CSA Week 5

If you aren’t clued into all the hustling that is going on in the fields and behind the scenes here, it’d be easy to think this thing called farm life is relatively tranquil--unless you’ve been monitoring the traffic in our driveway for the last month. The activity starts around 6:30 a.m. when a large, diesel truck rumbles up our driveway. That belongs to a local excavator, who has been digging a 1-million gallon, 3/4-acre pond on our farm. This pond is a big deal for us. We received a grant through the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to build the pond as the primary source of water for irrigating our fields. It was the first grant we’ve applied for, and it was a boon to be selected as a recipient.
Up to this point, we’ve naturally relied on rain to keep our plants adequately hydrated. And when that’s not enough, we’ve irrigated using water pumped from a well. The well has miraculously never run out, no matter how dry the summer, but it can only pump water to the fields in small segments (we’ll not bore you with the technical details as to why), and the amount of acreage upon which we grow keeps expanding. So, to have a pond like this is a significant form of insurance for when we face drought conditions. It also simply allows us to have more control over our environment, so we can grow better crops. The grant includes the cost of irrigation line, a pump, filters, etc. So, really, we couldn’t feel more fortunate.
The pond project has meant daily visits from USDA field agents, an occasional fuel-truck delivery, a periodic visit from a large-equipment repair trucks (there seem to have been a few breakdowns), and an entourage of pickup trucks somehow affiliated with the contractor. Between that, the day-long hum of excavating machinery at work behind our fields, and the usual traffic in our driveway—harvest vehicles, staff comings and goings, supply deliveries, random (sometimes very random) visitors—the farm has been buzzing.
Right now the project is in its final stages, and, fortunately, we’ve been getting ample rain. The pond is dug but the “spoils”— the equivalent of 1 million gallons of displaced dirt, now need some re-arranging. So this past week we’re seeding, planting, harvesting and weeding to the background hum of a bulldozer at work.
It has been exciting to watch it all develop, and the excavation site makes a great post-dinner destination for the kids when Ken has to work until dark. By then the day’s traffic has quieted, and all seems at peace as we walk over the mounds of spoils and gape at the giant hole, trying to imagine what it will be like when it’s full of water, surrounded by a grassy border, and no longer quite the mud pit our children in the meantime are quite enjoying.



IN THIS WEEK'S SHARE:
1 head frisée
1 bunch basil
1 head red leaf lettuce or bag of salad mix
1 head green cabbage
1 bunch broccoli
1 bunch spring onions
1 head curly leaf kale
1 bunch rainbow swiss chard

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RECIPES:
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Frisée salad with peaches, avocado & pistachios
Serves four.

1 head frisée, rinsed, dried, and torn into bite-size pieces
2 tablespoons raspberry or red-wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup thinly sliced green onion tops (from the fresh onions in this week’s share)
½ cup pistachios, toasted
2 peaches, pitted and sliced into thin wedges
1 ripe avocado, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic scapes (hopefully you have some left over from last week’s share)


Add the frisée to a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the vinegar and honey to blend. Whisk in the olive oil. Whisk in a large pinch of Kosher salt and a few grinds of pepper. Drizzle all but a couple tablespoons of the dressing over the frisée, sprinkle with the sliced onions, and, using tongs, toss to evenly distribute. Add the peach slices and garlic to the remaining dressing and gently toss to coat.

Mound the frisée on four salad plates. Arrange the avocado slice and then the peaches on top. Sprinkle the pistachios on top and serve.

© Maryellen Driscoll, 2010


Crispy Kale
Serves four.
Roasting kale until it’s shattery crisp is one way to coax finicky eaters into enjoying this highly nutritious green. Children and adults alike eat them as if they’re chips. Serve as an appetizer, snack or with a meal.
Tip: To quickly remove the stem from a kale leaf, wrap your hand around the stem at the base of the leaf. Firmly hold the stem with your other hand as you run your wrapped hand up towards the leaf tip, quickly stripping the leafy portion from the stem. Discard or compost the stems.


