Week 10 Half Way

The share this week includes broccoli, tomatoes, chard, onions, fava beans, marjoram, basil, shallot bulbs and kale.
I've been exploring the assortment of squashes that are beginning to develop both male and female flowers. Interestingly the summer zucchini's produce females right at the start while most of the winter squashes start with the males and them start developing female flowers. Why does any of this matter? Seed saving and pollinating adventures.
We also successfully harvested a collection of heirloom brassicas that included purple top turnips, brussel sprouts and an incredibly large and tender heirloom kohlarbi. These much anticipated seeds involved a 2 year investment and surviving the winter. All three are really solid performers in our garden's temperate days and cool night growing cycle.

This week's local food recipes

Fava Bean Hummus and Cherry Basil Vinaigrette 

Shell your beans. Boil for 5 minutes. Add to food processor with

2 tablespoons tahini

a dozen marjoram leaves

splash of lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 of water
tsp of capers

salt to taste

Cherry Basil Vinaigrette

1/2 cup Basil leaves

1 tblsp lemon juice

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

5-8 flathead cherries 

salt

Puree. Pour into bowl for dipping.

Serve with your favorite french bread torn into bite size pieces

We dressed up the heirloom romaine, cherry tomato and nasturtium flower salad with the vinaigrette and spread the hummus over a toasted cheese bread.  

  

Week 9 Montana Garlic

We started the final round of transplanting squashes, tomatoes and tomatillos today and pulling the ripest garlic in the spiral patch. This is one of our best garlic crops in the last 7 years thanks to the sometimes tedious but well worth it prime bulb selecting. The scapes left to develop into bulbuls are about to unravel into their full splendor. We walked the maze a few times today before unearthing the garlic gems. We're retaining the spiral maze for the next round of crops as it's one of the most peaceful areas in the garden to walk through.

This week we're heavy into dehydrating garlic scapes and making kale chips for the winter and freezing batches of pesto.Chop and freeze scapes- you'll thank yourself for the extra effort now when food between the 20th parallel north and south is the primary option in a Montana winter.

 This weeks food share includes broccoli, kale, garlic scapes, chard, peas, basil and bunching onions. Anyone interested in extra bags of stir fry bundles, heirloom romaine lettuce, chives, marjoram, scapes, lemon balm, comfrey, edible flowers or borage? This abundance is available for pick up this week.
***For those of you new to storing basil it does best on the counter in a cool place. It will blacken and melt in the fridge.***
Enjoy another beautiful week in Montana!

Week 7 Heat Wave and Week 8 Garlic Pesto

The warm weather crops are loving this weather especially the night time lows in the 50's. This is the earliest year the tomatoes are starting to turn. And can you believe we didn't watered during the heat wave? Highs in the 90's and the mulch is doing it's job, lettuce isn't bitter and we're saving water in the inter-mountain west. We've gone from 3 times a day to not once in the 7 days since it rained. Sustainability at it's finest.

We've been cutting and wrapping garlic scape bundles in between eating homemade Strawberrry-Coconut Ice Cream. Each garlic bundle makes 2-3 batches of pesto. They are great on pizzas, in stir fry, grilled and juiced. We have pounds and pounds of tender garlic scapes available to choose from by the bundle or pound. They freeze great so if you'd like to eat garlic pesto anytime during the year-YES! plan ahead and contact us for pickup or 5$ delivery. We also priority mail order in flat rate boxes.

Last weeks share included a stunning heirloom salad mix, stir fry bundles, heirloom red celery, garlic scapes, kale and herbs. This week we're enjoying kohlrabi, heirloom salad mix, kale, garlic scapes, herbs, bunching onions, strawberries, stir fry mix and snow peas.