What do you do when you have too many cucumbers? Make pickles! This past Wednesday evening seven of us from the farm made 38 jars of pickles from some of the delicious Tasty Jade cucumbers.

I was late since I needed to go home and pick up all my canning supplies and my family. When we got there slicing had been under way for an hour and every bowl had been filled. I thought, “Wow! I sure hope we have enough jars to fit all these into!” And of course, as we made the Dill & Garlic plus the Bread & Butter brines and began to fill jars they did indeed (thankfully!) all fit.

We also decided to make a cucumber kim chee. These are still fermenting and I will be adding the spices very soon. I’ll jar them up on Saturday afternoon and I’ll guess it will bring our total to at least 50 jars!

It’s so wonderful to have an abundant harvest and also great friends to share the work with. From seed, to plant, to harvest, to preparing, and finally to eating. This is my favorite thing about working with food: there’s always something yummy to look forward to!

This is truly the beginning of the summer squash season. Last week there were a few, but now every day we’re picking more and more of these summer-long delights. Last night we enjoyed some grilled zucchini and patty pan squash. Even Enid, our two year old, loved it! There are many recipes we love to use squash for: raw with dip or hummus, zucchini bread, stuffed patty pan, and at the end of the season when they are growing faster than we can keep up we make Zu-canoes!

To make a zu-canoe take a zucchini, top cut off and seeds scooped out. Fill it with breadcrumbs, tomatoes, peppers, and onions. Then bake till it’s tender. The best part of this way to use summer squash is the fact that it’s alright if the squash is as long as your arm or as big as your new born baby. (A friend actually brought us one when Jaden was born and we ate it for a week!)

A friend recently reminded me of a lesson she heard upon moving to a rural area. She asked a close neighbor if she worried about locking her car at night. The neighbor answered, “Only in August.” “August? Why only then?” she wondered. “If you don’t,” her neighbor replied, “You’ll go out to your car in the morning, ready to go to work, and find it filled with zucchinis!”

We promise we won’t bring summer squash to your house in the middle of the night. But we do hope that as well as pulling out the old recipes, you will learn new ways to enjoy:

Dunja – a flavorful, smooth skinned green zucchini
Costata Romanesco – a ribbed, green and white stripped zucchini
Soleil – a yellow variation of zucchini
Yellow Scallopini – a mottled green and yellow patty-pan type

Want to try a new idea for a crabcake-like flavor? As a native Marylander, no summer is complete without Old Bay seasoning. But it is not just for crabs; we add it to soup, corn on the cob, potato salad, and french fries. (And yes, we even like it on our ice cream.) During my 10-year stint as a vegetarian, I came upon this recipe and found that not only is it easy to make, but also that everyone in my family loves it!

Zucchini “Crab Cakes”
3 cups grated zucchini, water drained if necessary
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
1 egg (optional)
1 Tbsp Old Bay

Mix together thoroughly. Heat a skillet to medium high. Make patties and place into pan. They will not hold form so do not make more than fit in a pan at one time. Toast both sides to medium brown.

Beedy Parker of Camden noticed a kale plant that “appeared at the bottom of the garden in the ‘80s. I have no idea how it got there. Just kept reappearing.” She propagated the plant and says it’s related to Siberian kale but has much looser waves, is more silvery and is much sweeter. We planted some of her kale seeds in our garden late in fall to see how it would overwinter, and now we have lush plants of a very unique and tasty kale.

Farmer/Chef Ike decided to go kale krazy in the kitchen last night and used a whole pile of Beedy’s Camden Kale.

First, he made a soup with a pile of chopped-up Beedy’s kale, a bunch of chopped chives, and a whoppin’ load of minced garlic.

Ike says that when he’s not too sure of a recipe he’s creating, he always leans on one or more of his key ingredients: garlic, cheese, or chili powder. He figures he can’t go wrong with much of anything if he’s got one of those in the mix. In this case, he really loaded on the garlic. Woweee! I loved it, although I wouldn’t plan to eat it before being in a confined space with a non-garlickified person. That would be just too mean.

Next, he served up a casserole of ground beef (from Lindenhof Farm), chopped Beedy’s kale and onions, pasta and a homemade white sauce. Kind of alfredo style (that’s where the key ingredient ‘cheese’ comes in on this one. He used cheddar from Hillacres Pride Farm).

For a guy who could not eat even a little itty-bitty bit of kale a couple of years ago, this is quite the turnaround. Ike has really gone Kale Krazy!

We’ll have Beedy’s Camden Kale for sale at the Phoenixville Farmers’ Market tomorrow (Saturday, 10 to 11:30).

