In their shares this week, members will receive the following vegetables: garlic scapes, napa cabbage, radishes, lettuce mix, head lettuce, kohlrabi and microgreens. 

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

We are walking a little bit lighter at the farm this week. After a month and a half of dusty, bone-dry conditions, it rained. And importantly, before it rained we got a lot of our plants in the ground with the help of some of our CSA members.

All of this means that our greenhouse is now getting near empty, and we can spend a lot less time watering (and a lot more time weeding).

On Friday, we pushed ourselves as hard as we had all season to get plants in the ground for the weekend of rain that every forecaster in the state predicted. By 8:30 a.m., we had put our final 650 feet of storage potatoes in the ground. Then, with the help of longtime CSA member Joanne, we put our heads down and put almost 400 pepper plants into the ground. By the afternoon, the sky was filled with thunderheads. To the north and the east, we could see rain squalls and hear the thunder. We kept planting as the winds picked up and the temperatures plunged. We didn’t think we’d be able to get it done in time.

But by the day’s end, the peppers were in the ground and we were exhausted. 

And then we waited for the rain to come. And we waited some more.

Finally, as we had dinner with our friends Brooke and Caleb, we heard the light gentle patter of rain falling outside. After nearly two months, it was our first measurable rain at the farm. We went to bed feeling a bit of relief. Tomorrow, we would not have to walk around and make sure all the plants were not in distress. Tomorrow, we would not have to move the irrigation lines from one plot to the next. 

In the end, the weekend promise of a soaking rain taunted us. While to the north, south and east of us saw large amounts of rain, the storms skirted us, and we were starting to worry that we might not get enough rain to make a difference. On Sunday evening when it seemed the storm had passed us by, we were gifted with a gentle, soaking rain. 

The summer solstice came and went. It feels like a completely different time of year. The weeds have grown from seedlings to full-sized adversaries. The grasses in the field are yellow and brown. 

Along our fence line, the tree swallow fledglings have hatched. We watch the parents take turns flying out to find them food. It won’t be long before they will be on the fenceline learning how to fly. 

At the end of a recent workday with one of our CSA members Sarah, we walked out to the north end of our property to inspect the American kestrel box we erected two years ago.

I put a cell phone on a selfie stick and turned on the video and used it to peer down into the box to see what was in there. The adult kestrels quietly watched from a perch atop a spruce tree. 

We then huddled around the phone and pressed play on the video and delighted in seeing that, for the second year in a row, we have three kestrel chicks growing bigger day by day. Soon, our friend and CSA member Clinton Dexter-Nienhaus will come out to band the kestrels as part of his work as head naturalist with Friends of Sax-Zim Bog and the American Kestrel Nest Box Monitoring Project.

Our workday ended Saturday as we prepared for a much-needed day off. As we did, we realized that the day marked the three-year anniversary of the day we signed the closing papers and became the deed holders of this farm, purchasing it from the Johnson family. Their descendants were the first white settlers on the property, moving here in the early 1900s.

Living on a farm and working outside each day you become keenly aware of the subtle shifts in the season. It’s as if things change day by day. It’s a gift to look up from working in the field and watch the changes in the days as our Minnesota summer rushes past.

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. We are grateful to the owners of Duluth Cider for allowing us to have their business as a pickup site and excited to have Val and Jake as CSA members this year.

This week’s veggies and recipes

This week is the last week we’ll be delivering napa cabbage as part of the regular CSA delivery. But we also welcome two new vegetables: garlic scapes and kohlrabi, which is a favorite of ours. We offer a few recipes but also the encouragement to eat it all fresh and raw.

Kohlrabi (along with ideas for radishes and scapes!)

• Most people eat kohlrabi raw — peeled, sliced and cut into sticks, like carrots.  
• It can also be used in a non-traditional slaw with grated kohlrabi, turnips and/or radishes, chopped parsley, scallions and dressing of choice.
• It also can be sliced or cubed and added to soups, salads or stir-fries.

Garlic Scapes

Garlic scapes are the tender, green shoots that first emerge from the bulb in the ground, which eventually flower.  By snapping them off, stopping the flowering process, more energy is put into growing nice, big garlic bulbs!

• Use in replacement of garlic bulbs; can be eaten raw or cooked
• 1 stalk = 1 to 2 cloves
• Do not wash and store!  This will make the stalks slimy.  Store in a paper bag in the refrigerator.
• We put stalks, chopped or whole, in ziplock bags in the freezer.

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.

Grilled Slaw With Ginger and Sesame

We love our cookbooks, but we also spend a lot of time exploring the recipes in The New York Times cooking section. This one was a fun experiment that involved grilling garlic scapes and napa cabbage.

From the NYT Cooking: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020311-grilled-slaw-with-ginger-and-sesame

• Cooking oil (such as canola or grapeseed), for greasing the grill
• 1 head of napa cabbage (approximately 2 pounds)
• 1 Asian pear
• 2 scallions or garlic scapes
• 2 to 3 tablespoons of sesame oil, plus 3 tablespoons for the dressing
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 red bell pepper (substitute poblano peppers if desired)
• 2 jalapeños

FOR THE DRESSING

• 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar, plus more to taste
• 1 tablespoon of minced fresh ginger
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar, plus more to taste
• 2 teaspoons of black or toasted white sesame seeds (optional)
• 1 teaspoon of Chinese or Vietnamese chile paste (optional)

Step 1

Prepare your grill for direct grilling over high heat. Grease the grill grate by brushing it with cooking oil.

Step 2

Meanwhile, quarter the napa cabbage lengthwise through the core. Cut the Asian pear in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Lightly brush the cabbage, pear, and scallions with 2 to 3 tablespoons of sesame oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 3

Grill the cabbage until it becomes charred on all sides, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. The inside should remain cool, firm, and crisp. Transfer the grilled cabbage to a sheet pan and allow it to cool.

Step 4

Grill the cut sides of the pear until grill marks appear, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Grill the scallions, bell pepper, and jalapeños until grill marks appear, turning them halfway through, approximately 4 minutes. Transfer the grilled vegetables to the sheet pan and let them cool to room temperature.

Step 5

Prepare the dressing: In a large bowl, mash together the sugar, ginger, and garlic with ½ teaspoon of salt and pepper each. Add the rice vinegar and whisk until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Whisk in the remaining 3 tablespoons of sesame oil, and add the sesame seeds and chile paste if desired.

Step 6

Remove and discard the core of each cabbage quarter. Thinly slice the cooled charred napa cabbage crosswise and add it to the dressing. Julienne the pear, bell pepper, and jalapeño, discarding the seeds of the bell pepper and jalapeño. Add them to the slaw. Thinly slice the scallions crosswise, discarding the root ends, and include them as well.

Step 7

Taste the slaw for seasoning, adding more vinegar, sugar, or salt according to your preference. Refrigerate until ready to serve, ideally within a couple of hours of mixing.