This week your basket contains: potatoes, carrots, , cooking greens (mustard greens and Swiss chard), RADISHES, and salad mix (arugula, endive, kale, spinach, mustard greens, watercress, and miner’s lettuce).

For the second week in a row we started harvest Monday morning in the snow.  It is getting pretty old at this point.  But we do see a light at the end of the tunnel (I’m pretty sure it isn’t a train) in that we have RADISHES!  It is not the biggest harvest of radishes we’ve had, nor are they the best radishes we’ve grown.  They are, however, a hard-won step in the right direction!  Radishes are generally considered to take 28 day from seeding to harvest.  Our experience is that when we grow early radishes in our hoophouse they take about 60 days.  This year we seeded these radishes on January 9^th meaning that it took 84 days  for these to mature (exactly 3 times longer than under ideal conditions!).  That tracks very well with the general sense I get from other things (raab, tree blossoms, etc.) that spring is about 3 weeks late this year.

While I love radishes in my salad, the recipe below is also a favorite way to use radishes. 

RADISH RAITA

2 cups plain yogurt

6-8 radishes sliced

1Tbs. fresh lime juice

1 clove minced garlic

1 Tbs. minced green onion or shallot

½  tsp. cumin

Salt

In a medium sized bowl, mix yogurt, radishes, garlic, onion, lime juice and cumin together.  Taste and salt to taste.  Serve as a condiment for spicy meat dishes.

The recipe below works well on sauteed greens.  We ran across this recipe on Instagram (@wellspentmarket).  Well Spent Market is a local grocery with lots of local and delicious foods to up your pantry game.

ANCHOVY AND CAPER DRESSING

6 anchovies

1 Tbs. capers

2 Tbs. red wine vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

3 cloves garlic

Warm the olive oil in a skillet.  Add the anchovies and garlic.  Cook until the garlic is fragrant, and the anchovies become a paste.  Remove from heat and add the capers and vinegar.  Whisk to emulsify the taste and adjust for salt.

EGGS are also available again.  The hens are just starting to ramp up their laying, so we are allocating them as best we can.  Our youngest hens (ie the baby chicks you saw on our pumpkin pick up weekend in October) should be starting to lay soon so our supply will improve.  We have had to increase the price of eggs to $7.20 per doz ($3.60 for a ½ doz ; $1.80 for ¼ doz) to help cover the feed costs that have almost doubled in the past year.  Just email to order.

GARDEN STARTS are also getting ready.  You can purchase them for delivery with your veggies from our online store (PumpkinRidgeGardens.square.site).  Right now we have limited quantities of cool weather crops available.  We will update our stock as more items are ready, so check back often.  Please note that the web site says that these starts are available for pick up, but WE WILL DELIVER THEM TO YOU unless you insist on coming to the farm for them!

FLOWERS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE.  Starting with daffodils and tulips and moving through the spring and summer, Polly with be making beautiful mixed bouquets that can be delivered with your basket for $10.  You can order occasionally or as a standing order.  Just email to let us know!

Raab (the broccoli-like flower buds of cabbage family plants) is starting to produce.  We’ll be handing it out in rotation as the supply increases.  Remember that all of it is edible (leaves, stems, and buds) and should be prepared as you would broccoli.