The Broadsheet - Broadacre Farm's 2014 CSA, Week Three - Vol. 1, Issue #3
(Italics denotes new information.)
The Broadsheet - Broadacre Farm's 2014 CSA, Week Three - Vol. 1, Issue #3 - July 3, 2014
what's in your share / what's in season
fruit green gooseberries+
herb chocolate mint
edible flowers elderflowers+
mushroom* dryad's saddle+
(Polyporus squamosus)
mushroom* crown-tipped coral fungus
(Artomyces pyxidatus)
greens young grape leaves
greens Salad of the Seasons Mix
(stellaria leaves and flowers, baby lambsquarter tips, leaves and broccolinis; basswood leaves, purslane tips, baby leaves of kale, chicory, beets, radish; red clover blossoms, Blushed Butter Oak lettuce, Johnny's Encore Mix lettuce, Bronze Arrow lettuce, and Turtle Tree Seed lettuce mix)
* WI only due to MN state law
+ Wild foraged.
Green gooseberries
A strange, old-fashioned fruit, these not-necessarily-eaten-fresh berries have traditionally been some of the first berries around, barring strawberries and maybe honeyberries. Think of them like rhubarb in berry form. Wild gooseberries are mostly eaten green because wildlife devours them, both ripe and unripe. Even then, some webbed thing afflicts the ripe ones that makes them unappealing. However, no severe winter, deep snowpack, or gnawing predators can stop wild gooseberries from putting on fruit from the same gangly shrub, in the shade or part shade, for years.
Most of the interesting recipes for green gooseberries are from over a century ago. It makes a well-received green gooseberry jam, which I've boiling-water canned, but is easier to do on the stove and store in a freezer jar in the fridge for up to a week, then freeze. Another more recent recipe comes from the River Cottage folks, and that's Green Gooseberries and Elderflower Jam. One thing that makes green gooseberries great with other seasonal fruit (like strawberries and rhubarb) is that it is really high in pectin, the gelling agent that makes jam a jam instead of a sauce. The little berries are so high in pectin that one can make home-canned pectin from them - that recipe is also from the 1800s.
Nowadays, commercial pectin is made from apples and / or quinces. It's certainly easier to pick a pome than it is to pick seemingly thousands of berries which can only be spotted from underneath the plant, which is of course spiked with catchy thorns; a rarer subspecies called Ribes oxycanthoides even has spikes on the berries - fun to eat raw. The berries are stemmed and with a dried part of the flower attached; it must be picked off. This is definitely a job for kids, as it is tedious and the berries don't burst easily.
Chocolate mint
A mint with a deeper flavor that some attribute to chocolate. I can't say I always taste it, but if there were ever a mint that's a natural with real chocolate or cocoa, this is the one. I found the leaves more minty than anything, so it could be your herbal component in a mojito or a classic summer beverage to blend and serve for Pride or the Fourth of July - the Lawnboy. Fill carafe with ice cubes, one can lemonade concentrate with no water, enough vodka to make it blend, and about a dozen mint leaves or more.
Elderflowers
Let's talk safety and preparation, then about how ethereal, fleeting, and singular elderflowers are. First, all parts (bark, wood, roots, leaves, unripe berries, and even the stems) of the elderberry bush are inedible to the point of illness, except for the flowers and ripe berries, of course. Even dried elderberries from online retailers must be cooked before being eaten. But those two parts that are eaten are to be relished and ravenously devoured before the season blinks and is gone. Around here, elderflowers start around the Fourth of July and bloom gradually over a about a week. With a small window like that, elderflower is best preserved, and in terms of flavor, sugar is its best carrier.
To prepare, it's best to separate the flowers from the stems, probably with a fork or an unused comb. Other chefs simply cut the flowers off with as little stem as possible, if the concoction will be strained. We've used this shortcut with no adverse effects.
Like the French liqueur St. Germain, or those vaguely floral sodas in the IKEA cafeteria? That's elderflower, and you have some fresh ones that will bring magic to cocktails, over ice cream, mixed with club soda, and dripped into beaters whipping cream. All the recipes for Elderflower Syrup are virtually the same - sugar, water, zest of lemon, orange, and lime. I've tried canning and I'll be honest: it looks like a jar filled with yellow fluid. Maybe use that nice imported liqueur bottle that's too displayable to throw away.
Elderflowers also add a sweet, floral note to pies and tarts, and it makes a flavorful companion to strawberries and rhubarb, each on their way to season's end.
+ I love the version of elderflower syrup that uses zest of one lime, one lemon, and one orange, but I can't find it. However, Georgia Pellegrini has a base recipe you can adapt to suit for: Homemade Elderflower Syrup (georgiapelligrini.com)
+ The recipe I used also called to let the flowers and sugar macerate for three days which was slightly; two days was enough.
