Recipe: Pickled Radishes

Crunchy, spicy radishes are one of my favorite spring veggies. Mostly I eat them raw in salads or just grab a handful from the fridge to munch. To explore some of the softer flavours in radishes you can try them butter braised or pickled. This quick and easy pickle mellows their peppery bite and is delicious in sandwiches or salads. Try setting out a jar at lunch or dinner and let everyone heap a spoonful of pickled radishes onto their plates - they are a great accompaniment to just about any savory meal.

Ingredients:

- 6-8 radishes, trimmed
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp. salt
- 3 tbsp. honey

Steps:

1. Use a sharp knife or a mandoline (carefully!) to slice radishes into thin discs.

2. Mix brine ingredients (vinegar, water, salt and honey) in saucepan and set on medium-low heat. Stir while heating until just dissolved, about 1-2 minutes.

3. Put garlic in the bottom of a clean 1 L jar and pack all the radishes in on top.

4. Pour brine in over the radishes. Make sure it's not too hot, you don't want to cook the radishes. They should be completely covered by the brine so add extra water if needed.

5. Let cool until room temperature and then refrigerate for 24 hours before eating. Expect to see a lovely pink hue within an hour or so as the brine starts to work its magic on the radishes.

This pickle will last 3-4 weeks in the fridge, assuming you don't devour it first.

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Hilling Potatoes

Hilling potatoes always makes me appreciate how much work a small tractor can get done in a short time. The usual way to grow potatoes (although there are many alternative techniques) is to plant the seed pieces a couple of inches deep and then repeatedly mound or "hill" the soil up the growing plant. The reason to do this is that the tubers are formed along the stem above the seed. If they are exposed to light, they turn green and are inedible. Also, the stem has the ability to continue producing potatoes on any part in contact with the soil so continually burying it can stimulate a larger yield. If the seed were simply planted deep to begin with, the plant would expend too much energy reaching the surface, so hilling is a good solution. As an added benefit, it also prevents weeds from growing.

This would have been a back breaking amount of work to do by hand:

I'll be hilling a couple more times. Other than bug scouting, that's about it until I start checking for new potatoes, ideally in early August.

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Recipe: Kohlrabi Slaw

Kohlrabi is a crunchy veggie with a delicate flavour that can be eaten raw or lightly cooked (steamed or fried). Being a brassica, it's in the same family as cabbage and broccoli and its taste is reminiscent of both. In this spring version of coleslaw, mild kohlrabi pairs with the slight bite of raw radishes in a vinegary dressing enhanced by honey, sesame and ginger flavours.

Ingredients:

Slaw:
2 kohlrabi, peeled and either julienned or coarsely grated
5 small-to-medium radishes, either julienned or coarsely grated
3/4 cup crushed unsalted peanuts
(optional) 1 bunch scallions, chopped

Dressing:
2 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp honey
1 tsp minced ginger

Steps:

1) Peel and then grate kohlrabi with coarsest setting. You can also cut into matchsticks with a sharp knife or a mandoline.

2) Grate (or cut) radishes in the same way and add to the kohlrabi.

3) Mix dressing ingredients together thoroughly and pour onto salad.

4) Mix in peanuts and serve immediately.

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Greenhouse transition

As the season progresses towards summer, the greenhouse is steadily transitioning to summer mode. First, the seedling benches filled up with transplants:

On the warmer days, the roll up sides are open for ventilation:

Then, with enough transplants planted out in the field, the centre bed is freed up for some more tomatoes:

The tomatoes now have their extra row cover off, and are starting to grow up their string trellis:

A few seedlings are still hanging around in the back. In a week or two, I'll have it down to one small bench for late season transplants so that I can fill in the side beds with peppers and eggplants:

This small structure (built just last year) has been a hub of activity for its first spring. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything does in the summer ahead. It won't be changing so quickly once the peppers, eggplants and tomatoes are all in place, but it should still be a very productive area.

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Recipe: Spinach Raita

This quick-to-make yogurt salad is delicious and very versatile. Pair it with a warm rice dish or something hot off the grill. In North America yogurt has unfortunately been relegated to the sweet snack or dessert category, and while I do love mixing it with jam, maple syrup or honey, there's so much more that yogurt can do. Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and South Asian cuisines have a wealth of savory uses for yogurt that are nothing short of amazing. It was a mind expanding experience for me the first time I mixed raw garlic with lightly salted yogurt and I guarantee once you've tried it you'll never limit yourself to "fruit on the bottom" yogurt cups again.

Here spinach adds a fresh taste of spring and is one of many veggies that can be combined with yogurt in this way. Raita is South Asian in origin and can be either sweet or savory depending on the ingredients. It's a delicious way to cool the tongue when eating a spicy Indian dish, and you may want to add cumin or mint to the raita if you're pairing it this way.

Ingredients:

- 1 bunch spinach, washed with stems trimmed off
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4-1/2 tsp salt

Steps:

1. Lightly wilt spinach in boiling water or steam. Set aside to cool.

2. Drain spinach and squeeze with your hands to remove all excess water. Chop finely.

3. Mix yogurt with garlic, salt and lemon juice.

4. Add spinach and stir until completely mixed. Serve with a hot main dish.

Raita can be made with many different veggies (diced cucumber probably being the most popular), so if you like this dish you can experiment with other versions as the season progresses and more fresh Eva Mae Farm veggies make it to your kitchen counter. Enjoy!

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Frost - The Morning After

The frost did indeed come last night. This morning the field was blanketed in a layer of ice.

Spinach is hardy enough to tolerate the ice so it spent the night uncovered. Once the sun melts the ice off later today these little plants will bounce back.

Below is a stray zucchini plant that slipped out of its row cover and got hit by the frost. Unfortunately, zucchini is much more fragile than spinach so this plant is a goner.

Happily, the rest of the zucchini plants were tucked under their cozy row cover and made it safely through the icy night.

The weather forecast is predicting an end to this late May chill today, and the morning has already been warming up nicely. The row covers will come off this afternoon before the plants heat up too much.

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