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Spring Planting and Three Sisters

5/27/2019

 
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​Harvests have been lush!  Even though it's been hot, the early fields of greens still look great, with broccoli and cauliflower on the way!
 
We've been planting a lot!  With the days still getting longer with the summer solstice just three weeks away, the rush is on to get as much as we can in the ground. In mid-May, we direct seeded carrots, arugula and turnips.  This week, we used the new vacuum seeder to plant sweet corn, okra, dry beans and sorghum.  (See photos below). That was about 1.5 acres total.   We also planted an acre of winter squash: butternut, spaghetti and delicata.   This last week was very hot and dry for us, so got the irrigation system up and running a little earlier than usual to water to get those seeds to germinate, especially the ones planted in mid-May.  So the unexpected rain on Sunday was perfect timing for the vegetable fields!  

It was really fun to use the vacuum seeder and think of all the people who contributed to helping us get that this year. It made that work so much quicker, and will be such a boon come weeding time! It also is wonderful to be doing this work for such a supportive community.  Thank you!

On Sunday, we also had our annual "3 sisters" planting of corn, beans and squash.  We plant heirloom seeds that have been shared among friends and passed down from generations past.  The corn is rainbow colored... white, red and purple kernels to grind into cornmeal to make cornbread. We plant this as a community patch, where folks from Sustainable Agriculture Louisville come out to work together for the planting. We plant by hand, the old-fashioned way. The "3 sisters" work together in a symbiotic relationship.  The corn grows tall, the beans climb up it, and the squash covers the ground with a ground cover to shade out the weeds. There are one or two weeding days before the winter squash leaves cover the ground, but once they are established, we don't have to do much else to it until harvest time in October or November.  On harvest day, we share the bounty with who is there. What is harvested from this patch is never for sale, it's only meant to be shared. It's a special tradition we've been doing for eight or nine years now. On Sunday, we were finishing the very last row when the rains started. It felt like such a blessing on our little community, and the work we had just completed together.
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Cooking Ideas: What to do with greens?

5/27/2019

 
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​My CSA Farm Share bag is full of greens! What do I do?!!
Lacinato kale, red Russian kale, Swiss chard, collards... oh my!  How do I go through all these greens in a week? (or two).

Here are some ideas!

Kale salad!
De-stem kale, chop small. Massage dressing (vinegar, oil and a little sweetener) into kale. Add accents.
Dressing idea: balsamic vinegar, olive oil, a little maple syrup or honey. Shake in a jar to combine, then pour over raw kale.  After you massage the dressing into the kale, let sit for about an hour before serving. This helps begin to break down the kale making it easier to digest.
Accents: I really like dried cherries and sliced almonds.  Other options include: sliced strawberries, pine nuts, feta cheese, green onion or garlic scapes, raisins ... you can get creative

Big Pot O Greens
Destem all the kale and collards in your box (or you can do two separate pots). Throw it in a giant pot. Add one to two inches of water. Cook about ten to twenty minutes. Serve over beans and rice.  Each person can season to their tastes. Options include: vinegars, nutritional yeast, sesame seeds, coconut aminos.
Leftover greens from your pot? Form into balls, freeze on a cookie sheet for 1-2 hours. Then put into storage bags for insta-greens in the winter.

Greens sauté
Use onions and garlic scapes as a base. Sauté in olive or avocado oil. Add chard stems (chopped small). Cook about 5 minutes. Add de-stemmed, chopped greens. Kale first. Cook 1-2 minutes. Then chard. Cook an additional 1-2 minutes. Season to taste.

Quinoa salad
This is a good basic cold salad. Base is quinoa and a legume, like chickpeas. From there, you really can do anything. This time if year, I would cook the chard stems with the garlic scapes and base of the green onion. let cool and add. Cut chard into ribbons and add raw. Or cut collards into ribbons, cook and add. In a week or two, add roasted broccoli, cauliflower, carrots or beets. Add chopped green onions. Add feta. Toss with some good vinegar. Voila. Lunches for the week.

Soup
Start with good, homemade bone broth. Add any veggies you want. Dinner is served.

Tips for Cooking with Kids

5/2/2019

 
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Kids love to help. They love to help in the kitchen, in the garden, on the farm and in basically anything you’re doing. (Even feeding baby chicks!) It can be hard to concentrate when you’re pushed for time and just want to get things done. It’s been hard for me to come around to this, but I’m starting to think that encouraging them to work alongside me is better for both of us then sending them on to play! I admit, it’s been hard for me to come around to this. I’m slowly learning, working together can be a fun way to connect and will lay the foundation for them to meaningfully contribute to the household and community when they get bigger. Here are some tips I’ve learned so far as my kids join me in the kitchen.
  1. Let go of making something perfect. If you really want those muffins to  be showstoppers - make them after bedtime. The point is to help your kids learn to enjoy the kitchen and have fun with you. This has been a hard lesson for me, and a constant act of shifting my thinking but well worth the shift.
  2. Be willing to change course.  My 2 -year- old wanted to add a peach to the veggie saute  I was making, and I let him. It was delicious! It wasn’t the dish I had in mind, but it actually turned out better with that bit of sweetness, and the kids ate their veggies that night.
  3. Get kid-friendly knives and kitchen tools. My kids got some serrated nylon knives for Christmas two years ago, and they love to use them to help... They can chop bell peppers, lettuce, kale, strawberries, grapes, chard, and more.  For harder sweet potatoes and carrots I pull out the peeler which suits them fine! They peel while I chop, and everyone is happy.
  4. Know where the food comes from. Kids are naturally curious, and the more they know about the food, the more likely they will want to help prepare it (and in turn, to try it!) You can grow a garden in your backyard, pull beans and cucumbers from the vine, and try them right away. Shop at the farmers market and introduce your child to your farmer. Join a CSA subscription program where you where you sign up for a box of weekly or biweekly veggies. Barr Farms offers a customizable CSA where you can set your preferences at sign up, and lots of flexibility with size and delivery options.  Many CSA farmers offer an opportunity to visit the farm and see where the things are grown. For example, we have an annual farm picnic  and treasure the tradition where the kids jump off the hayride to pick carrots.
  5. Let them experiment.  Often “I want to help!” turns into their own unrelated-to-dinner creation. Let them explore their creativity and learn what goes together and what doesn’t. Think of it as an experiment with a hypothesis, a test and tasty (or not so tasty)  results. My five -year -old started helping with dinner the other day and wanted to make a cake. He chopped walnuts; added raisins, a handful of potato chips, some chunks of cheddar cheese, and mashed bananas. I encouraged him to add a little flour since it was a cake.  We baked it in the oven, and it was surprisingly edible! He ate two pieces after dinner and was quite pleased with himself. It was an expensive and not-entirely delicious experiment, but he has talked about loving to cook since - which is worth the walnut investment in my book.
  6. Know what they can and can’t do, but still let them try.  When my two -year- old wants to chop sweet potatoes, I let him try (with the kid-safe nylon knives). I know the sweet potatoes are too dense for him to chop, but he’s two. He needs to do it himself to discover it’s too hard. I’m right here with him, though, for that moment just before tears and meltdown when I hand him the peeler.

With the tips above, you’re developing your kids’ curiosity, responsibility and independence and setting them for success in the kitchen and at the dinner table.

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    Author

    Rae lives and farms on Barr Farms with her family. She loves cooking healthy food, trying new things, deep conversations with friends, reading, learning and playing, especially with her three children.

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