This year brought us a long, cold spring, which meant that all of our spring crops grew very slowly. As with every weather occurrence, there are some winners and some losers. The asparagus loved it and exemplified its third season with an extended bumper crop. Unfortunately, our sweet pea plants did not appreciate 2018's series of meteorological events. The cold spring severely delayed their growth. A few lovely warm weeks convinced them to begin flowering but then it got hot, really hot, and peas don't like the heat (they don't do well over 80 degrees). So our poor pea plants have been producing in the 90+ degree days, but it will be a short pea season, and from the start these peas have been ugly. They often get brown spots on the pods by the end of the season, but this year they've had them from the start. The good news is that this is purely cosmetic, and has not affected the flavor at all. We keep tasting the ugliest ones, and it seems the uglier they are the more delicious they get! It just goes to show, never judge a pea by its pod. We usually just snack on them raw, but they are also delicious in salads and stir fries.
You will also find garlic scapes in your bag this week. Garlic scapes are the long flowering stalk the garlic sends up, we snap them off at bud stage to encourage the plant to put its energy back into building up the bulb. These tender scapes taste like mild garlic, and you can use them anywhere you use garlic. They are even mild enough to eat raw in salads. You can use the whole thing.
Some of you will also have radish pods in your bag, these are the seed pods from radish plants, and they taste like a radish. If you are not a fan of the heat, simply cook them gently (saute or throw in a stir fry at the end), or make refrigerator pickles, and they mellow out. Many of you are also getting lamb's quarters, which will look like tall stalks with small leaves all over it. Lamb's quarters is the second most nutrient-dense wild green (second only to amaranth), and can be eaten raw or cooked like spinach.
We hope you enjoy our late spring veggies, please let us know if you have any questions or comments!