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The green is creeping up the mountain.
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News from the farm...
Today we are out in the fields and hoop houses protecting everything we can with row cover. 25 is the low forecast for tonight, and worse than that, it is supposed to be below freezing from around midnight until 9am. It is one thing if it dips down to below freezing for an hour or so but 8-9 hours is long time to keep a tender crop from getting too cold. In addition to taking all the precautions we can, we'll be crossing our fingers that it doesn't get as cold as the prediction. The delights of spring time!
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Work in the greenhouse continues, sowing more seeds and stepping up seedlings in to larger containers. We turned over some beds in the high tunnels as well, taking out the earliest veggie crops and planted more tomatoes. These are the heirlooms, cherry and cocktail tomatoes that we will be picking and you'll be eating all season. These lovelies will be getting triple covered tonight even though they are already under the cover of the high tunnel. Lots of mowing is happening as well. One thing that is not yet a big item on the to do list is weeding. The soil is too cold for them to pop up and grow super fast like they do in summer.
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Pick ups this Saturday are at Cecilia's (9am to 11am), the North Asheville Tailgate Market (8am to 12pm) and at the farm (9am until dusk). The online store will open at 9am on Wednesday and close at midnight on Thursday to pre-order Saturday deliveries. CSA members can use their credit at both the online store and at our market stand. Just let the person at check out know you have a CSA share. If you know your coupon code, it's helpful to let them know that as well.
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Below: High tunnel tomatoes. Our trusty Christmas lights will add a little heat as well.
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What's available this week??
This is the last week for tulips. They come and go so quickly! We have other flowers is abundance though: The ranunculus are gorgeous and blooming like crazy and the chantilly snapdragons have joined the party. On the vegetable front, we have green curly kale, red ursa kale and lacinato kale for you this week. Also some baby mixed kale, loose in bags. We have lettuce mix and red butter, red leaf, romaine and the sweet crunchy little gems. A few red round radish bunches and a few bunches of baby beets. Bags of spinach and jars of honey as well as ears of popcorn.
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We are listing more veggie starts: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, in addition to our culinary herbs, lettuces, chard, cucumbers and squashes. Make a plan to cover your frost sensitive plants. Even though this coming week looks be frost free, that can change any time up to around May 15th. If you made a pre-order back in March, we will have those for you to pick up on May 1 or 3rd.
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Below: Tender summer squash is (relatively) cozy under high hoops and three layers of row cover.
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John's Recipe of the Week
| John Loyd is our dear friend, neighbor, CSA worker member and a gourmet Southern cook. His delightful cooking observations and delicious recipe offerings appear here each week. |
Vanessa here subbing for John this week:
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Kale Sauce Pasta by Tajal Rao, NY Times Cooking
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This recipe is super easy and very delicious! It calls for lacinato kale but I think any kind works well.
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- Kosher salt, to taste
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed flat and peeled
- 1 pound lacinato kale, thick ribs removed(about two bunches)
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ½ pound pasta, like pappardelle or rigatoni
- ¾ cup coarsely grated Parmigiano- Reggiano
- Put a large pot of generously salted water over high heat, and bring to a boil. In a small skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and garlic, and cook until the garlic begins to sizzle. Reduce heat to low, and cook very gently until garlic is soft and begins to turn light gold, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- When water is boiling, add kale leaves, and cook until tender, but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Pull out the hot, dripping kale leaves with tongs, and put directly into a blender. (Don’t drain the pot; you’ll use that same boiling water to cook the pasta.) Add garlic and its oil to the blender, along with a splash of hot water from the pot if you need some more liquid to get the blender going. Blend into a fine, thick green purée. Taste, and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, then blend again.
- Add the pasta to the still-boiling water, and cook according to directions on the package. Ladle out about a cup of the water to save for finishing the dish, then drain the pasta and return it to the dry pot. Add the kale purée, about 3/4 of the grated cheese and a splash of the reserved pasta water. Toss until all the pasta is well coated and bright green, adding another splash of pasta water if needed so that the sauce is loose and almost creamy in texture. Serve in bowls right away, and top with an extra drizzle of olive oil and the rest of the grated cheese.
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Blueberries in full bloom.
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Hoping some of these will make it through tonight's freeze.
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Thanks for reading and best wishes.
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Your farmers, Vanessa and Alex
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Love the flowers. Honor the vegetables. Let the weeds go!
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- Cheri Huber and Ashwini Narayanan
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