Pause and Thanks - Hattie's Garden

As the Historic Lewes Farmers Market (HLFM) comes to a close for the 2013 season and Hattie’s Garden takes a break next week for Thanksgiving and to prepare for the upcoming CSA, we would like to extend our gratitude and thanks to all of you.

Below is a list of what we will be offering this week, both at Hattie’s Garden from 1 to 5 on Thursday, November 21 and at the final HLFM, located at the Shields Elementary School parking lot, on Saturday, November 23 from 9 to noon.

Please note the new time-frame for Hattie’s Thursday hours. Our harvest window gets smaller and smaller during the shorter days leading up to the winter solstice and we need the extra hour to be ready for you.

Salad Greens

Young Arugula — generally, not as peppery or spicy as mature arugula.

Mature Arugula — great for sauteing or steaming.

Mesclun — a term for a mix of salad greens that are harvested and eaten together.

Loose Leaf Lettuce — may be used as is for a salad, or as the base ingredient for any salad.

Herbs

Sage — just in time for Thanksgiving, sage adds a soft and very delicate sweet savory flavor.
Flat Italian Parsley — has a robust taste ideal for flavoring. Despite the name, Italy is not the only country where flat-leaf parsley is widely favored. It’s dominant throughout Europe and the Middle East.
Dill — provides a tangy addition to pickles, salad dressing and fish dishes.

Did you know that both parsley and dill can help to neutralize carcinogens?

Additional Produce

Swiss Chard — a cousin to beet greens and spinach, Swiss chard has a wonderfully sweet, salty, mineral-rich flavor.

Pak Choi — or Bok Choi, Pak Choy and Bok Choy. These are all spellings for the same vegetable which is classified as a cabbage that bears little resemblance to the round European cabbages found in western supermarkets.

Red Russian Kale — might be the sweetest kale there is.

Alpine Daikon Radish — is larger and milder than its relative, the red radish.

Red Radishes — the classic, round red radish with crisp white flesh that is mild and tasty.

Japanese Hakurei Turnips — these small white turnips are nothing like the purple topped turnips we typically grow in America. You don’t peel Hakurei Turnips and the greens are not “hairy”. They are delicious raw and a quick steaming brings out even more sweetness.

Various Mustard Greens

Kyona Mizuna — an elegant Japanese green with narrow white stems and bright green lacy-edged leaves. Delicious barely spicy flavor reminds me of arugula, but much less strong. When mizuna is sauteed, it retains its juiciness and sops up much of the flavoring liquid you may use, such as stock or soy sauce.

Osaka Purple Mustard — the dark purple leaves and white stems of this Japanese mustard are both great stir-fried, steamed or in soup. This is a pungent mustard, but very mellow and nuanced flavor once cooked. It goes well with pork, poultry, legume and fish dishes.

Ho Mi Z (aka Dragon Tongue) — a balance of sweet and spicy. This mustard green has a nice dense full rich mustard flavor, but is not too hot. Young leaves are a perfect addition for a little kick to salad mixes. Mature leaves are delicious sauteed or added to soups. It also makes a nice mustard for stir fry.

Curly Green Wave Mustard — a light green mustard with frilled edges. Good all round mustard with mustardy hot taste – almost like wasabi or horseradish. Cooking mellows it and it is a great addition to soups, or stir-fried or steamed.

As noted above, we have now entered the period of time when daylight is less than 10 hours and vegetative growth slows or stops. At our latitude, this period of low light lasts from about November 17 until about January 20th. It has been aptly called the “Persephone Months” by Eliot Coleman of Four Season Farm.