We hope you have been enjoying this nice summer. For the most part it has been not as hot, humid and sticky as other summers. We certainly are enjoying it and are relieved about the lack of intense heat waves.

This week, we are happy to bring you a couple of new items for the season. We are harvesting our lemongrass and have begun picking a nice new patch of “Jade” green beans. There is also a good possibility we may be harvesting some young, beautiful Hakurei turnips.

What’s Available This Week

The following items will be available on Thursday, August 21 at Hattie’s Garden from 2 – 5 p.m. and the HLFM on Saturday, August 23 from 8 a.m. to noon. You can also email Hattie to make an appointment to stop by Hattie’s Garden at another time.

• Tomatoes – Large and medium, Orange, Pink and Red. We also have mixed cherry tomato pints as well as pints of Sunpeach, Jasper and Black Cherry.
• Jade Green Beans – A classic green bean of the finest quality. Tender, crunchy & delicious.
• Hakurei Turnips – Bite into one and you will be pleasantly surprised. Go ahead, you can eat them raw or lightly cooked. They are nothing like a traditional turnip.
• Lemongrass – Lemony, herbaceous, works well in sweet and savory dishes and drinks.
• Flat Italian Parsley – Nice robust flavor. This is the parsley to use for culinary purposes.
• Peppers – Both sweet and hot. Sweet peppers include Cubanelle and Islander Purple Bell. Hot peppers range from very mild Mariachi to very hot Thai Hot Peppers.
• Flowers – We can make you a bouquet to order, or choose from our prepared bouquets. These flowers are cut and conditioned to last all week for you and come with a packet of flower food. This week we have:
  • Zinnias
  • Gladiolus
  • Cosmos
  • Gomphrena
  • Ageratum
  • Yarrow

Lemongrass

We hope you all enjoy adding a bit of lemongrass to your cuisines. Lemongrass is a wonderful herb used in Thai and Southeast Asian cooking and also for medicinal purposes.

In addition to being indispensable in Asian cooking, Lemongrass is an antibacterial, antimicrobial, antioxidant and has many therapeutic properties.

This is a strong herb and normally used in small amounts. The entire stalk of the grass can be used. The grass blade can be sliced very fine and added to soups. The bulb can be bruised and minced for use in a variety of recipes.

The light lemon flavor of this grass blends well with garlic, chilies, and cilantro. The herb is frequently used in curries as well as in seafood soups and with chicken. It is also used to make tea or as an aromatic herb, or leaves can simply be boiled in water to create a wonderful cleansing aroma throughout your home. Lemongrass tea is made by pouring boiling water over leaves and allowing to steep for 10 minutes.

There are many ways to use Lemongrass in cooking, but an easy way to start is to simply place lemongrass inside the cavity of whatever fowl you are roasting. Alternatively, if you’ve got a bit more time, here is a simple, but wonderful recipe based on chicken typical of that served in Thailand on the street.

Jade Green Beans

Jade green bush beans are exceptionally sweet, tender, and delicious. Our beans are always picked young and kept cool and fresh for market.

Steam them for six or seven minutes for the best flavor. Eating them too raw doesn’t do their flavor justice.

About storing beans… they can suffer from cold storage temps. We keep ours at about 45 degrees. A short time in the fridge is okay, but place them in the warmest part of the refrigerator, such as the crisper and wrap them in something extra, such as a paper bag or newspaper to insulate them a bit from the cold.

Yours in the garden and at the table…