Week 16, Season 2016-2017

We have reached the two thirds point of the season and the growing is going well.  Cabbage, snow peas, red beets, cauliflower, and komatsuna will be picking this weekend for the first time this season.  I just planted corn, beans, and a few different squash this week.  I will be transplanting peppers, lettuce, cabbage, bok choi, kale (finally) and a few different items this week.  I also hope to plant cantaloupe and melon transplants and Seminole pumpkin seeds to finish out all this year's plantings.  Cucumbers were planted in the greenhouse this week.  Potatoes are up and running and looking fine.  The cauliflower was doing amazing and we had some that were about 10-12 inch heads.  I came back after the rainy days and they had hideous black spots all over the heads and I had to cut and toss them over the fence to the cattle.  It was a trial as we have done poorly in the past, so I was relieved that I actually could grow them.  We will be able to harvest about half of the trial section and I now will add that to our list of plants to pursue.
This is probably our last week of sweet potato harvests and am happy that we got about 13 weeks out of our planting.  I found a great recipe for you to try to say farewell to the sweet potatoes.  I serendipitously ran across a sweet potato soup recipe that was delicious and extremely easy.  It was in Cook's Illustrated magazine.  Did you know that if you have a Hillsborough County library card you can download tons of magazines to your reading device for free!  I happened to figure this out two weeks ago and was pursuing the magazine rack and saw Cook's Ill. and low and behold there was a great recipe for this soup.  All you need is sweet potatoes, shallots (I used onions), butter, thyme, and water.  That is it. I made it for a bunch of friends along with smoked ribs and everyone commented on how great the soup was.  Here is a link to the recipe.  https://www.cooksillustrated.com/videos/3101-sweet-potato-soup  Enjoy!    

Mid-Season 2016-17

We have passed the half-way point of the season and so far things are going and growing well.  Lettuce, strawberries, Chinese cabbage, zucchini, bok choi, kohlrabi, roselle, green beans, diakon, have done very well.  Carrots will be picking for the first week this Saturday in week 13.  Beets will be ready in a few more weeks.  Still no kale but I have some seedlings that I hope will transplant soon.  I have started the watermelon, cantaloupe, dill, peppers and eggplants for the warmer weather like mid-February.  I will place an order for a few different squash I want to try this spring.  I am also going to give lima beans a shot.  The snow peas that were planted about a month ago are growing well even though it has been warm.  I hope to plant more cucumbers in the greenhouse.  The potatoes have been in the ground for nearly three weeks and haven't reached the surface yet.

Here are a few pictures from the farm in the last few weeks.

A bountiful spread

Eggplant 'Nadia'

'Joi Choi' bok choi

Roselle or Florida cranberry

Broccoli 'Green Magic'

Strawberry 'Camino Real'

Storm tossed tomatoes in the greenhouse

  

Best Mustard Greens; Ever!

Mustard greens usually rank about third when it comes to my palate preference.  I usually place turnip first, collard and kale second, and mustards third.  I separate cabbage, Chinese cabbage, and bok choi out as a different class altogether. But I digress.  I found a recipe that elevated mustard greens to the top of the list.  Since I was unexpectedly surprised by the Thai fish soup recipe, I decided to try mustard greens Asian style.  Home run!  Jennifer didn't care for them as she doesn't even eat mustard greens (unless forced!), but Nate liked them.  Anna thought they were still too bitter.  I really liked them.  If you would like to try them, this is the link to the recipe.   http://allrecipes.com/recipe/218501/asian-inspired-mustard-greens/  I didn't have sesame seeds, sesame oil, or sake, so I substituted or omitted but it still came out great.  Give it a try and let us know what you think.

By the way,  if your greens are looking limp and you want them to revive, just cut off the very end about a 1/4 inch and stick them in water.  Here is an unbelievable picture of before and after of turnips when treated in this manner.

Before

After!