In Kim's Kitchen

We harvested the last peas of the season this week. When the weather gets hot, the peas just kind of give up the ghost. The last peas of our season are a fun variety called Oregon Giant Snow Peas. In our opinion, they’ve got more pea flavor than most snow peas, and they are certainly easier to pick! String snow peas just like you would snap peas, then cut them up for use in stir fries, soups, and salads.

We stumbled on a great crop of Big Beets when we were getting ready to pick the carrots. The tops looked fantastic, so we left them on. Again, don’t pass the tops by, since they are loaded with nutrients and taste great. I especially enjoy them thoroughly cooked and served with a pat of butter and a touch of salt. For the roots, this recipe uses a great “quick beet” treatment that can stand on its own, or add a couple of ingredients for a gourmet treat!

Fettuccine with Grated Beets and Cheese

6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 lbs beets, peeled and grated
1 lb fresh fettuccine
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
Minced chives, for garnish.

Cook 5 tbsp butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until beginning to brown. Stir in the beets and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook about 10 minutes, until beets are tender. Meanwhile, cook and drain the fettuccine, toss with remaining butter and the grated cheese. Stir in the beets, add the vinegar, garnish with chives, season again with salt and pepper, and serve.

And, if beet greens with butter doesn’t tickle your fancy, here’s a dressed up version that make a nice appetizer or side dish with chicken:

Sautéed Greens with Warm Feta

1/2 pound feta cheese, sliced 3/4 inch thick
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
tops from one bunch of beet greens
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 375. Cut the feta into large triangles and arrange in a single layer in a baking dish. In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons olive oil with the red pepper, lemon juice, and half the garlic slices. Spread over the feta cheese and let stand for 15 minutes. In a large skillet, heat the remaining oil. Add the garlic and add the greens, a handful at a time, cook, stirring until greens are wilted. About 4 minutes. Pour off liquid and season with salt and pepper. Keep warm. Bake the feta for about 5 minutes, until heated through. Spoon the greens onto plates and add the feta.

This week marked the first major Sungold Cherry Tomato harvest of the season. I don’t think life gets much better than Sungold Cherry Tomatoes, which we grow in the greenhouse for better flavor, since it keeps rain and blight off of the leaves—we’ve got eight feet of tomato plant pumping sunshine into each of those little fruits. Dutch Greenhouse Cucumbers continue to come out of the greenhouse by the bushel-load as well.

Basil, the classic herb for pesto, prefers to be kept a little bit warmer than your average refrigerator, which makes for a little bit of a challenge storage-wise. We have found that the best bet is to put the basil in a plastic bag (for humidity) inside of a paper bag (which provides a little bit of insulation) in the door of your refrigerator (which is the warmest part of the refrigerator). Use liberally on eggs and rice, in salad dressings and pasta dishes, and pretty much anywhere.

Walnut Rice Salad

1 Cup long grain rice, (cook how you would normally cook your rice)
3 tablespoons walnut oil or olive oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 Dutch cucumber, halved and thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled or feta
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped walnuts
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 tablespoon basil, chopped
Put rice into a large bowl. Add the oil vinegar, sugar, and salt and toss with a fork to combine. Add the cucumber, carrot and toss until evenly mixed. Add the cheese and walnuts and toss to combine. Garnish with tomatoes and basil.

Due to the unseasonable heat, we don’t have as much Radicchio or Romaine Lettuce as we would like to at this time of year. Romaine, of course, makes a great Caesar salad. Radicchio is a bitter Italian green that tastes great either raw or braised with a balsamic and olive oil vinaigrette.

Preparing the Soil

If there is one task that symbolizes farming more than any other, it is the tilling of the soil in preparation for placing the seeds. At the dawn of agriculture, plowing was done with sharpened stick, and in some places it is still accomplished with a hoe. With the development of draft animals, variations of the moldboard plow became prevalent to cut and turn over the soil, first in China then in the west. Although I accomplish it sitting atop a tractor, the aroma of freshly-plowed earth would surely smell familiar to any ancients who happened onto our 21st century farm.

Most of our neighbors, whether they farm organically or with chemicals, have finished working the soil by mid-May, but since we plant vegetables every month that the ground doesn’t have frost in it, we also work the soil every month from April through October. Possessing a much smaller tractor and planting a different range of crops also leads us to use a different set of tools.

We plan for fields to be fit for their first working between April 1 and April 20, although it is a rare year that we cannot sneak something into the ground before April 15. As the frost comes out of the soil, it pulls deeply-held water along with it, so soil warming has to happen before drying can move forward, and soil worked too wet turns to clods; we have some soils on our farm that are notorious for turning to marbles if worked even slightly too wet.

Once the soil dries out, I (this is a “Chris” job, because Kim heads up our greenhouse plant production) use a low horsepower Australian subsoil plow to dig deep and shatter any compaction layers lurking below the soil surface. The gentle lifting action of the plow leaves the soil layers unturned, so the soil life stays at the correct depth—aerobic critters on top, anaerobes down below. Loosening the soil ensures rapid drying after the next rain, as well as relieving resistance for roots to grow deep and scavenge nutrients from as much soil as possible.

If we have a crop to turn into the soil, or a soil-conserving cover crop, we follow the subsoil plow immediately with a tractor-mounted rototiller. Our Italian import has several gears so that we can control the rotation speed of the tines, not beating the soil more than necessary to incorporate and chop up crop residues. I gear the tractor down to between one and two miles per hour for this work. The relentless monotony has been know to drive less focused minds to utter distraction, but I just sing Jimmy Buffett songs and work through the day.

