Our laying hens are doing their job too well and we have plenty of eggs to sell. But at some point in the near future, some of the laying hens will become stewing hens .
If you still want an egg share, please let us know so we don’t part with too many hens. Delivery is available every week (full share) or every other week (half share). You can also purchase eggs at your drop location – St. Paul’s and Options only. Email if you are interested.
Farm News
So it has cooled off and stayed cool. Our night time temperatures have been in the 50’s and with a steady wind blowing it is downright chilly. Heavy rains came through last night and I was very happy to see the lettuce and swiss chard in the field were not completely shredded with the driving rain. Finishing the harvest of peas, onions and radishes this morning, we ducked in and out of brief rain showers and I see now we’re in a perpetual mist. Good ole Illinois weather – from one extreme to the next.
Field work this week was planting cucumbers, summer squash, lettuce, arugula, bush beans, celery, and the second planting of beets. The first planting of beets is so close to harvest we may be able to take baby beets next week. Brian hilled the potatoes for the first time and it’s apparent now that approximately 20% of the seed potatoes rotted in the ground due to excess moisture this spring. Our homeschool family who comes once per week weeded and mulched our tomato hoophouse and the plants look fantastic. Now that our harvesting is done for the day, the kids are in our east hoophouse planting a bed of peppers – orange, yellow, chocolate, and red peppers will get the protection of our hoophouse to thrive and produce fruit well into the fall. We have not grown hoophouse peppers until now and look forward to seeing them thrive.
With the ground quite wet from last night’s rain, we’ll be anxious to weed as much as possible. The weeds are growing fast and it takes all our efforts to keep them under control. The box is beautiful this week and we hope you appreciate the freshness and flavors of the food. Try a chicken salad wrap using lettuce or swiss chard leaves – yum!
In Your Box This Week
Leaf Lettuce – Beautiful red and green leaf lettuce today. The red lettuce is our favorite variety called ‘New Red Fire’ – a variety that does well in cold or heat. The light green lettuce is and old variety my mother grew when I was a kid – ‘Black Seeded Simpson’.
Spinach – This is the last harvest of the hoophouse spinach. It took Hannah and I a little bit of time to pick all these little leaves trying to strip all the plants of every good leaf. Now, a crew of helpers are reworking the bed and planting 4 varieties of peppers today. Out with the old and in with the new!
Green Onions – This will be the last of the larger green onions for awhile. These green onions were overwintered from last fall so they have good size. But the supply is near depleted and the spring onions are not quite ready. For those of you who have had onions since the shares began and feel overwhelmed, you could slice them and freeze for later use. Include both the white and green and use later on in stir fries, stews, etc. They will also store quite well for the next few weeks wrapped in a cotton towel or paper towel and placed in a storage bag or container.
Garlic Scapes – Many of you will recognize the garlic scapes from previous years. This unique looking vegetable is the seed head of our garlic planting. They emerge this time of year and we remove them so the plant will put its energy into the bulb. They have an intense fresh garlic flavor. The entire scape is edible although the very tip where it looks like a blade of grass can be a little tough. Use the scapes anywhere you might want garlic flavor. We have grilled them and put them in stir fries. And they keep for weeks in a container or bag in the refrigerator.
French Tarragon – A class herb with a distinctive anise flavor. Goes very well with the chicken salad recipe below. This herb is best used fresh. If you can’t use all of it, place in freezer bag or container, label and freeze for later use.
Radishes – We are just harvesting our first radish bed. Never have we waited so long for radishes mature. The planting suffered from too much moisture early on and never really recovered. We have scratched a few more seeds in for another planting but these will not be ready for a few weeks. Just to show how one year is different from another – last year we had so many radishes we couldn’t pick them all in time before they went pithy. Every growing season is new adventure.
Swiss Chard/Red Russian Kale – Pretty bouquets of ‘Bright Lights’ swiss chard and Red Russian kale. Both are quite nice in a salad but also stand up well in dishes such as sautéed chard and kale. The stems on the chard are beautiful and have a crunch and texture like celery but in more vibrant colors.
Sugar Snap Peas – The first harvest of sugar snap peas this week. We can’t get enough of these sweet crunchy pods. And they are loving this cool wet weather. Peas can be a challenge. You can’t get them going until early April but then it might turn hot in May shutting them down. Let’s cross our fingers and hope we get a good harvest of these gems.
Chicken Salad with French Tarragon
2 cups chopped, cooked chicken meat*
1/4 cup dried cranberries, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1-2 Tbsp fresh chopped french tarragon
Salt and pepper to taste
Poach about 1 1/2 lbs of skinless chicken breasts and thighs, preferably bone-in (for flavor), in a quart of salted (1 teaspoon) water, for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove from water, let cool, remove bones, chop the meat into 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch cubes.
Mix all of the ingredients together. Adjust seasoning. Serve with lettuce for a simple salad, in a tomato that has been cut open for a stuffed tomato, or with slices of bread for a chicken salad sandwich.
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