Organic abundance

Confusing weather.

I'm not gonna lie, I am tired. Even up on this hill, it has been hot and swampy and last night put us over 25 inches of in 2 weeks. It's an excellent time to remember that climate change is real, and, frankly, it sucks. The Mid-Atlantic, usually an ideally temperate region for growing vegetables from Long Island and to Richmond, is rapidly falling prey to prolonged bouts of weather extremes. This recent continual deluge and the 50 day mini-drought that preceded it are sadly just the new normal.

And it's because of problems like this one that we are very proud to have just received our USDA Organic Certification! Rodale Institute's research suggests that transitioning all of America's agriculture cropland to organic best practices would offset 40% America's TOTAL carbon emissions. Transitioning all of our cropland and pasture would offset 130%, effectively reversing the negative climate impacts of all the cars, trucks, power plants, and landfills in the country and then some.

To be sure, the requirements of the Organic logo are not as robust as they could be, especially in certain areas like poultry and egg production. Nor is buying organic foods produced thousands of miles away necessarily better than purchasing non-certified local crops. However, we wanted to participate because the label is the best thing we have. If we do want to turn America's cropland organic and protect our climate, air, and waterways, there's particular strength in organizing under one clear, recognizable, and trustworthy brand. As much as we are pleased to see the Organic logo on our products, we are just as proud to lend our name along with growing thousands of other small, regenerative farms to ensure the label keeps its strength and meaning for years to come.

We're certifiable!

Time of plenty

Wet as it may be, it's still August, and August is a time of plenty. We're eating something like 2 tomatoes and a cantaloupe per day. Plus, we're up to our eyeballs in snap beans. It really is fortunate that at this busiest time of year, we get to enjoy the fruits that require little, if any, preparation. For the record, I (Bryan) like my cantaloupe salted or with a little cottage cheese, and heirloom tomatoes are best on toast with a little mayonnaise.

For those of you who don't have to harvest until your arms fall off though, this is also a great time to avail yourself of summer's abundance and save some for later. We've added a few "bulk" item listings this week (tomatoes, tomatillos, snap beans, and cucumbers) for those of you so inclined. We hope to have all these listed for several weeks to come, so no need to rush all at once. With a week's notice, we can also order you your own half-bushel crate of peaches (24 lbs); please email us if you are interested.

But what should you do with them? Personally, I used to love canning. Then after managing about 400 quarts of tomato sauce per week for a few summers, I'm more inclined to freeze our bounty these days. Whichever way you save it though, I just highly recommend that you do it (and that if you're canning, go get some good canning pliers first). Below are links to ideas for the 4 bulk items we've put up. Experiment with your favorite flavors though. 

Salsa Verde (I prefer a sweeter roasted salsa verde like this, but look up another recipe if you're more into tomatillos' fresher, more sour flavor)

Sour Pickles (You'll get an even crisper pickle that keeps longer if you throw in some flavorful tannic leaves like grape, oak, or horseradish, too. We just so happen to pack a few horseradish leaves with your bulk bag of cukes.).

Dilly Beans (A personal favorite. If you manage to not eat them all this week, they'll also keep forever.)

Roasted Tomatoes (My favorite canned tomato product is the roasted tomato. Roasting makes an already delicious thing taste even more... that. Plus I find it a more convenient way to remove the skins than the ice water bath method. In short, I've just never been disappointed that the bag of tomatoes I pulled out was roasted first.)

Thanks as always for your support and have a lovely week,

Bryan and Jo

It's All Happening

Tomato town!

It's All Happening

Vacation spot - Manchester-By-the-Sea, MA

Hi everyone! We're back from our vacation and have found a bounty of summer vegetables! Last week we were up in Massachusetts for my family reunion - our 17th year together in this special place by the ocean. We felt very lucky to get to spend this time away from the farm and feel revived in body and spirit (and we miss the ocean dearly!) 

Now with holidays and vacation complete, we'll have regular deliveries for the rest of the season. Thanks for bearing with us during this month of irregular scheduling, and generally while we work out kinks in our systems and get our feet under us during this CSA season. You guys are great!

