Category Archives: Weekly Notes

Week #50 (5/5 & 8)

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This week your basket contains: salad mix (lettuce, spinach, arugula, and endive), BEET THINNINGS, cooking greens (kale and mustard greens), green garlic, and Purple Sprouting Broccoli or Chinese broccoli.

This week is kind of an in-between week. We are anxiously awaiting kohlrabi, new potatoes and peas in the next few weeks. The greens continue to produce copiously and the salad mix is delicious and tender. This is the first harvest of Red Russian kale that was planted between the overwintered endive in March. It is tender enough to eat raw. The kale and the mustard greens could be made into a greens pesto (the mustard gives it some bite).

EASY PESTO

2 cups greens

½ cup nuts (almonds, walnuts, filberts or pine nuts)

½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1 tsp. salt

2 cloves garlic

½ cup olive oil

Place all ingredients except oil in a food processor.  As it processes, slowly add the oil.  Continue to process until smooth. Serve over pasta or as a dip.

One of our subscribers, thecrunchyginger.com, featured this recipe on her blog about using spring greens. It’s a perfect Cinco de Mayo meal!

MIXED GREENS ENCHILADAS

2 Tbs. veg. oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

4 cups coarsely chopped greens

1 Tbs. butter

1 Tbs. flour

½ cup milk

½ cup grated cheddar cheese

6 corn tortillas

½ cup salsa

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Heat oil, sauté onion & garlic until golden.  Add greens in small amounts until cooked down.  In another pan, melt butter, stir in flour, add milk slowly and then cheese.  Stir until thick then mix into cooked greens.  Fill the tortillas, roll and place in a lightly oiled baking dish.  Spread salsa over and bake for 25 minutes, until edges of tortillas are crisp.  Adapted from The Cook’s Garden catalog.

 The thinnings in your basket are from beets sown in a hoop house in early February. Beet seeds are compound seeds, so no matter how thinly you sow them, you will have multiple sprouts in each location. These thinnings have tender greens and small roots with a distinct beet flavor. They are delicious in the following recipe:

 SAUTÉED BEET GREENS WITH WASABI AND GINGER

1 bunch beet thinnings

1 small onion, chopped

1 green garlic, chopped

1 small cauliflower or broccoli raab

½ tsp. wasabi paste

1 Tbs. pickled ginger, chopped

2 Tbs. toasted sesame oil

Salt to taste

Heat the sesame oil in a large frying pan.  Add the onion, garlic, and wasabi paste and sauté until the onion is translucent.  Add the chopped beet thinnings, cauliflower or raab, and pickled ginger.  Continue cooking until the beets and cauliflower/raab is tender.  Add salt to taste.  Divide onto plates and top with soft poached eggs and serve with a slice of toast to absorb the yolk and juices.

Vegetable starts should be making their way to you slowly. If you haven’t yet received your full plant order, don’t fret. Many of the warm weather crops are still sizing up. We sent along some little starts that may need some TLC before being planted, but mostly we are waiting for a little more growth in the greenhouses.

Deposits are due by 5/15. We really need to know your plans for the new subscription year if you have not already told us. We are starting to create our routes.

RHUBARB is ready. We’ll send along approx. 1 Lb. for $3.  Just email to order.

Week #48 4/21 & 24

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This week your basket contains: radishes, potatoes, mustard greens, salad mix (lettuce, spinach, arugula, and endive), TURNIPS (full shares) or turnip greens (half shares), joi choi, MINT and Purple Sprouting Broccoli or raab or cauliflower.

 The potatoes we have been getting from Patrick Thiel seem to have gotten frost damage in storage. We’re sorry that so many of them have black spots inside. We tried hard this week to figure out which are bad, but it is difficult to tell. We gave them for a last time, hoping that you can use a percentage of them. The ones we have been eating are tasty, but hard to use.

Thanks to all of you that have gone to our new online garden starts store pumpkinridgegardens.square.site and ordered the plants you need. Some families have encouraged their neighbors to order! We can deliver their plants with your basket if they note that on their plant order online. I will package them separately. Although the web site states that pick up is the only option, we will deliver the starts as they are ready. This means that you may get a couple of deliveries as frost-sensitive plants are not ready at the same time as their hardier brethren. I will keep track of what has been filled and what is yet to come.

In addition to offering cheese from Fraga farm, we are also partnering with Cloud Cap mushroom farm! Right now, they are offering a mix of Shitake and Oyster mushrooms that we can deliver with your basket. Visit Cloud Cap’s website and click on Pumpkin Ridge Gardens to order directly through the site (credit/debit card only) at www.cloudcapmushroom.co/pumpkin-ridge-gardens.

Thank you also to those of you who have ordered flowers each week, two weeks or month! As soon as I have a good selection and two good legs, I look forward to making beautiful bouquets for you to enjoy! The flowers are $7/bunch.

Mustard greens love April! The joi choi in your basket is mild with crunchy stems and can be used raw or cooked. The mustard green leaves, both red and green, are spicy! If they are a little hot for your taste, cooking them makes them milder. Smoked paprika is a good substitute for the smoky bacon in the soup below.

PORTABELLO MUSHROOMS FILLED WITH BOK CHOY AND MINT

4 medium sized portabello mushrooms
sea salt/ fresh cracked pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 fresh mozzarella balls, sliced
1 bok choy, chopped
1 tbsp. ginger, sliced
2 tbsp. Balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. fresh mint, chopped
1 lemon, juiced
½ onion, sliced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove the stems of the mushrooms, place on a baking sheet, season, and sprinkle with fresh lemon juice. Place in the oven for approx. 4-5 minutes. Remove and put aside. In a sauce pan add 1 tbsp. Olive oil, heat, add onion, season, and sauté for 2 minutes, add ginger and bok choy and sauté an additional minute, add fresh mint  Place the sauté in the mushrooms, top with fresh mozzarella and place back in the oven for 5-7 minutes.  Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and serve.

SMOKY MUSTARD GREENS SOUP

½ lb. sweet Italian sausage

¼ lb. smoky Canadian bacon, diced

2 cups diced onions (or leeks)

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups thick tomato puree

4 cups chicken broth

8 cups finely chopped mustard greens

salt and pepper

Remove the casings and brown the sausage, breaking it up with a spoon. Remove the sausage from the pan and drain off all but 1 Tbs. of fat (if using chicken sausage, you may need to add some olive oil). Sauté the bacon, onions, and garlic in the fat until the onions are limp, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree, chicken broth, and sausage. Simmer the soup for 10 minutes. Add the chopped mustard greens and simmer the soup long enough to wilt the greens; they should be bright green and tender in about 3-5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot. Serves 6. From Joy of Gardening Cookbook by Janet Ballantyne.

RHUBARB is ready. We’ll send along approx. 1 Lb. for $3.  Just email to order.