Hello Farm Members!

In this week’s box:

Beets and greens Broccoli Sugar Snap Peas!!

Lettuce Garlic Scapes Basil

Kohlrabi Radishes Cilantro

We are so excited to have the peas this week! We’re sad to see the strawberries and spinach go, but wow! The peas! We cannot walk by the row without helping ourselves to a couple to keep us going on to the next job. Tess, our black lab is the same. We find her picking peas right off the vine and munching them. It’s definitely one of her favorites! These are sugar snap peas, so pop the whole things into your mouth- shells and all!

Speaking of the peas, I need to take a minute to give a shout out to my work-share members! We are SO lucky to have such great members who come out and work each week of the season! Jobs like picking peas take many, many hands to get done. We can double the size of our crew when we are picking peas, beans, strawberries or anything else that is especially time consuming. We couldn’t do it without them! They’re also the first to come when I need extra help with anything and all have become really great friends. Thank you work-share members! Our community is stronger because of you! (And the boxes much fuller!)

Today we had the St. Croix County Family Resource Center come out for a field trip. Families with young children got to come out and pet the horse, chase chickens, feed the pigs and tour the fields. They also spent some time picking and eating peas! It’s always fun to bring little ones and their parents out to the farm. We’re grateful that the St. Croix County Family Resource Center works with us to share out little slice of heaven with others.

Saturday’s on the farm have begun this month. The primary way we sell our produce is through the CSA. You are the reason we do what we do. However, we know that CSA doesn’t work for everyone. We also know that diversifying keeps us more financially stable. I used to try to do a couple of farmers’ markets, but it just got too hard to leave home, when there was so much work to do at home, plus I missed my kids. So a few years ago, we started doing a mini-farmer’s market at our farm on Saturday mornings. 8am-1pm. We do these every July- September. In your box you will find a card with all the info. Please share with someone who is not lucky enough to have a share or come on out yourself! You can always get a little extra of something or- don’t buy anything. Just come out and enjoy the farm! If we have green beans available (There will be some in about 2 weeks and for many more weeks after that!) farm members can come any Saturday morning and pick for free.

Mina, our visitor from Norway is a delight. She’s inspired Claudia to try a Norwegian dish for the fair’s foods judging. Next week is the St. Croix county fair! Malcolm has made some Strawberry Rhubarb jam and is taking his Maple Syrup. Jonas has legos and is working on a foods item as well. Claudia is getting her calves ready, some dehydrated food, some Rosemary-Strawberry jam, some art and much more. I’m sure we’ll have much to share about that next week.

If you are not, please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Claudia does a fantastic job with the Threshing Table Farm Instagram account and I do alright with the Threshing Table Farm Facebook page. The Facebook page has a great story about our rogue chickens who took quite a trip!

Storage:

Beets/radishes: Remove the greens. Greens can be used in salads or cooked like spinach, collards, etc. (Radish greens are spicy!) Remove for long-term storage. Store leaves in covered bowl in fridge. Roots can be stored in the crisper drawer.

Broccoli: Open plastic bag in the crisper drawer

Kohlrabi and garlic scapes: Crisper drawer

Basil and Cilantro: Put in a glass of water in the fridge.

Kohlrabi and Broccoli stalk salad

1lb broccoli stalks and kohlrabi bulbs, combined

**Peel broccoli stalks and slice 1/8 inch thick.

Peel and slice kohlrabi into bite size pieces.

Place in bowl.

Make dressing:

2 T. Soy sauce or Tamari

1 T. vinegar

1 T. olive oil

1/2 tsp. toasted sesame oil

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Mix and toss with broccoli and kohlrabi. Chill. Sprinkle on 1/4 cup chopped cilantro and serve.

Roasted Beets

Preheat oven to 450. Line baking dish with aluminum foil

Remove greens, and place beets in dish. Cover the dish tightly with foil.

Roast beets for 45 minutes. Check beets to see if they are fork tender. If not, turn them and roast longer.

Remove pan from oven and let sit/cool until cool enough to handle. Rub beet skins off under cool, running water. Slice or dice beets and enjoy! (Add a little butter and salt- yum!)

Happy eating!

