.

Green elephant garlic is very similar to leeks with a mild garlic flavor and can be used in any recipe you would use leeks in (it makes a killer potato leek soup!)  For the recipe below you can use any of the greens in your basket (kale, arugula, turnip greens, and/or the salad mix).

SPINACH, GREEN GARLIC, AND MUSHROOM PIE

¾ Lb spinach and/or other greens

1 cup sliced green garlic

2 Tbs olive oil

2 eggs

1 Lb ricotta cheese

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups chopped onion

½ Lb oyster (or other) mushrooms

2 Tbs vermouth

1-2 tsp lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Prepare a dough as you would for pizza crust.  Chop the spinach coarsely.  In a heavy pan, sauté the garlic in 1 Tbs of olive oil until limp.  Add the spinach with some salt and pepper and cook until the spinach is wilted and the water it releases is boiled off.  Remove from heat and toss with the lemon juice.  Beat one egg into the ricotta along with the parmesan cheese and mix with the cooked spinach mixture.  In another pan, sauté the onion in the remaining olive oil until it begins to brown.  Add mushroom and continue cooking until they begin to brown.  Add salt, pepper and vermouth and stir until the vermouth evaporates.  Lightly oil a cookie sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal.  Roll out the dough to about 15×20 inches and place on cookie sheet.  Spread the Ricotta and spinach mixture onto the dough leaving approx. 3 inches around the edges and cover the cooked mushrooms over the spinach.  Pull the edges of the dough over the filling and fold together.  Beat the remaining egg with a spoonful of oil and brush onto the dough.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 35 minutes.  When it is fully cooked, allow it to cool for a few minutes before slicing into wedges for serving.

The carrots we’ve started harvesting are an experiment that we seeded in December.  It is nice to have a new crop in April, but will need to refine our planting time and the number of beds we plant in the hoop houses.  We’ll be handing them out as best we can and hope to get them to everyone before they run out.  If you got squash last week, you have carrots this week; if you got carrots last week you have raab this week.