FARM NEWS 6.14.09

Saturday afternoon (or sometimes a Sunday morning) offered an hour or so of quality family time at the farm. You might think that it is family fun all day every day here but we find ourselves worn thin with work, plans and obligations. It isn't actually that often that we take the time to have a little breathing space, especially together as a family. So yesterday in the hour or so before dinner we went down to the farm to get some food. We put Baxter in his stroller and walked a big circle harvesting along the way. Our first stop, after watering the greenhouse, was the yarrow for our table. Next we came to marjoram, dill and garlic scapes, visited the pigs, then onto scallions. Beatrice is particularly fond of radishes, so she picked some of those, too.

Dan tries his very best to put his blinders on as we go. With every step he sees beds that need to be tended to. But spent from an early morning harvest and a market he manages to pass by without getting into the weeds. Nothing goes by without notice and walking beside me I know he is making mental notes and taking stock for the week; those cabbages are ready for harvest, the cows should be given this bit of grass, the leeks are looking good, carrots need to be hand weeded, etc.

We made our way around the farm selecting some lettuce and chard but at this point Baxter was getting squirmy and needing a milk snack. By now our bags are full and we don't have anything to put the beautiful tender arugula in. Oh well, time to go home and make supper.

Here's the harvest for this week:

Chinese cabbage

lettuce

arugula

broccoli raab

garlic scapes

spinach

**Garlic scapes: these are the flowers stalks of the garlic plant. We pick them to encourage larger bulb growth and they happen to be delicious too! Cut off the skinny papery end. chop up the rest and use as you would garlic in pesto, etc, Great sauted with the broccoli raab. Yum.