Garlic Scapes and Massaged Kale Salad

Sequoia helping with drip irrigation

CSA Box #1  June 3rd & June 7th    
     Exciting times over here on the farm. As we prepare our first CSA boxes we've also been working fastidiously to get all our long season summer crops planted, to set up drip irrigation in our fields, to get our system and timing down using silage tarps to compost/decompose cover crop and weeds into the soil, and setting up landscape fabric as a re-useable weed barrier for some of our crops. A very magnificent arrowhead revealed itself to Justin in the field this week!

​This week your box includes: 
- 2 bunches of kale (black tuscan and dazzling blue lacinato)
- a medium sized bag of spring mix
- a bunch of garlic scapes
-a bunch of radishes
   

Each week I will leave you all with some food preparation ideas and highlight a vegetable if its something that may be unusual. Feel free to share any delicious ideas with me and they may get featured on here! So you know what to expect, I am not the type of cook who follows recipes to a T, and I believe with most dishes, that this type of flexibility improves them by bringing creativity into the kitchen.

Highlight on Garlic Scapes
     "What are garlic scapes?" you may ask. Garlic scapes are a delicacy only available for eating for a few weeks in late May and early June. They are the young flower bud of the garlic plant. Generally only hard neck garlic varieties produce scapes, though occasionally soft neck will produce them too. These garlic scapes are coming from a variety we're growing,German White, of which you'll have cured bulbs to eat in a few months.  In the kitchen, garlic scapes are used exactly as you use green onions, but with a garlic flavor: chopped and tossed on a dish or lightly sauted into a dish.  Scapes can also be chopped and frozen to use later or chopped and covered in apple cider vinegar for a garlic-y vinegar infusion.

---

This Kale Salad has olive oil, apple cider vinegar, garlic scapes and shredded carrot, and salt in it.

Food prep idea of the week: Massaged Kale Salad
     When its kale season my favorite thing to make is massaged kale salad.  "Massaging" kale is a method used to break down kale into a tender, softer form without using heat; essentially keeping it raw, yet imbuing it with a cooked-like and easily digested texture. Wash your hands really good before beginning this recipe, as massaging kale is very "hands on". Ingredients will be in bold.
     I usually start with at least 2 bunches of kale as, it shrinks down once massaged (as it would when cooked).  While it does shrink quite a bit, you're finished salad is very dense. Portioning it is less like a lettuce salad, and more like side of pasta salad, though if you're really having a craving for greens a large bowl would totally be in order.
     Ok, so 2 bunches of Kale. I strip the kale off the stalks (more on uses for stalks later) into a large bowl, and break the leaves into pieces as I'm doing this, with pieces no larger than the mouth of a wide-mouth jar.  Next I pour approximately 2 tablespoons of an oil, 2 tablespoons of an acid, (lemon juice or vinegar), and salt to taste (1/2 tea) over the kale. Preferred oils include: olive oil, sesame oil, avocado oil, hemp seed oil. Preferred acids include: apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, or lemon juice. When choosing which Oil and Acid to use, go by what flavor combination sounds appealing to you, and of course by what you already have in you pantry.
The oil, acid, and salt all play a role in breaking the kale down into its tender texture, and your hands essentially 'work' these elements into the kale leaf.  NOW MASSAGE... get your hands in there and squeeze and crunch the kale, rub it between both hands, kind of like kneading. The massage lasts approximately 5 minutes. As you go you will notice the kale get more tender and the leaf becomes somewhat translucent at is absorbs the oil and acid.
     After the massage, you can eat! Or you can add any wild variety of other ingredients and stir them in before eating or serving. Some additions I've enjoyed include: raisins, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, chopped almonds, sesame seeds, tahini (stirred in thoroughly), grated or chopped apples, grated carrot, dried tomato.... really the variations are endless and the salad is flexible to most flavors.  Finely chopped garlic scapes and/or radishes would also be delicious in the kale salad!

a soup stock bag in our freezer

Making the Most of Your Box
Radish Leaves: this have a good taste, similar to mustard greens.  Although prickly when raw, they lose that element when cooked well. Cook 'em up!
Kale Stems: ​Chop 'em small and add to scrambles, stir-frys, and sautes. Cook longer than you would the leafy part and they get nice and tender.
Soup Stock: I'd also like to mention the practice of keeping a vegetable soup stock bag in your freezer. We keep a plastic bag in our freezer into which we put vegetable trimmings that are still fresh and good, but not suited for the table. Kale stems and radish leaves are both examples of something that sometimes ends up in this bag. When you boil greens their b-vitamins are extracted and available in the broth. Onion ends and Onion skins are another, parsley stalks, shiitake mushroom stems. When the bag fills up, dump it in a pot, cover with water, add a small splash of apple cider vinegar (optional, but helps things break down), bring to a boil, simmer for a couple hours, and strain. Voila!  You have vegetable broth! If you are a meat eater you can also add bones to the stock bag.

---