Metchosin Grown and Certified Organic
We love growing delicious vegetables and sharing the abundance.
Our farm stand is open every Tuesday and Saturday all year long.
On the farm stand this week:
Arugula • Cilantro • Chard • Collards • Eggs • Japanese Turnips • Kale • Rhubarb • Salad Greens • Saanich Organics Vegetable Seeds
What is a Hunger Month?
In almost every cropping system, all around the world, there is a gap. It is the time from when the winter storage crops run out to the time when this year's crops are ready. Usually this happens in April and May. It hit this week! We have had stores of potatoes, carrots and rutabaga, that were planted last summer, and then harvested and stored. But now they are gone. This week the soil was finally warm enough to seed our carrots and beets, they'll take about 90 days. This picture is of the potato planting. Not much to eat here, unless you eat the seed! We sometimes start robbing baby nugget potatoes on the Solstice but nothing before then. Luckily, in our climate we can do a little bit to bridge the lack of carbohydrate containing veggies with lots of delicious greens and spring treats like Japanese turnips and radishes.
This is a Kale Top (Sprouting Brassica)
We grow a lot of plants in the cabbage (brassica) family: cabbage, broccoli, kale, rutabaga and turnips . Like most biennials (overwintering crops) they store up sugars in the winter and then use this as energy to send up their seed head in the spring. While we do save a lot of our own seed, we can't save all the different varieties at once or they'll cross. So instead, we snap off these delicious broccoli-like shoots to eat. They are lovely lightly steamed or braised, and we'll have them for another week. Unfortunately, once you see these coming, it means your plant's journey is over. You can't just snap them off and hope your kale will keep on. They're a signal to plant your next year's kale
Asparagus Fans, mourn :(
I revealed last week that I'd sealed a deal with Ten Acres Farm in North Saanich to buy their asparagus for our farm stand. I just got a call from Evelyn, the farm manager, to tell me that the restaurant is re-opening for take out, so our deal is off. I was crushed.
There is a glimmer of hope. Our friend Rachel from Saanich Organics has a very small amount, which she is willing to share. Hers is a delicious variety and fully certified organic. So we'll have little bits here and there throughout the season. Hopefully Ten Acres will find that asparagus really isn't suited to take out :)
On the Menu at Sea Bluff this week:
Rhubarb Custard Bars
As usual, the picture doesn't do it justice, but honestly, this is one of the best uses of rhubarb. Find the recipe here which comes from Heidi Fink, our Moss Street Market customer. If its too much fuss, you can also just cut up rhubarb and put a little water in the bottom of a pot. Simmer gently for 10 minutes and add sugar to taste. You can add honey but it makes it go brown. Its amazing on yogurt.