Sweeter After a Frost

The best part of harvesting root crops is the little bit of the unknown, not being able to predict exactly what the crop will look like before it comes out of the ground.

This is definitely true for the Easter Egg radishes that we harvested this morning. The Easter egg radishes are different colors: purple, red, or pink so you are surprised by each color. I like hunting for the next fully grown radishes, gently pushing the greens aside to search for the largest bulb. The size of the radish is about the size of a small egg and sometimes the oval ones look particularly like dyed eggs.

Carrots also share this little moment of surprise. Some have little knobby ends, others snuggle and twist around one another. But these are the unusual ones; most of them are long rounded carrots.  One of the varieties we harvested was Mokum, an early variety. Carrots have a long germination and are often planted near radishes. Since radishes come up quickly, it is easier to spot where the carrots have been planted.   Carrots can also be a variety of colors just like the Easter Egg radishes. Sometimes we would pull up a wild carrot, a thin white root with a flower, commonly called Queen Anne’s Lace. It is possible to eat a wild carrot, but only when it is young because its xylem tissue becomes woody as it ages. Carrots are also grown in several parts of the world, the first carrot was harvested in Afghanistan. But one of the most fascinating facts about carrots is that they are sweeter after a frost. They are biennials so if you keep them in the ground, over winter they will bloom! Before Rushton Farm began all of the fields were full of wild carrots.

As we harvested, the bees were right next to carrots in the buckwheat. You could see all of the honey bees gathering pollen before the buckwheat shuts off the supply of pollen in the afternoon. It is fascinating to witness the different elements of the farm taking place side by side, nature’s reminder to observe the farm as a whole and to take notice that Rushton is one several farms all over the world cultivating carrots.

Pancakes for Dinner

In these early days of summer, we are more likely to assemble dinner than to cook it, throwing together a salad of the freshest of the crop, tossed with a dressing made of whatever we have on hand.  A bit of grilled meat or fish; grilled corn; perhaps a pasta dish if we are feeling fancy.  Nothing difficult.  No recipe required.


When we found some early zucchini in our weekly share, however, we felt the need to fire up the stove and head to the cookbooks.  We have toyed with zucchini fritters in the past, and we have always been disappointed.  Like their breakfast cousin, the pancake, it is hard to get everything about a fritter just right: the batter; the flavor; the heat of the cooking oil; the kind of cooking oil; even the topping with which to serve the finished product.  Zucchini has an incredibly high water content, so we knew we had to shred it and let it drain, but beyond that, a successful fritter had always eluded us.


For help, we turned to one of our favorite blog, www.smittenkitchen.com, and like most of Deb Perlman's incredible recipes, this one scored well in all categories.  With only one major change -- we shredded and drained the zucchini, and THEN weighed it -- this recipe is a keeper.  Our advice: make the sauce first. You are sure to eat the first of the fritters piping hot, just out of the pan, while standing over the stove making the rest of them; you'll want to have the sauce ready when you are.


Zucchini Fritters
Adapted from http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/08/zucchini-fritters/
Makes about 16-20 2-inch fritters, or enough for 4-6 adults


3-4 medium zucchini, weighing slightly more than 2 pounds total
2 teaspoons Kosher salt, plus more to taste

4 scallions, diced

2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Canola oil, for frying

Dipping Sauce

1 cup sour cream or plain, full-fat yogurt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 pinch kosher salt
1 small minced or crushed clove of garlic

Make the sauce: Stir all ingredients together and adjust salt to taste.  Can be made a few hours in advance.

Trim the ends off the zucchini and grate them on the large holes of a box grater.  In a colander, toss the zucchini with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt, and set colander in your sink to drain.  After about 10 minutes, wring out the zucchini, either by squeezing small handfuls at a time or by using a spatula to press the zucchini against the holes of the colander.  Skip this step at your peril; you don't want soggy fritters.

Weigh out 2 pounds of shredded, drained zucchini, and dump into a large bowl.  Add 2-3 pinches kosher salt, to taste.  Mix in scallions, eggs and pepper.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder, and then add to zucchini batter, stirring until just combined.

 

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  Heat 4 tablespoons of canola oil over medium to medium-high heat in a large skillet, until shimmering.  Working in batches, use a spoon to drop 1-2 tablespoons of batter onto the skillet, and flatten slightly with the back of the spoon.  Cook until golden at the edges, about 3-4 minutes.  Flip over and cook 2-3 minutes on the other side, until golden.  As with all pancakes: reduce heat if browning too quickly; keep a sufficient amount of oil in the pan to prevent burning; and rotate pan to avoid hot spots.  Drain on paper towels, and then keep warm in 200 degree oven, which has the advantage of crisping the fritters even further.   

Deb claims that these are a good make-ahead dish: "These fritters keep well, either chilled in the fridge for the better part of a week and or frozen in a well-sealed package for months. When you’re ready to use them, simply spread them out on a tray in a 325 degree oven until they’re hot and crisp again."  We will have to take her word, having had no leftovers whatsoever at the end of our dinner.