So, remember when we were begging for rain? Well, we sure got it. It was pretty surreal getting updates from our friend and farm sitter - it was non-stop rain here while we had sunny beach weather up north. This July started off as the second driest one on record, and in just a few days it became the second wettest. The main thing its led to around here is weeds. So many!!! It also keeps us from doing larger-scale harvests of crops like carrots and potatoes. But hey, for now we're just excited about tomatoes and sweating our faces off in this humid weather. Maybe it's just the vacation talking...

Fall transplants, ready for the field

What We're Eating

Elote Corn

Ain't nothing wrong with a dish that involves cheese and garlicky mayo. We made this at our family reunion and it was a big hit! 

Recipe from The Noshery

• Vegetable oil for brushing
• 6 ears corn, shucked
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• ¼ cup sour cream or Mexican crema
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ cup queso fresco or cojita cheese crumbles (we used cojita)
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ cup finely chopped cilantro
• kosher salt
• lime wedges

1. In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, sour cream, and garlic. Mix until well combined, set aside. Spread cheese crumbles on a plate, set aside. In a small bowl combine chili powder, cayenne paper, and 1 teaspoon salt, set aside.
2. Brush grill grate with vegetable oil. Heat grill to high heat. Place corn directly on the grill. Grill corn, turning occasionally until cooked and lightly charred, about 10 minutes. (We did more like 5 minutes because our corn is so delicate and tender)
3. Immediately brush the corn with mayonnaise mixture. Roll corn in cheese crumbles sprinkles with chili powder mixture and cilantro. Squeeze lime over corn and serve immediately.

Bryan caught a mess of fish, though alas, none of the requisite "keeper" size (prounounced  "keepah" in Massachusetts.)

Thanks everyone!

- Joanna & Bryan

Sunny Daze

Taters on taters on taters on taters!

Sunny Daze

Hi folks! 

Hope you're enjoying more sunny weather! We're so glad it's cooling off at night again so that we can cool down and recharge. And unlike most folks in the summertime,we're not thrilled about all this sun. We'd need about 4 inches of rain to get back to where we need to be, and so far only have small showers in the forecast. But, we have a great irrigation system, and feel very lucky to be able to keep our plants relatively hydrated in these dry times. 

We also harvested for one of our biggest orders ever this past week. We were in a deep potato fog by the end of it, but it was very exciting to see all of these rainbow new potatoes leave the farm at once! We look forward to many more potatoes as the season progresses - try some this week, we think they're phenomenal!

We've also been enjoying the tastes of summer this week - corn, fried green tomatoes, the first of our sweet peppers to name a few. I think I said this last week as well, but it's still so fun having such a bounty of vegetable choices each night when we go to make dinner! 

Walking around, sussing things out.

What We're Eating

Fried Green Tomatoes

While we're waiting for our favorite summer veggies to ripen up, we'll continue to enjoy fried green tomatoes! Bryan made these for us on Thursday following essentially this recipe. As a non-gluten person we used only cornmeal as breading - it didn't stick super well, but it was incredibly tasty anyway! 

Recipe adapted from Pinch and Swirl

Ingredients

• 3 medium green tomatoes, about 3/4 pound
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• pinch ground cayenne pepper
• peanut oil or other high heat oil, for frying

Instructions

1. Slice tomatoes into 1/4-inch thick rounds.

To Make Breading Mixture:

1. Whisk egg and buttermilk together in a shallow bowl.

2. Scoop 1/4 cup flour onto a medium plate. 

3. To a second medium plate add remaining flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper and cayenne; combine thoroughly with fork or small whisk.

To Bread Tomatoes:

1. Dredge a tomato slice in plain flour, shaking off any excess; dip in egg mixture; dredge in cornmeal until evenly coated and transfer to plate. Repeat with remaining tomato slices.

To Fry Green Tomatoes:

1. Line a plate with paper towels; set aside.

2. In a heavy skillet (ideally cast iron) heat 1/4-inch of high heat oil to 375°. (It's important for the oil to be very hot to keep tomatoes from absorbing it. Be sure to reheat between batches!) Carefully place tomatoes into hot oil and cook 1 1/2 to 2 minutes per side, until golden brown. Transfer to paper towel lined plate (keeping tomatoes in a single layer so they don't get soggy). Repeat with remaining tomatoes. Serve hot. 

