In their shares this week, members will receive the following vegetables: 

Red radishes, salad turnips, Napa cabbage (aka Chinese cabbage), sunflower/pea shoot microgreens, spicy brassica microgreens, head lettuce, baby bok choy, chives, rhubarb and a yellow storage onion (harvested last fall from our farm and stored in our root cellar over the winter).  

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.”

News from the farm

Drought.  It’s a word that conjures up cracked Earth-Kansas corn fields in my mind.  Or the Dust Bowl.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe old photographs.  Northern Minnesota is not normally a place where I put those images together.  It’s so lush here that it’s hard to believe.  According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, our region is experiencing a moderate drought.  It’s a little scary out there.  

I was always told that plants need an inch of rain a week.  What’s crazy is that at some of the places that I farmed, water wasn’t even available.  I just put transplants in the ground, hand watered at first then hoped for the best.  But things are changing.  In the 13 years I’ve been farming, I’ve noticed a change.  Early, wet springs transition quickly into hot and dry, and falls seem to linger well into October.  Our frost date is September 17 but it’s been years since we’ve seen frost that “early”.  The last rainfall that the farm received was on May 9. With our new irrigation system not yet in place, we’ve had to work incredibly hard to keep our plants irrigated in the field, in the greenhouse and in the high tunnel. Our soil has become dusty and dry. 

The forecast last week promised a chance of rain both Saturday and Sunday. In preparation, we scrambled to get as many plants into the ground as possible: All our field tomatoes were put in with the help of our friends and CSA members Rosanne and Alesha. We planted summer squashes, zucchini, another round of cabbage and sprouting broccoli and scallions. I also put in my first round of flowers. 

And then we waited for the rain and watched the forecast change and the chance of rain drop and drop.

On Father’s Day, it looked as if the forecasted storms were going to pass to the southeast of us, and we were feeling a little dejected and worried. How many more days can our well run all day long before we start to run out of water? We simply have no idea.

Then, in the early evening, it started. Just a slow, gentle rain. It was quiet and soothing. It was just a few tenths of an inch and won’t change our drought status, but, still, it gave us a sense of peace as we climbed into bed ready to take on another busy week. 

We are in the final push of the early season transplanting with just a few big days before the bulk of that work is behind us. 

Important dates and details

Here is a rundown of important dates and other happenings at the farm.

CSA pickup delayed one day on Fourth of July weekend: Because of the long Fourth of July weekend, we’ve decided to delay our CSA delivery for that week to Wednesday. We’ll send out a reminder once we get closer to that date.

First farm stand: With new hours for the season, we will be opening our farm’s roadside farm stand one week early this year in anticipation of the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Our farm stand will be open on Friday, June 30. Our new hours this season will be from 3 to 6 p.m.

Join us for Bingo Tuesday night at Duluth cider: Each month, we schedule an event with our CSA members. This month, we are going to keep it simple. Please join us at Duluth Cider in Lincoln Park for their Bingo Night on Tuesday, June 27. We’ll meet at 7, after our CSA pickup is complete. (Please note, we have decided to change June’s member event to Bingo Night instead of ice cream at Love Creamery as was originally planned.  We will do this another time.)

Have a cider with your farmers every Tuesday: Throughout the CSA season, we will be at our pickup spot at Duluth Cider from 4 to 7 p.m. Even if your pickup spot is in another location, we hope you’ll stop by and have a cider and say hello – especially if you are new to the CSA this year. 

This week’s veggies and recipes

This week, we say goodbye to a few of the early season vegetables that prefer cold weather. This will be the last of the bok choy and one of the few appearances of Napa cabbage. Enjoy the turnips, radishes and leafy greens while they are here. It won’t be long before we say goodbye to them and begin to experience mid-summer vegetables.

Japanese salad turnips

In this share, we have a crop that we love and are so pleased with this season. It’s a Japanese turnip called mikado. We love these mild, tender white turnips (and their greens). Unfortunately, so do bugs, which feast on the flesh. But this season, we’ve kept them protected under row cover and they look and taste pretty great. Our advice is to take off the greens so the turnip stays firm and to simply slice it and enjoy it on its own or in a salad. The greens can be sauteed quickly in olive oil until they wilt.