+ One tablespoon of syrup is often enough to flavor a whole batch of cupcake frosting, or to scent a honeyed cornbread cake, or to mix into a quart of plain yogurt.
Dryad's saddle mushroom
Almost certainly the end of dryad's saddle mushroom season, eh? There were plenty of these fruiting in the garden this week, so you get more. Remember to peel the spongy webbing underneath, wash just before cooking, and always eat cooked. Slice extra thinly to work with the chewiness, and toss any parts that give the paring knife resistance.
Crown-tipped coral fungus
A little unspecific last week - these are crown-tipped coral fungus, as there are many lookalikes none of which were served. Case in point, I found a whole quart of clean corals but upon close examination, it is a co-evolved mushroom without the crown-tips called Ramaria stricta, which isn't harmful but tastes bad.
Young grape leaves
+ On storage: I've found the grape leaves do better over the week sealed in a bag. While the wax bags are useful for some things, the leaves can become brittle and cracked. If the leaves will let you, you can fold the bag over with your share's nametag, or you can substitute your plastic Broadsheet packaging.
+ This week, Joe and I are going to try out the grape leaves as fresh spring rolls, like the kind we used to get regularly when we lived near Eat Street in Minneapolis. Some rice vermicelli, some Egyptian walking onion, a litle mint is nice, sriracha. More results on this one later. If the leaves prove their versatility, kimbap is surely on the list after that.
Salad of the Seasons Mix
I haven't written much about Salad of the Seasons Mix, and I should. It truly is a snapshot of what's tender and peaking, plus first tastes, previews, and volunteer vegetables. However, most of these greens and flowers haven't been bred to be luscious like lettuce, or have supermarket voluptuousness, or even be shaped uniformly. We sample the greens as we go, choosing which we glean from pasture, garden, forest edge, or even from deep in the woods. We're learning a lot about the interplay of heft versus loft, where heft is how substantial the bag weighs, and loft where the leaves aren't all flattened and the bag looks full. Red clover blossoms figure heavily this week at the height of their perfumed fireworks before they fad to brown and we transition to ... daylily blossoms, perhaps the best hot summer salad out there.
And if you haven't tried the salad mix wilted with a hot dressing, I highly recommend it. This past weekend, after Joe made bacon for lunch, I poured off most of the fat, tossed in some diced onion, a few of the strawberries I've kept in the fridge pickled in balsamic vinegar, and a couple tablespoons of that balsamic / strawberry juice from the jar. Once the onions are translucent, I increased heat to high for one minute and then ladled the hot dressing over the greens. Fantastic green flavor somewhere between salad and cooked greens, and I finished my salad before my bacon -- no lie.
Farm conditions and how they shape a share
First, will the dim, cold rain ever end? There was an inkling that Week 3 and 4 shares would be lighter, which thankfully turned out not to be the case this week. You'll notice that virtually all the items are wild-foraged from pasture, forest, and fenceline, and it's not for lack of work in the field. While it could be El Nino, we Midwesterners have become more accustomed to drought after a few very dry years, the flash flooding and sloppy conditions are catching some of us off guard.
So, with the rain also comes clouds, and they prevent the light from reaching the plants to create photosynthesis. So the plants are growing because they love water, and excessive rainfall is washing away nutrients; in others its spawning insect invasions. The rain causes plentiful mushrooms to erupt from ground, wood, and debris, but can also lead to dangerous mildews and plant fungi that will shut down a crop. The sun simply isn't reaching the leaves to let the dozens of varieties we have planted to actually grow. Still, leafy crops abound for now.
As for insects, it has been a free-for-all among early summer pests. The earliest cucumber plants are being ravaged by striped cucumber beetles, and they're sharing with brown marmorated stink bugs which smell like the employee restroom at a Dow chemical factory. We have been squishing them, and have applied neem, a plant-derived oil approved for organic agriculture that bugs hate - it is used sparingly as it is toxic to all insects but isn't persistent in the environment and isn't toxic to humans.
Other pests at work have been the Four Lined Plant Bug, which leaves dispiriting brown circular spots on virtually all members of the mint family, from mint itself to oregano to savory, hyssop, thyme - pretty much all the popular garden herbs and flavorings that can carry through until the fruit comes on. Now as nymphs become adults, the damage has increased alongside the knowledge that these bugs die back at the end of June. The damage remains, and we must cut down any spotty leaves so the plants can recover to crop again and even flower.
Luckily, there is a light at the end of June, and it's that sweet peppers, early jalapenos, lettuce-leaf basil, tomatilloes, and tomatoes are all thriving. We're also replanting anything at risk of crop failure so we can still have plenty of cukes and zukes this summer.