Caramelized Shallots

We're topping everything with caramelized shallots! This includes fried green tomatoes, any chicken dish, burgers, toast, and hard boiled eggs. They're like an onion only better - richer, more flavorful, deeper. Follow these cooking tips to get perfect caramelized shallots every time (the key is patience, unfortunately!) 

Reminders

There will be no CSA pick up on July 25th, so order this week to stock up!

Please return your waxed boxes! Better yet, bring a reusable bag with you when you pick up your share, and leave the box at your pick up location.

Sun makes us sleepy!

Have a great week!

- Joanna and Bryan

Summer on Blast

Panting in the heat!

Summer on Blast

Hi everyone! Hope you had a fantastic July 4th holiday full of fireworks, friends, food and family. We got to spend time with a bunch of our farmer friends, which is so important to our sanity and well-being. It helps us remember that other people are also making mistakes and trying new things, and that everyone is also hot, sweaty and mildly delirious. We've been a bunch of hot doggies in this unseasonable heat!

There are lots of fun new summer vegetables that are ready to harvest and eat this week. It's exciting to see them all on our farm for the first time. Last year we grew only a few crops in mass quantities so that we could harvest and sell them all at once. It's so fun having bits of everything instead! It makes me feel much more inspired to cook, even on hot droopy nights. It really does feel like the peak of summer bounty is right around the corner.

We have been lacking in rain in the past couple of weeks, so keep your fingers crossed for us. We like to watch thunderstorms roll in on our front porch, and lately we've been watching them roll right by...Luckily, we have a great irrigation system that helps keep the plants hydrated during dry times. While it serves its purpose, it's no substitute for the real dealio - we need some real rain to help loosen up the soil and stimulate the soil microbes that will break down our mulched up cover crops. 

So, as usual, it's a mixed bag of things going right and things going wrong, but hey, we can't control nature. It's deeply humbling and I (try) to feel grateful for daily reminders of this, even when it comes in the form of deer eating our hot pepper plants because they're thirsty (of course it was the fancy hybrid ones, only the most picky deer in these parts!)

As always, glad to have you along for the ride!

What We're Eating

New Potatoes with Pesto

Photo from NYT Basil Pesto recipe

I don't eat pasta, but I'm really into eating pesto. Solution = put pesto on everything else. Lately that includes our new potatoes! We lightly boil the potatoes (wash them carefully - their skin is super delicate) until they're fork-tender and then drain them. Then we cover them in homemade pesto and eat the heck out of them! Because the potatoes are so creamy, stirring them with the pesto breaks them down a little bit and creates a sort of "sauce." It's divine.

Here's our go-to pesto recipe:

1 or 2 bunches of basil

Lots of parmesan cheese (or nutritional yeast)

Handful of walnuts

1-2 cloves garlic or a few garlic scapes

Salt and pepper

1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Adjust proportions to taste and to get desired texture. Put on top of everything!!

Bryan loves rainbow carrots!

REMINDERS

- There will be no pick up on Wednesday July 25th

- Don't forget to return your used boxes. Better yet, bring a reuseable bag with you when you pick up your share - that way, you can leave the box there!

- Check out all of the different "Departments"/"Stores" on Small Farm Central - there are often new items in each one each week!

Thanks everybody!

- Joanna and Bryan

Happy July 4th!

Remember there will be no CSA pick up this week due to the July 4th holiday. But we'll be back next week with fun new items! In the mean time, enjoy some fireworks! 

Cheers,

Joanna and Bryan

Out with the old...

We're now offering bouquets! Find them in the new "Flowers" department in your store.

Happy Solstice!