A Tangle of Rods and Pods

I do not know what age I was when I got lost in the pea-drills in a field behind the house, but it is a half-dream to me, and I’ve heard about it so often that I may even be imagining it. Yet, by now, I’ve imagined it so long and so often that I know what it was like: a green web, a caul of veined light, a tangle of rods and pods, stalks and tendrils, full of assuaging earth and leaf smell, a sunlit lair…All children want to crouch in their secret nests. Seamus Heaney, from Preoccupations

Picking peas at the end of the day is a calming task.  You can hear the soft drop of peas- that is if you are slow picking, celebrity picking, as some like to call it.  You can also hear the occasional crunch of the person beside you eating a sugar snap that is bruised or funny looking. Sometimes those are the sweet ones. Often, the ripe peas will be all in a line at the same height. As if they knew they had to be picked. But others hide, little treasures among nests of green. Some even have a twisty vine around them, as if they are trying to hold close as long as possible. This makes sense though, because the sugars sweeten as they mature. Pick them too early and you will lose the flavor of peas. This is when the fine combed harvesting comes in: when the peas are skinny and the white flower is still attached to the pea, they are not ready to be picked. However, when you can start to feel the bumps of the peas and the flower is browning, it’s ready. You have to be patient, two days between harvests can make a difference.  

You can see the stages of the peas in the picture to the left. The top pea still has its white flower and is evidently still maturing, the middle peas are a little too skinny, but the bottom one looks round and ready to be harvested!

Picking peas is more social than other harvesting. You can see people at eye level, hands raised towards the rows of peas. All of us on one task, no longer separated. Every once in a while someone will dump a shirt full into my bucket and I feel like a champion because it looks like I’ve picked twice as many. Nothing like a little friendly competition to see who can pick the most peas.

As the peas continue to climb they need fresh trellising. Last season, I remember pulling the white yarn around the posts. The motion is a little like sailing, both hands managing different tasks. One hand managing the new line and the other pulling it taut. I like the motion of harvesting peas as well. You can harvest one handed, hold on to the end of the pea and snap it off with your finger nail, so as not to tug on the whole vine. But the best part of harvesting peas is the search: a little surprise of finding a rogue snow pea among the sugar snaps or spying a delightfully round one.

TAP students and interns feast on sugar snaps

Rushton Farm is the Bee's Knees

The honey bees pollinate each flower, carefully tip toeing into its bud, pausing for a second and flitting on to the next. There is a sense of precise beauty in their task and manner. They stop to collect pollen but do not linger. Sometimes crawling through the bud, other times hopping from one landing to the next, a dutiful messenger. The bees know what to look for, carrying out mother nature’s call. Honey bees are important pollinators. While the Diva cucumbers that we planted this week can self-pollinate because they have male and female parts, this crop is the exception.

Recently, we watched as Noah transferred a swarm from a tree to one of the bee boxes. Some of the drones adopted a defensive position when being transferred to the box, raising their abdomens up. At this moment, their scent gland releases pheromones, an Ethaline-based chemical that smells like bananas!  

Each honey super makes 20 pounds of honey. There are three or four honey supers per colony. The average colony creates a surplus of 50 pounds of honey to go through the winter. Bees will distill nectar in honey for the winter. They use honey as a source of carbohydrates and pollen as their source of protein. A feeding of sugar syrup in the fall helps keep the bees on a steady food supply.

So how do bees collect all this honey? The bees have a 3 mile flight radius and around a million flowers produce one ounce of honey. But with tens of thousands of worker bees flying at once, this number appears less daunting, especially since the queen bee lays hundreds of eggs per day. Only the worker bees collect honey, not the drones. The females do most of the work! However, the drones play an important role as keepers of the genetic make-up of the hive. If the hive is destroyed, the drones will preserve the identity of their particular hive.

How does Rushton Farm support a bee population? Among other crops and flowers, we recently planted 600 wildflowers. Wildflower planting is important because the variety of flowers attracts birds, butterflies, bugs, and other wildlife. The farm also relies on the bees to pollinate the crops. Without honey bees, the beautiful harvest below would not take place.

New Season's Resolution

It's here!  The first day of pick-up was today, at long last.  And Rushton Farm never disappoints.  Among other treats, three different kinds of lettuce, glorious beets (which went straight into a 425 degree oven to roast), robust broccoli, and, my personal favorite, garlic scapes.  As an added bonus, we got to see how beautiful the farm looks in advance of tomorrow night's feast.  Hope to see lots of you there!

Back to this week's share.  We are thrilled about the lettuce, as we love salads around here, but we sometimes tire of the same old dressing.  Our resolution this season is going to be to try some new flavors, to mix it up a bit.

We're going to start with this one.  A little spicy, a little tangy and far from ordinary.  Tonight, I am using garlic scapes -- such a fun ingredient and only available this time of year! -- but we will substitute one clove of garlic, crushed, and three spring onions, chopped, when scapes are not in season (or if you have already used them for a different purpose).

Spicy Ginger Salad Dressing
Adapted from http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2009/07/field_greens_with_red_chili_dressing

1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1 teaspoon tamari or soy sauce
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1 teaspoon agave nectar (or Rushton Farm honey would be lovely, too)
3 garlic scapes, chopped
1/2 teaspoon peeled fresh ginger, chopped
1 teaspoon Sriracha Chili Sauce (or equivalent)

In a blender, whiz until smooth (about 20 seconds).  Taste and season with salt and pepper, as desired.

Makes about 4 ounces of dressing, or enough to coat about 12 cups of greens.

P.S.  No one in this house is crazy about beet greens (anyone have a good recipe they would like to share?  I'm going to do some investigating, and I'm wondering if my new favorite cookbook, Plenty (Yotam Ottolenghi) might have some answers), but in the meantime, don't they make a gorgeous centerpiece?