CSA week 5: Baby kestrels and a new home for the tinyhouse 

In their shares this week, members will receive the following vegetables: cucumbers, Asian herbs (Thai basil and shiso), lettuce mix, head lettuce, collard greens, garlic scapes and either a purple cauliflower or green cabbage.

This newsletter includes a roundup of news from the farm as well as information and recipes. Feel free to jump to the bottom of the newsletter to find the section titled, “This week’s veggies and recipes.”

Overall, this year has been almost a polar opposite from last year’s drought conditions. Each week, we’ve received an inch or more of rain – sometimes all at once. The conditions have been good for some plants and not as good for others. The wet, soggy conditions appear to have had an impact on most of the crops we start from seeding directly into the field. Carrots are slowly coming along. Beans, normally a plant we can count on, have not done well at all.

This week’s share is a little light as we transition from early summer to mid-summer vegetables. In the high tunnel, the tomato plants are loaded with fruit. It won’t be long. The cucumber plants are now 8 feet high and starting to produce on a daily basis. In the field, the beets, snap peas and a final round of kohlrabi are all just on the verge of being ready for harvest and should be in shares next week.

News from the farm:

This was an exciting and emotional week for Heather-Marie. With the help of our neighbor, Ed, the tinyhouse was hitched to the back of his John Deere 1968, 3020 diesel, and slowly pulled to its permanent home. From the field, we can now look up and see the tinyhouse, nestled at the north end of the farm where it has sweeping, panoramic views across our land and beyond. 

As Ed pulled the tinyhouse out to the spot we had cleared and a gravel pad put down, Heather-Marie led the way on her bicycle, her face beaming. 

The tinyhouse was built by her and her father, Tom, over the course of three years, from 2011 to 2013. She and the tinyhouse, which she named the Blue Caddisfly, lived at three different locations before it was moved here, almost exactly two years ago. (You can read more about the Caddisfly here.)

The Caddisfly will now be set up with a solar-powered generator so that it can be off the grid and serve as a farm retreat for friends, family and guests (and for us, of course).

Kestrel babies

Directly next to the tinyhouse is a nesting box mounted on a 14-foot post that was put there two years ago in hopes that it would become a nesting spot for American kestrels, the smallest and most common falcon in North America. Last year, nothing happened, but this year, we began noticing a pair of kestrels coming and going. A few weeks ago, we used a selfie stick and a cell phone to peek into the box and confirm that, sure enough, three baby kestrels were in the nest.

This week, our friend and CSA member Clinton Dexter-Nienhaus came out to band the kestrels as part of his work as head naturalist with Friends of Sax-Zim Bog. In northern Minnesota, the American Kestrel Nest Box Monitoring Project monitors nesting boxes around the region. With our friends Scott and Jill, we walked out to the box with a ladder, opened the latch and gently took the kestrels out. There were two females and one male. Clinton banded each of the birds and took notes on their health as he taught us about the work he and others do to help restore the populations of kestrels in northern Minnesota. (In two weeks, Clinton and his wife, Kristina, will be giving a talk at the farm about kestrels.)

Clinton told us that it won’t be long before the young will be out of the box, learning to fly and hunt for grasshoppers with their parents looking over them. 

In what we decided was a good omen, later in the week, Heather-Marie was out in the field working when she looked over at the tinyhouse to see that one of the adult kestrels was using it as a perch from which to hunt. It would swoop down from the top of the Caddisfly, grab a grasshopper and fly into the nesting box to feed the young. 

Learning from others

Farming is hard work, but it is also a continual process of learning and problem solving. One of the most rewarding aspects of this is the chance to learn from other farmers. 

At this week’s Farm Stand, our neighbors, Tom and Gretchen, stopped by for a visit and to buy some produce. They are accomplished gardeners, who have spent years learning about growing vegetables and about caring for the soil and the land. 

They offered to come back to the farm on Saturday morning to help us with some weeding. We happily accepted. 

They arrived with their own tools and it was clear that these were pieces that had been lovingly cared for over the years. The wooden handles were oiled and the blades on their hoes were sharpened and clean. 

The four of us spent two hours weeding in Heather-Marie’s flower beds and the time whipped past. We talked about (and identified) the different weeds in our field and Tom and Gretchen humbly shared what they’ve learned about gardening over the years. As Gretchen pointed out, one of the wonderful things about gardening and farming is that there is no one way to do it; everyone has their own approach and style.