Your farmers-

The Lenz’s!

July 3rd, 2B

Hello Members!

In this Box:

Rhubarb Broccoli Spinach Lettuce

Strawberries Garlic Scapes Kale Chives

Welcome to “B” members who are picking up for the first time this week, and welcome back to those of you who are on your second week. Thanks for your flexibility as you are picking up a day early to avoid the 4th of July holiday.

This has been a really busy week on the farm! We’re thankful for the rain, but we are really hoping things dry out a little bit soon. We’ve been able to work most of the harvesting around the rain, but rain gear really came in handy for some of it. Thankfully, there was no lightening or high winds during harvest time. We are also really behind on weeding. The rain is helping the weeds to grow while keeping us from getting to them.

Last week Wednesday, we started our morning with a visit from about 40 Taher chefs. Taher Food Service purchases CSA shares from us for their chefs who work around the Twin Cities area. However, they have chefs all around the country. About 40 of these chefs came to the farm as part of a seminar to learn about vegetable farming, our relationship with Taher and most importantly, how they can go home and find a farmer in their area to work with. It was a fun day and a lot of learning happened. (And with that many chefs around, there was some really good food too!) It’s so exciting to think of the impact that these chefs can have on their local food system if they reach out to farmers around them.

We left the chefs around 1 and headed to Madison. Clauida, our oldest, has been begging to host a 4-H youth from another country for years. This is the year we finally said yes. Mina, is a 17 year old from Norway. She is here to spend 3 weeks with us and experience a little bit of America. So far she’s seen the Mall of America, several ice cream shops, Willow River, our farm, a neighbor’s farm, a bit of Stillwater and more. They don’t have much down time, but when they are here, we are enjoying learning about Norway. At 17, Mina is in a high school where she is learning to be an electrician. Our community just keeps getting bigger!

Things in the field are growing quickly! New this week is the broccoli and chives. Next week, the boxes will look even more different. I think this is the end of the spinach and rhubarb, and possibly the strawberries- but we’ll see what next week brings. We will be seeing kohlrabi, swiss chard and summer squash coming soon, just to name a few.

Demulling’s strawberry patch was compromised by the polar vortex of February. (I’m sure you all still remember that weather!) So there won’t be extra berries to sell this year. We’re thrilled we are able to enjoy the ones in the boxes.

Storage:

Broccoli and Rhubarb: Crisper drawer, in a plastic bag for longer storage.

Greens: Rinse well in salad spinner and store in a covered container in the fridge.

Strawberries: In fridge

Scapes and chives: Crisper drawer

Kale and garlic scape pesto

• 1 bunch kale, stems removed, roughly chopped
• 3 or 4 garlic scapes, roughly chopped
• 1 and 1/2 cups toasted walnuts
• 1 lemon juiced
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt or to taste
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (optional)

Instructions

1. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Stir in the chopped kale and cook for approximately 4 minutes, or until the kale has softened and turned bright green. Immediately transfer the kale to a colander and thoroughly rinse it with cold water, then let drain.
2. Add the garlic scapes to a food processor, and pulse until finely chopped. Add the walnuts and pulse again.
3. Add the lemon juice, blanched kale, optional nutritional yeast, and sea salt, and continue to pulse until the kale is finely chopped, stopping to scrape down the sides and gently stir the mixture as needed.
4. If using the olive oil, slowly stream it in while blending. Adjust seasoning to taste.
5. Leftover pesto will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week, and also freezes well.

Rhubarb Salad dressing

• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups sliced rhubarb
• 2 cups chopped fresh strawberries
• 2 Tblsp. chopped chives
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 3/4 cup olive oil

In a medium sauce pan, stir together honey and water. Bring to a boil and add rhubarb, strawberries and chives. Continue to boil for another 5 minutes, stirring often. Reduce heat and stir in vinegar and lemon zest. Simmer for 10 minutes or until reduced by half and rhubarb is tender. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Place mixture in the bowl of a food processor along with the Dijon mustard and process until smooth. With processor running, add the oil in a steady stream. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or cold on your favorite salad greens.

Have a great Independence Day and Happy eating!
Jody, Mike, Claudia, Malcolm and Jonas