Here is a great article from the Boston Globe this weekend on Kale
What a beautiful harvest this morning! And make sure you check out the kitchen garden. It's weeded, and loaded with lots to pick for your recipes.
Here is a great article from the Boston Globe this weekend on Kale
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Last week while squishing those darn Colorado Potato Beetle Larvae, one got a direct hit into my right eye. I mean, the entire inside of this bug went inside my eyelid and onto my eyeball. It was not pretty.
After standing in disgust and surprise for a second, staring at a smeared 50 cent piece of the guts on my shirt, I ran up to the house to douse loads of water on my eye. My husband stared blandly at me, and commented, "Don't you think you are being a bit overdramatic?" Ugh! This was gross, I couldn't help it! I then gathered my courage, and went back out to the field to harvest some summer squash, only to find I was having a bit of trouble seeing and my eye felt very strange. I made my way back up to the house to have a closer look at my eye. Staring back at me in the mirror was a picture of some horror show! The white part of my eyeball had swollen up and was threatening to envelop the iris of my eye. The nurse on call at my doctor's office, suggested that someone should probably take a look at it. So I drove myself to the ER (at this point, the kids were in bed, and someone had to stay with them). Finally, a little after midnight, I headed back home with some lovely steroid/antibiotic eye drops to be used every 4 hours while awake for 4 days. I spoke with other local farmer's the next day and yes, they had all experienced the eyeball squirt and one relayed a story about the guts making it right into his mouth. Unfortunately, for me, I had some sort of allergic reaction to larvae bug guts hitting my eye. Go figure. As for now, the beetles have slowed down their chomping of my potato plants, and the ones that are still out there, are welcome to continue feasting. I am taking a break from diminishing their population. In case anyone was wondering, I closed the farm stand down for a couple of weeks, because of slow traffic. It was difficult keeping the greens fresh, especially with the heat.
It is now open again!! We have lots of summer vegetables that don't wilt so fast in the heat. Come check us out. The summer vegetables are here!! On the list today we have broccoli, summer squash, kale, beets, turnips and mixed greens. And holy moly, I think we will actually have green peppers next week. They are growing by leaps and bounds. It's unbelievable that they will be ready to harvest before the tomatoes. They are so happy in this heat. The work share, Wendy McCormack, will be helping water and harvest those multiplying squash this weekend. Feel free to stop by and take advantage of the Pick Your Own veggies as well. We have: Sugar Snap Peas Shell Peas Kale Spinach and lots of herbs! Also the zinnias look just about ready to pick for cut flower arrangements in your home. Just lots of pictures to share in this update. I'm busy out tending to all the crops!
Colorado Potato Beetle Larva The farmer, Kate Donald, from Stout Oak Farm (formerly from Willow Pond Farm) taught me a great deal about farming. The day she announced, "Today we will be squishing bugs," my nose instantly scrunched up and I thought, "Hmm, I don't do that." She did at least give me the option to wear gloves, or pick them off and step on them, or drop them into a bucket of water. I chose gloves and proceeded to watch in amazement as Kate, fearlessly squished a multitude of bugs with her bare hands. This is the day I knew what it really took to be a farmer. I am proud to say I have been able to move on to squishing a few bugs with my bare hands. I can handle cucumber beetles and adult colorado potato beetles no problem. I don't even think twice of putting them between my index finger and thumb, and giving a good squeeze. I still have my limits though, and I have some room to grow before I call myself a "real" farmer. I still have to use my foot to step on cut worms, and cabbage loopers. A good rock does the trick as well. And I fear people will worry about my sanity, if I reveal my method of eliminating a tomato hornworm. The insect that is haunting me right now, is the colorado potato beetle larvae (see picture above). They are covering my potatoes right now, and I end up spending a good 30 minutes every week, lowering the population. I can not bare to enter into the potato patch without a thick amour of gardening gloves. I think next time I will add face mask and sports glasses, because today, two of them squirted me right in my eyes. Now I have friends that will be completely appalled by this blog, and a Buddhism practicing cousin who studies with the Dali Lama, who I'm sure will have other definitions of who may be a real farmer, but in organic farming, if you want your crops to survive, squishing bugs is a perfectly reasonable farming regimen. So if anyone would like to become a "real" farmer, come on over. I've got some bugs to squish! Kale Chips Pickpocket Farm has A LOT of Kale this season. It's beautiful and it's growing great. Now what to do with all the kale? Here is one of our favorite recipes, Kale Chips. I swear they taste just like potato chips. Ingredients: Kale, chopped in 2 inch size pieces Olive Oil Salt Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss the chopped kale on a baking sheet with a very small amount of olive oil drizzled on top of the leaves, just enough to lightly coat each leaf. Spread the kale out on the baking sheet, salt, and bake for about 10 minutes. Flip the kale with a spatula a couple of times while baking until crisp. Another great recipe is from Rachael Ray, Kale Gratin with Pancetta, which uses lots of kale and tastes great! You can also make it with bacon.
Ingredients
Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a deep skillet or pot, add the kale and salt and cook 5 to 6 minutes; drain and dry the greens. Return the skillet to the stove over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil and pancetta. Crisp the pancetta and add the cream and garlic. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper then reduce 7 to 8 minutes to about 1/2 to 2/3 cup. Add cooked greens to cream and stir to coat evenly. Transfer to shallow casserole. Toss with breadcrumbs with the remaining 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. Season the crumbs with salt and pepper and combine with cheese. Place the casserole on the second shelf under broiler and brown breadcrumbs and cheese for 5 minutes. BASIL It's been a great growing year so far. I hesitate to say this, because of the last few difficult growing years, but everything is growing so fast and beautiful. I have even spied some sweet bell peppers and okra starting to form. Some of the pictures shown below were taken a few days ago, and I swear the plants are already double their size! Now two groundhogs were caught sneaking in the fence and devouring a large amount of lettuce. They have both been caught and relocated to the same secret location, so they can happily live out their groundhog lives together. We will probably be short on lettuce the next few weeks because of them, but more lettuce is growing out in the field. We'll see if it does well through the up coming hot spells of summer. If anyone would like to try out my food out at the local restaurants, Toot Sweet just opened up in Hampton and is selling delicious fresh food from the local farms. Chef Ted McCormack is cooking up breakfast, lunch and dinner from 7am - 7pm, Tuesday through Saturday. The address is 32 Depot Square, Hampton, NH. (603) 967-4696. Tomorrow morning he is hosting a special Crepe breakfast topped with fresh local berries. YUM! |
AuthorAudrey Gerkin, is a gardener gone wild, after teaching in special education and raising 3 beautiful girls, ages 5 - 10, she has found a new calling in farming. Archives
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