1 bunch of kale from this week’s share, washed
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
Kosher salt

Heat the oven to 350° F. Meanwhile, strip the kale leaves from the stems (see tip, above). Tear the leaves into large, bite-size pieces. Thoroughly dry in a salad spinner. Transfer onto a clean kitchen towel and blot just to make sure the kale is dry.
Mound the kale on a heavy-duty, rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil and cider vinegar and toss with your hands to evenly coat the leaves. Bake in the oven, turning the leaves once they’ve begun to crisp, after about 10 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet and continue to cook until crackly crisp but not browned, 8 to 12 more minutes. Do not let the leaves turn brown; they’ll taste burnt and bitter. Remove from oven, sprinkle with salt and serve.

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KITCHEN TIPS

Kitchen Tool of the Week. A salad spinner is one of the more worthwhile kitchen gadgets to own, and it’s not just great for drying salad greens. Use it to store the delicate salad mix (mixed baby lettuce leaves) you’ve been seeing weekly in your share. The basket lets air circulate around the greens to prevent damage from too much moisture, while the lid on the salad spinner helps keep just the right amount of moisture in. The greens tend to hold well this way through the entire week.
You can also use the salad spinner to spin out any excess moisture from your kale before trying this week’s addictive crispy kale recipe. It’s also handy for spinning excess moisture from greens, such as this week’s swiss chard, before adding to hot oil for a sauté or stir fry.

Storing basil. Fresh basil doesn’t hold well in the refrigerator. So use as soon as you can. If you can’t use immediately, store stem end down in a cup of water and loosely cover the leafy top with a plastic bag. If you don’t have the ingredients for pesto and want to find a way to store it long term, finely chop with olive oil in a blender or food processor. You can then add to tomato sauces, pasta dishes, winter soups or risotto in the winter.


Ideas for using your share contents this 4th of July weekend:
Spring onions: caramelize the white portion of the onions (bulb end) and use as a bruschetta topping with thin slivers of basil and goat cheese; if you’ve a stockpile, make into an onion tart; thinly slice the green tops and use in anything from scrambled eggs or egg salad to tuna salad a garnish for hummus or tossed in a pasta dish

Garlic scapes: make pesto (see last week’s recipe) and top on grilled,
homemade pizza along with fresh mozzarella or toss with pasta, fresh mozzarella, feta or goat cheese and basil for a simple pasta salad

Cabbage: make cole slaw with a light dressing using rice vinegar or lemon juice, sour cream and walnut oil

More on salad dressings. A couple weeks ago we talked homemade salad dressings--how much better they taste, how simple they are to make. Jamie Oliver's weekly Food Revolution newsletter includes a link to what he calls Jam Jar Dressings. He sums up the subject really well, in his quintessential Jamie way, and offers a handful of great salad dressing recipes too.

CSA Week 4

A ladybug, a natural predator of pests, nestles in the fronds of some upcoming fennel

Letter from the Farm At last we’ve had some nice weather—warm temperatures with enough moisture so that the plants are showing some vigor. Up until now, cold nights, dry stretches, and general inconsistencies in growing conditions have been hard on many of the plants in our fields. In sum, we’re finally seeing crops growing.
Now is a critical time for pest control, as this is the time pests really take off. Our main insect problems are potato beetles, cucumber beetles and flea beetles. On occasion, we battle cutworms.
Just like weed control, successful pest control is all about timing and getting on top of the issue when it’s new. We make every effort to cultivate when the weeds are hair-like (and easy to remove); we try as best we can to control pests now before they have a chance to lay their eggs and multiply exponentially.
This year we’re lucky enough to have planted our potatoes ¼ mile away from where we planted last year. We’ve seen not one potato beetle on the plants thus far. Last year the beetles hammered on the plants with an intensity we’d never seen before, and then came blight. It was a weak year for potatoes.
The potato beetles are here but have tried to prey upon our eggplant crop instead. So we have been going over the rows of eggplant twice daily squishing with our hands the adult potato beetles off the top of the plants’ leaves and, just as importantly, smashing any eggs laid on the underside of the leaves that we find.
The kicker is, often times, the farm’s weekly schedule and the weather don’t allow us to do such things in a timely manner. So bugs and especially weeds take off—all too often. This results in much more labor-intensive pest and weed control and, at worst, the loss of a crop.
Like most years, we’ve had our share of successes and failures. Right now we’re seeing a lot of crops looking strong. That feels good.

