CSA Week 7: What do tattoos and cover crops have in common?

In their shares this week, members will receive the following vegetables: cucumbers, bunching onions, cilantro, carrots (for farm pick up), snap peas (Duluth pick up), head lettuce and salad mix. Some members will also receive cherry tomatoes and summer squash. Members will also receive either eggplant, cauliflower or sprouted broccoli.

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.”

Here is this week’s video check in:

News from the farm

Earlier this summer, John decided to surprise Heather-Marie by getting a tattoo when he was in New York City. His idea, at first, was to use the logo for the farm – similar to the tattoo that Heather-Marie has on her arm, but his daughter and the tattoo artist convinced him he should try to make the design unique. 

Was there a flower or plant from the farm that meant something to him, the tattoo artist asked. 

He thought for a moment before the answer crystallized in his mind. 

Buckwheat! 

The artist and John’s daughter started laughing at this response, especially after John excitedly told them about the benefits of buckwheat and other cover crops that we use on the farm. Cover crops, as the name suggests cover bare soil and perform a number of important functions. They choke out weeds, add valuable organic material to the soil and replenish the soil with nutrients and nitrogen.

Buckwheat, for example, grows quickly and is used to protect the soil by choking out weeds. It also makes phosphorus available in the soil for plants that are put in the ground after the buckwheat is terminated. 

In the past few years, we have come to rely on cover crops as part of our farming practices. We use winter rye at the end of the season because it will start growing in the fall but then resumes growing again in the spring. We also use oats and seed mixtures that include a variety of plants that serve many purposes.

We even posed for our wedding picture, standing in a plot of cover crop.

This year, we are also experimenting with planting crimson clover underneath taller plants to serve as a living mulch – an idea we got from our farming friends, Farm Sol, up in Saginaw. The clover is under our tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in the high tunnel. It is also in the walkways between our pumpkin and winter squash beds. Not only will the clover choke out the weeds, it also fixes nitrogen in the soil, making it available to other plants.

The use of cover crops is one of the best tools we have for preserving and even improving the quality of our most valuable resource – our soil. 

Images from the farm

This week’s veggies and recipes

What to do with Salad Mix

The salad mix we grow is actually made up of five different greens that we mix together and seed into the ground.  They are a combination of kales, Asian and mustard greens that can be eaten raw but are also sturdy enough to hold up to cooking. 

• Use it in place of lettuce or lettuce mix to make a zesty salad
• Can be sauteed or added at the last minute to eggs.
• Can be wilted by tossing with a hot, cooked grain like quinoa with a dressing added. 

Spring Roll Salad or “spring roll in a bowl”, Summer edition

Once summer squash, carrots and cukes start coming on, we add them to all sorts of dishes.  With this week’s addition of salad mix, we take our “spring roll in a bowl” to another level.  This makes for a perfect hot weather dinner.  You can also use all of the ingredients and turn them into spring rolls.   

• Cukes, summer squash, carrots: slice thinly into ribbons (julienned)
• Salad mix
• Rice noodles
• Protein, optional: fried egg, scrambled egg, roasted garbanzo beans, shrimp, cooked chicken, etc
• Herbs: mint, Thai basil, cilantro
• Fish sauce-sauce (see below)

Salt all veggies for at least 15 min to release their juices.  You can rinse them off, or use like a quick pickle.

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

Assemble your salad starting with rice noodles, salad mix, pickled veggies and protein.  Top with spicy fish sauce-sauce.

Spicy Fish Sauce

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

We could drink this sauce, it’s so good!  It’s a staple in Vietnam (called “nuoc cham”)

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

Stir the warm water together with the sugar in a bowl until the sugar dissolves.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Taste and adjust so you have a balance of sweet-salty-sour-hot.  Ideally, this would be made ahead of time.  Taste and readjust the seasonings on the second day.  The sauce will keep for a month or two in the fridge.  Store in a lidded jar. 

Heather-Marie’s favorite Tahini Dressing

Heather-Marie could eat this dressing with a spoon.  Pour it over cold summer salads or with fall roasted veggies.

• 2 tablespoons tahini
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon honey
• ½  teaspoon kosher salt

Add the dressing ingredients to a small mason jar. Shake to mix and taste for more seasoning if desired.