Colors

Over five inches of rain fell last week between Monday night and dawn on Sunday, leaving the soil saturated with moisture. Somehow the cool weather that blew in with the last big front early Sunday evening – thankfully without much additional moisture – seems to have combined with all that water to paint the world like some glorious yet understated canvas, rich backgrounds of verdant greens combining with the cerulean blues of the sky to serve as a backdrop for a thousand splashes of color.

Driving the slow tractor to our rental ground this morning to do some weed control, a pheasant bursting out of the grass at the side of the road shocked me into an awareness of the brightness, his pine green neck and ruby red head separated by a band of shocking white in the early morning light. An ochre fawn ambled across the road, and hid in the tall grass at my approach. Darkly mottled and earth-toned, pocket gophers dashed for their burrows at the edge of the gravel, bringing my attention to the wet dark brown patches of good, grassy earth where they had pushed it out of their hillside homes.

I watched as the pale apricot petals of a yellow-centered rugosa rose passed by the wheels of the tractor, growing on the shoulder of the gravel road, its green leaves repeatedly graded and mowed and driven over until the plant has turned to a stunted form, still finding a way to make a flower as pretty as any other. Periodically, in the ditches, the dusky rounded clusters of milkweed flowers have just begun to show, along with the small mauve blossoms of red clover poking out of the grass, and the pale purple balls of the thistles, just thinking about turning to seeds.

Everywhere I look, the yellow spirals of wild parsnips have turned from delicate flowers to the fleshy yellow beginnings of seeds. Like the rugosa, lemon yellow pillows of trefoil brighten the edge of the road occasionally, thriving in the trampling it encounters there. Or maybe it does well there because nothing else does?

Driving home, the shifting sun seems to have brought out the whites. Big balls of white flowers appear like puffball mushrooms on green shrubs, and the first spiraling umbels of wild carrots have appeared. The occasional translucent, solid-centered ball of a dandelion seed head floats above the grassy margins of the road.

In this Week's Box

When you get this box home, put everything in plastic bags in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator. My own refrigerator being somewhat bare at the end of last week, and my time being short, I stuffed the whole box into the main area of the refrigerator (I find it more convenient to have the vegetables in my refrigerator than out in the field); four days later, I was pleased to note that the vegetables had still retained their moisture quite nicely. But if you leave them out without protection, they will definitely wilt.

Romaine Lettuce – Distinguished by its elongated head and crisp center leaves, romaine lettuce has a deliciously sweet flavor.

Red Oak Lettuce

Spearmint – Native to much of Europe and southwest Asia, spearmint grows wild throughout much of the world now. Of course, the wild varieties lack the degree of flavor found in cultivated spearmint, such as you have in your box this week. I think there is no higher use for spearmint than its inclusion in a mojito, but it also makes a nice addition to iced tea or lemonade. In general, spearmint is best suited to savory uses, although it sometimes appears in sweets and desserts.

Fennel

Greenhouse Cucumber or Sungold Cherry Tomatoes – Both of these crops have just started their harvest season, so we are waiting for production to ramp up so that we have enough for every box.

Red Mini Onions – These small onions can be used like larger onions. A special variety designed to mature at a small size, these have a nice mild flavor and look pretty neat, to boot.

Green Top Beets – We have a lot of really beautiful beets this year. Enjoy!

Red Russian Kale

Green Garlic

Goings on on the Farm

Following last week’s various weather dramas, which included still more rain on Saturday night and a Sunday afternoon cloudburst, moving into a little bit of a drier stretch provided some relief, and an opportunity to get a lot of work done. Chris seeded the crop of storage carrots on Friday, and we mudded in some transplants and another crop of greens at the same time.

Mondays on the farm we try to get the Musts done, like seeding in the greenhouse and pruning and clipping the greenhouse crops. By Tuesday, the fields were fit for a big round of cultivating for weed control. Zane mowed all of the field roads, and cultivated all of the one-row crops, while the rest of the crew harvested, washed, packed, and finished hand weeding the onions and shallots (no small job, that). By Wednesday we were able to get in with the big tiller and plow down new flushes of weeds in the fallow fields in preparation for planting a round of mid-summer cover crops.

Recipes You Can Use

Ma Blyth’s Fennel Risotto

2 medium fennel with green fronds
4 cups stock or water
1/4 cup butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
1.5 cups risotto rice
1/3 cup white wine
1.5 cups grated Asiago cheese (or substitute Parmessan)
2 Tbsp heavy cream

Wash and trim fennel. Cut off and reserve green fronds. Finely slice the bulbs. Put the stock in a sauce pan, heat to almost boiling, then reduce heat to barely simmer. Heat butter and oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook for 1—2 minutes until softened but not browned. Add fennel and lemon zest, and mix well. Add rice and stir with a wooden spoon until grains are well-coated and glistening, about 1 minute. Pour in the wine and stir until completely absorbed. Add hot stock 1 ladle-full at a time, cooking until absorbed before adding additional stock. Continue to add stock at intervals until the liquid has been absorbed but the rice is still firm, 18—20 minutes. Add reserve stock, Asiago, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Remove from heat and cover, and allow to rest for at least two minutes. Spoon into warm bowls, top with reserved fennel fronds, and serve.

Mojitoes

10 fresh spearmint sprigs
2T. sugar
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
3 oz light rum
club soda

In a small pitcher crush the mint with a fork to coat the inside. Add the sugar and lime juice and stir thoroughly. Top with ice. Add rum and mix. Top off with club soda (or seltzer). Add a lime slice and serve.

No-Egg Caesar Dressing

For the Romaine Lettuce, we favor the following quick and easy dressing.

3 Tablespoons lemon juice
Two cloves garlic
1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
2/3 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste.

Combine the lemon juice, garlic, vinegar, and anchovy paste in a small bowl, and whisk well. Slowly add the olive oil while whisking until smooth. Add the pepper and salt. Dress torn romaine leaves right before serving.