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IN THIS WEEK'S SHARE:

1 pound garlic scapes (see recipes)
1 bunch basil
5 ounces mesclun mix
1 bunch spring onions
1 green cabbage (local CSA members); 1 bunch broccoli (NYC members)
1 head freckles romaine lettuce (see note)
1 bunch Tuscan kale
½ pound salad mix
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notes on this week’s share:
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Freckles! Don’t be fooled by the brown mottling on this week’s lettuce. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. This is an heirloom romaine lettuce—meant to have light-brown freckling—that we just love. It’s buttery-tender yet toothsome, and delicious.


Garlic scapes. Those curly-cue shoots in this week’s share are garlic scapes. They’re a flowering shoot that gets snapped off the garlic plant shortly after they appear so that the plant’s energy stays focused on developing a large, healthy bulb underground. Snap a scape in half, and you’ll recognize the bright aroma of early-season garlic. Scapes store really well (refrigerate in a sealed bag, and they’ll hold for at least a couple of weeks). But, if you use them like you would garlic or a scallion, they probably won’t last that long in your fridge. You can sauté or stir fry. Grill whole. Chop and add to pasta, salad, eggs… It’s incredibly versatile. Have fun experimenting with it on your own or with these two recipes.

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RECIPES


WHITE BEAN AND GARLIC SCAPES DIP
by Melissa Clark, published in the New York Times.
Yield: 1 1/2 cups.
Time: 15 minutes

Melissa is an inspiring food writer, who wrote a great companion piece to this recipe about green garlic (in case you still have some of yours kicking around in your fridge).


GARLIC SCAPES PESTO
For ½ pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated.

1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into ¼-inch slices
1/3 cup walnuts
¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼-1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Optional: To bring out the flavor of the walnuts, gently toast them over medium-low heat in a skillet until fragrant. Remove from the skillet immediately. Let cool before processing.

Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until blended. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper to taste.

Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for one week. Or freeze in a thin layer in a sealed freezer bag. Break off a portion of the frozen pesto to use as needed—to flavor pastas or soups or spread on a sandwich.

Adapted from "A Mighty Appetite with Kim O’Donnell" blog, The Washington Post website

CSA Week 3

The harvest for this week’s CSA share finished early enough that there was a little time to catch up on a few things in the fields. The last tomato stakes were pounded into the ground. Young, delicate tomato plants were carefully tied to the stakes or to overhanging wire trellises (seen here in farm pic). Row covers used to protect spring plantings from cold and wind were pulled off and rolled up. And a cool breeze helped dry things off some after a weekend of rain, so at least no one was working with five pounds of mud clinging to their work boots.
The deficit of rain we experienced in May has been plenty compensated for this first half of June. The long-term forecast this week calls for more rain and cool temperatures-- no higher than in the 70s. This is concerning, as such cool, wet conditions are a welcome mat for mildew and disease, such as dreaded blight, to plants. We’re looking anxiously for some strong sun.
CSA members are on the cusp of seeing a little more variety (that is, less lettuce) in their shares. If you eat a lot of salad, like we do, you can be assured that we do try to offer some kind of salad green just about every week of the CSA season. So, if you haven’t been making your own salad dressings, now might be a good time to start (see the basic vinaigrette recipe below). While we’re sure there are a few decent bottled dressings out there, the majority of commercial dressings are harshly flavored, greasy, and heavy. You can’t toss and gently coat the mix of delicate baby greens you’ve been getting in the last 3 week’s shares with glop. So we strongly encourage you to try making your own. It’s really a cinch.