Hello, friends. It's been another exciting week on the farm as we pass the Solstice and officially proceed into summer. Summer always feels to me like a parade of new flavors, textures, and sights, each more delicious and refreshing than the last. As each fruit or vegetable passes us, there's always something new and exciting coming into the spotlight, and one more just coming into view. For me, Winter is marked by consistency and the comfort of tubers, squash, cabbage, and salad. By contrast, this procession of summer treats ends up helping to mark the passage of time, and serves as a reminder to savor the moments of summer as they come.

On that note, this week, we're saying goodbye to several items passing their prime, and welcoming some of the first telltale fruits of summer. In addition to zucchini, squash, cucumbers, and basil, we're also very pleased to again have salad--both lettuce and tender brassicas--hardier "braising"/ stir-fry mix, as well as delicately tender rainbow carrots. We're trying some new practices and varieties this year to try to offer a variety of salad greens for as much of summer as possible alongside our usual summer fare. Right now, they're absolutely perfect.

Lettuce is back!

What We're Eating

Rainbow carrots are a feast for the eyes and taste-buds.

While many veggies are marked by their seasonality, sorrel is one that we can enjoy year-round. It's especially perfect and refreshing as we start to face off against the hot and muggy days of summer. Raw, sorrel's sour lemonade flavor something most people either love or hate. However you feel about it though, you should definitely try it cooked, which like rhubarb moderates its bite. It's used especially often in French cuisine, with sorrel soup a culinary standard, and creamy sorrel sauces pairing especially well fowl and seafood (or wild mushrooms). You can find recipes for each here and here. Our fresh shallots would be perfect in place of onions in the first. The soup is also excellent chilled, in which case you should follow that recipe the same, then chill for two to three hours before serving, stirred and garnished before serving. (As a side note, I love that linked blog, where you can find the perfect recipe for most any rare, foraged, unusual, or seasonal ingredient.)

Carrots are another seasonal staple great for beating the heat. Ours are tender and sweet no matter how you cook them, but to best enjoy those lovely colors try them raw or poached. I only learned about poaching carrots recently, but it came as a revelation. Rainbow carrots are best sliced into large rounds, split lengthwise, or left whole. Simply cover with water in a pan, bring to a simmer and poach for 8 minutes or until fork tender, then remove from the pan. Then keep simmering the liquid until reduced by 3/4, and it will become a sweet, syrupy carrot sauce. Whisk it together with olive oil, an acid, and any desired spices or herbs, pour over the carrots and serve. For an example recipe, see Michael Solomonov's recipe from the excellent Zahav cookbooks. Incidentally, this is my favorite cookbook, and the vegetable recipes in particular are creative and unique, while remaining simple without relying on expensive or uncommon ingredients.

Enjoy!

Sunshine!

Melons in the high tunnel are coming along!

Sunshine!

We've been marching along this week, checking things off, and getting the farm looking ship shape! All of the crops are very much appreciating the sun, as are we, in our souls. Bryan finished seeding all of our dry beans and black eyed peas, which is a grand experiment for us (we're calling it the great bean-speriment, go figure.) Bryan can tell you more about this endeavor later, but we're both glad that phase 1: "plant lots of beans" is complete. 

And our super fun summer crops are shaping up, with teeny tiny bell peppers on the plants and little green tomatoes on the vines. We're very excited to see them!!

Announcements

We've decided that there will be no CSA pick up on July 4th, and we will not reschedule it to another. Please plan accordingly and stock up ahead of time for your holiday grilling!

Also, I (Joanna,) mixed up a couple of things in the boxes this week. Many folks may have gotten white bok choi when they ordered green, and blue collards when they ordered white, vice versa, etc. This was my fault and I apologize! We're still working on perfecting our CSA packing system. We'll make sure to get everything straight this week, and sorry for any confusion.

What We're Eating

Bok Choi Kimchi

We love kimchi in this family, and it's so easy to make yourself! We look to Sandor Katz and his epic book Wild Fermentation as our fermentation text book. His encouraging style of "just go for it!" makes us feel like fermentation is possible, fun, and delicious. Here's his guidance for making kimchi.

Here's a video of Sandor on kimchi.

