Mid-June, the end of the strawberry season and many spring greens. This week the earliest sunrise of the year takes place and soon the longest day of the year will be here. It is also a transition time as far as harvests go. Longer maturing but cooler weather loving crops like celery, fennel, beets, and scallions will replace quick maturing cool loving greens.

Half of the fall brassicas will be planted in an area that has been fallowed in clover for the last three years with two helpings of compost. Grass was starting to make inroads so we began chisel plowing and disking a little while ago. I'm sure you're all aware of this, but grass and sod takes a long while to get rid of (unless you take a short cut and use something called herbicide). We don't use that stuff here so we have to think in terms of weeks and months for ground preparation. Now, though, we're rewarded with beautiful friable soil teeming with biology. I'm excited to see how the plants respond. It will be hard to beat last year's harvest of broccoli and cabbage. That was definitely a record for us. Speaking of harvests, the above ground portion of the potato plant looks incredible, especially after I was able to hill the soil around them. After an absence last year we're very much looking forward to a good potato haul. Of course, nothing in farming is guaranteed, but we'll at least enjoy their appearance for now. Oh, and a big THANKS to all the folks who responded and came out to help in the fields! This is community supported agriculture after all and it wouldn't be successful without your assistance.

Harvest #5 (Week A) should include scallions, kale, garlic scapes (for real!), butterhead lettuce, romaine lettuce, kohlrabi, fennel, summer squash, basil, endive, escarole, beets, and radishes. Some items will be a choice. U-pick should include dill, cilantro, snow and snap peas, perennial herbs, and the last of the strawberries.

Our next workshop is scheduled for Sunday, June 28th from 1 pm to 3 pm. Whether you want to share, need assistance, or maybe a little of both -- this workshop should have something for everyone.

This is a perfect workshop for members who are sometimes overwhelmed by the quantity and mix of veggies in the harvest, who find themselves using the same recipes time and again, or who just want to explore recipes other members have enjoyed.

Included will be:

If you have recipes to share, please make copies to bring with you. This should be a fun-filled, educational event and I hope to see you there!

We had an excellent turnout for our first workshop--twenty members were in attendance!

We spent a lot of time focusing on how to keep our share fresh. Core group member and recipe coordinator, Linda, makes a list of her share and posts it on her refrigerator and crosses items off as they are used. I try, and try being the operative word, to get my share prepped for use, immediately following pick up.

It was a really hectic week, but with all the delicious greens I made large salads of course -- I really don't get tired of them! Here are four things I did with our harvest:

Endive, escarole, and kale - using a large saute pan, I sauted onions and garlic and a few red pepper flakes; once these were nicely cooked, I added the kale and escarole and then endive. When these were barely wilted, I made a couple of "wells" in my saute pan and then cracked an egg into each well. I covered with a lid and cooked them until the top of the egg white was opaque. You want the yolk to remain runny. I then carefully lifted each egg along with greens onto a plate -- with a nice piece of toasted bread and the runny yolk making a rich tasting sauce, it was an easy delicious, one-pot meal.

Bok choy, turnips and turnip greens, and kale - made a large stir fry. I know it sounds like I am in a rut, but we really like stir fries and they work well with these great greens -- it is a simple meal to make during the week.

Summer squash and scallions - as I said in last week's newsletter, my favorite way to eat summer squash is to grill it. So on Friday we lit the grill! We cut the squash in half lengthwise, and brushed them with just a bit of olive oil. We grilled them until nicely browned and barely soft. We also put the scallions on the grill whole. Once nicely charred we cut the roots off the scallions and then cut them into about 1 1/2 inch lengths and mixed them with the squash -- drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper. Other things can be added like a sprinkling of cheese and/or herbs, but we just ate them as is -- such a nice harbinger of summer.

Peas - we made a ham and pea risotto using our ham from Ledemete Grass farm. We also added a few mushrooms that we had left from another dish.

Enjoy the harvest and let me know how you enjoyed yours at lindadansbury@Comcast.net. Please put Anchor Run in the subject line of your email.

This week I received a couple emails from members -- thank you! Yesterday was also the first of our workshops and Gia did an amazing job organizing the open dialogue of about 20 members on how we eat and store our veggies. She also brought us snacks using bok choy, a veggie that is overwhelming several members. The stalks she used as you would celery, stuffing them with peanut butter and nutella; the leaves she used as a "wrap" filling them with kale pesto. All great ideas for using your bok choy. A few hints I learned yesterday:

Two new crops this week demonstrate the transition of spring to fall -- both fennel and beets take longer to reach maturity, but are still considered cool weather crops. Here is a bit of info on each of them:

Fennel - also called sweet anise; this is a staple in many Italian and French dishes, most notably bouillabaisse. Fennel will look like it is storing well in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of the fridge, but starting around day 4 it starts to lose it's flavor. you will see how much more pronounced the flavor of our CSA fennel is vs the fennel you purchase in the grocer store. Try slicing fennel thinly and put on a sandwich for an interesting twist. Fennel takes awhile to cook until it is tender -- braising is a good way to go if you prefer it cooked. A couple of recipes on the website that I like are: Shaved Fennel Salad with Parmesan cheese and the Lentil Salad with Fennel and herbs. Lentils and other beans such as white beans and chick peas are wonderful companions to fennel. Another one is salmon -- and in searching I see that there isn't a salmon and fennel recipe on our website, so I am going to work on that for next week.

Beets - Over the years I have heard many people say that they never liked beets until they had them from the farm and I would tend to agree with this statement. A couple important items to know for when you get your beets home: cut the tops off, leaving about 1/2" or so of stem and store the leaves separately as you do other greens. Do not throw the tops away. They are delicious and can be used in place of many other greens in recipes, including spinach, chard and bok choy. The reason for removing the tops is that they pull moisture and minerals out of the bulb -- by removing the tops you preserve the sweetness and tenderness of the bulb. The bulb will keep for awhile in a plastic bag in the fridge, but I know my first beets won't last long. Some excellent recipes for beets featured on the website that I like are: Roasted Beets with Beet Greens, Roasted Beet and Beet Green Risotto (it is a beautiful pink -- guests will be leery at first but it really is delicious), and Chocolate Beet Cake -- so moist and yummy. Next week I will talk about my favorite beet salad.

Enjoy the harvest!