The Weekly Box: Week Three

Hot & hazy yesterday but the farm floated a vegetal coolness upward from the rows. We picked out our lettuces (4 heads), chinese cabbage, dandelion greens, some pattipan squashes yellow & green, two big stalks of broccoli green with purplish clouds on their brains, a hardy bunch of scallions very long dark green & pearl-tipped.

From last week we still have the curly tender garlic scapes and radicchio that bites back and because they were just-picked they're still fresh, I'll use them today. The loose arugula was my favorite, I put it in every salad & sandwich (along with the red and green lettuces) and even grabbed at a bit now and then by itself just to have a spicy chew. The collards were sauteed with steamed sweet potatoes, black beans and garlic, folded into whole wheat tortillas with a dash of Uncle Brother's. The basil went into a hand-pestled pesto, usual except tamari almonds stepping in for pignolis, and we ate that stirred into rice, topping some turbot [tofu or polenta*] fillets, drizzled on a chicken [seitan*] salad (more of the green leaf lettuce and arugula).

I spied the tomato plants from the inroad. With the windows down you can smell their astringent leaves in the sun. No fruits yet, unless they are tiny and green. They are already the (ecstatic) talk of the county: wait till you have our JERSEY TOMATOES.

*[This post has been modified because I have since gone vegan.]