This week’s veggies and recipes

Cucumbers; Asian herbs- Shiso and Thai basil

Shiso is an herb most used in Asian cooking, and the name shiso is the Japanese word for it.  Member of the mint family with hints of cloves, cumin and cinnamon.  Harvested like basil, you can continue to pick throughout the season.  Can be used in cooking, or teas.  Heather-Marie and John first came across shiso in Vietnam where fresh herbs were served with most dishes, piled onto plates and added at the table. 

Thai basil is a type of basil with an anise or black licorice flavor that’s native to Southeast Asia. It has a purple stem, purple flowers, and thin, dark green leaves. It’s common in Southeast Asian cuisine, including Thai, Cambodian, Lao, and Vietnamese recipes.

Both Thai basil and shiso are served with pho and spring rolls.

Pork Katsu with Pickled Cucumbers, Shiso and Thai Basil

Melissa Clark for NYT Cooking

• ½ pound small cucumbers, sliced into ¼ inch thick rounds
• 1 tsp coarse kosher salt, more for seasoning
• 1 ¼ tsp sugar
• 8 thin slices boneless pork medallions or center-cut pork chops (about 1 ½ pounds)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 Tb Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tb tomato paste
• 2 cups panko crumbs
• ½ cup flour
• Black pepper
• Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying
• 2 T sliced scallions
• 2 tsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 Tb minced shiso and/or Thai basil
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp toasted Asian sesame oil

Place the cucumbers in a colander set over a bowl.  Toss them with 1 teaspoon salt and ¾ teaspoon sugar.  

Place each piece of pork between sheets of waxed paper.  Pound meat to 1/8 – inch thickness.  

Crack eggs in a large shallow bowl; whisk in Worcestershire and tomato paste.  Place the panko and flour in two separate shallow bowls. 

Season cutlets with salt and pepper.  Dip each cutlet in the flour (tap off excess), the egg mixture (tap off excess again), then dredge in panko crumbs.  

Heat a large pan, pour in ⅛ inch of oil and heat for 30 seconds.  Working in batches, put cutlets in the pan.  Immediately shake and tilt the pan so the oil rolls over the pork (this will give it a lighter, crisper crust).  Shake the pan occasionally, until the cutlets are golden on the bottom, about three minutes.  Flip them over and shake again.  Cook 2 to 3 minutes longer.  Transfer pork to a platter lined with a paper towel to drain.

Pat the cucumbers dry with paper towels.  Toss with scallions, vinegar, herbs, soy sauce, sesame oil and ½ teaspoon sugar.  Serve cutlets with pickled cucumbers on the side.

Garlic scapes

Garlic Scape Pesto

from Kim O’Donnel 

• 1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into ¼-inch slices
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• ¾ cup olive oil
• ¼- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Black pepper to taste

Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmesan to taste; add salt and pepper. 

Makes about 6 ounces of pesto.  Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

For ½ pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated.

Garlic scape and kale pesto

This recipe was derived from one in the New York Times. After reading that many people thought the pesto had too much kick with just scapes, we decided to add some kale to our recipe. We think it turned out pretty good and fed it to our work crew today served with Asian brown rice noodles. 

Ingredients:

• 7 garlic scapes broken into small pieces
• 1 bunch of 7 kale leaves. Pull kale off of stems and break into small pieces
• ½ cup (or more) olive oil
• ¼ cup (or more) grapeseed oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon 
• ½ cup toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (or you an use parmesan cheese)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions: 

This is pretty simple. Throw all of these ingredients into a blender or food processor and puree until it has the consistency you like. If it is too dry, you can add water to make it the consistency you like. 

We plan on freezing some of this and will also just make some to have with eggs, potatoes, etc. However, it is served with cooked pasta. Toss with olive oil and add roasted veggies, capers, etc. if you want to make it fancy.

Collard greens

Ayib be Gomen (Collards with Cottage Cheese)

“Tastes From Valley to Bluff”

This is one of the national dishes of Ethiopia, where collards and spinach are often paired with dairy products.

• 1 pound collards
• 3 T butter
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 pound cottage cheese (dry-curd is fine)
• Salt to taste

Wash, shred and steam or boil the collards.  Mix the butter, black pepper, and cottage cheese.  Add the drained collards and salt to taste.