New, new, new…that seems to be the theme on the farm this year. Today marks the official start of a new season! The crew can’t wait to spend the next 18 weeks putting their sweat, joy, and sore muscles into harvesting incredible vegetables for all of you. We are so excited for our new members to join us, and so grateful to long term members for choosing to spend another summer with the farm. 

Speaking of our amazing crew, we welcomed back lots of familiar faces from last season, and added a few new ones to the mix. Joining the crew this year are Audrey and Lily. They’ve only been with us for a short time so far, but both of them have jumped in head first and are proving to be valuable additions to the crew. Twice a week we also welcome Elliot to the farm. Elliot is a student at UMD completing their summer internship with us. Part of the internship is helping take any extra produce from the farm, and bringing it to the Duluth Center for Women and Children. They use local produce to put together meal kit boxes for families as a way to ensure people have access to healthy foods, and help them gain confidence in cooking with local produce. We are so excited to add these three to our crew!

This year we are trying new varieties of a few veggies on the farm. Some things, such as our normal zucchini variety, have been discontinued, so we are trying two new varieties to see which one will be the new type we grow moving forward. Other things, such as lettuce, we are trying new varieties to see if we can find one that is not only beautiful and delicious, but can also fight off some common diseases that lettuce can get. We decided to go really crazy this year and grow something entirely new to us, baby bok choy! It’s everything you love about regular bok choy, just in a smaller size. We can’t wait for you to try it! We’re also trying out green garlic for the first time. This is garlic that we planted in the spring, so it didn’t go through cold snaps that separate it into cloves like normal garlic. Green Garlic is especially great because you can eat the whole thing like you would with a green onion. You can use it in recipes like you would with normal garlic.

The biggest new thing on the farm is our building expansion. Farmer Janaki wanted to share what’s been happening:

 “The root cellar expansion project has seen a lot of progress since my last update–there’s been a lot of dirtwork done, we just got the concrete finished last week, and the SIP panels are in production with a target delivery date of June 25th. That means we will have a lot to work around for the first 2 months of the season, but we’re looking forward to the project being underway!

In other news, the USDA grant funding has been re-approved, thankfully! As a result of the delays, costs are significantly higher than budgeted for, so we’re really grateful for the generous donations from members, thank you!!!”

In your share this week:

Rhubarb – Spinach – Greens Mix – Radish – Lettuce – Pac Choi – Green Garlic

Rhubarb is most commonly used in desserts, but it’s also great in savory dishes. If you’re looking for a way to use up some rhubarb in a new way, this rhubarb and apricot barbecued chicken recipe from Taste of Home is a delicious combination of sweet, tart, and spicy.

If you are someone who loves the way sugar and rhubarb mix, might I suggest this delicious Vanilla Roasted Rhubarb French Toast recipe. Step one of the recipe is how to roast the rhubarb, so you can make this delicious combo again and again. Instead of French toast, add the topping to waffles, pancakes, mix it into muffins, the possibilities are almost endless.

Bok Choy and Pac Choi are the same vegetables, just with different spellings. This pasta recipe is a great way to use up this vegetable if you want a quick, easy, and delicious dinner, but don’t feel like doing much cooking.

For the farm crew,

Jennifer