A Week of Dry Miracles

There was sun, it was beautiful, I hope you also are enjoying the good weather. We got our wish of at least 4 dry days and I have been madly tilling and planting.

I start every day by walking around the whole farm checking things out. I take notes, root out slugs, log the weather, and identify any pest problems. This week, I rambled by a few spots I haven’t check out in a while and was very happy to find shiitake mushrooms have been soaking up the rain and fava beans have been defying the calendar. I did a whimsical late February/early March planting of favas that have been really turning into monsters with the weather, they love it.

On my walk through the farm there were positive signs of good things to come:

Lots of kohlrabi

Good looking romanesco broccoli

The real sign of summer this week, squash blossoms.

This Week’s Harvest

*  Shiitake mushrooms, grown on a variety of mediums at the farm: straw, alder chips, and logs.

*  Fava beans – usually an early spring treat, I planted some of these guys in late winter/early spring more as a cover crop than anything else. Well, it was cold and wet enough to get a crop out of them! Please note: some people have a genetic condition that results in fava “allergies” or favism. It’s rare but real.

* Scallions – evergreen hardy bunching onions

* Kale – white Russian variety

* On rotation – new potatoes. This week full shares will be receiving new potatoes. These should not be stored but eaten fresh this week. New potatoes aren’t cured in the sun and don’t store well. They are very creamy and very tasty. Half shares will see potatoes in the coming weeks as well.

Fava Beans

This might your first go at eating or cooking fresh fava beans. I love favas and used to eat them all the time for breakfast. Unshelled, fresh favas look like giant, bumpy string beans. They are 5 to 7 inches long and lined with padding on the inside that looks like cotton batting.

Fava beans have been a staple food for thousands of years in Asia, South America, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. For some reason, they just haven’t caught on in North America.

Molly Watson has a really good tutorial on how to prepare favas, most recipes call for a cup or two of cooked favas, this tutorial shows you how to shell the beans and gets you to the point of cooked favas for your recipes.

Personally, I don’t take of the thin membrane on the individual bean as Molly instructs in the tutorial. Some people insist they must be peeled, I like the texture of the shell and leave it on.

Recipes for the Harvest

Simple Italian Fava Salad

1 cup coked favas
1/4 c grated pecorino cheese
olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, hot pepper – experiment with your own preferred ratio of ingredients to your tastes

Toss, plate, eat.

Fava Spread

Boil, mash then mix in salt, lemon, minced garlic, dash of olive oil, and spread on crusty bread or crackers

Ful Mudammas

The national dish of Egypt.  Favas are called “ful” (pronounced fool) in Arabic. I lived in Egypt, Jordan and Israel off and on for several years and while I was there this was breakfast every day in every single one of those countries. A plate with a bowl of ful and a bowl of hummus is loaded up with with pita, tomatoes, cucumbers, hard boiled eggs and goat cheese, it was the most fantastic thing every single morning.

There are a ton of ways to prepare this using dried, canned, and fresh favas. I like to use fresh when I can:

1 cup shelled fava beans
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt
cumin
lemon juice
minced garlic
minced onion (optional)
parsley (optional)
tahini (optional)

Bring a quart of water to boil in a pot. Add the fava beans and olive oil, partially cover the pot, and boil over medium heat for about 30 minutes, or until the fava beans are tender and can be squeezed out of their skins. If you like, add a teaspoon of salt during the last few minutes of cooking. Be careful not to overcook, or the interior of the bean will be mushy rather than intact.

Drain the fava beans, coarsely mash and add the remaining ingredients (I go heavy on the olive oil, lemon juice, and tahini for a thinner consistency).

This Week’s Harvest

We have a very lovely late spring harvest for you this week. It includes a few ingredients you may not be familiar with or have had a chance to work with before. Let’s start with Escarole.

Escarole is a type of endive that is incredibly versatile. It can be eaten fresh or cooked, used in everything from salad, pasta, and soup. Escarole is very bright green with broad outer leaves that get progressively smaller towards the center of the head. A picture pre-harvest of the escarole you will be receiving (escarole on the left, frisée on the right):

Escarole is really unique in that it provides various degrees and of flavor as the outer leaves are removed. While the outer leaves are a dark green, peeling back a layer will reveal a lighter shade of green. As more layers are peeled back, the leaves continue to lighten in shade. As the shade of the leaves lightens, the degree of bitter taste also lessens. The result is that it is possible to use different layers of escarole to achieve the taste you want with the dish you are preparing.

Next in the harvest that may be new to you is bunched pea shoots. We’ve included the young shoots as a salad ingredient in past harvests but this week you will receive a large bunch of pea shoots to work with. They are fantastic fresh or absolutely delicious stir-fried with sesame and ginger.

Finally, we have some nice baby cabbages that are really lovely grilled if you will be taking out the bbq this weekend. There is the Bacalan cabbage, a very old french variety characterized by its arrow shape, and we also have baby Bilko napa cabbages.

Enjoy!

What you will find in this week’s share:

* Strawberries!!!!!!!!! We have a good harvest this week and will be spreading the love in all the shares. Berry shareholders will also receive their first berry share this week in addition to the pint included in half and full shares.

* Escarole

* Cabbages – Bilko and Bacalan varieties. You’ll notice some of the baby napa cabbages have a little raab or flowering going, this is due to the longer days we’re entering and the flower is really delicious. To be eaten and enjoyed!

* Mixed greens

* Bunched pea shoots

Recipes for the Harvest

Escarole with Bacon and White Beans

*  2  bacon slices, chopped
* 1  cup  chopped onion
* 1  garlic clove, thinly sliced
* 6  cups  chopped escarole (about 2 [8-ounce] heads)
* 1  teaspoon  sugar
* 1/4  teaspoon  salt
* 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
* 1  (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
* 1  (16-ounce) can cannellini beans or other white beans, rinsed and drained

Cook bacon in a large saucepan over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan with a slotted spoon, reserving 2 teaspoons drippings in pan; set bacon aside. Add onion to drippings in pan; cook 12 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add escarole, and cook for 2 minutes or until escarole wilts, stirring frequently. Add sugar, salt, pepper, and chicken broth; cook 15 minutes or until escarole is tender, stirring occasionally. Add beans; cook for 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Sprinkle with bacon.

Simple Escarole and Beans

Saute a small handful of chopped garlic in some olive oil. Add red pepper flakes and coarsely chopped escarole — saute till wilted. Add beans (we use chickpeas), capers and some brine — heat through. We served over whole wheat pasta with a side of baked carrot fries, but this would be fantastic over brown rice or stirred into a simple Parmesan risotto.

Cabbage Curry

Ingredients:
Cabbage (1 medium)
Peas (1 tea cup)
Mustard seed
Cumin seed
Salt
Turmeric

Recipe: Cut cabbage to your desired size and add turmeric and salt. Mix it properly and keep it aside for 20 minutes. Keep a vessel on the heat and add oil to it. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, cumin seed and urad dal. Ones it is properly done, add cabbage and peas. While adding cabbage, squeeze out the water out of cabbage (adding salt would draw the water out of cabbage). Let it cook for 10-15 minutes string occasionally and add water if required. Once you are through, can also add grated coconut if you like. You can have this cabbage curry with rice or chappati.