The Adamah Blog

Harvest Notes – Week 5 July 14th

Basil Its pesto time! We have been giving you small amounts of basil to use as seasoning but now the plants are big enough to make pesto sized bunches. Do not store basil in the refrigerator and wait until right before using to rinse it.

Garlic Scapes These are the last of the scapes! Consider using them in a pesto. Next week we will harvest the first heads of garlic so the shape of garlic in your cooking will soon change.

Summer Squash Choose from our three varieties of squash. The flying saucer shaped ones are Patty Pans, the green are zucchini and the yellow are yellow crookneck summer squash.

Kale With this variety, winterbor, you have now had a full tour of our kale patch. Next week we will start repeating varieties that you have already received. I’m sure you are all kale experts by now and you can cook this variety up just like the others or like collards. Store it in the fridge in a bag or in the crisper.

New Potatoes The small amount of early potatoes in your shares this week is a true delicacy. Most potatoes we eat are cured, meaning that they have sat in the ground for months to thicken their skins and increase their storage capacity. These potatoes are freshly dug and have not cured, thus their skins are very delicate and they will not store well. The creamy tenderness of these Dark Red Norland new potatoes is a real treat.

Parsley We grow this curly parsley in addition to a flat leaf variety that you will get in your shares in weeks to come.

Cucumbers Stave off this heat wave with cooling, hydrating cukes. Store in the refrigerator in a bag or crisper.

Sugar Snap Peas We didn’t have a great pea crop this year.  At first the seeds didn’t germinate so we reseeded.  Because they were seeded late they didn’t grow so well and our yield was very small.  We wanted you to at least get a taste of peas this season so we scrounged up what we could find.  Sorry it isn’t a larger portion but we think you’ll enjoy these are amazing raw snacks- better than candy. If they make it all the way home with you before being eaten, store in the refrigerator in a bag or the crisper.

Beets Last night, one of our Adamah Fellows roasted some beets simply with olive oil. They were so good that Glenn, the Adamah dairy apprentice, and I sat on the porch chatting and shoveling beets into our mouths one after another. You would have thought we had a big bag of potato chips in front of us! Don’t forget to use your beet greens, either raw in salads or cooked in other dishes. Store in the refrigerator in a bag or crisper.

Kohlrabi This homely vegetable makes up for its awkward looks with surprisingly juicy, delicious flesh. I eat a few raw kohlrabi a week so I’m partial to a simple preparation of biting right in but they are also delicious cooked. Their taste is somewhere between broccoli stems, salad turnips and apples. Store in the refrigerator.