- Cut and brine bok choi (overnight)
- Add garlic, ginger, scallions and other vegetables as desired
- Mix in chili powder and other seasonings as desired
- Fill jars with kimchi mixture and seal tops
- Release gas from jars after 24 hours, then reseal jars
- Store in a cool place for a few days or weeks

And here's a more specific recipe if you're seeking further guidance.

Sometimes the summer is just a little too much fun (not our diet soda, for the record.) 

Hope you have a great week!

- Joanna and Bryan

In which we finish our summer plantings

As Dolly Parton would remind us: you can't have rainbows without the rain.

Carrots will be here soon with just a little more care and nurturing (and weeding).

Today--or really yesterday, I suppose--we enter a new chapter in the 2018 season. With just about a mile of various winter squashes seeded in the field (and rained in this afternoon), we have officially wrapped up planting our summer crops! Now it's just times to lay out in the lawn, go fishing, and watch the crops grow...

Of course, that's not exactly true, but this does mean a major transition in our schedule and our attitude toward the work. Spring and summer come almost all at once, and with them a mad dash to get as many crops as we can in the ground as quickly as possible. This can induce a certain madness in a farmer's work. Wet springs like this one only compound the craziness, demanding we work 12+ hour days every time we get a spell of sun. As any seasoned farmer will tell you, a successful fall requires an early start (we begin seeding fall transplants in two weeks and plant out in mid-July), but this in between time is when we get to take a deep breath, take it all in, clean the house, and, yes, maybe actually go fishing.

It's also the time of year when we really transform into stewards of the land and our crops. Instead of flying by with a rototiller, drip irrigation, and a prayer that it'll all work out, we can address pest and weed issues in our fields, and manage our veggies to a healthy, mature harvest. There's a certain satisfaction that comes with daily watching tiny green tomatoes get tantalizingly closer to red, or seeing the tassels develop on our sweet corn. It's also the time of year that we can slow down and notice the clouds of fireflies that grace our fields every night. I guess that's all to say, I am very thankful June is here in earnest.

Heirloom blue collards

Brassica oleracea two ways

Ok, I'm going to come clean here. I don't love kale. (This is Bryan writing, by the way. Joanna loves kale.) It's not that I dislike it. I'll even acknowledge that kale has played an outsize role, alongside tomatoes and strawberries, in the sharp rise in demand for farm-fresh produce over the last couple decades. I just worry its astronomical popularity might come at the expense of its humbler cousins, my favorite greens: collards. So this week I thought I might use this tiny soap box here to play the role of collard booster.

Collards belong to the species b. oleracea var. acephala, same as kale. Basically, the cabbage relatives that don't make heads. If they can survive the bugs of summer, and cold of winter, they are technically a biennial and will flower and produce seeds after growing in warm weather, enduring a spell of cold, and then entering into a second period of warm weather. The Greeks have been eating collards for at least 2000 years, and today they enjoy popularity everywhere from Indian and Pakistan, to East Africa, to perhaps their most famous home in the American South. Even if you haven't loved the collard greens you've had in the past, I recommend you give them another shot because they really are a green for every season. They're tender in the spring, sweet in the fall, and one of the only greens that will survive a Maryland summer.

And the more familiar "Georgia" collard.

The classic US collard recipe is stewed with smoked ham or turkey neck. Everyone has their own recipe for this, but my preferred method is to brown a smoked ham hock and some onions and garlic in a Dutch oven, cover with water and simmer for a couple hours with bay leaves and mustard seed to create a nice broth, remove the hock, pull the meat and return to the pot, and then toss in a couple pounds of chopped collards for the last half-hour or so. The key if you go this route is to cut out the ribs from the leaves and only stew the greens near the end. They'll still get super tender, but they're best and most nutritious when they're still an iridescent green.

