The Weblog
week 19/2020
time for some heads to roll
no, no!
what were you thinking?
I was talking about lettuce!
we will attend Suwanee Farmers Market again next Saturday May 9th, 8-12
so there will be no veggie pick up on Saturday
what else is new?
kales and collards really are on their last leg now,
spinach is done, if you have not yet tried my summer spinach, lambs quarters, please do so,
lambs quarters are nutritious, mild greens, you can use just like you would spinach
and they will be around until frost kills them
looking forward to seeing you here or in Suwanee
your humble veggie gardener
Eva
week 18/2020
time flies!
only one more day of April.
We here in the garden barely notice the lock down, we work, work, work,
weed and seed, transplant and harvest in our own little bubble, getting plenty of workout without ever leaving.
a big THANK YOU to my garden helpers Judy, Aki & Erika, and my mom, of course
one should think this is all about getting work done, but it is not,
it is much more about human contact, however socially distant, in times of human isolation,
about chatting the time away while we get things done,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU
biggest news this week:
we will attend Suwanee Farmers Market Saturday May 2nd, 8-12
please remember Suwanee Farmers Market does not allow sales of cottage food items.
If you want to pick up jams, jellies or dehydrates at the Suwanee market,
please pre-order “for pick-up only”.
Is it OK if I am excited and scared at the same time?
This will be my first time and I have no idea what to bring, how much to bring, how to keep my greens from wilting,
please bear with Mom and me thru this learning phase.
not much else going on this week,
I finally put one of mom’s favorites on the market
she puts this powder in everything she would use veggie broth in, like bread dumplings, Gulasch, stir fries, … or plain water to make veggie broth
at home ‘Suppengemüse’ is a common item you get in every supermarket as a mix of fresh vegetables, containing a piece of celeriac, celery, lovage or parsley, a piece of leeks or onion greens, and always a carrot, tied together with thread into a bundle
usually not as pretty and fresh as this:
think you would want such bundles of mixed veggies for cooking broth?
I will offer for a while and go from there, fair enough?
what else is new?
more tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash planted
kales and collards are on their last leg, if you are a kale or collard lover, stock up now, both freeze well when blanched, for smoothies, soups, pancakes I keep offering kale powder.
looking forward to seeing you in Suwanee
your humble veggie gardener
Eva
week 16/2020
Good morning, ladies and gents
A week has gone by and I did not even try to improve my HTML skills.
Sorry.
But we moved a lot of logs. Last year’s pumpkin patch in the woods will now become sunny rows of crops. Seedlings planned for these rows are slowly getting big enough to transplant. So yes, things are growing. But they are growing slowly.
So what is new in the garden for calendar week 16/2020?
Let’s see:
Rattlesnake pole beans, yardlong beans, malabar spinach, zucchini and tromboncino,
the generation after next of beets, carrots and kohlrabi are showing.
Arugula and corn salad are ready to harvest next week.
Fennel, kohlrabi, celery and head lettuce will need another week.
the only thing ‘new’ and ready to harvest this week is spinach.
Carrots, spring onions, green garlic, deer tongue lettuce, mixed color leafy lettuce,
rainbow lacinato and curly kale, collards, Swiss chard, young beets, purple mustard
are still going strong, so are all of my herbs.
From calendar week 19/2020 on
Duluth Cottage Kitchen will spend Saturday mornings at Suwanee Farmers Market.the but?
Suwanee Farmers Market does not allow sales of cottage food items.
If you want to pick up jams, jellies or dehydrates at the Suwanee market,
please pre-order “for pick-up only”.
Special thanks to young Erika and to my old friend Judy for helping me tackle my many weeds.
your humble veggie gardener
Eva
so many people asked about this
CSA-style bag
What is a CSA?
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and refers to an arrangement in which individuals purchase a ‘share’ in a farmer’s crop ahead of time and receive a weekly delivery of fresh, local food throughout the predetermined time period. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Usually contents of the share is based on what is available.
In most CSAs, members pay up front for the whole season and the farmers do their best to provide an abundant box of produce each week. If things are slim, members are not typically reimbursed.
Now what about my “CSA-style bag of fresh vegetables, fruit, herbs from my garden”?
This works under the same principal, just without you committing for 10, 12, 20 weeks by paying up front. I would love for you to keep coming back and ordering another bag. You decide week for week if you want to purchase a bag and how big a bag of vegetables you want. I get to decide what exactly goes into the bag.
Does “for those of you, who like a little surprise, a cooking challenge or simply can’t make up their mind a CSA-style bag of fresh vegetables, fruit, herbs from my garden with a little extra added value” make more sense now?
In the CSA-style bag you get more vegetable for your money compared to putting the same vegetables into your cart one by one, but you do not get to choose what goes in. You may become more adventurous in the kitchen, trying new foods that you normally wouldn’t find at the store, or pick on your own, like dandelion, lambs quarters or tromboncino squash.
for reference: the picture above was this year’s very first $20-veggie-bag
Recipes
Please, share your recipes with me on the website, on the Recipes tab. We’d all love to know how you use your Duluth Cottage Kitchen produce and products, so we can try it too!
Italian lentil & kale soupMy version of this soup is more of a fairly smooth stew, not as liquid as you would expect for a soup, if you like it soupier just add more liquid.
ingredients:
a good handful small brown lentils
a dash of cayenne if you like spicy, use more
1 bay leaf
a couple of dashes of powdered garlic
a good pinch of dried summer savory
a handful chopped mild green peppers
1 onion, diced
1pt chicken stock
2 big handfuls of kale: curly, lacinato, rainbow, darkibor, whatever you have on hand, w/o stalks
a good blob of heavy cream or sour cream
salt
simmer all but kale and cream until lentils are getting soft, but not mushy, fish out and discard the bay leaf,
while the lentils simmer, heat up a big pot of salted water, boil, drain, blitz in food processor, to the consistency you like
combined lentils and kale, added salt only if needed
add cream at the table
We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!