Napa Cabbage

Napa cabbage, or Chinese cabbage, hails from China and is a staple in many Asian recipes.  Stir-frys, kimchi, slaws and salads, Napa cabbage is very versatile.  It doesn’t like to grow in hot weather so you’ll only see it within the first few shares of the season.  Heather-Marie fell in love with the recipe below years ago and looks forward to making it every June.  

Don’t be afraid of the Napa cabbage: Many people haven’t tried this cabbage before and are intimidated by how large it is. But, it’s basically very similar to other cabbages including having a lot of water in it. We hope you’ll try the recipe below, but you can also make a classic cole slaw (here’s one recipe) with it or you blanche it and freeze it for a meal at a later date.

Asian Noodle, Mushroom and Cabbage Salad

This is why we grow Napa Cabbage!  Don’t let the long ingredient list scare you off, this salad is amazing.  

• 12 large dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 Tb peanut oil
• 3 c. thinly sliced Napa Cabbage
• 1 Tb minced garlic
• 14 green onions, 12 halved and cut into 2½ in. pieces; 2 chopped
• 3 Tb soy sauce
• 1 1-lb package fresh thin Chinese egg noodles or one 12 oz package dried Chinese egg noodles (** I just use regular wide egg noodles)
• 1/3 c. oriental sesame oil
• 2 Tb lemon juice
• 1 Tb unseasoned rice vinegar
• 2 tsp sugar
• 3 hard boiled eggs, 2 thinly sliced, 1 chopped for garnish
• 1 c. fresh cilantro
• 1 Tb minced ginger

1.  Place mushrooms in medium bowl with boiling water to cover.  Set until softened, 45 minutes.  Drain.  Cut off stems and discard.  Thinly slice caps.

2.  Heat peanut oil in heavy wok over medium-high heat.  Add cabbage, ginger, garlic and mushrooms.  Stir-fry until cabbage wilts, about 2 minutes.  Add 2½ in. green onion pieces; toss until tops begin to wilt, about 30 seconds.  Remove from heat.  Mix in 1 Tb soy sauce.

3.  Cook noodles in boiling water until just tender but still firm to bite.  Drain well.  Place in large bowl.  Whisk sesame oil, next three ingredients and 2 Tb soy sauce in small bowl.   Add to noodles.  Add sliced eggs, ¾ c. cilantro and cabbage mixture; toss well to blend.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cover and chill.

4.  Sprinkle salad with the 2 chopped green onions, chopped egg and remaining ¼ c. cilantro.

All the veggies and microgreens

The Farm’s Asian-style rice noodle salad

This seems to be on our rotation a lot lately, especially for Heather-Marie

• Any vegetable combination, cooked or raw: Sauteed Napa cabbage, bok choy or greens; raw or roasted radishes, turnips, etc
• Microgreens
• Rice noodles
• Fish sauce-sauce (see below)
• Protein, optional: fried egg, scrambled egg, roasted garbanzo beans, shrimp, cooked chicken, etc
• Herbs, optional: mint, Thai basil

Prepare vegetables and protein, if using.

Cook the noodles according to package (we boil water in a kettle and pour over noodles for about 3-4 min. Check for doneness).  

Assemble salad with noodles in the bottom of individual bowls, followed by the rest of the ingredients and topped with the sauce.

Spicy Fish-Sauce Sauce

From Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden

• ¼ cup seeded, deribbed, and minced fresh hot chiles
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• ½ cup fish sauce
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup white wine vinegar
• 2 T sugar

Stir everything together in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves.  Taste and adjust so you have an intense sweet-salty-sour-hot balance.  Ideally, make this a day ahead, then taste and readjust the seasonings on the second day.  The sauce will keep for a month or two in the fridge.

Bok choy quick and easy

This isn’t a recipe so much as a technique. We took the bok choy and split it lengthwise and then salted it to let it sweat. The longer you can do this the better, but at least a half hour. Then, we tossed the split bok choy into a very hot cast iron skillet coated with a bit of oil with a high flash point — we use grapeseed oil. And then we just let it sit for a minute without moving it so it could get a nice char on it. Then we flipped it and let i cook a minute or two longer. The result was smoky, wilted treat. We used it in a noodle soup, but it would be great just by itself or with a favorite dressing.