But I recognize that old standard isn't for everyone. For what it's worth, the best collard greens I've ever had were at Stubb's Barbecue in Austin, Texas. Here's the recipe they give on their site for a quicker-cooking braised green that had all the rich hearty flavor you'd expect of something that spent all day on the stove. In any quick cooking collard recipe, the secret is to chiffonade. This technique leaves beautiful ribbons of your desired thickness and, like slicing a steak against the grain, removes any possible hint of toughness you might associate with collard greens. For tenderness, I'd put a chiffonade collard slaw up against a kale salad any day. I also love a simple collard sautee that relies on the chiffonade. Just mince a clove of garlic ahead, make relatively thick collard ribbons, about a half-inch wide, sautee the greens with salt and olive oil for 5-7 minutes until they start to release their juices and glow, then toss in the garlic, stir, and cook for an additional minute, remove from heat and serve immediately. Pure early summer heaven and a great showcase for a very humble green.

 

 

 

Come see us at Dylan's Oyster Cellar on Thursday night!

And a last note, friends: We're excited to have our produce featured alongside delicious oysters and WildJune gin this Thursday at Dylan's Oyster Cellar from 7-11. Event details here. Drop by, get some class food, and meet your farmers. We'd love to see you there!

New beginnings

Getting some perspective on this big ol' farm we've gotten ourselves into. From foreground to background: oat and pea cover crop (before winter squash), potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and greens under white row cover off in the back.

Why CSA matters!

With their green, sweet crunch and delicate flowers, few crops are as emblematic of Spring as snap peas. 

Hi, friends. It's finally here! The new CSA season is upon us!

This is an especially big moment for us and we're so happy to have you all along. When you're starting a farm, everything is an experiment, more or less. Often this means growing three or four near identical varieties of collards and seeing which you like best. Other times it means trying out a new growing system, tool, or crop in the hopes it will improve our offerings, our efficiency, or our bottom line. Basically we're always stepping out on a limb--some are just bigger and higher than others.

Then it comes as no surprise that starting this CSA is also an experiment and a risk. When we started Good Dog Farm in 2016, we knew we needed to focus on large plantings for wholesale to make the most of our limited time while we both still worked full-time jobs. However, we always knew that we really wanted this farm to feed people. We also knew that we needed to diversify into the cornucopia of wonderful vegetables our region can support. We needed to diversify both for reasons of personal sanity and taste, but also as a hedge against the large risks that come with large plantings of single crops. It turns out this volatile and unpredictable Spring has been a master class in the merits of diversity. So we stepped out onto another limb. This year, we decided to expand our CSA into the summer season, to plant several acres of diversified wonderful spring and summer veggies, and to hope that this new type of CSA appealed to new potential customers as much as it appealed to us.

From where we're sitting today, we couldn't be more pleased with the result. We are just tickled that all of you decided to take a little risk yourselves and trust us to grow your produce this year. For one, it would have been been a bit like throwing a party and having no one come. More importantly though, your choice to come along with us is helping take some of the risk out of farming, and your participation is an increasingly vital part to our business, our lives, and our little local environment up here in Hereford. We really want to offer a sincere "thank you" for that, and we also would like you to know that we take our responsibility to live up to your trust seriously.

Spring snacks

While Spring weather is rarely predictable or consistent for farmers, the tastes we all hunger for in spring seem regular as clockwork. As the world turns green around us, the best flavors are fresh, tender, crisp, and sweet. We have a lot of spring offerings at the moment. Some will be fleeting (strawberries, radishes), while others will be with us for another month at least (asparagus, collards). In the excellent cookbook Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden, he suggests that one begin each season by enjoying produce as fresh and raw as possible, and as that starts to lose appeal, then to step up the heat and try for more inventive recipes. We definitely agree with that thought around here, and it lends itself especially well to the first, bright morsels of Spring. It goes without saying to enjoy our strawberries and snap peas as raw and as quickly as you can, but we encourage you to spread the wisdom around beyond the usual suspects. Since we're stealing his advice here, we might as well steal a recipe or two as well, so here's a wonderful recipe for a raw asparagus salad to the left. But really, buy that book! It's an excellent and methodical walk through how to enjoy the best vegetables through each season and is therefore a wonderful CSA companion.

And on the other end of things, even in this season of beginnings, we are already reaching the end for our radishes after two May spells of daily highs in the 90s. Be warned, these radishes are hot, but don't let that scare you off just yet. We are currently in love with another of Mr. McFadden's recipes that mellows their flavor and brings out their more tender, sweeter side: the quick pickle. Simply remove the tops (or not), cut to desired size (or not at all), place in a clean jar, top with the mixture listed below, and store in the fridge. As he sagely advises, they're ready when you like how they taste (just 2-3 days for us).