Preview of next weeks Blackcap raspberries, Easter Egg radishes, basil …
- Barrett Johanneson
The Broadsheet - Broadacre Farm's 2014 CSA, Week Three - Vol. 1, Issue #3 - July 3, 2014
what's in your share / what's in season
fruit green gooseberries+
herb chocolate mint
edible flowers elderflowers+
mushroom* dryad's saddle+
(Polyporus squamosus)
mushroom* crown-tipped coral fungus
(Artomyces pyxidatus)
greens young grape leaves
greens Salad of the Seasons Mix
(stellaria leaves and flowers, baby lambsquarter tips, leaves and broccolinis; basswood leaves, purslane tips, baby leaves of kale, chicory, beets, radish; red clover blossoms, Blushed Butter Oak lettuce, Johnny's Encore Mix lettuce, Bronze Arrow lettuce, and Turtle Tree Seed lettuce mix)
* WI only due to MN state law
+ Wild foraged.
Green gooseberries
A strange, old-fashioned fruit, these not-necessarily-eaten-fresh berries have traditionally been some of the first berries around, barring strawberries and maybe honeyberries. Think of them like rhubarb in berry form. Wild gooseberries are mostly eaten green because wildlife devours them, both ripe and unripe. Even then, some webbed thing afflicts the ripe ones that makes them unappealing. However, no severe winter, deep snowpack, or gnawing predators can stop wild gooseberries from putting on fruit from the same gangly shrub, in the shade or part shade, for years.
Most of the interesting recipes for green gooseberries are from over a century ago. It makes a well-received green gooseberry jam, which I've boiling-water canned, but is easier to do on the stove and store in a freezer jar in the fridge for up to a week, then freeze. Another more recent recipe comes from the River Cottage folks, and that's Green Gooseberries and Elderflower Jam. One thing that makes green gooseberries great with other seasonal fruit (like strawberries and rhubarb) is that it is really high in pectin, the gelling agent that makes jam a jam instead of a sauce. The little berries are so high in pectin that one can make home-canned pectin from them - that recipe is also from the 1800s.
Nowadays, commercial pectin is made from apples and / or quinces. It's certainly easier to pick a pome than it is to pick seemingly thousands of berries which can only be spotted from underneath the plant, which is of course spiked with catchy thorns; a rarer subspecies called Ribes oxycanthoides even has spikes on the berries - fun to eat raw. The berries are stemmed and with a dried part of the flower attached; it must be picked off. This is definitely a job for kids, as it is tedious and the berries don't burst easily.
Chocolate mint
A mint with a deeper flavor that some attribute to chocolate. I can't say I always taste it, but if there were ever a mint that's a natural with real chocolate or cocoa, this is the one. I found the leaves more minty than anything, so it could be your herbal component in a mojito or a classic summer beverage to blend and serve for Pride or the Fourth of July - the Lawnboy. Fill carafe with ice cubes, one can lemonade concentrate with no water, enough vodka to make it blend, and about a dozen mint leaves or more.
Elderflowers
Let's talk safety and preparation, then about how ethereal, fleeting, and singular elderflowers are. First, all parts (bark, wood, roots, leaves, unripe berries, and even the stems) of the elderberry bush are inedible to the point of illness, except for the flowers and ripe berries, of course. Even dried elderberries from online retailers must be cooked before being eaten. But those two parts that are eaten are to be relished and ravenously devoured before the season blinks and is gone. Around here, elderflowers start around the Fourth of July and bloom gradually over a about a week. With a small window like that, elderflower is best preserved, and in terms of flavor, sugar is its best carrier.
To prepare, it's best to separate the flowers from the stems, probably with a fork or an unused comb. Other chefs simply cut the flowers off with as little stem as possible, if the concoction will be strained. We've used this shortcut with no adverse effects.
Like the French liqueur St. Germain, or those vaguely floral sodas in the IKEA cafeteria? That's elderflower, and you have some fresh ones that will bring magic to cocktails, over ice cream, mixed with club soda, and dripped into beaters whipping cream. All the recipes for Elderflower Syrup are virtually the same - sugar, water, zest of lemon, orange, and lime. I've tried canning and I'll be honest: it looks like a jar filled with yellow fluid. Maybe use that nice imported liqueur bottle that's too displayable to throw away.
Elderflowers also add a sweet, floral note to pies and tarts, and it makes a flavorful companion to strawberries and rhubarb, each on their way to season's end.
+ I love the version of elderflower syrup that uses zest of one lime, one lemon, and one orange, but I can't find it. However, Georgia Pellegrini has a base recipe you can adapt to suit for: Homemade Elderflower Syrup (georgiapelligrini.com)
+ The recipe I used also called to let the flowers and sugar macerate for three days which was slightly; two days was enough.
