Week 4

Kira and Shamu Celebrating the Compost as it Steams We turn our huge piles of food waste with a tractor bucket to keep them aerated, producing a lot of heat as microbes do their magic to break it down into fertile humus for our soil.

Harvest Notes

Kale A curly variety that is ideal for kale chips, soup, or basic steamed kale recipes. You’ll see little bug bites from flea beetles who have long since flown off, leaving behind nothing but an aesthetic blemish.

Kohlrabi The beautiful purple vegetable that makes everyone wonder if they are in outer space. Peel the bulb and slice it raw for salads or just to snack on plain. The greens cook up just like kale does.

Garlic Scapes Garlic plants send up a flower stalk (the scape) about a month before the bulbs are ready for harvest. We remove the scape so that the plant will put more energy into making a beautiful big bulb. Conveniently, the scape happens to be delicious- like a garlic flavored green bean. It can be used in place of garlic in any recipe or you can look up specific scape recipes like scape pesto.

Lettuce Heads This week you have a head of red summer crisp.

Summer Squash The first week of a long season! This week you have a green zucchini, a yellow zucchini and a light green middle eastern type squash. They are so fresh that if you eat them in the next week or two they will bead up with moisture as you slice.

Salad Mix This is likely the last week of salad mix for the summer as the greens start to toughen and switch to their seed producing stage in the heat.

Sugar Snap Peas This may be the last week for sugar snap peas if the plants don’t snap back into making more peas. They are a great spring crop that that ‘pea’ters out in the warmer weather.

Snow Peas The stir-fries we’ve been making with these are incredible. If you feel overwhelmed with fresh vegetables, these are a great one to throw in the freezer for the winter. Just put them in a sip lock bag, freeze, and then toss into a stir-fry when you are craving green veggies in January.

Lavender  Keep these with their stems in water to enjoy fresh lavender scent for the next week or so, or hang them upside down in a well ventilated area (I chose above the kitchen sink) to dry. Robert and Chana, two of our apprentices, made a delicious fresh lavender cake so don’t discount baking with lavender!

Salad Turnips These are delicious and juicy raw, roasted or sautéed. The greens are perfect sautéed lightly or raw in salads. This is the last week of turnips for the summer.

Scallions This is the last week of scallions for the summer.