Week 5; July 6, 2017

What's in the box?  

Rainbow Chard
Salad Mix - Medium and Large
Butterhead Lettuce
Broccoli (with leaves)
Cauliflower
Garlic Scapes - Medium and Large
Zucchini/Summer Squash
Green Top Carrots

Notes on the box.

All veggies have been hydro cooled, but please give them a wash before eating.  Especially in all this rainy weather, dirt splashes up and can hide in the crevices in your greens and lettuce.  

Rainbow Chard can be used as you would cooked spinach.  The colorful stems are edible, too.  They take longer to cook than the leaves (which wilt very quickly) so chop them up and begin cooking them at the at the start just after adding onions and garlic when sautéing.  It stores best in a plastic bag in the crisper.  
The broccoli includes a lot of side shoots.  That's the small florets that the plants put out after the main head is removed.  The leaves are also edible and can be used as you would kale.  You can chop up the florets, leaves, stems, and all and cook them together.  Chop them finely for a broccoli slaw.  They will store best in a plastic bag in the crisper.  
Cauliflower is one that I never liked before I had it fresh from the farm.  It's a little surprising how much yummier fresh cauliflower is.  If you think you don't like cauliflower, give it another try!  Roasting it with a little olive oil and salt is simple and delicious.  
Green Top Carrots!  First of the season!  Remove the tops as soon as you get them or else their crunch will be lost and they will get bendy.  The tops are edible and can be used as a substitute for parsley.  

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

This week we have fresh cheese curds and Circle of the Sun.  The Circle of the Sun that is included is a year old and has some nice nutty flavors that come through as it ages.  The first Circle of the Sun made in the 2017 season will be out in a few weeks.  Circle of the Sun is a favorite cheese to make.  It's a simple recipe that allows the flavors of the grasses to come through.  I think it's a good everyday cheese for snacking and grating onto pasta or salads.  It's name comes from a song that was sung at our Quaker meeting as part of a welcoming ceremony for new babies.  This cheese is another that is a favorite at farmers market.  It's also for sale in the Wedge Co-op's cheese case!  I hope you enjoy it.  There's not a lot of 2016 Circle of the Sun left!   The first Circle of the Sun for the 2017 season will be out in a few more weeks

Recipes.

Curried Kale and Cauliflower rice Soup (sub the broccoli leaves for kale)

Swiss chard Slaw with Creamy Avocado Dressing

Broccoli Slaw with Quinoa and Honey Mustard Dressing

  • ¾ cup uncooked quinoa
  • 1 ½ cups water
  • ½ cup slivered or sliced almonds or other nuts or seeds (sunflower or pumpkin seeds are good)
  • bunch of broccoli - florets, leaves, stems, heads (anything goes)
  • ⅓ cup chopped fresh basil or other fresh herb or your choice (parsley, dill, or tarragon are good)

Honey-mustard dressing

  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or more lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 2 medium cloves garlic pressed or minced OR a few garlic scapes very finely chopped
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Red pepper flakes, optional 
  1. To cook the quinoa: Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh colander under running water. In a medium-sized pot, combine the rinsed quinoa and 1 ½ cups water. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and gently simmer the quinoa until it has absorbed all of the water. Remove the quinoa from heat, cover the pot and let it rest for 5 minutes. Uncover the pot and fluff the quinoa with a fork. Set it aside to cool.
  2. Over medium heat, toast the nuts or seeds, stirring frequently, until they are fragrant and starting to turn golden on the edges. Transfer to a large serving bowl to cool.
  3. Wash broccoli and then chop it finely.  Include the leaves and tender stems.  For whole heads you might need to peel the outside of the stem. 
  4. Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a liquid measuring cup and whisk until emulsified. We love our emersion blender for dressings!  Feel free to add more honey if it seems to acidic for you, or add more vinegar if it's too sweet for you.
  5. Add the shredded broccoli, cooked quinoa and chopped herbs to your large serving bowl. Pour the dressing over the mixture and toss until well mixed. Let the slaw rest for at least 20 minutes if possible.

On the Farm.

Hit a nice stretch of weather, finally! Hope you all had a great holiday.  We worked all week as usual, but had a nice get together at neighboring CSA farm. 
Things are kicked into high gear out in fields. High temps, adequate moisture, and weeds are under control. 
We're a point where what is done is done for Summer planting.  We are seeing incredible rebound in a lot of the crops that got hail damage.  The plants are so resilient!  Things seem to be growing at double speed now.  We are waiting for summer crops to grow and ripen.  Things are just a little bit behind after their setback.  Now we are planting heavily for fall. We will keep planting through August and early September.
Thanks for all of your kind words of support through the rough patch this spring.  It's amazing what a little sunshine, warm weather, and love and support can heal!

 

What's growing on?

spring onions
cabbage
beets
carrots
butterhead lettuce
salad mix

Turnip Rock FarmerComment
Week 4; June 29, 2017

What's in the box?  

Siberian Kale
Head Lettuce
Green Top Beets
Zucchini / Summer Squash
Fennel
Garlic Scapes
Broccoli - Eat Like a Farmer and Large shares

Notes on the box.