Following this initial tilling, I gear the tiller faster and speed up the tractor to about four miles per hour to make a shallow soil finishing pass. The combination of the deep lifting action of the subsoil plow, the slow paddling of incorporation pass, and the fast, fine tillage of the finishing pass leaves the soil in just the right condition for germinating small vegetable seeds: fine, small particles on top to snuggle up to the seeds and offer little resistance at germination; larger particles to absorb and hold water just below, waiting for the seedling roots to grow down to them; and open channels to the subsoil below to capture more water and release more nutrients.

Agricultural essayist Wendell Berry likens the plowing of the prairies and clearing of the forests to original sin: we rend the skin of the earth to tame it into black earth and corn, and spend the rest of our lives in an uphill battle to save the soil and produce a crop where wild abundance once existed. But plowing the soil—the aroma of the earth exposed to air, the flow of soil around a shank– strikes a chord so deep, so intensely satisfying, that sometimes planting a seed becomes just an excuse for another pass across the field.

Farm News

We pulled our first crop of Carrots out of the ground this week. It wasn’t a very good crop quantity wise—we had some problems with seed emergence, and we almost tilled it under, but then we had some trouble getting subsequent crops seeded and we decided we’d better keep it. We like carrots with their tops on because they look neat, and some people use the tops in stock or for juicing, but it is important to remove the tops before you store the carrots in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.

On Tuesday we harvested the first crop of garlic, bunching the bulbs and stalks into bundles of ten and hanging them on ropes strung up in the barn to cure. We used to lay the bulbs out on benches in the greenhouse to cure, but then we stopped using benches to grow our transplants. By hanging them in the barn we get much better air circulation—old barns were built with gaps in the wall to facilitate air flow for curing hay crops—which helps the outside wrappers on the garlic bulbs to cure faster and more thoroughly. The Fresh Garlic we are eating this week is uncured, so it should be stored in the refrigerator, unlike garlic with dry wrappers.

We harvested the last peas of the season this week. When the weather gets hot, the peas just kind of give up the ghost. The last peas of our season are a fun variety called Oregon Giant Snow Peas. In our opinion, they’ve got more pea flavor than most snow peas, and they are certainly easier to pick! String snow peas just like you would snap peas, then cut them up for use in stir fries, soups, and salads.

We stumbled on a great crop of Big Beets when we were getting ready to pick the carrots. The tops looked fantastic, so we left them on. Again, don’t pass the tops by, since they are loaded with nutrients and taste great. I especially enjoy them thoroughly cooked and served with a pat of butter and a touch of salt. For the roots, this recipe uses a great “quick beet” treatment that can stand on its own, or add a couple of ingredients for a gourmet treat!

Fettuccine with Grated Beets and Cheese

6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 lbs beets, peeled and grated
1 lb fresh fettuccine
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
Minced chives, for garnish.

Cook 5 tbsp butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until beginning to brown. Stir in the beets and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook about 10 minutes, until beets are tender. Meanwhile, cook and drain the fettuccine, toss with remaining butter and the grated cheese. Stir in the beets, add the vinegar, garnish with chives, season again with salt and pepper, and serve.

And, if beet greens with butter doesn’t tickle your fancy, here’s a dressed up version that make a nice appetizer or side dish with chicken:

Sautéed Greens with Warm Feta

1/2 pound feta cheese, sliced 3/4 inch thick
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
tops from one bunch of beet greens
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 375. Cut the feta into large triangles and arrange in a single layer in a baking dish. In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons olive oil with the red pepper, lemon juice, and half the garlic slices. Spread over the feta cheese and let stand for 15 minutes. In a large skillet, heat the remaining oil. Add the garlic and add the greens, a handful at a time, cook, stirring until greens are wilted. About 4 minutes. Pour off liquid and season with salt and pepper. Keep warm. Bake the feta for about 5 minutes, until heated through. Spoon the greens onto plates and add the feta.

This week marked the first major Sungold Cherry Tomato harvest of the season. I don’t think life gets much better than Sungold Cherry Tomatoes, which we grow in the greenhouse for better flavor, since it keeps rain and blight off of the leaves—we’ve got eight feet of tomato plant pumping sunshine into each of those little fruits. Dutch Greenhouse Cucumbers continue to come out of the greenhouse by the bushel-load as well.

Basil, the classic herb for pesto, prefers to be kept a little bit warmer than your average refrigerator, which makes for a little bit of a challenge storage-wise. We have found that the best bet is to put the basil in a plastic bag (for humidity) inside of a paper bag (which provides a little bit of insulation) in the door of your refrigerator (which is the warmest part of the refrigerator). Use liberally on eggs and rice, in salad dressings and pasta dishes, and pretty much anywhere.

Walnut Rice Salad

1 Cup long grain rice, (cook how you would normally cook your rice)
3 tablespoons walnut oil or olive oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 Dutch cucumber, halved and thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled or feta
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped walnuts
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 tablespoon basil, chopped
Put rice into a large bowl. Add the oil vinegar, sugar, and salt and toss with a fork to combine. Add the cucumber, carrot and toss until evenly mixed. Add the cheese and walnuts and toss to combine. Garnish with tomatoes and basil.

Due to the unseasonable heat, we don’t have as much Radicchio or Romaine Lettuce as we would like to at this time of year. Romaine, of course, makes a great Caesar salad. Radicchio is a bitter Italian green that tastes great either raw or braised with a balsamic and olive oil vinaigrette.