Notes From The Farm

Leon and I went around yesterday and harvested and harvested and harvested…  The farm is showing it’s bounty right now.  August is definitely the best time for eating fresh foods around here!  Saturdays harvest may be slightly different depending on what is ready.  Enjoy!

This Week’s Veggie Feast

Dragon Tongue Beans, Yellow Beans, Rainbow Beets, Sweet Onion, Romanesco, Basil, Salad Mix, Kale, Carrots, Cucumber and Tomatillos

New This Week

Dragon Tongue Beans

Dragon Tongue Beans were first introduced to us by one of our favorite Texans, who had a little homestead farm going on a few years back.  It’s always fun to add to the variety of vegetables we grow, so we added these to the “for sure” list years ago after trialing them in a small plot.  They produce well, which is a must, and are very tasty.  They are bigger, flatter, and juicier than green beans, giving them an all together different taste and texture.  The purple color goes away when they are cooked, so if you are trying to bribe your kids to eat this by showing them the cool purple splashes your plan will go to pieces as soon as it comes out of the pot!

Yellow Beans

I must confess, yellow beans are one of my least favorite vegetables to harvest.  After picking the beautiful, large Dragon Tongue beans, yellow beans are sooooo slender and it takes forever to get a bucketfut.  But I did it anyway because I knew you would want to eat some.

Carrots

Finally!!  I taste tested several of these for you, just to make sure they were alright.  Yep, they are.  Whenever we harvest the first carrots of the season I remember my brother’s first visit to Montana, what seems like eons ago.  It was September and we were pulling everything out of the field.  At that time we were one of the only vegetable farms in the Bitterroot and hence one of the only vegetable vendors.  We grew a lot of carrots back then and sold them hand over fist.  My brother wiped the just harvested carrot on his pants to get most of the dirt off (we didn’t have a washing station at that field) and took a bite.  I have never seen anyone so excited about a carrot before, well, except Leon and I.  He exclaimed “That was the best carrot I have ever eaten!” And he was and still is absolutely correct.  Fresh farm carrots are the best you will ever eat.

Tomatillos

Okay, we didn’t give you very many tomatillos because they are just starting to ripen.  This is a little tease.  For those of you new to tomatillos they are the base of many salsas.  They are sticky little globes with a paper covering that you have to remove which makes them a pain in the a#* to work with.  After you get the paper covering off it’s best to give them a wash to get the stickiness off.  You could let these tomatillos out on your counter for a while to let them ripen up a bit more, if any of them have a crack in the skin you will want to use that one right away.  Tomatillos have a distinct musky, kind of sweet and sour taste that some people adore and others….not so much.  They can be eaten raw, but are often roasted or grilled,  They can be added to stews, any salsas, and are used in many Southwest and Mexican dishes.