The kale is a mix of Siberian and Red Russian Kale.  These are tender varieties that can be cooked or used in salads. 
The greens on the beets are edible.  If you plan on storing them for a while, remove the greens from the roots.  
Fennel bulb and fronds are edible.  Use the whisky leaves as you would an herb.  It has a nice fresh anise flavor that goes well with beets or cucumbers.
Garlic Scapes are a nice treat. They are the stem of the flower that the garlic sends up.  Pulling off the flower allows for more energy to go to the bulbs so we can get bigger heads of garlic.  AND the scapes are delicious.  You can use them as you would a green onion, but they will have a garlic flavor.  Some people like to grill them whole.  They also make a yummy addition to pesto.  

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

This week we have fresh whole milk ricotta and Antares, our cow's milk Manchego.  Ricotta is nice in a cake or other baked goods.  You can put it in a quiche or pasta dish.  The Antares is always a favorite at market.  It has a flavor that is described as "piquant". Not quite spicy, not quite sharp, but a flavor that opens your sinuses slightly and lingers after you taste it.  

Recipes.

Tumeric and Roasted Fennel, Kale, and Chickpea Salad

  • 1 fennel bulb (save fronds for another recipe)
  • 1 can chickpeas
  • 1 chopped garlic scape
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • sea salt
  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • 1 bunch kale
  • Dressing:
  • 1 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • ¼ lemon, juice
  • pinch of sea salt
  1. Preheat the oven to 400
  2. Cut fennel into wedges, place into a bowl and toss with ½tsp turmeric, sea salt and ½tbsp olive oil. Place onto 1 side of a baking sheet.
  3. Drain chickpeas, pat dry and place into a bowl. Add garlic and toss with ½tsp turmeric, sea salt and ½tbsp olive oil. Place onto a baking sheet next to the fennel. Bake for about 30min stirring in between.
  4. Tear kale leaves from the thick stems and wash thoroughly. Pat dry, place into a bowl and toss with sea salt and 1tbsp olive oil. Spread onto a baking sheet and bake for about 10-15min stirring in between.
  5. Mix all of the ingredients for the dressing.
  6. Once everything is baked, toss together and drizzle with the salad dressing. 

Beet Greens with Honey and Nuts

2 Tbsp. coconut oil (or your favorite fat to cook with)
½ cup pecan (or other nuts or seeds) chopped
1 bunch beet greens
1 Tbsp. honey
1 clove garlic, minced (or garlic scape)
¼ crushed red pepper flakes
Fine sea salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
juice of ¼ lemon

Wash greens thoroughly; pat dry. Rough chop into bite sized pieces.

Heat 1 Tbsp. oil a large skillet over medium heat. Add nuts. Swirl pan to coat with oil. Add honey. Stir to evenly coat nuts. Cook another minute, stirring constantly. Remove from pan; set aside.

In the same pan, add the remaining 1 Tbsp. oil and heat. Add garlic and pepper. Stir, and then add greens. Swirl pan. Lightly toss greens with tongs to coat. Cook until just tender and wilted, 2-4 minutes. Squeeze lemon wedge over greens, toss, and plate.  Sprinkle with honeyed pecans. Serves 2.

White Bean Garlic Scape Dip

Ricotta Zucchini Fritters

On the Farm.

Event announcement. 
July 15 Turnip Rock and the Cosmic Wheel Creamery are open for the eat local farm tour from 10 am to 4 pm.   The Eat local farm tour is a self guided open house of area local farms. There will be guided tours of the farm, too. We'll make some drinks and cheese tastings available as well. 
Drive on out to Western Wisconsin! It's a Fun way to spend a Saturday. 

the good news:
The squash is on it's way... you'll get just a little taste of it right now. Carrots are just a couple weeks out. Cauliflower will be here next week. Cabbage is right behind it. More butterhead and Romaine lettuce, salad mix. It's all within reach.  

the bad news:
The cool wet weather is harboring root maggots, which are causing problems with yields, transplants and any plantings of radishes etc. Warmer temps and drying things out would help, as they are a spring pest and prefer spring type weather.  But more rain is forecast for Friday. Much of our broccoli is acting like its underwater, stunted. I've never seen this before. But when a plants roots are wet for too long it rots off the roots in anerobic conditions, stunting them. We are sadly expecting low yields.  Compared to last seasons boxes, we see a large decrease in harvest and in the value of the boxes.  We will continue to plant and replant and do what we can to get the value to even out over the remainder of the season.  We are doing our best! Our farm has the fewest weeds we have ever had at this point in the season, which is fantastic...  We just keep getting heavy rains and more rain and that's one thing that we can't control.  We will absolutely keep doing all that we can and we are grateful for your support and understanding.  

We wanted to be sure to share with you the chance to sign up for a Summer Herbal Share from our dear friend and neighbor farmer, Nancy, at Red Clover Herbal Apothecary.  The Summer Herbal Share includes tea, tincture, and salves special for summer with the option of choosing to add more to your share.  The Share can be delivered with your Turnip Rock CSA share.  If you are interested, click the link above for more info and to sign up. 

