down on the farm

b and I joined the Red Hook CSA this year, and the pickups started last week. We are lucky not only to have a CSA in our neighborhood, but one that supports its own urban farm. Red Hook Farm sits on city park land that had formerly been a paved baseball field. (yes, that's how they used to do it) You can see its history in the remaining backstops and perimeter of London Plain trees, one of the city's most commonly planted species. When you're at the farm nature takes over and you can barely notice the Ikea right across the street! New York Harbor is on the other side of Ikea, its ocean breezes periodically breaking the heat on the farm. Membership requires that we work nine hours a season, and we've already fulfilled our requirement. As the farm will take walk-on volunteers, (show up at 10am on Saturdays if you're interested!) I have a feeling I'll be down on the farm a lot this summer.



Here's what I did with some of the ingredients from our first pickup:



Egg-bowl brunch. I sauteed chopped collard greens, kale and garlic scapes in a small pan. Since the heavy greens took a while to cook, I cracked the eggs right on top of them to finish cooking. The result was something between a fried and a poached egg. (I placed a lid on top for the last few seconds, to cook the whites) This went in a bowl, topped with my homemade kimchi, a dash of tamari and sprigs of oregano. Eaten with Finn Crisp. I made a similar version with zucchini (not from the farm) the next day, and placed the whole shebang on korean yam noodles. yummers!



Another use for the garlic scapes- hummus! While it can be tempting to pick up a tub at the supermarket, the amount of salt in most brands is insane! I prefer to make my own from dried garbanzos, tahini, lemon, a bit of cayenne and salt. Of course the variations on the recipe are endless. Substituting the scapes for bulb garlic was magic. Second pickup is today!