Lots and Lots of Greens

This week I had the whole farm share to myself, and there were so many greens. Spinach, mustard, collards, kale, arugula, and a braising mix which is a lot of other greens I can't identify. I was reminded recently of boorani, a Persian spinach and yogurt dish my mother used to make when we had company. Specifically, though, I've been seeing posts about boorani using greens other than spinach. Well, why not?

So I cooked up some onion and garlic with turmeric, salt and pepper, and then added all the spinach, mustard greens and braising mix. (The collards and kale are for the rabbit and I'm not sure what to do with all the arugula, it's overwhelming.) Once everything was cooked down, I stirred in plain yogurt and added coriander seed, dried lemon salt, and sumac to taste. It's a good way to get more greens in my diet. Yum!

Savory Scones

The other day I was sent a recipe through Instagram from my elderchild with a request that I maybe make them, sometime, please? They were for Spinach, Feta and Fenugreek scones. Well, I couldn't find fenugreek leaves, but I was able to get everything else. Spinach, cilantro, feta cheese, self rising flour and then all the regular scone ingredients. Today I put them all together.

At first the dough is dry and rough but the minute you add the cheese and fresh greens it becomes almost too soft. Maybe the greens needed to be completely dry? Not sure. The instructions weren't really clear on that part. Also, I probably rolled them too thin as they didn't puff up like the photo. That's OK. They tasted very good. Even the youngerchild ate most of one and, considering how much green was in there, that's impressive.

Served with chicken marsala and buttered noodles, they were a fine addition to dinner. A big thanks to the elderchild for finding the recipe!

Farm Season

The farm share started up last week and since it's been a cooler and rainy spring it's off to a slow start. Not that I mind. Last year was so hot and dry I'm grateful for all the rain. We were all worried when it was so hot this past February!

This year I'm splitting the share with a friend. It'll be good for both of us, I think. A full share can be so much food! So I'll likely do a little less canning from my share but it'll be less overwhelming.

Yesterday's share contained radishes, Hakurei turnips, spinach, arugula, herbs, snap peas, komatsuna greens, mustard greens and kale. My half of the share, except for the greens I'm giving to Mocha, basically made one terrific salad. I was able to snag a few ripe strawberries from my front garden, the ones the chipmunks hadn't found, and add those as well. Strawberry season should start in earnest next week!

Combining Fruits with Herbs

Today's farm share included two quarts of beautiful, almost too ripe strawberries! And fresh herbs. After visiting The Tangled Garden in Nova Scotia, I have been inspired to try to include herbs into some of the jams I make. So I was torn a bit between strawberry-lavender and strawberry-thyme. After polling the 14 year old, thyme won.

Also, for the first time in a while I used liquid pectin. I'd stopped using it because sometimes it failed on me but today it worked fine. I guess it can't be old so, if I'm going to use it I have to buy it new each time.

Anyway, I used the immersion blender to crush the berries more thoroughly than usual in the hopes that there would be less floating of the fruit on the tops of the jars. Usually the fruit all sits at the top and there is a clear strawberry jelly at the bottom. Not this time. This is more of a chunky purée. So. Five cups of strawberry purée, two sprigs of thyme, 7 cups of sugar and a pouch of Certo. This made 9+ cups of jam. I fished out the cooked thyme sprigs and put two tiny, fresh stems of thyme into each jar before I poured the jam. Also, I'm setting two aside for the fair.

Also in the share: cilantro, garlic scapes, spinach, mustard greens, braising greens, komatsuna greens, and radishes. Looks like I'll have to make those strangolapreti dumplings again! Tonight, though, I will toss some of the spinach with chicken tortellini and alfredo sauce. Mmm.

Growing Season

Yesterday was the first farm share pick up of the year. I am always so happy to get back to the farm, to walk around in the fields and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells.

As usual, the first share is relatively light. A pound of spinach, 1/3 pound of arugula. Broccoli, scallions, bok choy, and radishes. In the fields: a pint of strawberries and herbs. Dill, cilantro, thyme, tarragon, sage and chives. I only took what I needed, and the tarragon and thyme were dried overnight.

We celebrated the first share with a big salad of spinach, arugula, goat cheese, radishes and strawberries. The berries on the salad actually came from the front yard. Since I have to pick them a little early to thwart the chipmunks I thought they'd be better in the salad rather than plain. The pint of berries from the farm got eaten straight out of the bowl and were gone in short order.

While I was picking herbs I got into a conversation with two women about canning. It seems that a lot of people are interested in it but aren't sure how to get started and are worried about contamination. I've been thinking about teaching a class on canning, perhaps I need to work more on setting one up...