We are trying to decide between these fantastic name suggestions for our new calf...  
Promise
Jonah
moo
Cerna
Betsy

But guess what... We have another new calf to name! See photos below and send your suggestions our way.  :) 

Turnip Rock Farmer Comment
Week 3 - June 22, 2016

What's in the box?

Green Romaine Lettuce
Scallions (green onions)
Salad Turnips (topped)
Salad Mix
Spinach
Chard, Kale, or Collards

Notes on the box.

We are seeing the effects of the hail and washout rain in this box.  It's much lighter than we had planned and we had lower our quality standards a bit so that we could get this lettuce to you.  Radish and Arugula were washed out, broccoli buttoned up early so there are no nice big heads, and of course hail damaged lettuces and greens.  Due to hail damage on greens, rows that would have yielded 200-250 bunches of greens are now yielding just 50. The hail continues to be a thorn in our side. The next couple weeks might be a little touch and go as we wrap up the last of the spinach and some other spring hail damaged crops, and move more into some nice butter head lettuce, scapes, fennel, beets, carrots and summer squash. We picked just 20 lbs or so of squash this week, and some of the large shares saw that. Half of the squash got hail damage, but those plants seem to be bouncing back pretty well.  We think that as the season goes on we will be able to make up the lost value in these early season boxes as long as the weather stays nice!

Store everything in the fridge.  Lettuce and greens will keep better in a plastic bag in your crisper.   

Cosmic Wheel Creamery cheese shares.

This week I sent two aged cheeses.  They are the same recipe, but the MoonShadow is made when the cows are eating primarily hay early in the season and the MoonGlow is made when the cows are eating all green pasture.  The MoonShadow is also aged longer than the MoonGlow.  I sent these two together so that you can see what a difference the diet of the cows makes on the  cheese.  You can see that the hay makes for a more creamy white color while the grass is bright yellow.  The flavors are different, too.  I think the flavor of the grasses really comes through in the MoonGlow, especially when you taste it next to the MoonShadow.  Difference in texture has a lot to do with the difference in age and that the MoonGlow was made into larger wheels.  MoonGlow is a good melter if you plan on cooking with it.  The MoonShadow is a bit more crumbly and is nice on a salad.  Both are great for snacking and pair well with dried fruit, jams, or cured meat.  

Recipes.

Every Salad Dressing Recipe you might want.

Easy Scallion Pancakes

On the Farm.

We can't say enough how much we appreciated them emails and comments of support that come in after the bad news of the storms and the effect on the crops.  When we start to feel down about the crops we have to remind ourselves that the weather is truly a factor that is out of our control.  Your understanding on this helps so much.  

I thought I'd spend this week telling you more about Turnip Rock Farm, the place where your food is coming from.  It's attributes, it pluses and minuses, it's natural ability, and nature. 

The farm is two square 40 acre parcels, just 4 miles south of Amery WI. East of HWY 46. Its on google maps if you want to look. The North 40 has no buildings and was recently purchased by Rama's Mom and Dad. It is 18 acres tillable land, and remaining 22 is in wooded low ground with some big boulders sprinkled across, all which drains into the willow river water shed through snake creek to our east. The South 40 (owned by us as of last year) harbors about 5 acres of wet land that adjoins to the south with a federal owned water foul reproduction site. Turnip Rock does not have any adjoining farm fields.   That's nice because there is little risk of chemical drift or other issues that can happen with conventional ag next to an Organic farm.

The soil type on our farm is a silt clay loam. Heavy. Some rocks (though nowhere near as many as our previous farm that gave us our name), and a clay/sand subsoil. We have gently rolling fields that don't drain in any one direction. It holds water and fertility. 

The farm was homesteaded by best estimates around 1920 according to some found artifacts and previous owners we've talked to.  It used to be 160 acre dairy at that time with cattle grazing the wood lots and cropping on the tillable. It remained a 20-30 cow dairy up until early 1980s, which is impressive if you think of all the technological advances made in agriculture during that 60 year period.

There was a local coo coo clock maker that lived here who also refurbished furniture. He passed away with a long waiting list of people who wanted to buy his clocks. And a few locals still remember or have that piece of furtinture he fixed up for them. His workshop was a well house first, and is now our cheese aging space.

When we moved here, the previous owners were renting out the farm fields to a larger crop farmer down the road and owned horses and a landscaping company. When we showed up the barn was full of domestic goods, the milk house (we tore down) was a dog kennel, and what had been pasture was now over grown with 15 plus years of agricultural neglect and succession forest.  4 years of breathing life back into a farm... finally starting to see it wake up again.  

We have plans to add some fruit trees, continue to clear out invasive species in the wooded areas, and build the soil and graze animals.  

We hope you can come out to see the farm during the Eat Local Coop Farm Tour on July 15th.  If you can't make it then, we will be having more farm events later in the season!

Turnip Rock Farmer Comments