Garden "Picks"

Lots to pick at the farm now and every week there are changes. 

The beds planted with winter squash are growing so fast—we just might 

be incorporating those varietals onto the menus 

while we are still getting creative with the summer squash. 

winter squash bed in early July 

and the same bed as August begins

Chef John recently talked to The Huffington Post about 

how the farm tells us what is in season rather than what we expect. 

He recalls: "Nature does not always work in accordance with a chef's schedule. 

You can't predict much. Normally, rhubarb means spring, 

 strawberry is spring and summer, delicata squash is fall. 

There was point last year I was harvesting all those in the same time.

Now, at the height of summer abundance, I'm hauling in tomatoes. 

Every day. We're putting them everywhere on the menu. 

Eggplant? 'Learn to love it,' I tell the sous chefs."

And with eggplant as beautiful as these Black Beauties, what's not to love?

did you know this variety of eggplant is over 100 years old?

these go directly from the farm to the kitchen to your table every day!

Sunset Magazine has a "no fail" guide for when 

to harvest the vegetables in your garden.

This is helpful with so much growing at this time of year. 

What are you harvesting now in your garden?

abundant cucumber bed

Along with our squash,cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, herbs and eggplant, 

we are also still picking chard and kale.
Here's some "super food" info on kale.

This is a delicious leafy green sautéed or in salads. 

Food writer Melissa Clark offers some delicious ideas for kale, 

including creating kale pesto and a great tip for "cheater's" blanched kale: 

"Before you add your pasta to the pot, grasp a small handful of whole kale 

by the stems, and simply dunk them into and swirl them around 

the bubbling pot for a few seconds. The stems make handles, 

which obviates the need for dropping the leaves into the pot 

and then having to drain said pot and then boil even more water to cook your pasta."

sunchoke plants loom over the squash beds

But what is really growing at the farm are our sunchokes.  

Sunchokes, also called Jerusalem artichokes, are an edible tuber 

that grows underground, much like a potato. 

They look a little bit like large knobs of ginger, and taste slightly nutty, and savory
like a cross between an artichoke heart and the best potato you've ever had.
There are reports of sunchokes growing in Cape Cod in 1605.

Since sunchokes were first cultivated by Native Americans 

and are not from Jerusalem, the reason they are also
called Jerusalem artichokes is unclear.
Does anyone know how they got that name? 

Sondra features a pan roasted black cod with roasted sunchokes in her new book, 

Plats du Jour: the girl & the fig's Journey Through the Seasons in Wine Country 

and served it this spring at a dinner we cooked at the James Beard House. 

photo by Phil Gross for James Beard House 

What's the best pick from your garden these days?