In this week’s share:
1 bunch beets
1 bunch green garlic
½ pound salad mix
1 head red leaf lettuce
1 bunch spring onions
1 head bok choy
1 bunch cilantro

Early Bird special: We have some extra radish and escarole this week. It’s not enough for everyone, so it’s first come, first serve (we’re going on the hunch that not everyone is going to be lunging for more of either). We’d rather share it with CSA members than see it go to waste.

RECIPES:
If you’re not familiar with cooking beets or are looking for some fresh ideas, The New York Times published a nice article on what makes beets so great and healthy a couple of years ago. It includes a handful of tempting recipes for both the beets and their greens. Beet greens are delicious and nutritious, a good source for beta-carotene, vitamin C, iron and calcium.

How to sauté beet greens:
For an easy weeknight preparation, slice the greens from the beets, rinse and pat or spin dry. Heat 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the oil is shimmering. Add the greens and a tablespoon of thinly sliced green garlic. Using tongs, stir and toss the greens until wilted. It should take just a few minutes. Season with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve with a squirt of lemon juice and some freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Or drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle with some crumbled blue or goat cheese.

Basic Recipe for Roasted Beets
If you’ve never roasted beets, you’ve got to try it out. The dry heat of the oven tenderizes the beet and concentrates its sugars.

1 bunch Free Bird Farm’s beets, scrubbed but not peeled
1 ½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 450° F. Cut off the tops and trim the bottoms of the beets. If medium in size, slice into wedges, from top to bottom, so that the wedges about 1 ½ inch thick at their widest point. Small beets can be sliced from top to bottom in half. Line a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Pile the beet wedges or halves on the baking pan and drizzle with the oil. Sprinkle with a large pinch of salt, and toss to evenly coat. Spread the wedges out evenly on the baking sheet, cut side down, and roast until the undersides of the beets have begun to brown and become crispy, about 20 minutes. Using a spatula, turn the beets and continue to roast until they feel tender when pierced with the tip of a knife or the tines of a fork, about 10 to 15 more minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Serve with the skins on or slip off by rubbing the skin portion of the wedges with a sheet of paper towel.

Roasted beets are wonderful on their own with a little butter and salt or a squirt of lemon, or serve with a vinaigrette. They will keep for five days in a covered bowl in the refrigerator. Make a salad with chilled roasted beets, mixed baby greens (from this week’s share), almonds, blue cheese and a vinaigrette.

© Maryellen Driscoll, 2010


Basic Vinaigrette
Yields 5 to 6 Tbs.

At its very simplest, a vinaigrette is a blending of vinegar and oil. Neither two ingredients like to naturally mix, so you often will see recipes that call for a little Dijon mustard used to help emulsify or bind the two main ingredients (as well as add a flavor boost to the vinaigrette). Once you get comfortable with this basic recipe, you can start branching out—trying different vinegars, combinations of vinegars or lemon, orange, or lime juice, adding thickeners like sour cream, yogurt, or even just a little mayonnaise for creaminess, blending in different fresh minced herbs or chopped capers or olives.


¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small clove garlic, minced or mashed to a paste (or 1 tablespoon minced green garlic from this week’s share)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, freshly squeezed lemon juice or other vinegar; more to taste
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Honey to taste

Add the vinegar to a small bowl or a liquid measuring cup (I like to use my 1-cup Pyrex because it doesn’t tip and makes it easy to pour onto the greens). Add the oil slowly to the vinegar while constantly whisking with a small whisk. (If you don’t own a small whisk, I highly recommend one for this; an inexpensive one is just.) Add the garlic, a pinch of Kosher salt, a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper and a generous drizzle of honey. Whisk to blend. Taste, adjusting the amount of vinegar, oil or other ingredients to your liking.

Tips: It’s helpful if you make the vinaigrette just before serving the salad, since it will separate if it sits. If it separates, whisk until once again evenly blended.

