CSA #4 (6/17/25)
This is the time of year when in addition to all the other farm tasks, there is weeding, weeding, and still more weeding to do!
But thanks to the efforts of many hands working many hours, the fields are looking good. The summer crops are coming along nicely, and the spring crops are holding up for now, so enjoy all the peas and lettuces while you can!
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In Your Share This Week
Garlic Scapes - These have a very short season, and it's now! Read more about them in the Food Notes below.
Red or Golden Beets
Broccoli -- There will likely be enough for everyone at all CSA locations, but if not, some locations may get broccoli and others kohlrabi. Or it may be that everyone gets both broccoli AND kohlrabi, depending on how much of both are in their prime and ready to harvest tomorrow morning. Be sure to read the signs and take what they say to take!
Sugar Snap Peas or Snow Peas — Peas are a cool season crop, so enjoy them now! My niece made a lovely fresh sugar snap pea salad with goat cheese and mint yesterday. You can find similar recipes online, or just munch them as they are, sweet and crunchy!
Lettuces - Again this week, it is likely that there will be 2 big heads for each person!
CHOICE of Italian Parsley OR Dill -- No matter which you choose, we encourage you to make a flavorful and versatile pesto to use on toast, crackers, rice, or pasta. You can use any basil pesto recipe, substituting your dill or parsley for the basil. You may also substitute whatever cheese or nuts you have on hand for what the recipe calls for.
Food Notes: Garlic Scapes
GARLIC SCAPES appear at the cusp of the green garlic and mature garlic stages. The hard neck varieties of garlic send up a seed head or "scape” that shoots straight up from the roots, through the middle of the bulb, and three or more feet into the air. As the garlic matures, the scapes dance and bend in graceful arcs and curly-cues. Soon they will straighten and harden into tough, unappetizing stalks. But right now, while still curly, they are tender and provide a delightfully subtle garlic flavor in salads, soups, stir-fries, and more.
Here are a few ideas of simple things to do with scapes.
sauté in butter and olive oil
add sliced scapes to any stir fry recipe
make garlic scape pesto
slice and sprinkle over any pasta
great in guacamole and fresh salsa
chop & add to softened cream cheese
saute and the add eggs and scramble them up or make an omelet
good on bruschetta or pizza
an excellent addition to stocks
Happy (early) Summer Solstice!
On the Summer Solstice this Friday, the sun (sol) stands still (sistere). Or so it appears from our earthly perspective, going to its northernmost point in the sky, pausing briefly, and then beginning its slow pendulum swing back to the south.
Why does the solstice matter? Different folks will answer that question differently, but on Henry's Farm it marks the longest day, meaning the most minutes of sunlight, meaning the most solar energy to power all the plants -- vegetables and weeds alike.
For a clearer sense of what the summer solstice means to Henry, here are the first and the last 3 paragraphs of an essay he wrote many years ago.
. . .
I may not be a solar-powered being, but during the growing season I am definitely a solar-activated being. The sun pulls me gently from bed a little earlier each morning and lays me sweetly down a bit later each night. Today is the Summer Solstice, and that means I awoke at 4:15 in the morning and wasn’t chased back home by the darkening sky until nine in the evening.
. . .
But today, on this longest day of the season, I like to stop long enough to think my thanks to the sun for bringing me this far, to the plants for their self-nourishing ways by which they nourish me and all my fellow heterotrophs, and to all those who eat what I grow and thereby allow me to do what I love to do: grow Good Food, which I define as food grown in a manner that is good for me and my family, good for all who eat it, and good for the soil, air, and water that nurtures and nourishes it.
As the season flows from Summer Solstice to Autumn Equinox, each day I will race to keep up with those unraveling balls of string I set a-rolling with the planting of each seed, trying to nudge them down the paths I choose. I will sweat in the hot sun. I will surf the strong current of the river of the seasons until the autumnal equinox when night finally overcomes light, when I will once again pull my bark upon the bank to catch my breath.
But for tonight, at least, as dusk’s shadows draw down on the longest day of a long season, I can sigh a little sigh of relief that tomorrow the sun will let me lie in bed in the morn a minute longer and send me to bed at night a minute sooner.
Read the original CSA Food & Farm Notes here.