This is a big planting week for us. We had a greenhouse full of young green (and red) starts to get into the field. Steve spent much of the weekend on the tractor preparing several fields for planting. Then Monday our crew of 8 workers plopped the starts into the ground — they planted out about an acre of lettuces, cabbages, and fennel. The change is dramatic. What was a bare field last week (and a 5-foot tall cover crop two weeks before) is now a checkerboard of colorful young plants. And for a brief time, there’s not a weed in sight!
Strawberries are starting to come in now. We’ll rotate them through our different delivery routes until there’s enough for everyone. After that you can expect to get berries (strawberries or blueberries, when they come in) with most deliveries. If you don’t get them this week you’ll get baby shiitake mushrooms from Far West Fungi, which are a real treat too!One of our hedgerows got its picture in the paper this week in a Register-Pajaronian article “Hidden in plain sight — the art and science behind hedgerows.” It’s nice to see hedgerows get some attention, especially when many farms have taken out vegetation along their farm borders in (I think misguided) response to food safety concerns the past few years. The R-P also wrote an article on us in their Focus on Agriculture section a couple weeks ago so we’ve got our 15 minutes of fame taken care of.
Okay, so I know some of you got loose beets as your mystery last week, and I bet there are a few who have not yet used them, which is fine, because they last a long time stored separate from their greens like that. I had an abundance of beets in my fridge last week too so I made something I haven’t had in awhile: chocolate beet cake! I used almond flour and made mine gluten-free, but you can find many recipes on the web to suit your own tastes and needs. If you think it sounds weird to use beets in cake, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The beets add sweetness so you can cut down on the sugar, plus they make for a moist richly flavored cake that’s totally delicious with some extra nutrition in there so you don’t feel as guilty. Top with some sliced strawberries if you have them.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
