Week 4 Harvest

Hello Everyone!
We hope you've been enjoying your summer! Can you believe that just a couple of days ago, we had our first real rain, since the garden has been put in??

Here are the contents you will find in your box this week:

Clockwise from left to right: Arugula, Kale, Vitamin Green, Tat Soi, Bok Choy, Chard, Hon Tsai Tai, Herbs,  Costata Romanesco Squash, and more herbs

We decided to give you LOTS of greens this week! You can stir-fry, steam or saute any of them, and they will add flavor and nutrients to any meal. In your herb bunches you will find:

Basil, sage, thyme, lemon balm, chives, oregano, and a newcomer...stevia. 

 This is what it looks like:

Though your leaves might be smaller than this image, you'll notice the difference when you taste it, it's sweet! Stevia has been used for centuries as a sugar substitute, but you've most likely seen it in powder form. We are currently experimenting with baking some banana bread using stevia leaves, instead of sugar. From what we've found, about 1 tablespoon of stevia extract equals 1 cup of sugar. A little goes a long way! It's been hard to find the equivalent in using the fresh leaves, but we intend to use just a couple of leaves in our bread, crushed up very fine, to see how it tastes. We'll let you know the results!! Until then, feel free to experiment with it yourselves, in iced tea or in pies and other baked goods. 

What else is happening on the farm these days?

The broccoli has been uncovered, and is very big! Hopefully we'll see some heads in the coming weeks...

a baby bell pepper has arrived,

the zucchini plants are starting to produce,

AND, we have lots of tomatoes in the greenhouse...cross your fingers that they start to ripen soon!

Enjoy your week's share of our farm produce, and thanks for supporting us! We hope that you're satisfied with your greens, and are as excited as we are for the new items we'll be adding soon. Please feel free to email Melisse at any time with any feedback you have concerning your box. 

Thanks again and see you next Thursday!

~Your Garden Team