Sent: May 31, 2010

It may feel like Summer; but some Spring crops are just coming

    We are now harvesting all our salad greens outside!  So nearly everything is available in ample supply.  Now is the time to think of Asian Greens (for salads or cooking), Purple Mizuna (for stunning garnishes), Hot Mizuna (for an delicate-looking wasabi-like zing), Fordhook Mustard (for rich heirloom mustard flavour), Tat Soi (for sturdy dark Oriental greens), and Bulk Lettuce (a colourful blend of sweet and tender lettuce leaves).  Plan your menus to use this beautiful blend as a convenient and inexpensive base for Cookstown Greens’s summer salads.  (Baby Arugula and Bulk Arugula should become available next week then all through the summer.)

Also starting this week is our full complement of Spring Radishes – “milk-dipped” Breakfast Radishes, multi-coloured Easter Egg Radishes, and easy-to-prepare Red Icicle Radishes.  All these are now at their lower outside-grown prices.  Related to radishes, we now have the long awaited springtime Baby White Turnips.  As with just about everything this year, we have a record early start for Welsh Onion Flowers.  Steam or sauté these for an amazing sweet onion flavour with a delightful texture.  Our very popular creamy tasting White Asparagus, Green Asparagus, Tri-Colour Asparagus are ready for your spring-time specialties.  Our tiny Asparagettes are now ready for garnishes that say, “asparagus”.

As the new crops commence, some of the earlier ones cease.  The Chicories, Kales, Sorrels, Wild Leeks and Spruce Candles are all coming to a seasonal end.  We are also running out of Fingerling Potatoes, Parsley Roots, and Parsnips.

Michael is cutting some Fordhook Mustard for a special order.

Polyester blankets protect our mustard from buckshot-like flea-beetle holes.

Sharing what we know

   As we all rebuild our hospitality industry, we all depend on each other.  This includes:

·         Farmers who reliably grow or raise food with steady seasonal availability

·         Distributors and Purchasers who deliver just what is needed, just in time

·         Food writers who inform the public what is available and why it is special

·         Chefs who combine simple ingredients to create more than the sum of the parts

·         Servers who guide guests to select the most memorable meals

·         Restaurateurs who finance the system and see to it that all remains viable

·         Governments that provide services which benefit the entire community

·         Historians who remind us where we have been; and where we are going

Campbell House Museum is presenting a lecture by Canada’s best known gastronomer, Anita Stewart.  Talking Food will be held at the museum the evening of June 7.  Dorothy Duncan is Canada’s leading Culinary Historian.  She can help us understand our past; so that we can more honestly build our future.  If you like Canadians at Table, please support Dorothy’s work by purchasing a copy.   Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures is a relatively new publication from McGill University that will allow us to share what we know in our many related professions.  I think you will find Hersch Jacobs’ article on “Structural Elements in Canadian Cuisine” very useful.

Sent: May 24, 2010

Are we getting too far ahead of schedule?

   Thank you for bearing with us as we unexpectedly need to adjust to hot summer weather.  Some of our cool weather spring crops are suffering from the sudden excess heat – radishes, pea shoots, turnips, sugar snap peas, shelling peas, and chards.  Keeping them well watered and lightly shaded as they adjust their roots to the heat is helping to get them back on schedule.  We will let you know when these are ready.

The hot weather bedding plants have been growing with excess abandon – heirloom tomatoes, husk cherries, mini-peppers, summer nugget squash, squash blossoms, summer leeks, baby fennel bulbs, and radish pods.  With insufficient larger size pots to hold them until our “tried-and-true” planting dates, we have decided to transplant them out into the fields two-three weeks early.  Whenever we have done this in past years we realized this was a mistake after being threatened by June frosts.  However, we have enough blankets [he said as he scanned the projected weather forecasts].

Meanwhile the spring Chicories, Kales, Dandelions, and Sorrel are going to seed and will soon be removed from our Availability.  The Wild Leek leaves are yellowing; but their bulbs are now swelling to a perfect pickle size.   Outside French Breakfast Radishes are now ready. Green Garlic and Baby Leeks are absolutely gorgeous and loaded with fine flavour.  But best of all are all colours of Asparagus – White, Tri-Colour, and Green.  The soil is still cool two feet down at their root zone so their Brix level is once again higher than ever.

All colours of asparagus are now at their peak.

Sent: May 17, 2010

Much survived the winter

   With last summer being the wettest on record, it was not surprising that the hot weather crops (tomatoes, squash, beans etc.) did not produce up to expectations.  On the other hand our cool-weather crops (carrots, beets, chards, etc.) exceeded expectations in both yield and flavour.  But what really hurt last summer was the record cold and cloudy October.  Normally this is an excellent month for cool-weather plant growth.  But it just did not happen last fall.  For this reason we (and you) suffered a very short supply of winter storage vegetables.

