Hi everyone,
We hope you all had a nice holiday weekend. The fireworks here in Pilsen are as much an auditory experience as visual, so constant that it sounds like a drumroll. It’s definitely an experience.
The shares this week usher in the peak season; sweetcorn, new potatoes, and peppers have arrived. Farmers that I’ve heard from are saying that the season is a full two weeks earlier than what is typical. Todd Nichols of Nichols Farm had this to share about the corn in our shares this week:
“Today we are both harvesting our first sweetcorn of the year and planting our last sweetcorn of the year. This is record early. It was planted record early and the temps have been good. Corn is a real measure of cumulative warmth. There is no doubt our climate is warming.”
While we are fortunate to be able to enjoy all this delicious produce early this year, these shifting conditions don’t bode well for predictability and stability in the future. All the reason to be building out robust and decentralized food systems.
For the recipe this week, we had initially intended to do Smashed New Potatoes and Garlic Mayo. New potatoes, however, are much higher in water content than their more common counterpart, old potatoes. Because of that they tend to keep their shape better, which is the opposite thing we want when smashing potatoes so when we tried to do it, it failed. You could still try to make smashed potatoes with these, just be sure to cook the potatoes fully before attempting the smash.
Instead, we’re just going to post the garlic mayo recipe which came out really nice and let you all decide what to dip in it (maybe the corn???). This is actually a vegan, tofu-based mayo, but don’t let that scare you away. It’s also convenient if the idea of eating raw egg weirds you out.
Hope you all enjoy the share!
-Ben
I’ve always found it easiest to have peeled garlic on hand. It’s a breeze that way to add a clove to just about anything you’re cooking. Peeled garlic from the store however (mechanically peeled and at the end of a long supply chain) is worth avoiding.
Broccoli and cauliflower are botanically just varieties of the same species, the same way granny smith and macintosh are varieties of apples. Brassica oleracea is the name of the species which also includes cabbage. Instead of being red vs. green like in apple, varieties of brassicas differ in the way the stalks, leaves, flower stalks, and flowers develop.
Another round of kohlrabi. Try out this kohlrabi slaw recipe from last year. For the slaw dressing, use the tofu mayo recipe from this week plus a little pickle liquid.
Also called Italian Beets these are striated pink and white. I like to call them the rosé of beets, right between red and gold. The color will bleed a bit when cooked, especially in a liquid. But shaved or shredded, it eats nice raw in a salad or slaw and retains the gorgeous color.
More summer squash! The other night we sautéed them quickly, added some tomato sauce and carrot-top pesto, and served alongside some fresh bread. Very tasty.
These are a fun variety of bell peppers. They have a thin purple skin with white flesh. It tastes more like a red bell pepper than a green one with fruity notes rather than grassy/vegetal. The purple color comes from anthocyanins which are water soluble so the color fade when you cook them.
This week we opted to give you the corn pretty much whole. That way you have the opportunity to grill the corn if you feel like it. Husk-on is our preferred way for grilling so that the corn can steam a bit. Soaking the ears beforehand will help keep the husk from burning, but we’ve trimmed most of the excess off so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue either way.
New potatoes are an early summer treat. Harvested before full maturity, new potatoes have a thin papery skin and should be kept refrigerated. While raw they have a crisp texture that reminds me of jicama, but cooked they are extremely creamy and keep their shape well which makes them perfect for potato salad.
Dutch kale sits right in the middle of the more classic curly and dino kales. With some frills, this kale hold on to sauces and seasoning, but it’s hardy enough to hold up well to sautéing.
Crisp, sweet and deeply carrot-y. A fun fact is that historically, orange carrots are the newest to be popularized with purple, yellow and even white carrots having been consumed for most of history.
Napa is the variety of cabbage traditionally used for kimchi, but it definitely isn’t a one trick pony. It does really well sautéed, or you can shred it and use it in a slaw. You can use it just about anywhere you would green or red cabbage.
