Fresh Sheet Post April 11th "Harbingers of Spring"

Its official.  It must be spring.   The hummers have arrived or more specifically a single hummer. One Rufous male who does appear rather plump if not happy came to the feeder on Sunday in absolutely atrocious weather, had a sip and left, came back for another, and again flew off and upon a third return, stayed.  So the familiar zip and zoom and bob and weave are back, abet only one so far, to bask in this year’s dismal spring.  Follow the migration at http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/humm_rufous_spring2011.html

The garlic is up.  The shoots are pale, as though they have been resisting pushing through the recently frozen earth, emerging into a cold wind that smacks and slaps with flakes of snow and rain. Not all of each the bed has emerged, the variables being; different planting  depths that hand planting with a crew of people can create, soil types with part of the beds being lighter, sandier and hence warmer or heavier and thus cooler,  slow melting snow drifts as these beds are 700 feet long and the snow settles across them in its own particular and lazy way,  fertility variations as the plants root during the fall and winter and as some may be more robust than others as a result, or shear obstinacy for either pushing out into near winter conditions or refusing to emerge into those small condition.  All I can say with certainty is that there are these and other variables that I haven’t considered which need to be factored in and only then you will still never really know.

On a brighter note,  soon to be announced in the Farm Bakery and Café is a new culinary partnership with North Arm Farm and the opening of the best darn patio in Pemberton resplendent under a grape and wisteria trellis looking over the fields of vegetables and flowers, up and away 8000 feet to a majestic and immense  Mount Currie.  Visit us and experience it all this summer.

The sheet hasn’t changed this week and as usual we are delivering in Vancouver on Wednesday and Whistler on Thursday.  I was optimistic on the Hops shoots but will keep you informed.

Have a great week.

Jordan and Trish

What are Garlic Scapes?

Scapes are the early stages of the flower of a hard neck garlic bulb. They can be used for anything that you would use garlic for but are ready long before the bulbs. Below I have attached a couple of recipies.

Garlic scape pesto

Great on bread, crackers or pasta

Ingredients:

1 cup Grated parmesan cheese
3 Tb Fresh lime or lemon juice
¼ lb Garlic scapes
½ cup Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Puree garlic scapes and olive oil in a food processor until smooth.
2. Stir in Parmesan and lime or lemon juice and season to taste with salt.

Variation: Add 1/3 c. pine nuts or walnuts to the blender with the scapes and oil.

Garlic Scape Fritatta

1 ½ cups chopped garlic scapes
½ cup chopped chives
¼ cup hot water
Salt & pepper
1 ½ cups chopped chard or other green
4 large eggs
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Place garlic and green onions in a large skillet with 1 tsp oil, ¼ cup water and a pinch of salt. Cook covered over medium high heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the greens stir until wilted, about 1 minute. Drain well. Beat eggs with salt and pepper. Add remaining oil to skillet. When oil is hot, shake skillet to spread greens evenly, add eggs. Cover and cook over medium low heat until top is set, about 2-3 minutes. Cut into wedges. Serves 2.

Courtesy Amy Frye <ubcfarm.market@gmail.com

Another simple approach is to blanche the scapes and sautee them in butter and deglaze with chicken stock and serve a la carte.

Here at North Arm Farm grow "Music" garlic, a hard necked variety that was developed in Ontario, has great flavour and big cloves