June 23rd Market and Farm Share Pick-up #6

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The longest day of the year is June 21st and it is the peak of the growing season! Our vegetables love the long, hot days. It is the time that our fertile fields begin pumping out beautiful food! Long days equate to long days of work to ensure great production.

We have harvested all of our garlic and hung them in the barn to cure. Our interns, Stephen and Emma have worked hard harvesting and hanging the garlic.

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Above you see Stephen harvesting the garlic and taking to the barn. He is living on the farm with us for a second year! Stephen is learning sustainable farming from Matt and is a great asset in the field. Emma, on the right, is a graduate student at Virginia Tech studying sustainability. She is learning all she can to apply them to her studies. We are grateful to have these two young ones coming to our farm to learn from and help Matt.

Matt is engineering a system to bulk produce compost tea to integrate into our soil to bolster fertility. Compost tea contains all the soluble nutrients extracted from the compost, but also contains all the species of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes in the compost. The boost of beneficial organisms enhances a plant’s immune system protecting them harmful diseases. Matt’s inventions always amaze me and his creative mind solves real problems quickly!

If you are a farm share member you will find in your bag:

kale
carrots
squash
field greens
turnips
radishes
onions

Here is my farm meal plan:

Monday: Kale and Quinoa Salad

In the summer, we eat a lot of salads. Mainly because they are easy! Really, who wants to cook after a hot day outside! One of my favorite salads is kale salad. I don’t massage the dressing in, I simply make it a day ahead of time and let it marinate.

I love this recipe because of the high protein content. You really don’t need meat. Quina has 8 grams of protein in a cup and and one cup of kale has 2.9 grams of protein. Lean, healthy proteins are what you body needs!

One of our farm share members shares beautiful vegan recipes with me. I thought of her when I found this one and hope she enjoys it!

I have also made this recipe for my healthy lunches I take to work with me. It is truly so good and after eating something this good, you have energy to last you the rest of the day!

Tuesday: Salmon and Summer Squash in Foil

Talk about easy and healthy! Put it in a foil pack and cook it for 30 minutes. During your 30 minutes, work out, fold laundry, or play with your child! This is such a healthy, clean recipe that is so very easy. Serve it along side Matt’s field greens and you have a remarkable dish!

This is also kid approved! Our son absolutely loves it! He even helps make it and feels good about his contribution to dinner!

Wednesday: Stir Fried Carrot Noodles with Chicken

Last year, I finally broke down and bought a spiralizer. I absolutely love it! This recipe uses spiralized noodles instead of noodles so it is extra healthy! This recipe calls for chicken but I have used all kinds of proteins in this.

The recipe calls for spinach, but I use tatsoi or bok choi whatever I have on hand. Matt and I usually eat whatever is left over from market so I have learned to be very flexible. know you will love this recipe.

Thursday: Sautéed Japanese Turnips with Turnip Greens and Panko Crusted Pork Chops

Many people only eat the turnips, but the greens are outstanding! I suggest serving them together along with pork chops!

It is such a simple and easy dish! Served along side baked pork chops, you can’t go wrong.

Friday: Bangin Good Chicken Salad

I love bang bang shrimp, chicken, or whatever! This is an easy bang bang recipe! I use Matt’s Field Greens and they are delicious with this. This is another recipe that I make ad take for my healthy workweek lunches.

It literally takes 3o minutes to pull this together and you are done! The bang bang sauce is delicious!