June 6, 2024 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Garlic Scapes

 

What's In The Box

Rhubarb:  Don’t forget, rhubarb is an easy vegetable to freeze for later use. Cut it raw, into bite-sized pieces, and put it in a freezer bag. When you are ready to use it, pull it out and use it to make a pie or crisp, chutney or barbecue sauce, etc.

Salad Mix: Take advantage of this item, which we refer to as “nature’s fast food.”  Turn it into a quick entrée salad by dressing the greens with a light vinaigrette and top with hard-boiled eggs, leftover roasted chicken, nuts, seeds, and any other vegetables you may have available!

Pea Vine: Pea vine is a pea plant that is harvested while young and before it starts to blossom. The leaves and tender stems may be used in salads, sauteed or stir-fried, incorporated into soup, or blended into cream cheese or pesto. Sometimes the lower to middle part of the stem can become tough. If you find this to be true, remove the tender leaves and use the stem to flavor soups, stews, and broth.

Baby Bok Choi: Wash it well before use, especially the base where the leaves attach as there may be dirt in the lower ribs. Baby Bok Choi is a very versatile vegetable that may be enjoyed either raw in salads or lightly cooked. Toss it into a stir-fry, grill it, or add it to soup!

Garlic Scapes: Read more about this week’s featured vegetable on our blog. You’ll find scapes to be nearly entirely usable, up to the bulbil on the end which can be tough. They may be eaten raw, sauteed, grilled, roasted, or stir-fried, turned into pesto, marinades, and so much more!

Mini Red Romaine or Mini Boston Head Lettuce: As we continue with our spring collection of miniature lettuces, this week’s boxes will contain either mini red romaine heads or a speckled mini green Boston lettuce. Use these little lettuces to make a nice salad, add the leaves to your sandwich or wrap, or just use them as dipping tools to carry your favorite dip or hummus!

Green Curly Kale: This week’s kale is our very first harvest. The leaves are thick, yet still tender. Use them to make kale chips, add to soups or casseroles, or massage the leaves with a vinaigrette to make a raw kale salad!

White Scallions: These are the first of our spring-planted scallions. Trim away the very distal root end and use the remainder of the onion—both white and green parts!

Baby White Turnips: Enjoy these tender, sweet roots either raw or lightly cooked. Don’t forget to eat the green tops too! Add them to sauces, pasta dishes, soup, etc.

Strawberries: It’s officially strawberry season!! We have done our best to pick the berries and pack them in a pint after which they are taken to the cooler to remove any field heat. However, our berries are selected for flavor & yield potential, not for their ability to be shipped. We suggest you enjoy your berries within a few days of receiving for best results and be sure to keep them in the refrigerator!

CHOICE: Herb Packs (For those who did not receive one last week) You can read more about this years herb pack contents on our blog post from last week on our blog post from last week. This week we have sent herb packs for our Green Week Every Other Week Members, members who scheduled a flex box and did not receive an herb pack last week, and those who specifically requested a pack. If none of the aforementioned pertains to you, please do not take an herb pack. Thank you!

 

Recipe Suggestions & Inspiration For This Week’s Box Contents

White Bean & Garlic Scape Dip

Asparagus Risotto with Garlic Scapes

Brie & Garlic Scape Pizza

Bacon Wrapped Garlic Scapes

Garlic Scape & Spring Onion Focaccia

Strawberry Rhubarb Barbeque Sauce

Basil Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Goat Cheese Crostini with Rhubarb Chutney

Stir-Fried Chicken & Baby Bok Choi

Bok Choi Salad with Sesame Ginger Dressing

Rosemary, White Bean & Kale Quesadillas

Strawberry Quinoa Tabouli

The Best Strawberry Margarita

Turnip Salad with Yogurt, Herbs and Poppyseeds

Pea Vine Cream Cheese

Pea Vine Pesto Pasta Salad

Fettucine with Pea Vine Cream Sauce

Vegetable Feature: Garlic Scapes

Garlic scapes are a long, skinny, curly green vegetable that is actually a byproduct of growing hardneck garlic. They grow up from the center of the plant and we harvest them in June, about a month ahead of our annual garlic harvest.

Roasted Garlic Scape Hummus

Preparation & Usage

Nearly the entire scape is edible and is best when harvested while young and tender. You may need to trim off the skinny end near the little bulb at the far end of the scape as this portion is often tough. The remainder of the scape is usable and tender, so they do not need to be peeled. Scapes have a bright, juicy, mild garlic flavor. They may be used in any recipe that calls for garlic cloves, just chop them up and add them as you would minced garlic. They can also be grilled or roasted, pickled, fermented, and make an awesome pesto! They are a great addition to eggs, stir-fries, pizzas, etc.

Cultural & Historical Background  

Garlic Scape 

Up until the early 90’s we used to remove scapes from the garlic plant and throw them on the ground!  We were the first farm in the Midwest to start harvesting the scapes for use as a vegetable, thanks to one of our customers from Korea who asked us to save the garlic scapes for her so she could make pickles.  We thought this was odd, but saved some for her anyway.  She was gracious enough to share a jar of pickled scapes with us and that was our introduction to how delicious they are to eat!

Storage Tips

Store scapes in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them. They’ll store for 2-3 weeks

Growing Information  

All of our varieties of garlic are a type called hardneck garlic.  This type of garlic produces scapes as part of nature’s plan for the plant to propagate itself in the soil.  If left unattended, the bulbil on the end of the scape would get bigger and would eventually be so heavy it would fall down and plant itself, thereby propagating a new plant!  We’re cultivating garlic, so we plant a clove of garlic from a full sized bulb and use that as a means of growing the plant.  Since we don’t need the scape to produce another crop, we go through the field and cut them off the plant so the plant can focus its energy into producing a nice sized bulb instead of a scape.

Garlic Scapes and Kale Pesto

Photo from www.oriesfarmfresh.com

This week’s recipe may be considered to be a foundational recipe for this week’s meals. With a jar of this pesto in your refrigerator, you’ll be ready to put together a lot of great meals quickly. At the end of the recipe, there’s a list of suggested uses for this pesto, but it is by no means all-inclusive! This is a great way to get greens into your day, but it’s also a great way to create flavorful dishes in barely any time! Enjoy—Andrea

1 cup chopped garlic scapes

½ cup sunflower seeds ½ cup walnuts ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil ½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese Juice of 1 large lemon ¾ tsp sea salt

1. In a food processor, pulse the garlic scapes until minced.
2. Add sunflower seeds, walnuts, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, sea salt, and black pepper and process until thoroughly combined, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.
3. Place the kale in the food processor and process until the kale is broken down and incorporated. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure everything is evenly mixed.
4. Taste and adjust seasonings to suit your preferences. Some may wish to add a bit more oil, a little more lemon, or more salt.
5. Store in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for a few months.

Suggested Uses: 

• Serve on a charcuterie board with veggies and crackers.
• Stirred into pastas of pasta salads.
• Spread on sandwiches, toast, or bagels.
• Mixed into scrambled eggs.
• Mix with roasted root vegetables.
• Use it in place of tomato sauce on a pizza.

Recipe borrowed from www.oriesfarmfresh.com.