You can go Kale Krazy with ideas like those above (although you may want to watch it on the garlic levels), or check out the blog 365 Days of Kale. There are so many ideas there, you’re bound to find something yummy to prepare for even the most finicky of greens eaters in your household.

Eat those greens!

Farmer Ike can finally get back to some cooking after the adventures of last week’s chimney removal. That’s not to say that all is in order; there’s still a gaping hole in the corner of the kitchen. But, there was room to move the oven back into place and get cooking!

This is an easy soup for a cold, dreary day.

Liberal amounts of chopped kale and sweet onions, cooked in vegetable broth and spiced solely with garlic and (the spice of the day) coriander. Just delicious!

Well, blarmy. This dish was just a wee bit late for St. Patrick’s Day – but you gotta just love the color anyway!

True to form, Ike has no recipe for this dish, and in fact he’ll change the greens he’s using depending on what’s available. He’s made the same dish using spinach (as pictured here), Swiss chard, kale, and arugula.  And the non-green portion? That’s the “plain” section for the dinner guest who is too leery about greens of any sort!

Ingredients from our farm: potatoes, one full bag of spinach, garlic

Ingredients from other places: cheese! We like to use shredded cheddar from Hillacres Pride.

Cook and mash the potatoes first. Into the mashed potatoes, mix in chopped greens, garlic and cheese (and whatever else strikes your fancy!). Bake for about 40 minutes until cheese has melted and the whole thing is nicely browned.

Most of Farmer Ike’s dishes are loaded with locally-grown products, either from our farm or from those of other farmers we know at the various farmers’ markets we attend. While this week’s Sesame Pork includes non-local items like Basmati rice, sesame seeds, and out-of-season (aka ‘grocery store’) celery, the bulk of it was made from locally-sourced food.

The carrots, cooked to perfection with a great amount of texture/crunch intact, were dug just before preparation (on March 19th). We experimented with an outdoor winter garden this year, so that’s where they came from. Those of you who may remember, winter came on strong and a tad earlier than we expected this year, with super-cold temperatures in December. While we were hoping to harvest many of the winter garden carrots and beets in December to take to market, the soil froze solid right around the end of November, so there was no digging to be done! So, we figured we’d adopt a “wait and see” approach and hope the carrots and beets would make it through the winter.

Come late February, we had a bit of a warm-up and were able to dig a few of the carrots. We were not particularly impressed. They had a reasonable carrot-y flavor, but were somewhat grainy due to cold injury. Our thought at that point was to “wait and see” again. Ike’s thinking was that perhaps as things warmed up more, they’d ‘outgrow’ any cold injury. Sure enough – that’s what happened! By mid-March the carrots are getting large, flavorful and they’re not grainy at all. Awesome!! (BTW, we’ll have them available for sale at the next Phoenixville Farmers’ Market winter market on Saturday, March 26th)

The pork in this dish was from pork chops we bought from Country Time Farm at the Phoenixville Farmers’ Market. Country Time Farm raises heritage black pigs (called appropriately enough, “Large Black Hog”). Everything we’ve bought from Country Time has tasted fabulous, and these pork chops were no exception; they were super-tender and flavorful.

Other ingredients (remember, I’m just doing my best here, as Farmer Ike will never take notes in the kitchen!): orange bell peppers (you could use frozen ones from last year’s harvest or bite the bullet [and don't tell anyone] by purchasing some shipped in from Mexico), plus some large chunks of celery. Sesame seeds and a sesame-garlic sauce round out the flavors of the dish, which is served on a bed of basmati rice.

Yummy!

If Farmer Ike ever decides to quit farming, he should open a bistro. Seriously, since he took up cooking several years ago, this farm family has been treated to the most amazing and flavorful dishes, basically on a nightly basis! This is a great deal for me, since I really dislike cooking. I don’t mind cleaning up the kitchen, however, which is a task Ike really dislikes. So, we’ve got a great arrangement going.

I’m planning to post pictures and descriptions of his various creations over the coming months, both as a means to remember some of these dishes (which are often one-of-a-kind), and as an inspiration to some of you who perhaps are looking for some new ideas. Unfortunately, Farmer Ike does not use a cookbook, nor does he write down his ingredients or recipes. Honestly, if I ever have to cook again, I’ll be lost; I’m getting spoiled on awesome food! So, these photos and descriptions will have to do.

Ike’s basic ingredients are locally-grown produce, meats, cheeses, and herbs. Sometimes he’ll use commercial cheeses, but the meats are always sourced from local farmers.

The first item to whet your appetite is a creamy Swiss Chard/Corn soup he made just the other day. He used frozen sweet corn, Swiss Chard from our unheated winter greenhouse, broth and spices, and a bit of neufchatel cheese to make it creamy. It had a nifty color and an absolutely lovely flavor. I’m sorry it’s gone!