To serve, pour the vinaigrette sparingly over a bowl of greens and toss with a pair of tongs (another favorite kitchen tool). The greens should be pleasantly coated. Taste and add more vinaigrette if needed.

Once dressed with a vinaigrette, greens won’t hold overnight; so dress only as much as you plan to eat.

Double your recipe, use only as much as needed, and store the rest in an airtight container or clean jar with lid in the refrigerator. Before using again, pull the vinaigrette out of the refrigerator so that it can come to room temperature (olive oil will solidify in the refrigerator but return back to a liquid at room temp.). Shake with the container or jar lid on to evenly re-blend the vinegar and oil before serving.

If you have kids, involve them. Let them add everything but the olive oil, which they can whisk in while you slowly pour the oil in or vice versa. If the oil gets dumped in too quickly and doesn't blend, actively whisk it until it's blended (maybe when they're not looking).

CSA Share Week #2

CSA SHARE WEEK #2

How does your garden grow…?

At our first farmers’ market in late May, an older gentleman politely approached our stand to ask: “Do you have any tomatoes?” We gave the spiel about how locally grown tomatoes don’t normally appear until some time in July. “Well,” he countered, “I thought you might have some left over from last season.”

Though this man’s rebuttal was surely unique, all too often we field questions about when tomatoes and many other vegetables will be available. Our neighbor once asked us if we’d have Brussels sprouts for a Father’s Day dinner. Really, when everything from tomatoes to winter squash and apples and berries can be found year round in supermarkets, why should the average person be familiar with the cycle of a Northeast growing season?

As a CSA member you will get to experience this cycle first hand with your week-to-week shares. Early in the season you’re typically eating lots of salad and greens, as these light, leafy, highly nutritious vegetables are something that will grow relatively early in the growing season.

Many of the crops that you’ll be receiving further into the summer, such as peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant, need a lot of heat to grow, flower, and produce fruit. These plants not only take time but simply can’t be planted until the threat of frost is past in late May.

As growers, we do have some tricks up our sleeves to help some of these slow-to-grow, heat-hungry crops along. For instance, we start these high summer crops on heated grow mats so that the seeds will germinate well before the ground outside is warm enough. And the young plants then get a head start in our greenhouses, which warm up beautifully inside even when it’s 50 degrees outside—so long as it’s sunny. Once it’s warm enough we then transplant them into the fields.

We could have tomatoes in June. A close grower friend does just that. But then he has to charge $3 to $5 per tomato just to cover all his costs—from purchasing nursery-raised plants in winter to burning fossil fuels to keep his greenhouses heated early in the season. We enjoy a fresh tomato, but not that much.

If you’re new to the idea of truly eating in accordance with the growing season, there is this online chart that maps things out fairly well (except somehow it’s got peppers appearing in June; that can’t be). This is just a guide and not specific to what we grow or when we’ll definitely have a crop. But when you start feeling antsy, wondering when you might see a fresh cucumber, this trusty chart might prove useful.

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IN THIS WEEK'S SHARE:
½ pound salad mix (baby lettuce greens, nothing spicy)
1 bunch green garlic
1 head escarole
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch swiss chard
½ pound spinach
1 bunch Easter egg radish
1/3 pound (4.8 ounces) arugula
1 head red leaf lettuce
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Since this is the time of year you can expect a lot of greens (see letter, above), we thought we'd share with you a couple of our favorite main-course salads that use some of this week's share contents.

RECIPES
Pan-Seared Salmon with Baby Greens
Serves four.

For the dressing:
2-1/2 Tbs. Champagne or white wine vinegar
2 Tbs. fresh orange juice
1 tsp. finely grated orange zest
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

For the salmon:
4 6-oz. skinless salmon fillets, preferably center cut
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-1/2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

For the salad:
8 oz. mixed baby salad greens (about 8 lightly packed cups)
4 radish, very thinly sliced crosswise
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper


Start the dressing: In a small bowl, combine the vinegar with the orange juice and zest, 1/4 tsp. salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Stir in the dried cherries and set aside.