+ One tablespoon of syrup is often enough to flavor a whole batch of cupcake frosting, or to scent a honeyed cornbread cake, or to mix into a quart of plain yogurt.
Dryad's saddle mushroom
Almost certainly the end of dryad's saddle mushroom season, eh? There were plenty of these fruiting in the garden this week, so you get more. Remember to peel the spongy webbing underneath, wash just before cooking, and always eat cooked. Slice extra thinly to work with the chewiness, and toss any parts that give the paring knife resistance.
Crown-tipped coral fungus
A little unspecific last week - these are crown-tipped coral fungus, as there are many lookalikes none of which were served. Case in point, I found a whole quart of clean corals but upon close examination, it is a co-evolved mushroom without the crown-tips called Ramaria stricta, which isn't harmful but tastes bad.
Young grape leaves
+ On storage: I've found the grape leaves do better over the week sealed in a bag. While the wax bags are useful for some things, the leaves can become brittle and cracked. If the leaves will let you, you can fold the bag over with your share's nametag, or you can substitute your plastic Broadsheet packaging.
+ This week, Joe and I are going to try out the grape leaves as fresh spring rolls, like the kind we used to get regularly when we lived near Eat Street in Minneapolis. Some rice vermicelli, some Egyptian walking onion, a litle mint is nice, sriracha. More results on this one later. If the leaves prove their versatility, kimbap is surely on the list after that.
Salad of the Seasons Mix
I haven't written much about Salad of the Seasons Mix, and I should. It truly is a snapshot of what's tender and peaking, plus first tastes, previews, and volunteer vegetables. However, most of these greens and flowers haven't been bred to be luscious like lettuce, or have supermarket voluptuousness, or even be shaped uniformly. We sample the greens as we go, choosing which we glean from pasture, garden, forest edge, or even from deep in the woods. We're learning a lot about the interplay of heft versus loft, where heft is how substantial the bag weighs, and loft where the leaves aren't all flattened and the bag looks full. Red clover blossoms figure heavily this week at the height of their perfumed fireworks before they fad to brown and we transition to ... daylily blossoms, perhaps the best hot summer salad out there.
And if you haven't tried the salad mix wilted with a hot dressing, I highly recommend it. This past weekend, after Joe made bacon for lunch, I poured off most of the fat, tossed in some diced onion, a few of the strawberries I've kept in the fridge pickled in balsamic vinegar, and a couple tablespoons of that balsamic / strawberry juice from the jar. Once the onions are translucent, I increased heat to high for one minute and then ladled the hot dressing over the greens. Fantastic green flavor somewhere between salad and cooked greens, and I finished my salad before my bacon -- no lie.
Farm conditions and how they shape a share
First, will the dim, cold rain ever end? There was an inkling that Week 3 and 4 shares would be lighter, which thankfully turned out not to be the case this week. You'll notice that virtually all the items are wild-foraged from pasture, forest, and fenceline, and it's not for lack of work in the field. While it could be El Nino, we Midwesterners have become more accustomed to drought after a few very dry years, the flash flooding and sloppy conditions are catching some of us off guard.
So, with the rain also comes clouds, and they prevent the light from reaching the plants to create photosynthesis. So the plants are growing because they love water, and excessive rainfall is washing away nutrients; in others its spawning insect invasions. The rain causes plentiful mushrooms to erupt from ground, wood, and debris, but can also lead to dangerous mildews and plant fungi that will shut down a crop. The sun simply isn't reaching the leaves to let the dozens of varieties we have planted to actually grow. Still, leafy crops abound for now.
As for insects, it has been a free-for-all among early summer pests. The earliest cucumber plants are being ravaged by striped cucumber beetles, and they're sharing with brown marmorated stink bugs which smell like the employee restroom at a Dow chemical factory. We have been squishing them, and have applied neem, a plant-derived oil approved for organic agriculture that bugs hate - it is used sparingly as it is toxic to all insects but isn't persistent in the environment and isn't toxic to humans.
Other pests at work have been the Four Lined Plant Bug, which leaves dispiriting brown circular spots on virtually all members of the mint family, from mint itself to oregano to savory, hyssop, thyme - pretty much all the popular garden herbs and flavorings that can carry through until the fruit comes on. Now as nymphs become adults, the damage has increased alongside the knowledge that these bugs die back at the end of June. The damage remains, and we must cut down any spotty leaves so the plants can recover to crop again and even flower.
Luckily, there is a light at the end of June, and it's that sweet peppers, early jalapenos, lettuce-leaf basil, tomatilloes, and tomatoes are all thriving. We're also replanting anything at risk of crop failure so we can still have plenty of cukes and zukes this summer.
Preview of next weeks Blackcap raspberries, Easter Egg radishes, basil …
- Barrett Johanneson