This week is the first week of summer! Our boys are out of school and totally on vacation. They flew off to sunny southern California for a week at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. What a way to start the summer! They are so lucky. As soon as they get back, their other Grandma will come here to visit. Today was the first sunny day we had in a while and at first it was all fun and games, but then the greens started to wilt and I remembered the plants in the greenhouse that needed water and suddenly it seemed like it might all be too much to handle, summer. But we had plenty of buckets of water on hand to cool the freshly picked leaves and many hands to make the work light. We are coming in to the tail end of our planting season and the start of the heavy harvest season. All of the tomatoes, basil, peppers, eggplants, and squash are in. Most of the corn, beets and carrots are in, beans and peas are in. We keep on planting more and more lettuce, baby bok choy, spinach and radishes until fall to replace the ones we pick for you all the time. Planting, weeding, harvesting, over and over again, it’s a comforting annual cycle we move through.
The whole field of garlic is almost ready. As you can see, the bulbs are nice and fat and juicy. They will continue to mature over the next few weeks until about mid-July when the wrapper layers will become more papery and dry to preserve the bulbs. Right now it’s all so juicy that you can even chop up the whole bulb and saute as you would individual cloves. These immature bulbs must be refrigerated, unlike their future cured selves.

Another perk of summer vacation is the working houseguest. Our dear friend and previous employee Adam November came to visit this weekend, and while he was here he was his usual sweet and thoughtful self and did us many favors small and large, collecting and washing eggs, walking the dog, delivering produce, running errands, and best of all, taking a few turns in the tent guarding the chickens. Colin was so excited to spend a few nights in his own bed, knowing that Adam was keeping the birds safe. Next Monday the 28th is chicken harvest day, and we still have some birds available for you to order. Call or email if interested.

Chard Pie
Swiss Chard Pie- Susanna Trucke, Dog Hollow Farm
1 onion chopped
6 eggs
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup shredded cheese
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 bunch swiss chard
2 pie crusts
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Brown onion and garlic in oil. Trim and chop chard, add to pan and cook down until wilted. Beat eggs in a bowl; mix in cheese, salt and chard mixture. Pour into pie shells and bake 30-40 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Makes 2 pies.

A different sort of Chard Pie from the New Laurel’s Kitchen Cookbook.
6 cups lightly cooked chard, well drained
2 cups lowfat cottage cheese
2 eggs, beaten
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup whole grain bread crumbs
paprika
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the cottage cheese, eggs, lemon, and salt. Stir a cup of this mixture into the chard and press it down in a well-greased 8”x8” pan. Spread the remaining cottage cheese mixture evenly over the top and sprinkle on the bread crumbs and paprika. Bake for about half and hour, or until set. Allow to stand for several minutes before cutting into squares. Serves 4-6.
You can substitute spinach for the chard, or use both together.

I have made variations of both of these recipes often, the main difference is pie crust or no crust. Depending on time and mood, I prefer one or the other. I was really looking for a recipe called Chard Feta Pie that my friend Jackie used to make for me, but I can’t find it anywhere. I think it may have been an invention of ours, just adding or substituting some feta cheese for the shredded cheese in the first recipe. Jackie was so nice to me when I was pregnant with Nigel and later nursing him, bringing me lots of good things to eat when I didn’t have much time to cook.

One of my favorite parts of writing the CSA news is pulling out a pile of cookbooks and paging through for good ideas to share with you. Sometimes I am looking for a recipe I know and love, sometimes I am looking for a new idea, but it is always a pleasure to read about food and handle these books that have been so instrumental in nourishing my family and myself for so long. The New Laurel’s Kitchen is my all time favorite. The Better Homes and Gardens basic edition gets used a lot, as does The Joy of Cooking. Although I think that the small print is annoying and there are too many steps in most of the recipes in the joy.