Author Archives: Urban.Futures.Farm

Help Us Plan for Next Year!

We’ve just put the farm to bed for the winter, but are already planning for spring!

Over the past several years Urban Futures Farm has developed a reputation for growing and selling quality plant starts each spring.  We love helping our friends and neighbors grow good food!

This is the time of year where we are pouring through seed catalogs, compiling orders and looking for your feedback.

What vegetable and herbs  would you like to see us grow next year?  What plant starts do you want to purchase to grow in your garden next year?

Reply down below or send us an email – thanks for the help!

 

Leeks Have Arrived!

Leeks are one of the first crops we plant and among the last to be harvested. And they are so worth the wait! A member of the allium family, which includes onions, garlic and the like, leeks have a softer, less assertive profile, and are a divine asset as a cooked addition to soups, stews, quiches, and more. The white part of the leek grows underground and special care should be taken to clean any grit hiding among the many layers. Trim off the dark green leaves at the top and the root end, and cut through the stalk lengthwise , stopping just short of the root end. Clean under running water, then finish chopping. One of our favorite uses for leeks is potato/leek soup. While sometimes presented as a velvety smooth vichyssoise, we prefer the rustic version here.

It’s a good year for basil.

Never have we grown this much basil on the farm – almost 200 square feet! That’s a lot of pesto! Summertime, we skip the food processor, and take a more rustic approach to pasta with basil. For the winter, we are fairly lazy and throw 4 cups of leaves each into freezer bags for pesto later (squeeze out the air and freeze flat, like pages of a book). If you would rather enjoy it all at the peak of season, here’s some other great ideas. 

Summer Squash – 3 Ways

Is there nothing more economical in the garden than zucchini? To the point of the seasonal reminder to lock your windows and doors, lest your neighbors try to foist their bounty on you!

Too much food is not a bad problem to have, so here are a few maybe less-travelled zucchini ideas to help you through the season deliciously.

The simplest recipe comes from one of our customers, who loves the veg so much she actually bought plants from us to augment her weekly share! Simple and delicious: use your vegetable peeler to slice your zucchini into long thin ribbons. Toss with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Voila!

The second recipe is a curried squash soup that is great for an appetizer or light repast with salad and bread. Doesn’t look to be a particularly hot summer ahead, but if it were, this soup also works nicely at room temp.

The final dish was discovered on Queer Eye ❤ and is a delicious casserole side to your BBQ or hearty vegetarian main dish.

If none of these appeal, use your search bar! Boundless possibilities await!  And if nothing else, dehydrate shredded zucchini for a soup addition/thickener come winter.

Roast, don’t blanch, your surplus

If you are so lucky, there comes a point in the farming season, where you are overrun with one type of produce, or many!

Recently it was snap peas that needed to go into the freezer. So I turned on the oven and got to work. Wait. The OVEN?!?

You bet! We’ve found that a blast of heat – 475 for 5 minutes – does the same job as blanching, and the results are so much better!

Traditionally, vegetables destined for the freezer are blanched (dropped for a minute or two in boiling water) transferred to an ice bath and then the freezer. This is to kill bacteria on the outside that could lead to spoilage. Only thing is, the veggies are so waterlogged by the process that they have no snap left once you dig them out of the freezer to eat them. And they also lose their nutritional value. Yuck.

The oven blasted veggies, by comparison are still crisp when thawed. And it works for most any vegetable!

Prep your veggies, toss with a little olive oil, spread one layer thick on your cookie sheets, and bake at 475 for 5 minutes. Let cool to room temp, throw them in freezer bags (marked so you don’t grab peas when you wanted beans!), and put them in your freezer.  It really is that simple!

Kale for the Win!

Kale is a powerhouse of nutrition – one of the healthiest veggies on the planet and super-tasty too! Some people find kale to have a strong flavor – it’s a member of the Brassica family (think broccoli), and is loaded with vitamins and minerals we don’t normally get in our diet. So don’t give up on training your palate to enjoy new foods.

Once you start looking, there are so many ways to eat kale!  I like to add it to most everything! One way to have it handy is to wash, chop, toss with olive oil and roast on a sheet pan for 5 minutes at 475. It keeps well for a week in the fridge, and you can add it to burritos, alongside your eggs for breakfast, dress it with sauce to go with rice – endless!  Then there is our FAVORITE Massaged Kale Salad – just need oil, soy, lemon juice, garlic and parmesan. So good!  Like a Caesar! We’ve actually made kale converts with this salad! On the off chance you have leftovers, they are superb the  next day.