First Harvests and Fun Events
It's a super busy week here at the Farmette! The first greens harvest of the season, two events on Saturday, lots of seeds and transplants go in the ground, whew! I feel like my to-do list is more like a novel.
This upcoming Saturday the Farmette booth will be at 2 events Davidsonville Athletic Association Gator Day and Central Middle School Cobra-Rockin' Rush. First thing in the morning, show your colors at the Cobra Rush with flowers at the finish line! The Farmette table will have the first few bright bachelor buttons and fragrant sweet pea bouquets. Plus keep the colors flowing with power green smoothie recipes to take home and recharge after the run. Then off to Gator Day at Davidsonville Park, 3042 Patuxent River Rd, Davidsonville, just down the road from the Farmette. It will be a fun and busy day at the Park with Games, vendors, food, music and more. Join us for 5-Minute Homemade Salad Dressing Demonstrations through out the day. Visit us on the scavenger hunt and try a Gator Bite cookies "bake sale" all proceeds support DAA. Any guesses about the secret ingredient in a Gator bite? Hint...we grow it here at the Farmette.
Finally after what seems like ages of watching and waiting the first week of salad greens are ready to harvest! Hooray!!! These lovely rosettes are almost too pretty to eat...almost. Mini-head lettuces are a new addition to the Farmette this year and I couldn't be more pleased with this versatile little lettuce. Harvested at this stage, they form little single serving mini-heads fun for trying a variety of colors and leaf textures. In the next few weeks, I will allow the heads to reach full size, then they can be harvested as bagged baby lettuce mix or available as a full sized head lettuce. Lots of options from these tiny seeds started in the green house and then planted out in the market garden to reach full size.
The baby arugula is ready for the first harvest as well. Arugula is a 3-meal-a-day type green in my house. Perfect on top a poached egg on a nice whole grain toast, tasty on a turkey sandwich, and a delicious change to get you out of your salad rut. If you came to the Davidsonville Green Expo you may have seen my 5-minute homemade salad dressing demonstration featuring a 5-Minute Ginger Sesame Citrus Dressing perfect for arugula's mildly spicy zip.
Arugula Orange Salad
8 oz. baby arugula
3 medium oranges peeled, halved and cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 TBSP poppy seeds
Easy Pickled Red Onions*
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds
5-Minute Ginger Sesame Citrus Dressing
1/4 cup lemon
1/4 cup orange juice freshly squeezed (one orange will do it, and zest the skin!)
1/4 cup olive oil 1-2 tbsp sesame oil depends on how much you love sesame oil flavour!
1-2 tsp zested orange peel
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tbsp grated ginger root or 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1-2 tsp brown sugar or to taste
1/2 tsp salt
Combine all ingredients in a mason jar with a lid, and shake until emulsified.
Place arugula (or other greens) in a large salad bowl. Top with orange slices, pickled red onions, and poppy seeds. Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle almonds over the top.
Scroll to the bottom of the Easter Eggs post for: *Recipe for Easy Pickled Red Onions
Adapted from Kristines Kitchen Blog
My mini farm hands, my girls and the neighbor boys, were helping me weed the arugula beds this week, I let them eat any of the arugula that germinated in the path (sometimes the rain carries the seed off-course) soon it became a hunt to find any wayward arugula sprouts that they could devour! I have limited quantities this week, please reserve your order for Thursday's harvest. All preorders are first come first served.
What salad would be complete without a delicious homemade dressing? Last week, I urged you to try adding fresh cut greens to your homemade dressing. Plenty of delicious herbs are available to complete you local fresh salad this week. For the mini-head lettuce why not try a 5-minute Creamy Chive Parmesan Dressing? I make this dressing in a little bigger batch because it is an excellent veggie dip for radishes, cucumbers, and carrots in the kids lunch boxes. All these dressing recipe cards will be available and I will be giving demonstrations this Saturday at DAA Gator Day. If you just can't wait until Saturday:
5-Minute Creamy Chive Parmesan Dressing:
This recipe saves really well in the refrigerator so it makes a bit more for later. My kids like to use it as a veggie dip in their school lunch boxes.
1/2 cup mayonnaise of your choice
1/2 cup sour cream
2-3 tbsp. fresh chives finely snipped
1 clove garlic minced fine
1/2 tsp. Sea salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1/4 tsp. Thyme
1/4 tsp. Parsley
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese shredded
1/4 to 1/3 cup milk or cream
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk adding milk to achieve the desired consistency.
Try substituting thyme and parsley for basil or cilantro when they are in-season to change up this recipe. In Spring, finely diced garlic scapes can be a substitute for garlic.
Adapted from Can't Stay Out of the Kitchen
Pre-order herbs here for Friday pick-up. Also lots of size LARGE eggs available this week, please reserve your before Saturday, because I will be taking them to the events and I anticipate selling out. If you haven't tried pullet eggs yet, time is running out. The "new girls" have started to lay small and medium sized eggs and before you know it the petite pullet eggs will be gone until a new batch of chicks arrives at the Farmette. There are plenty of SMALLS available this week as well. My friend Cathy Rudkowski says it's the perfect size for one slice of French toast. I sometimes use the smalls to make a tiny batch of homemade mayonnaise. Homemade mayo has to eaten FAST, within 3 days, but it's taste is so much better than the jarred stuff, it's totally worth the little bit of effort to make it...just not so MUCH of it. The perfect solution is a SMALL egg.