Tewksbury Grace Farm

Hi Friends,

Oh yeah… the sweet sound of rain (even though it came two days after a tanker truck of water was hauled to the farm!)  No worries, not a drop went to waste, and we are very grateful for the rain.  A special thank you to our members who were able to attend our farm tour this week and learn about the techniques we use to grow your food.  We encourage you to teach others about healthy foods and sustainable farms like TGF!  We need to change how our communities understand and consume food. You are making excellent food choices by eating TGF vegetables, fruits, and shiitakes! (we’re keeping our fingers crossed that tonight’s rain will force a mushroom flush for next week).

 We have been begun picking black and red raspberries, and it looks like we will have a good-sized harvest.  We flash freeze the berries and store them in our freezer, so you’ll be enjoying those treats sometime this summer. More delicious greens have been harvested….there are myriad recipe choices online for everything we offer. Just key in the vegetable name, and see what’s cooking. We also encourage you to wilt greens and freeze them for later use in soups, casseroles and stews, if you are unable to use them all now.  In this week’s bag…

• Kohlrabi  (best peeled and eaten raw; remember to use green leaves in a dish)
• Escarole (banded green that resembles head lettuce – please note that this is a bitter green – excellent braised or in a salad with a sweet dressing)
• Shell Peas (remove peas from pod and eat raw or just very lightly steamed or sauteed)
• Sugar Snap Peas and Yellow Snow Peas (eat entire pod; perfect raw or slightly sautéed)
• Tokyo Bekana Cabbage and Red Choi (Asian lettuce cabbage and red choy chopped, braised, and seasoned with any dish)
• Salad Mix
• Fennel (you will receive the entire plant, fronds and all. We like to cut off the stems and fronds and simmer them hard in couple quarts water, then strain. This makes a very tasty soup stock. The bulb is crunchy and sweet, and can be shaved thinly into salads or stir frys. We LOVE this Italian vegetable!)

Meals we had this week…

Stir fry with fried rice (minced garlic scapes sautéed in olive oil with cooked brown basmati rice added until golden, spices, sugar snap peas, chopped choi greens, carrots and sprouted corn tortillas)

Wilted escarole tossed with pasta (sautéed green onions in olive oil, chopped dried tomatoes, shell peas.  Chopped escarole added at end, just enough to wilt.  Tossed with fettuccini, olive oil, fresh lemon juice and grated parmesan.) 

What did you have?  Tell everyone in the comments below.

Peace,

Johnny