Week #8!
In Your Share This Week
- Carrots
- Chicory, treviso
- Kale
- Lettuce
- Onions, tropea
- Summer Squash/Cucumbers
Crop Highlights
Chicory, Treviso: These bunches of chicory we are giving you are typically known as a red, cold-weather chicory. This is our first time growing it, and they are growing very well in the summer! The long, pointed leaves are staying green (some of them with pretty red speckles). Like other radicchio (red chicories), Treviso is bitter. If you like the bitter taste, make wraps out of it or put it in salads. If not, sautée it with other greens and a spritz of lemon!
Cucumbers: We have been giving you a mix of our green Marketmore and white Silver Slicer cucumbers. Silver Slicers have become a favorite of ours over the years; they have extra thin skin and are praised for their more mild flavor and extra juiciness. They make a delicious, thirst quenchingagua fresca– try juicing them with some limes, add fresh mint and a touch of sugar, and pour over ice for a nice summer treat.
Onions, Tropea: Like the Wallas from last week, these onions have not been cured yet. They are red, torpedo shaped, and originally hail from Italy’s Calabria region (the foot of the boot). Since they grow taller rather than wider, we can plant twice as many plants in the same square footage as the traditionally round shaped onions. We have peeled them only slightly, to protect the inner layers from bruising. Eat them raw in salads, cook them in sauces, grill them, roast them, make jam out of them!
Remember to check out Katherine’s recipe blog for new, delicious cooking tips:
http://www.cookwithwhatyouhave.com/sauvie-island-organics-recipes-tips/
Farmer Of The Week
This is miss Rachel Funk! Rachel joined us last year, and boy have the farm laughs increased since she did! As well as being absolutely hilarious, Rachel is a fast learner and has picked up a number of activities around the farm. She is an expert kale/chard buncher, takes part in the massive head lettuce harvests we do twice a week, and helped bring you those Walla Wallas last week. She is also experienced in the packhouse and recently trained in irrigation (our first female irrigator since I have worked at the farm!)
Rachel moved here from New Mexico five years ago. She also works with adults with developmental disabilities, and was working at Full Life on NE Sandy before joining us last year. Outside of work, she likes to play dungeons and dragons with a group of her friends (her character is a dwarf druid named Parsnip and she has a bear companion named Pippen!) She recently joined an herbal group that forages for wild plants, which they use to make tinctures and herbal remedies. In her relaxation hours, you can find her wearing her crocs, petting her cat Gus (pictured below), and watching The Simpsons.
