July 5, 2014 - Share #2

We usually see the farm from the ground up but  here's a  sky down view! The farm pond is in the middle right and the back garden and Holler Fest site is in the middle left. The front gardens and barn are at the middle top of the photo - kind  of hard to spot. As you can see, we're gardening in the woods! Thanks to a friend of CSA member Faye for sending along this aerial view!

WHAT'S IN THE BOX: (storage and cooking suggestions below)

BEETS

KALE - CURLY AND/OR RED CURLY

SCALLIONS

SNOW PEAS (EDIBLE PEA PODS)

LETTUCE

ARUGULA

CARROTS

GARLIC SCAPES

BASIL

PERENNIAL HERB CHOICE - TBA!

Storage suggestions:

Leafy greens, summer onions, arugula, garlic scapes: store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator (or dedicated greens storage bag)

Root crops (beets, carrots): remove greens and store in fridge. A plastic bag will keep the roots firmer if you are going to store for a long time. Store the greens as above, and do use the beet greens - they are loaded with nutrients! Carrot tops can be saved for soup stock.

Snow peas: in plastic in the fridge

Basil: stems in a glass of water, outside the fridge. Use in 2-4 days.

Serving suggestions: 

The crew enjoyed Sesame Peanut Salad this week. It uses snow peas, scallions and carrots from your share. There are a number of other ingredients but when you have them all assembled, this makes a big batch of salad which is excellent for leftovers!

Our packing area filled with kale

Kale seems to now be firmly embedded into our cultural taste buds. We eat it almost daily at the farm and a favorite way to eat it is as salad - either raw or massaged. Recipes abound on the internet, and here is one of the often-shared recipes for Raw Tuscan Salad with Pecorino. Substituting Feta Cheese for the Pecorino would not be a bad thing! Curly kale can be used instead of Tuscan - just slice it thin.

Ed. note: we usually don't include large pieces of kale ribs in our salads, as this recipe seems to suggest. We generally cut the kale into smaller pieces, and here is a nifty tip for doing that from friend of the farm, Nan Bauer: "Here's a cool technique I learned from some Portuguese relatives (Portuguese Kale Soup is the national dish, at least unofficially): after stemming the kale leaves, stack them, roll them up tight like a cigar, then slice as thin as you can. Technically, this is a chiffonade. It is the best way to eat raw kale, I think."

Nan also wrote a super article about Frog Holler Farm for the spring issue of Edible Wow. If you didn't see it, read it here!

Some cooks are adamant about not cooking kale. This posting from Slate.com for Raw Kale Salad has a little attitude, but also a delicious recipe for "massaged kale", a way to break down a bit of the fiber to make the kale more digestible while retaining the nutrients that might be lost in cooking.

At the farm, we take our kale all ways - cooked, raw, massaged, blended into smoothies, juiced into juices - it's all good, and you'll have lots of chances to explore kale options throughout the season. What's your favorite way to prepare kale?  We always like to hear!

NOTES FROM THE FIELD:   
Oh dear - deer! Lettuce and beans have provided some snacking for a determined deer in our back garden. As the above photo shows, we garden in a very woodsy, deer-friendly habitat and coexisting peacefully with these beautiful creatures has always been our goal. We can't blame them for thinking the veggies are always greener on the other side of the deer fence, but we have plans for much more substantial fencing in the weeks to come. We'll get along a lot better if they stay on their side of it! For now, one of the crew has agreed to sleep in his tent in the back garden.Thank you Paul!

Other than that, regular rains have kept the irrigation pumps quiet and the crops (and weeds!) growing!

Beniece with her pet chicken, "Bindi"

MEET THE INTERNS - BENIECE LIPPERT

Beniece takes the inevitable questions about her name with good humor. As she has said many times, "It sounds like Denise but with a B," and credits her mom for choosing such a unique name for her daughter.

Beniece grew up in the Lansing area. She attended the University of Michigan School of Nursing, where she hoped to realize her passion for helping people. However, her passions for being outdoors and traveling did not mesh with the nursing profession and hospital environment. So Beniece hatched another plan!

Currently Beniece is applying to the MSU Organic Farmer Training Program, which is a "nine-month intensive training program in year-round organic farming focusing on diversified production of vegetables, livestock, flowers, fruits and herbs for local markets."

But before entering into these serious studies, Beniece wanted to get some hands-on experience, which brought her to Frog Holler! She arrived in mid-April, so was able to start out working with the seedlings in the greenhouse. She has found it gratifying to see the whole process of growing, from seed to seedling to field to market to fork!She enjoys getting  her hands in the dirt every day and even though there is a lot of work, says it doesn't feel like work. The arrival of the chickens this summer was a big plus for Beniece, a longtime animal lover. She quickly became the 'mother hen' for the little flock and has taken care of important tasks, like naming the chickens - oh, and also cleaning out the coop!

Since coming to Frog Holler Beniece has enjoyed learning about some new veggies, like Kohlrabi and Collards, which she hadn't experienced before. A favorite dish has been "massaged kale" and she provides us with this delicious recipe for vegan Cheesy Kale Chips.

Beniece says she is enjoying this summer so much that she doesn't want it to end, but end it will and she actually has some interesting plans beyond the farm. After gaining more skills at the MSU training program, she hopes to indulge her passion for traveling by "WWOOFing"; that is, traveling to organic farms around the country and world and working in exchange for room, board and experience. ("WWOOF" stands for Worldwide Workers On Organic Farms and is an organization that facilitates this form of travel and learning.)

After Beniece has covered the globe, or at least New Zealand, she hopes to find an area where interest in organics is high but the market is still open for new growers. By then, Beniece should have enough skills and experience to step into her chosen "field", ready to work outside and get her hands dirty every day - and there will probably be some chickens clucking in the background!

Thanks for bringing your boxes back, and have a great week everyone!