Eaters' Guild

Storing lettuce will require a little care if you want the leaves to remain crisp and healthy. My method is to wrap my lettuce in fabric, slip the bundle into a perforated bag, and place all in the crisper. Water and oxygen are the biggest foes that your lettuce needs to contend against. These precautions protect it from too much of these negative influences.  

In addition to following those procedures, do beware of what's nearby. Fruits like apples and oranges and vegetables like tomatoes and strawberries can release a gas-hormone that will encourage your lettuce to spoil.

This week you'll be getting another portion of salad mix. Since we are in the high season of strawberries, and some of you may be searching for new ways to enjoy Michigan's blessed fruit, I sought out a salad recipe that uses strawberries. Let me know what you think:

• One third of a pound of salad greens and/or lettuce
• 2 cups sliced strawberries
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/8 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1/2 tablespoon poppy seeds

Chard is a leafy vegetable with a spicy flavor. It is closely related to the beet. The first varieties of the vegetable have been traced back to Sicily. The vegetable still remains popular in Mediterranean dishes. Chard is high in vitamins A, K, and C, with 175 grams containing 214%, 716%, and 53%, respectively, of the recommended daily value.

I'll get straight to the point here. You can treat Chard the same way you treat your Kale.

Garlic falls into the allium, or onion genius. Garlic scapes, also known as spears, stems, or tops, are immature garlic flowers. Raw, garlic and garlic scapes are a good source of all the B vitamins as well as vitamin C, prosperous, calcium, iron, and zinc.

Scapes store well in the refrigerator but do begin to loose their fluids after a few days. To put your scapes into long term storage, you can pickle them. Simply chop the scapes into half-inch long sections and layer in a canning jar with salt. Specifically, in a pint jar, drop in about one half inch of chopped scapes, then sprinkle over with one table spoon of salt, and repeat until full. Unsealed, your scapes will stay good for two years in a refrigerator. You may want to seal the jar by boiling if you intent to shelve the scapes.

You can use scapes like garlic bulbs if you like. A quick rinse and fast mince and they'll be ready to make your stir fry savory. You can also steam or boil the slender vegetables to eat like noodles in your dish. In some places around the Internet, I have found that people enjoy making a scape pesto by pureeing scapes with a few other ingredients (it's easy if you have a food processor): 1/4 lb or about 7 scapes, 1/2 cup of olive oil, 1/2 to 1 cup Parmesan cheese, 3 Tbsp lemon or lime juice, and 1/3 cups walnuts.

Garlic, like other biological entities, has reproduction as one of it's principal aims in existence. Each garlic plant has two opportunities to engage reproductively. One is to grow beautiful, purple flowers, cast pollen, and exchange genetic material with other plants. The other is to grow a head (comprised of cloves) that grows into a new plant in the next season. We pull garlic scapes (the forming flower) in order to make the garlic plant concentrate on growing the best possible head rather than letting it divide it's attention on two reproductive outlets.
What do you do with scapes? Pam Cameron, one of your fellow CSA members, wrote that she "added them in their full length to the grill (charcoal purist) with asparagus and red peppers - lightly coated in olive oil. They showed off their beautiful curly form against their straight-laced neighbors - quite a nice look."

They're coming one more time this summer! I've already talked about preservation and pesto (if you need a reminder, let me know). If you're more excited to use them fresh, perhaps you'll be interested to try this: Garlic Wok.

• Chop seven or eight scapes finely and steam (or boil) scapes until tender.
• Cube and saute one package of tempe (or tofu) in sesame oil.
• Cook two cups of rice.
• Mix all three ingredients.
• Chop one or two heirloom tomatoes to top the dish.

Our first harvests of Kale are on their way to you! For the best shelf life, store your Kale in a perforated bag in the refrigerator. If you'll be using the Kale soon or are running low on space in the fridge, you can also clip the stems of the kale and store them in a vase on the counter like a bouquet of flowers.

To freeze Kale, first blanch the leaves in boiling water, let drain, and then place them in an air tight plastic bag or Tupperware container.

Kale is a member of the cabbage family. It is esteemed to be among the most nutritious vegetables in the universe. It is also extremely virile, thriving whether in heat and flood or drought and snow. Varieties of Kale have been cultivated around the world, but particularly in Greece, since the fourth century BC.