Lloyd Craft Farms Fresh Produce, Locally Grown

This week at The Farm we will be putting out 102 Shares with new and old items from The Garden…Here’s what we have planned (Group #):

Peppers:  Sweet Islander Bells (A & C), purple for the time being and great raw in salads.  Thick and meaty Green Bell Peppers (The Store) suitable for baking or cooking.  Antohi Romanian Frying Peppers (D), unbelievable cooked and so-so raw…Cook them!  1/2# Shishito Peppers (B)–these are a staple in high end restaurants as an appetizer:  marinade and bake in the oven–

Cabbage:  Everyone except Group C has had a cabbage (or two), so this week Ruby Perfection cabbage (C) goes out on Thursday to Casper!  We will stock Tendersweet, a flat sweet cabbage, in The Store.  Remember to store your cabbage in the fridge with protection from refrigeration damage.  You can ‘carve’ on it for a month or two!  Very nutritious and versatile!  Multitude of recipes on-line and at Lloyd Craft Farms recipe page.

Summer Squash:  We have five varieties and are trying to mix it up!  Costa Romanesco is the striped zucchini (this is the one we gather squash blossoms from).  It is denser so fries with less water, has a great flavor and usually grows to a larger size.  Zephyr is yellow with a green tip, also usually larger, and good mixed with the others.  Yellow Slick Pik is tender and smaller, suitable for salad.  Zucchini is the most familiar of them all!  Summer Squash will remain in the Shares for a few more weeks as we add other items.  Plethora of recipes–try the Summer Squash Casserole at Lloyd Craft Farms recipes…make your own white sauce instead of the canned for better nutrition–I like it cold the next morning!!  (I know, a little odd….)

Broccoli is almost done for the season.  The Fall broccoli is Arcadia and it has been impacted negatively this year, maturing earlier than it should; Florets will go into some bags for The Store.  Broccolini is a long season broccoli, cross of European Broccoli and Asian Greens….we call it Galion X.  Small heads, large sweet leaves…eat the leaves.  Good steamed but we love it cooked in the cast iron skillet with olive oil!  If the flowers turn yellow you’ve had it in the fridge too long! Broccolini for Group B this week–

Cauliflower is the hit this week!  White cauliflower (Bishop or Denali) (A & B & C) and Flame Star (D), unless we run out of nice white and then we will substitute the Flame Star in its beautiful orange/yellow!  Store in fridge, eat sooner more than later, and steaming is my preference.  Cauliflower is a nutritional powerhouse, as are most Brassica’s, but over time they take on a bitter ‘hot’ flavor and lose their sweetness.  Fresh is best!  (The Brassica family, AKA Mustard or Cruciferious, are cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes and turnips, kohlrabi, and Kale.) 

BTW–We have a kale blooming in the high tunnel–first time ever!  The flower of the plant is a dead give-away of its family affiliation! Small bloom, long stem, yellow in color, makes a pod with tiny round seeds–picture wild mustard growing along side the highways……….

Cucumbers:  Tasty Jade (A & D) is a long English-type, and Suyo (B & maybe C), a Chinese cucumber with a prickly skin.  Suyo’s are said to make great bread and butter pickles, cut up into salads like flowers, and store well in the fridge.  Striped Armenian (C) is another long cucumber with a sweet flavor, closer to its cousin the melon.  Harmonies (D), our European Pickling cucumbers, make a great snack cucumber.  We sell these in The Store, too!

Celery (C & D) is new this week!  This is the earliest the celery has been plumped up and ready to go…keep it in the fridge protected from refrigeration damage or wilting.  Remember that it is in the same family as parsley so loaded with flavor.  Use the tops for your home-made Bone Broth (easy in the Instant Pot)!  Down side of our celery is that they are sooo big that they take up sooooo much room in the box!  (We leave the outer leaves on for stews, soups, gravies, broths…they can be tossed into the freezer for later use–as well as the bottom of the head…)  Boxes will be a little packed this week for Group C.  Parsley for Group B.

Kohlrabi, that other member in the same family as Kale and Broccoli…comes in Purple and Green.  Purple will go into Group A, Green and Purple into Group B.  These are a staple in Germany.  Kohlrabi can be fried, pickled, or eaten raw.  The bulb is best peeled.  Will store in the fridge for long term….flavor doesn’t diminish like the broccoli and cauliflower.  (We store these for late fall sales.)

Red Beets (D) and I will probably have a few folks that leave these out of their Share on Thursday Pick Up…That’s okay!  These are in the same family as spinach and chard.  We know how healthy spinach is with most doctors recommending 4-6 servings a week!  Red Beets are right there, too.  In fact in the book Minerals for the Genetic Code it talks about the ability of Red Beets to repair damaged DNA!  My favorite thing with beets is grated into a tossed salad–sweet, red color, and added value!  You can also wrap them in foil and bake them in the oven like a baked potato, then cool and store in the fridge to use at a later date for Harvard Beets, or sliced on the plate as a garnish.  (Recipe for Harvard Beets at Lloyd Craft Farms Recipes.)

Tomatoes are soooo close…if we get enough ripe they will be added to the Shares and Boxes as well as a surprise!  We have Granadero salad paste tomatoes and Polbig slicers that are early ripeners, as well as the Esterina Yellow Cherry tomatoes and Grape tomatoes, too.   Volume is the deterrent, but that will change!

Heads up! Green Beans were picked for the first time Saturday….soon to be added to the BOXES and Shares….

Hey!  How did the new liners in the Special Boxes work versus the individual bags?  Did they shuffle in shipping and expose some of the veggies, or did the contents with liner travel well…GIVE ME SOME FEED-BACK!  As always, good food for healthy bodies–The Farmer’s Wife