Radishes, as brightly colored as they are flavorful!

Quick Pickle Brine

• 1/2 C rice vinegar

• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar

• 1-1/2 C hot water

• 5 tbsp sugar (or less, to taste)

• 1 tbsp & 1 tsp salt 

Thanks again, and happy eating! See you next week!

With the great rains over...

Strawberries, a tantalizing preview of thing's to come.

It was certainly refreshing, nearly disorienting, to wake up to sunshine this morning. Many of our summer plants in fact wilted flat down onto the ground having grown so unaccustomed to direct sunlight. All told, we actually only got about 4-and-a-half inches from this most recent system, but we had another 2-plus from the succession of thunderstorms last weekend and Tuesday evening. In any case, I'm sure farmers around the region will remember the great "tropical moisture" of 2018 for years to come. Or maybe, as some predict, this is an extreme taste of the new normal for mid-Atlantic springs.

But for us, right now we're only thinking about making up for lost time. We are on an especially tight schedule with the bulk of our largest plantings (a half acre more of the usual summer crops, 1 acre each of sweet potatoes, winter squash, and watermelon, plus 3 acres of dry beans) all still in front of us. We aren't behind yet, but another storm or two could sure put us there. One things for sure though, we are definitely glad we decided to take a week off CSA deliveries...

Looking ahead

Speaking of which, Reminder: we will not be doing a CSA delivery next week. Our availability has reached its spring ebb, and we look forward to coming back strong June 6th with all the usual suspects plus NEW greens, NEW strawberries, NEW snap peas, with cukes, squash, and green beans close on their heels. In the meantime, if you'd like to stock up on some Good Dog produce, might I recommend our radishes, garlic scallions, and bok choi, all of which compliment each other very nicely and will easily last the break in the fridge.

New Item: Shanghai bok choi is fresh, crisp, and ready to store in your fridge for 2 weeks while you await the new CSA season!

What's in a name?

Have you ever wondered about which words to use to describe the perfect, adorable, fresh and flavorful green vegetable so often found in delicious pickles or on top miso soups? Botanically, it falls within the species brassica rapa, the non-waxy brassicas, along with other subspecies turnips, Napa cabbage, and rapini--as contrasted with b. olaracea (cabbage and kale), b. juncea (mustard greens and mizuna), and raphanus raphanistrum (the radish). 

Throughout sinophone Asia it is most commonly referred to as 青菜 (Mandarin: qing cai) or "dark-green vegetable." In Cantonese, this is pronounced cing choi. So whence "bok choi," "pak choy," and the other variants? These are in fact romanizations of the Cantonese pronunciation of the characters of another b. rapa vegetable, 白菜. Directly translated as "white vegetable," this word can refer to 大白菜 ("big white cabbage," aka Napa cabbage) or 小白菜 ("small white cabbage," aka white-stem bok choi). As these hardier, longer growing varieties hail from northern China and Manchuria, they are sometimes contrasted with 上海白菜 (Shanghai bok choi), aka the lovely, tender "dark-green vegetable" available to you this week, which originated farther south in the Yangtze River region.

As the above adventure in transliteration might hint, there are a dizzying number of Chinese names for vegetables that we might broadly lump into a few categories of Chinese cabbage, bok choi, and Asian greens. This diversity of names betrays a vast culinary wealth of vegetables ranging from those best enjoyed raw or lightly poached (like today's Shanghai Bok Choi), to those that need a few months smashed into a clay crock to be enjoyed. Americans are becoming more aware of this rich diversity each year, and we will be growing a wide variety of some of our favorites throughout the season, especially some that are remarkably well adapted to our climate. We'll also be providing culinary suggestions for many of them. So for starters, here is a great primer for three basic techniques on how to best enjoy the mosty tender and overcook-able greens. I recommend you try them all!

Happy eating and see you in two weeks!

Bryan and Joanna