Quick Peek, May 21

Just a quick peek at what's coming up tonight, May 21. From upper left, clockwise is red leaf lettuce, green lettuce, mustard, snap pea tendrils, baby spinach and baby kale. It won't be long now!

MASSACHUSETTS MUSHROOMS

To be candid, I was initially leary about growing and eating mushrooms. Let's face it, in today's fear-based society we have so many precautions and supersticions we're scarcely able to make a decision at times. And complicating our daily habits with "risky" ventures like eating mushrooms from the backyard is just not a high on most folks to-do lists. I mean what could be more scarey and dangerous than being completely responsible for one's own food...? And therein the teetering scales in my mind weighed in. Time to try something new - and growing shittake from mycelium spours was just the ticket. I have to thank my friend Tim over at the USDA in Wareham for turning me on to this "underground" delicacy. The entire process is actually quite precise and I can whole-heartedly recommend it to any avid gardener who feels they've exhausted the lot of the seasonal challenges, or who yawns at the thought of growing some new variety of zucchini. Shittake culture, and any myceliuum for that, requires a bit more attention, skill, patience and determination than most Massachusetts crops. You will need fresh oak logs - white or red - that are 4" to 10" in diameter, and have been cut live 6 weeks to 4 months prior. You will need to drill 3/8" holes 1" to 1-1/2" deep in a crisscross patern, plug them with mycelium-impregnated plugs and cover each plug with melted parafin, as well as the log ends. This will keep parasites out of the logs. The logs will then need to be stacked garrison-like in a shady, dark, relatively windless, damp area of your yard (think wooded wetland - not TOO wet). If you can place them on clean oak pallets on top of an old tarp or sheet of plastic - even better. Shittakes in particular can be purchased from many online sources. The one I used is www.fungiperfecti.com up in Nirvanarama Puget Sound. They've been at it for a while, offer a free catalog if you're interested and have a great info resource on their website, as well as kid-friendly projects. The Puget Sound Mycological Society up in Seattle is also a good source of info: http://www.psms.org/index.php There is also a central-Mass area website at http://mushroomhunter.net/ if you're more daring and care to venture out into the woods to hunt the wild varieties. Caveat: I'm not there yet and don't endorse it. To get back to the locally-sourced (150 feet from where I type this) shittakes, they are deliciously earthy and richly flavored. They are magnificent reduced in butter at a low temperature with a pinch of kosher salt. Any French chef would be proud to serve them as an appetizer. Enough of them would make a meal, if paired with a petite syrah or bolder red. If you have the space, time, and appreciate a gardening challenge, I would highly recommend attempting to grow mushrooms. April, with its rains, is a perfect time to begin. The autumn is good also. If you are a greenhouse, farm or other agricultural professional, Tim will be speaking in Dartmouth on May 11 through the USDA. Drop me a line and I will forward the details.

WEEK 8 CSA Full-share

Week 8 full-share includes Baby Carrots, Beets, Kohlrabi, Arugula, Swiss Chard, Romaine Lettuce, Cucumbers, Broccoli, Zucchini Squash, Sage (fresh herb), and Calendula & Sweetpea Bouquet.

CSA BEGINS THIS WEEK

Our 2009 CSA shares begin this week. Monday pick-ups will be available after 11am in Middleboro.

If you haven't yet declared a pick-up day please drop us an email. Middleboro can be monday or friday (most are monday), Boston is sunday, Plymouth saturday and Duxbury wednesday.

If you've been thinking about signing up, now's the time. There are still shares available and joining is easy. Just click here and we'll see you this week.

CSA shares to begin shortly

This week we began eating our first five-minute-salads... Salads that were in the garden five minutes prior, that is!

And while we know you're awaiting your first week's share, we're doing the rain-dance here at The Dahlia Farm and knitting mantras for a delicate balance of temperate days and evenings. It won't be much longer...

Presently we're seeing pea tendrils, radish, arugula and mizuna ready for harvest, but rather than jumping into a false start, we're holding off just a little bit longer on the weekly shares.

Those of you who have not yet signed up for an egg share, may also want to consider this. Egg shares are available seasonally as well as annually and may be a full-share (one dozen per week) or half-shares (one dozen every other week). Our current egg-shareholders are enjoying wonderful, bright orange, high-doming, exceptionally flavorful eggs daily. In fact, my NEW favorite sandwich is a dropped egg (soft-boiled) on toast. Once-upon-a-time that sounded awfully bland, but these eggs are just so darned tastey. Here's what one MIDDLEBORO GAZETTE columnist had to say, and if you'd like to stop by a local cafe to sample The Dahlia Farm eggs, be sure to visit the Rockin' K Cafe right over in Bridgewater. You can also pick up a dozen or two this coming sunday when we return to the SOWA open market in Boston's South-end.

Until then, we'll keep rain-dancing and in the meantime, there's all this transplanting to do!

SOWA

"IT'S OPENING NIGHT," To paraphrase Max Bialystock -- or more specifically, OPENING DAY...for the 2009 farmer's market season, that is.

We kick off today -- virtually a month before most of the other Massachusetts markets -- at Boston's South-end SOWA market, and the signs are positve.

Regularly a sunday market, SOWA begins this season with a full weekend event featuring 140 vendors including crafters, artists, artisans, bakers, antique dealers, specialty foods importers and of course, farms.

It's turning out to be a beautiful day today, so if you're looking for something different to do in the city be sure to swing by 540 Harrison Ave in the Southend. You'll be glad you did!

SPRING FLOWER SHOW

Surprizing (and disappointing) as it may be the BOSTON FLOWER SHOW (a/k/a the NEW ENGLAND FLOWER SHOW) has been cancelled! Funding appears to be the main issue and if you would like to help the Mass Horticultural Society out for 2010, you can visit their site at http://www.masshort.org/New-England-Spring-Flower-Show.
The good news to all this is that The 16th Annual Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show will take place THIS WEEKEND, February 19-22, 2009 at the Rhode Island Convention Center. For all information follow this link. http://www.flowershow.com/. These shows are always welcomed by winter-weary New Englanders and are well worth your support.