Tewksbury Grace Farm

We just had a perfectly wonderful 1.6 inches of rain fall on the farm this afternoon….big early July jump on all our hot weather plants.  As you can imagine, the recent sweltering weather has done in most of the spring greens, but the segue means cucumbers, summer squash, gold beets, and Walla Wallas on deck.

A lovely bag of produce is coming your way tomorrow, but of course. This week we are featuring radicchio again. When we went to Italy 2 years ago, Leah was beside herself in the fresh markets, and came home with lots of types of Italian varieties to trial here on our farm. We have several types of radicchio planted; your’s will be labeled on the twist tie around the head. It may be a large light green head, or a green and red-flecked head, or more of the traditional red palla di fuoco that you see in stores. Each kind is delicious! Peas are saying goodbye for the season, so enjoy these green pearls now.

Pole beans are going in the ground, as are the first rounds of autumn brassicas, like cauliflower, romanesco, broccoli, savoy….yum. Stay tuned for what’s happenin’ on Tewksbury Grace Farm!

Here’s what’s in the bag this week:

• Head Lettuce- coming in various colors and shapes. There is a crunchy iceburg- style head in the bags this week. Head lettuce is fragile, so we don’t wash this green. Please rinse gently right before use.
• Kohlrabi (full shares) or Hakurei Turnips (half shares) – Kohlrabi is a stunning purple (or green) cole vegetable. Best peeled and eaten raw…we think!  Hakurei are also known as a salad turnip – very mild and juicy and best eaten raw!
• Shell Peas– Pod and then eat raw, so sweet…last round!
• Sugar Snap Peas- We like them wok fried in Asian dishes. The green sugar snaps are addictive eaten raw! Nearly done in the field.
• Scallions- mince and fry as a fresh garlic. Delicious onion/garlic flavor.
• Radicchio– slice thinly and use in salads, or cut into quarters, brush a solid shmear of a sweet balsamic and olive oil on cut side and then sear quickly on a grill (in a grill basket) or under the broiler…heavenly.
• Fennel– we include the fronds. These can be chopped and eaten raw insalata, or you can simmer the fronds for a sweet soup stock. The bulb is best eaten raw, thinly sliced into fresh summer salads – with red onion, tomatoes, cukes.

Enjoy!

Johnny and Leah