As often seems to be the case, it all averages out.  We are now benefiting from an exceptionally mild winter as plant survival rate was amazing!  The unusually early spring with only a few gently frosty nights has been perfect for harvesting many delightful spring crops.  We now have Baby Summer Leeks (tender and sweet), Green Garlic (think of these as conveniently pre-peeled full-flavoured garlic bulbs), Spring Chicory Leaves (raw for bitter aficionados; and wilted for the less adventurous), Baby Salad Greens (with many of the luscious lettuce and spinach leaves now being harvested outside), Viola Blossoms (with their happy little faces), and Russian Kales (delicately frilled and creamy sweet).  We do apologize for the early demise of our greenhouse Rainbow of Chards; and the overwintered Rainbow of Chards is one crop that did not survive the winter.  New-crop Rainbow of Chards should be ready in 2-3 weeks, so in the meantime consider substituting Russian Kales.

As always, there are true Wild Dandelions (with their beguilingly aromatic leaves), Spring Sorrel Leaves (with refreshing tartness), Wild Leeks (which are already reaching maturity and will soon be dying back – so get your pickling jars ready), Welsh Onion Bulbs (with their mild garlicky bulbs), Tulip Chives (so succulently solid they can even be treated as a vegetable), Spruce Candles (with their woodsy ascorbic acid hit), Lovage Stalks (for their deliciously perfumed celery aroma), and of course White Asparagus (which maintains its pristine colour and refreshingly bitter taste), Tri-Colour Asparagus (short sprouts which beautifully bring out the best of both green and white spears), and Green Asparagus (which blessed with our remarkably high Brix exhibits exceptionally rich flavour).

Angels protected our Baby Salad Greens through the winter.

Our refrigerated Delivery Van died

   Suddenly the van motor seized; our mechanic determined it was not worth repairing.  Still recovering from last fall’s poor harvest and still awaiting a 2008 government support cheque, we have decided to postpone purchasing a new van.  On May 26 we will begin using Cool Zone refrigerated delivery service.  So this will be Thom’s last week after more than 4 years of reliably delivering to you.  Thank you Thom.

Whatever happened to Canadian food?

   Hellmann’s (mayonnaise) is a subsidiary of Unilever – one of the world’s largest corporations.  Who would have thought they would hire an acclaimed music video producer to summarize the state of Canadian food?  View the Hellmann's Video.  There is more to food than efficiency.

Sent: May 10,2010

What a dramatic change in the weather!

   Last week everything appeared to be exceptionally early; this week springs crops may just be early.  As you can see in the photo below, we took the time to cover our early seeded beds with row covers.  These blankets keep the beds warm enough to prevent frost damage.  So we are not expecting any serious damage. 

We will lose a few days of Asparagus production due to frozen (unsalable) tips.  But new shoots pushing through the soil next week will be unaffected.  It is because of the threat of possible early frost that our first harvests are limited to short Tri-Colour Asparagus.  (We can quickly harvest these after receiving a frost warning.)   These may seem expensive, but the petite early shoots consist primarily of the favoured tender tips.  Plus if you slightly undercook them, the three colours (red, green and white) provide absolutely stunning presentations.  After the long-range forecast starts looking more normal, we will start harvesting green and white spears along with tiny asparagettes.

Overwintered Welsh Onion Bulbs, Baby Leeks, Tulip Chives, Lovage Stalks, Sorrel, Sweet Cicely, and Red Russian Kale are all able to successfully tolerate the cold snap.  Of course our greenhouse Breakfast Radishes are still as beautiful as ever.  Unfortunately greenhouse Rainbow of Chards just could not take all of last week’s sunny heat.  So there will have to be a short hiatus.

Not your usual Mothers’ Day morning in the field.

And from the Woodlands

   Fiddleheads matured entirely too quickly in last week’s summer-like temperatures.  So we have already sold out.  If this weekend’s frosty temperatures are low enough to severely damage the recently unfurled heads, they may die.  If this happens, we may get another chance at getting a reasonable harvest as they re-sprout!  It will be a few days before we know.  But Spruce Candles are one wild harvest that hot weather has successfully brought several weeks early.  While you can, get these for infusing your own honeys, vinegars, or oils.  Or how about “Canadianizing” some olives?

Morels normally start when the dandelions commence flowering.  But it was too dry for the mushrooms to pop.  Perhaps with all the rain (and snow), the elusive morels may yet make their stellar appearance.  We will let you know when they come.

Sustainable Foods from Toronto

   The acclaimed Munk School of Global Affairs is hosting a panel on Shifting to a Sustainable Food System on the evening of June 1, free with registration.  Sarah Elton’s fine book, Locavore, has some thoughtful comments by Jim Algie in the Owen Sound Sun Times.  Alison Blay-Palmer of Wilfrid Laurier University has presented a fascinating thesis about the amazing success of the Toronto Food Policy Council.