Farm Share Father's Day

As it seems to often happen, I did have to work today, but I stopped at the store on my way home and got a wee little lamb roast to cook for Father's Day.  While it was roasting, I fried some potatoes and garlic scapes in butter, pushed them to one side of the pan and fried half of the snow peas I got from the farm.  At the last minute, I threw some arugula on the potatoes and stirred it in until it wilted.  We also had a large salad of lettuce, arugula, spinach, radishes, turnips and snow peas.  I am working through that farm share, slowly.

Wonder of wonders, we discovered that the 8 year old will eat lettuce!  (Be careful not to mistake arugula for lettuce or it will end badly.)

Lastly, tonight I started the brine/ferment for the pickled mustard greens I'd been hoping to make from the greens I brought home from the farm share.  I really love reading Hank Shaw's blog.  He has so many unusual recipes and every one I've tried so far has been fantastic.  I'm hoping to meet him when he comes to Cambridge this fall on his book tour.

What's left?  Swiss chard, Napa cabbage, more garlic scapes, spinach and arugula from the farm, and a LOT of lettuce from our mason.  We've already had Korean barbecue in lettuce wraps, finishing up the cabbage kimchi I made last summer and sampling some of the field garlic kimchi I made a few months ago.  And salad.  A lot of salad.  

Early Summer Bounty

Last Thursday I picked up the farm share: 1 head of lettuce, 8 scallions, 8 turnips, 12 garlic scapes, 1/2 a pound of spinach, and then 2 quarts each of snow, snap and shell peas, plus 2 quarts of strawberries. In the rain. The peas and berries were pick-your-own. Brr!

All that's left at this point are the snow peas, the turnips and the garlic scapes, but we're working through them. We had a terrific, completely-farm-share salad:
sauteed snap peas with garlic scapes and mint (the latter from my own garden):
sauteed spinach with the scapes, I also used the scapes instead of shallots for a tequila shrimp recipe we had for dinner the other night, and I brought the shelled peas to my parents' and we added them at the last minute to some cooked baby carrots so they would be heated up but not really cooked. They were excellent. Fresh peas are so tasty!

The Farm is Back!

Gotta love spring! Last week the farm opened and Steph got the first share. This week was my turn, and I picked up: 1 large bok choi, 1 bowl of arugula, 6 Hakurei turnips, 4 radishes, 6 garlic scapes, 1 and a half pounds of spinach, 1 quart of strawberries, 1 pint of snow peas, and a bunch of cilantro.

One and a half pounds of spinach is a LOT of spinach.

Tonight we're having a spinach-arugula-strawberry salad, lobster, corn on the cob, and the rest of the strawberry-rhubarb pie. Love, love, LOVE the farm!

Farm Share Cooking

Just wanted to log in what I've done with last week's farm share. On Monday night we had friends over for dinner and I wanted to use my fresh veggies. We had a big salad, which boasted lettuce from the farm and radishes from my garden (whee!), swiss chard with a lemon and olive oil dressing (from the cookbook Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop), and quinoa with garlic scapes and spinach tossed in. For the latter, I cooked the scapes then toasted the quinoa (black and white) at the same time, then cooked in chicken broth. When it was done, I tossed in shredded spinach leaves and let them wilt. It was that easy. A little lemon juice on top finished it nicely. All of this went very well with the grilled salmon.

All I have left is snow peas and some garlic scapes. I will likely use them tomorrow for something. My sister in law gets the share this week, and then we start splitting. Oh, and my tomato plants, even the sad ones that aren't growing well, have tomatoes on them!

The Farm is Back!

Our farm share started up again last week. For the first few weeks my sister-in-law and I are alternating weeks and not splitting; it just seemed easier that way. This week it was my turn so there I was, in my dress clothes and hiking boots, in the mud, picking strawberries and peas. Thanks to the share, tonight's menu is:

Stir fried chicken, snow peas and spinach with garlic scapes
Rice
Salad with red and green lettuce, snap peas, strawberries, radishes (from the farm) and cukes and mozzarella cheese (from the store)
Extra strawberries for dessert

Yippee! Glad to be getting great local produce again.

More From the Farm

This week the farm share consisted of lettuce, spinach, bok choi, scallions, radishes, snow peas, strawberries, and some Hakurei turnips which are edible raw. Mmm. I went up to my roof deck and harvested a few radishes of my own (red and white), some more spinach, and a few of my shelling peas (well, all that were ready) and made a salad with the shelled peas, lettuce, a little spinach, radishes and one of the turnips. I fried the spinach with a little garlic in olive oil. The strawberries were devoured for dessert. Tomorrow night I'll make a stir fry with the bok choi, scallions and snow peas. We are liking this farm share thing!