Week 2 Harvest

Hello Everyone,

This week's harvest is just around the corner. In it, you'll find:

Salad Mix

Rhubarb

Herbs

Bok Choy

Radish

Nettle

If you are unfamiliar with nettle, please read this next post very carefully!!

Preparation of Nettle: Do not handle the fresh leaves with bare hands- the hairs on the fresh leaves have a stinging property which is dispelled with cooking or steeping. Enjoy nettle tea to boost your immune system by pouring boiling water over the loose leaves in a mug and allow to steep for 5 minutes. Also good added to soups. Nettle has similar flavor as spinach and is rich in vitamins A and C, iron, potassium and calcium.

Here are a few recipes we thought you'd enjoy...

Stinging Nettle Soup 

from Allrecipes.com

Original recipe makes 5 cups

1 pound stinging nettles
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 white onion, diced
1/4 cup basmati rice
4 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil with 2 teaspoons of salt. Drop in the stinging nettles, and cook 1 to 2 minutes until they soften. This will remove most of the sting. Drain in a colander, and rinse with cold water. Trim off any tough stems, then chop coarsely.  

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat, and stir in the onion. Cook until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rice, chicken broth, and chopped nettles. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Puree the soup with an immersion blender, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Stewed Rhubarb

Nourishing Traditions

6 cups rhubarb, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 TB freshly grated ginger

½ cup water

½-3/4 cups honey

Place rhubarb, ginger and water into a pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer to cook about 1 hour, stirring occasionally until rhubarb disintegrates.  Stir in honey to taste.  Serve with whipped cream or sweet cream cheese:

1 cup cream cheese, softened

3-5 tablespoons honey

Place cream cheese and honey in a food processor and blend well.

Stir Fried Bok Choy with Ginger and Garlic

from thefoodnetwork.com

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

8 cups chopped fresh bok choy

2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

Salt and ground black pepper

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook 1 minute. Add bok choy and soy sauce cook 3 to 5 minutes, until greens are wilted and stalks are crisp-tender. Season, to taste, with salt and black pepper.

First CSA Harvest!

Well, the day has finally come! Our first CSA harvest will be tomorrow, June 20th. We will be harvesting basil, lettuce, bok choy, radishes, chard, and herbs for you all. Please make your way on up to the garden to see our progress, and to pick up your box between 4 and 7 pm.

Our garden beds are all finally fully planted, thanks to the hard work of our stellar crew:

From top left: Emily, Montana, Tyler, Molly, Wendy, and Melisse

This week brings transition to the NOLS Farm as Wendy has moved on-- taking some well deserved time off to enjoy the Alaskan summer. Also, we have a new member of our crew, Rebeca, who has been with us for 5 days now, and will continue to help us for the rest of the season.

Here are some shots of the PLANTS!

Our greenhouse plants are finally getting big!

Some of the bok choy in our greenhouse.

Our newest plot where the peas and beans live...finally growing tall enough to meet their trellises soon.

And here's a picture of our main fields, finally all planted.

  In other areas of the farm, we have expanded our family to include 30 little chicks that we will raise for meat for the students and staff at the NOLS Alaska kitchen...

and 5 happy pigs who are helping us out by eating some of our food scraps! We are selling pig shares, so if you're interested in purchasing a whole or half pig in September/October, contact Melisse for more information.

We are so excited to meet everyone, and hope that you'll have a little time to hang out and see what's happening on the farm tomorrow.

In your boxes you'll find:

lettuce

radishes

basil

herbs

chard/kale mix

bok choy

Since it's still pretty recent since we've put the majority of our plants in the ground, your boxes will be smaller these first few weeks. But never fear, soon enough we will be up to our knees in veggies! We will post some recipes on the blog, so be on the lookout for them under the recipe tab.

Thanks and see you soon!

The NOLS Garden Crew

Plants in the ground!

Hey everyone,
We've finally put some plants in the ground in two of our smaller plots: carrots, beans, peas, lettuce, kale, beets, herbs, celery, and more.

A peek into our cold frames, full of beautifully colored lettuces, just waiting for the planting day.

The structure on the left was built two days ago, to give us some more protected growing space for those crops that need it. We planted our cucumbers, bok choy, lettuce, celery, and more in it.

Plants in waiting...

So many flats of little plants ready for the field!

More pictures to come in the next week as we (cross your fingers) can put these plants in the soil where they belong!