Strawberries and Scapes, Get them while you can

The lovely weather the past couple of weekends has been the perfect thing to draw nice crowds to the Farmers Market.  So far, the prediction for this Saturday looks to be just as nice.  So, come on out to the Muskingum County Fairgrounds from 9:00am-noon to see what we have to offer. 

It is nice to see the market grow each week as the season progresses.  It stars with rather humble beginnings at the beginning of May, but as the summer progresses the number of customers continue to grow and more and more vendors come out to sell their goods.

            Last week, strawberries were a hot commodity.  I’m sure the same will be true this week as local strawberry season is very short lived.  My mouth waters as I write this knowing there is a big bowl of them sitting in my refrigerator.  I’m not sure if they are going to last long enough for me to get any shortbread made; I keep eating them a few at a time when I come in to take a break from planting and weeding in the field.          

            Now that June has arrived there is another opportunity for you to buy fresh, local goods during the middle of the week as well.  The Downtown Farmers Market will be held on Wednesdays from 3:00-6:30pm in the Welcome Center parking lot, just off the Fifth Street I-70 exit ramp.  This is a good opportunity to restock if you have run out of produce by mid-week or if you overslept on Saturday morning and didn’t make it out to the Fairgrounds.

If you have read my column in past years, you have heard me talk before about garlic scapes.  Scape is the name given to the flower stalk of the garlic plant.  It grows up through the center of the plant, usually appearing in early June around here.  It looks like a thin, curly, green snake.  It can be snapped off and used for cooking.  Scapes can be used in any dish to which you would add fresh garlic.  They are more mild than a regular clove of garlic and can be sautéed, grilled, or roasted.  They are great cooked just by themselves with a little butter, salt, and pepper. 

Garlic scape season is short lived, lasting only a couple of weeks.  The good news is that they keep for a really long time in a bag in the crisper and can be chopped up and frozen as well.  The following is a recipe from www.2sistersgarlic.com  I admit that I haven’t tried it yet, but I love to pickle all kinds of veggies and this sounds delicious.  I’m going to stock all my leftover scapes in the fridge and make this recipe when my fresh basil is ready to be picked.

Pickled Garlic Scapes

·         1 pound or more of scapes, whole

·         3 cups vinegar

·         5 cups water

·         ¼ cup kosher salt

·         Fresh Basil Leaves

·         Chili Flakes

Boil the water, vinegar & salt solution. Pack hot jars with whole scapes, 1 fresh basil leaf, a pinch of chili flakes (depending on your spice tolerance) and then the brine. Put on lids, place in a hot water canner and boil for 45 minutes. Leave at least 2 weeks before serving to get best flavor.

Still time to Purchase Flowers and Garden Plants at Farmers Market

         A beautiful Memorial Day weekend brought the best crowd to date at the Zanesville Farmers Market.  Another nice day is predicted for this Saturday, so if you haven’t made it out to the market yet, please stop by the Muskingum County Fairgrounds from 9 am to Noon on Saturday.

        Each week there are more and more vendors who join the market.  There are still good deals to be had on flower and vegetable plants if you have not yet finished planting your garden.  In addition to plants, the farmers’ tables get a little fuller each week as more and more fresh produce is ready to be harvested from the garden.  The earliest veggies such as green onions, asparagus, radishes, and rhubarb, are now being joined by things such as leaf lettuce and other spring greens.  There were even some of the first strawberries of the season available last week. 

            Now that most of the garden is planted, it is time to work on the next step of maintaining a garden—dealing with weeds.  Right after the soil is tilled and the plants are put in and seeds sown, the garden looks so nice and pristine.  It doesn’t take long however, for things to get out of control. 

            I am often guilty of “rubbernecking” as I pass people’s gardens while driving.  I am a bit envious of small home gardens.  Usually, everything looks so neat and orderly and weed free.  Most of the time, I start off with great intentions in my own garden, but more often than not, things get ahead of me and the weeds set in. 

Cultivating between the rows of plants while the weeds are still tiny is the best way to keep ahead of the problem.  This can be done with a hoe, rototiller, cultivator, or any combination thereof, depending on the scale of the garden.  Using a cultivator that hitches to the back of the tractor is probably the fastest way I could accomplish this task.  However, due to a combination of my crooked rows and my crooked driving, when I try to use this machine I tend to rip out more plants than weeds as I go along. 

So, my current method of choice is to cultivate by hand using an old fashioned tool that has a large wheel in front with prongs behind that dig into the dirt and two handles with which to push it forward.  I have heard many names for it such as a “high wheel cultivator” and a “push plow/cultivator.” 

Just today, though, my friend, Dale Clapper, stopped by today and gave me a new name for this machine; he called it a “Missouri Mule.”  I think that is such a cute name that I’m going to refer to it that way from now on.  It sounds just like something out of an old country song.  Perhaps I’ll utilize my time spent pushing it to write my own song.

Here is a good recipe to get some fresh spinach into your kids’ diet.  Try putting it in something they already enjoy.  I don’t know too many kids that don’t like Mac N Cheese.  This recipe came from MarthaStewart.com.  

Spinach Mac N Cheese

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup minced yellow onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups whole milk, room temperature
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• About 1 ¾ pounds spinach, trimmed, washed, and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick strips
• 5 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (2 cups)
• 3/4 pound elbow macaroni, cooked according to package instructions

    In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium. Add onion and cook until translucent, 6 minutes. Whisk in flour and cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is pale golden and has a slightly nutty aroma, about 2 minutes. Whisking constantly, add 2 cups milk. Add remaining 2 cups milk, raise heat to medium-high, and whisk until smooth; season with salt and pepper. Cook, whisking constantly, until sauce comes to a boil, 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens, 13 to 15 minutes. Add spinach and cook, stirring constantly, until wilted, about 3 minutes. Add cheese and stir until melted, about 2 minutes. Add cooked macaroni and stir to combine. Serve immediately.

My dad took a few pictures of me using the "Missouri Mule" early one morning a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't know he was taking pictures.

 

 

 Can't you just hear me singing a Gillian Welch tune as I push my "Missouri Mule". . .  

"There was a camp town man, used to plow and sing
And he loved that mule and the mule loved him
When the day got long as it does about now
I'd hear him singing to his muley-cow
Calling, "Come on my sweet old girl, and I'd bet the whole damn world
That we're gonna make it yet to the end of the row"

Singing "hard times ain't gonna rule my mind
Hard times ain't gonna rule my mind, Bessie
Hard times ain't gonna rule my mind no more"




And here is a photo taken last September by my friend Lindsay after I had clearly given up using this tool and let the weeds take over.





Perhaps this year I can keep ahead of the weeds.  Somehow I doubt it!