Welcome to the 4th week of the Pitchfork & Crow Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share:

• Salad Mix
  
• Turnips – mostly the smooth hakurei salad turnips, but a few lucky folks will be aking home Milan turnips this week.
  
• Garlic Scapes – the flowering stalk of garlic plants, dice it up and throw it in any recipe where you want to add a garlicky flavor.  Garlic scape pesto is pretty fantastic too!
  
• Sweet Onions – These are overwintered!  Planted last fall they made it through the winter and, unlike the majority of their cohort, they didn’t bolt!  We’ll be sorting through the bolters soon, but for now enjoy the amazingness that is the sweet onion.
  
• Broccoli
  
• Cabbage
  
• Kohlrabi
• Shelling Peas – The past week’s heat was hard on the peas.  We think they’re pretty great, but be warned some may be a tad starchier than perfect.
  
• French Breakfast Radishes
  
• Summer Squash – Hold on to your hats, the summer squash is back!
• Cherries – Our single cherry tree is awesome.  It never seems possible, but we picked enough cherries from it this morning for half pints all around!  Hurrah for the cherry tree!
  

Summer seems to have arrived early in these parts.  Walking the length of the farm, it looks like mid-summer.  The sight and sound of near constant irrigation sprinklers on one field after another, dried grass where they don’t quite reach.  The green of spring crops and the yellow of straw is the palette of the farm this June.  Luckily there are splashes of color too.  The red cherries hiding among the leaves of the cherry tree, the periwinkle flowers on the chicory seed crop, the red/pink/orange/yellow stems of the Rainbow chard.  It’s been all sunny and blue skies this week, easy to get lost in the midday glare of the hot sun.  We’re thankful for overcast skies this morning as we finish the week’s harvest.

This past week we had our annual organic inspection!  In March we submit the renewal paperwork that lists any changes from the previous year.  The paperwork is reviewed at the Oregon Tilth offices and an on-site inspection is scheduled.  The majority of the inspection is spent inside, reviewing paperwork and records and seed packets.  We’re asked questions about our organic fertilizer inputs, and the inspector reviews our soil tests and amendment labels to confirm we’re not over-fertilizing or using products not allowed in organic production.  We’re asked questions about groundwork, crop rotations, and cover cropping and we show our records and future plans for both.  We’re asked questions about our seeds and we share our spreadsheet and receipts for organic seed purchases and organic seed searches when we choose to use non-organic seed.  We’re asked about sales and harvest records and we show our accounting software system and our harvest lists.  And after all the paperwork has been reviewed we do a field walk to demonstrate that what we said we’re doing on paper is in fact what we’re doing in the fields.

This is our sixth season of undergoing the organic certification process and I think it was the first time we didn’t find ourselves scrambling to organize records at the last minute.  It’s possible we’re getting better at organizing the records we need as the season bumps along.

Of course we did some other stuff this week too.  As promised last week, there was weeding in the onions and carrots and strawberries.  But there was also the fixing of the grinding Farmall Cub clutch, and the direct sowing of carrots, cilantro, dill, parsnips and pumpkins, the sowing of cucumber, summer squash, cabbage, collard, lettuce, corn, basil, and kohlrabi successions!  Whew!  That’s a lot of tiny seeds in the ground or in cell trays in the propagation house.  It’s quite the magic to plant the seed, watch it grow, keep a steady work pace, and suddenly realize there’s food to harvest.  Quite the magic.

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you next week!

Your farmers,
Jeff Bramlett and Carri Heisler

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Poached Wild Salmon with Peas and Morels

• 2 6-8-ounce center-cut wild salmon fillets (each about 1 1/2″ thick)
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt plus more for seasoning
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 ounces fresh morels; sliced, stemmed shiitake; or other mushrooms
• 1/2 cup shelled fresh (or frozen, thawed) peas
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives or 2 pea tendrils

Place salmon, skin side down, in a large high-sided skillet. Add wine, 2 tablespoons salt, and cold water to cover salmon by 1/2″. Cover pan; bring liquid to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, uncover, and gently poach salmon until just cooked through and barely opaque in the center, about 6 minutes, depending on thickness. Transfer salmon and 2 tablespoons poaching liquid to a plate; tent loosely with foil.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup salmon poaching liquid and peas and simmer until peas begin to soften, 2-3 minutes. Add cream and bring sauce to a simmer. Cook until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Using a spatula, transfer salmon, skin side up, to paper towels. Gently peel off and discard skin. Invert onto serving plates and spoon sauce over. Garnish with chives.

From Epicurious via Bon Appétit by by Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer, http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/poached-wild-salmon-with-peas-and-morels-395473

.

Kohlrabi Fritters

• 2 kohlrabi
• 1 carrot
• 1 egg
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne
• ½ cup grapeseed or vegetable oil (enough for ¼-inch depth in a large skillet)
• ½ avocado
• ¼ cup plain yogurt
• ½ lemon
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• Green onions (for garnish)

1. Cut the leaves off the kohlrabi and peel the bulb. Peel 1 carrot. Shred the vegetables in a food processor, or by hand using a grater. Squeeze the shredded vegetables in a tea cloth (or with your hands) to remove moisture, then add to a medium bowl with 1 egg, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, and ¼ teaspoon cayenne. Mix to combine.
2. Place ½ cup oil in a large skillet (enough for ¼-inch depth). Heat the oil over medium high heat, then place small patties of the fritter mixture into the oil. Fry on one side until browned, then fry on the other side. Remove and place on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain excess oil.
3. In a small bowl, mix ½ avocado, ¼ cup plain yogurt, juice from ½ lemon, and ¼ teaspoon kosher salt to make the avocado cream (or blend the ingredients together in a food processor).
4. Serve fritters with avocado cream and sliced green onions.

From A Couple Cooks via The Kitchn, http://www.acouplecooks.com/2013/01/kohrabi-fritters-with-avocado/

.

Radish-Cabbage Coleslaw

• 1 1/2 pound cabbage, cored and thinly sliced (6 cups)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 5 radishes, thinly sliced

Toss cabbage with salt in a large bowl and let stand, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together oil, vinegar, honey mustard, and pepper in a small bowl until combined.

Rinse cabbage with cold water in a colander, then firmly squeeze handfuls to remove excess water and transfer cabbage to cleaned bowl. Add radishes and dressing to cabbage, tossing to combine.

From Epicurious via Gourmet, http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/radish-cabbage-coleslaw-238393

.

.