This week marks the beginning of the 2010 CSA deliveries and it has been hectic. Brian caught a bug and was down Monday and Tuesday and that's a big hit at this time of year with all the garden work and animal chores. And top it off with another round of storms coming through Tuesday night and knocking out the power until 11:30 Wednesday morning - the morning of our first delivery to the Peoria area.
Fortunately, we have a generator and Brian was feeling well enough to get it set up to power up our cooler that was full of produce waiting to be delivered Wednesday afternoon.
The storms that came through Tuesday night brought heavy rains. More rain on Wednesday night gave us a total of two inches and standing water in a few places. But just like the little diddy goes, "Out came the sun and dried up all the rain...", the sun DID come out Thursday and helped dry things out a bit. But the harvest this week was muddy.
Muddy Aisles Between the Kohlrabi and Turnips
Self Portrait
The Graceful Garlic Scape
The scapes were ready just in time for the first vegetable boxes this week. They are one of the most unique items we include in the boxes. The seed heads of our garlic planting, the scapes emerge in late May or early June gracefully twisting and turning into the most fantastic shapes. Each plant sends up just one scape and we snap them off so the plant put its full energy into bulb production. We can't tire of looking at these wonders and their fresh garlic flavor is a sucker punch right to the taste buds. Here is a recipe that received rave reviews last year.
Garlic Scape Pesto
Garlic scapes 6-8 ct, chopped
1/3 cup walnuts
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese, grated
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
coarse salt and pepper, to taste
Blend everything but the olive oil, salt and pepper in a food processor or blender. Slowly drizzle in the oil with the motor running, and blend until emulsified and smooth. Taste and add coarse salt and pepper as needed.