Cook the salmon: Season the salmon fillets on both sides with 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the salmon, flipping once, until barely cooked through and a rich golden brown crust develops on both sides, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Set aside on a plate.

Finish the dressing: Using a fork or slotted spoon, remove the cherries from the orange juice mixture and set aside. Slowly whisk the 1/2 cup olive oil into the orange juice mixture until blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Assemble the salad: Combine the greens and radish in a large bowl. Add about half of the vinaigrette to the salad, toss, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide the salad among 4 large plates or shallow bowls. Set a piece of salmon on each salad and sprinkle the cherries around the fish. Drizzle some of the remaining vinaigrette over each fillet and serve.

© Maryellen Driscoll, Free Bird Farm

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Spinach and Artichoke Salad with Couscous Cakes and Feta
Quick-to-cook couscous cakes make this meatless main-course salad satisfying.
Serves three.

For the dressing:
2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbs. sour cream
1 tsp. finely chopped fresh mint
5 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Honey

For the couscous cakes:
3/4 cup couscous
Kosher salt
1 large clove garlic, peeled
1/4 cup packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves (optional)
1/2 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Finely grated zest of 1 medium lemon (about 1-1/2 tsp.)
3 Tbs. vegetable or canola oil

For the salad:
8 oz. spinach, washed and dried (about 6 lightly packed cups)
1 14-oz. can artichoke bottoms, drained, rinsed, and sliced
4 to 5 radish, very thinly sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 oz. crumbled feta (about 1/4 cup)


Make the dressing:
In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, sour cream, and mint. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and honey, if desired.

Make the couscous cakes:
Put the couscous and 1 tsp. salt in a medium bowl. Add 1 cup boiling water to the couscous, cover the bowl with a pan lid or plate, and let sit for 4 to 5 minutes.

Coarsely chop the garlic in a food processor. Add the parsley, if using, and pulse until finely chopped. Add the chickpeas and 1 tsp. salt and pulse until coarsely chopped.

Uncover the couscous and fluff with a fork. Stir in the chickpea mixture, eggs, and lemon zest until well combined. Press the couscous mixture into a 1/4-cup measure, smooth the top, and invert the measuring cup to release the cake onto a plate. Repeat with the remaining couscous mixture to make 9 cakes.

Heat 1-1/2 Tbs. of the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat until shimmering hot. Add 5 of the couscous cakes to the skillet and use a spatula to lightly flatten the cakes so they’re about 3/4 inch thick. Cook, flipping once, until crisp and golden brown on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Add the remaining 1-1/2 Tbs. vegetable oil to the skillet and cook the remaining cakes the same way.

Assemble the salad:
In a large bowl, toss the spinach, artichokes, and radish with about three-quarters of the dressing. Season to taste with salt and pepper and divide among 3 large plates. Top each salad with 3 couscous cakes, sprinkle each salad with feta, and drizzle with the remaining dressing.
© Maryellen Driscoll, Free Bird Farm

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KITCHEN TIPS:

Radish. Radish--whether you're using for salad or simply as a snack with a squirt of lemon juice and a sprinkling of Kosher or sea salt--seems all the more tasty when thinly sliced. If you don't have a mandoline or v-slicer, it can be tricky thinly slicing such a small, round object. The trick is to keep the radish from rolling: slice the stem and root end off first, then set on a cut end and proceed to thinly slice.

Green Garlic. One of our favorite hallmarks of spring is green garlic. Subtle in flavor, it’s an incredibly versatile ingredient. Like a green onion, you can use the white and green portions. It’s all edible. We often using the white portions for sautéing in anything we’d normally use traditional, cured garlic. The green portion is delicious thinly sliced or minced and used as a garnish on top of eggs, pasta or a salad. Or fold into tuna, pasta or a grain salad. Store in your refrigerator.