The new banner image above is a line-up of this week’s harvest, a perfect typical example of what’s in-season in late June.  Natalie and I had to do double-duty to get everything picked and packed in time, since both my dad (Darwin) and my grandma (Vangie) were enjoying lake time up north this week.

Natalie and I knew we would have to keep our energy up during Monday’s harvest, so on Sunday night we made a pan of my grandma’s “Blond Brownies.”  (You can find the recipe in the Trinity Lutheran Church cookbook from a few years back.)  As we finished harvesting each of the morning crops we took a quick break to dip brownies in coffee.

We were also pleasantly surprised when my dear old friend Todd arrived in time for lunch and to help finish up the last few things of the afternoon.  Todd just finished two years teaching at an international school in China, and is about to head out for another two year contract at a school in Jakarta.  If you live in Anoka, you might remember him as the much beloved orchestra teacher at the just recently closed Sandburg Middle School.  Personally, I remember him from our time playing on the Yellow Bananas soccer team at Titterud Park in the second grade.

We had a really lovely harvest day weather-wise, starting out with stocking hats and hoodies and ending in tank tops.  We have been grateful for two consecutive nights of a gentle 1/2″ of rain, especially when other Minnesota CSA farms have really been hit hard by recent bouts of severe storms.  Our hearts and well wishes go out to those less fortunate.  The plants are starting to make their transition from seedlings to “Plants of Maturity and Substance.”  We watch this process in awe, like proud parents watching their babe’s first steps.  All too soon the broccoli will be taking driver’s ed and the arugula will be writing its senior thesis.

In your box this week:

  1. PEA PODS!
  2. Broccoli: we could give you more of the tasty and nutritious leaves this week because Darwin & Vangie weren’t there to veto them.  Natalie and I love the greens!  Sometimes when we pick your broccoli, we pick off the bigger leaves and eat them for our lunch!  This week we sautéed them with the garlic scapes, green onions, and lemon thyme, and put them on toast with scrambled eggs.  Yum!
  3. Green Onions: We needed to thin out some of our storage onions, so we decided to wait until this week when they are big enough to double as a harvestable crop too.  You can eat everything except the stringy white roots on the bottom.
  4. Hakurei Turnips:  raw or cooked, eat the white roots and the leaves.
  5. Lettuce Mix: This week the lettuce mix also contains Arugula, Mizuna, and Spinach.
  6. Garlic Scapes: Enjoy them as modern art, and then chop these garlic stems and flower buds up and sauté like regular garlic.
  7. Oregano: taller stems and larger leaves than the thyme.  Both bunches of herbs can simply be hung upside down to dry in a drafty but not super sunny location.
  8. Lemon Thyme: the little bunch, with the little leaves.  (The one that smells lemony.)  Try just cutting it up into your lettuce mix.  Or into your broccoli leaf sauté!
Advertisement