This week’s cooler, wetter weather has been a gift to some crops and a challenge to others.

The cabbages, broccoli, carrots, head lettuce, spinach, chard, and kale are loving it. These are the crops that thrive when the days are mild, the soil stays moist, and the sun isn’t quite so intense. You can almost see them relax into this kind of weather.

But not everything on the farm feels the same way. Tomatoes, peppers, basil, and many of the Mediterranean herbs would rather have warmth, sun, and drier air. That’s one of the reasons we’ve invested so much over the years in covered growing spaces — greenhouses, high tunnels, low tunnels, shade structures, and protected beds.

Those spaces let us create microclimates across the farm.

On a cool, wet week, the covered spaces help hold heat, shed excess rain, protect tender crops, and keep the heat-loving plants moving forward. In hotter weather, other spaces give us shade, airflow, and cooler soil for crops that would otherwise struggle.

Farming through an Ozarks spring means adapting to swings — too wet, too dry, too hot, too cold, sometimes all in the same week. The goal isn’t to control everything. It’s to create enough different growing environments that something is always thriving.

That’s part of how we keep abundance coming, even when the weather is unseasonal. This week, the greens and brassicas are shining, the protected crops are tucked into warmer spaces, and the farm is doing what it does best: adjusting, growing, and feeding people through whatever the season brings.

– Farmer Curtis

Garlic Scapes

Scapes are here! Many are unaware of this wonderful vegetable, but if you get them in your box, you are in for a treat. Scapes are only around in late spring – early summer for a short amount of time and typically only found at farmers markets. Many years ago, we started growing garlic, planting in the fall and patiently waiting all winter for them to pop in the spring. So when the garlic scapes appear, it is so exciting, not only because the garlic is almost ready to be harvested but you get a delightful, delicious vegetable while waiting for the garlic bulbs. I might just like the scapes more than the garlic itself!

What are garlic scapes? Garlic scapes are the long, green curled shoots that grow from the base of hardneck garlic plants. They have a bulge on the end of the stalk; that is actually the bud. If we let them grow, they will flower and seed out. When growing garlic, we want to trim the scapes to encourage the garlic plant to focus all of its energy on growing the bulb.

What do they taste like? Garlic scapes have a unique garlic, shallot, onion flavor. They have a slightly sweet, herbaceous, mild flavor. When eaten raw, they have a more pungent flavor; when cooked, they become sweeter and more like roasted garlic. These are perfect for those who don’t like strong garlic flavor but enjoy a more subtle essence of garlic or onion.

How to use garlic scapes: Cooking with scapes is so easy! They are hardly ever dirty, but give them a rinse and trim off the fibrous tip on the bud end. Then, use them in the same way you would use bulb garlic. You can eat scapes raw or cooked. Add them to salads, soups, sauces, stir fries, pickles, pizza, dressings, fry them, grill them, make compound butter, and anything else you desire.

How to store them: Scapes stay fresh for weeks, even months if stored properly. Place them in a paper bag or an unsealed plastic bag and store them in the refrigerator. Another great option to preserve them is to slice them up, freeze them flat on a sheet tray, then transfer them to an airtight container or bag and store in the freezer. They freeze really well so you can pull them out all year long and use them in your favorite dishes.

Broccoli

This is the peak of broccoli season! They are big, sweet, and delicious. Don’t pass them up this week — as the weather heats up, the broccoli will diminish, become less sweet, and eventually go away (at least until fall).

Workday Success

The Saturday Workday was a big success; we had a great turnout, 21 members gave of their Saturday mornings to help us mulch, weed, tarp, repair greenhouses, organize, tidy, and so many other tasks. It was glorious! “Order out of Chaos” was the battle cry of the day. If you haven’t signed up for your workshare yet, sign up here and come play in the dirt with us soon! https://signup.com/go/yfxjtyT