Saturday, May 19, 2012

Radishes, radishes and more radishes!

Update on Little Brown Farm....less than 3 days to go to fund their kickstarter project to build a cheese aging room and store to hold cheesemaking classes.  Right here on Whidbey!  And our community can make this happen, that's how kickstarter works! They only need a bit over $5000 to fund, nearly 3/4s of the way there! If you haven't pledged please check it out.  And share with anybody you can think of! Here at Willowood Farm we can offer the highest recommendation for Little Brown Farm - for their care of their animals, for their dedication to the farm, for their insane talents in amazing cheese-making.  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/littlebrownfarm/cheese-cave-and-classes-and-farm-store-at-the-litt/posts

So...this weather has been nice and all but here at the farm we sure could use a bit of rain.  Crazy, right?  Especially since while one half of the farm is becoming bone dry and new young plants are frying, we still have another half of the farm with standing ponds from all that rain in March and April.  If we could just move the water from one side to the other...Actually, we are working on that but it will involve a lot of money which we are working on figuring on how we can come up with but, in the meantime, have to get the crops we are going alive.  So, welcome to farming! 
Nonetheless, despite the frustrations, it is still the best job in the world!  And one of the best things?  Enjoy the crops as they come into season.  Right now it is RADISH season.  As is not uncommon in the spring, we planted 2 rotations of radishes about 3 weeks apart and the first one grew slow (cooler weather) and the second one grew fast (warmer weather) and so they were both mature at the exact same time!  Which means we are literally swarming in radishes.
Or more specifically French Breakfast Radishes.  After years of growing assorted radishes I've narrowed it down to pretty much the French Breakfast Radish.  Why?  Cuz it's the best!  A beautiful raspberry red with a white tip, elongated "icicle" type heirloom radish from (if you haven't figured it out) France, I have never understood why the "breakfast" part in the name til I found the recipe for "Honey Drizzled French Breakfast Radish Tartines."  Made it for our weekly lunch meeting yesterday.  Super yum and strangely enough, I can definitely see eating them for breakfast.  They have just the right juxtaposition of sweet, creamy and crunchy.


Honey Drizzled French Breakfast Radish Tartines
Ingredients
·      Willowood Farm French Breakfast radishes
·      Swede Hill Rye Bread from Treetop Baking
·      Italian mascarpone or any soft spreadable slightly sweet white cheese
·      Island Apiaries Honey

Slice and half rye bread.  Spread generous layer of cheese on bread.  Spread a single layer of thinly cut radishes on top of cheese.  Drizzle with honey.  Enjoy!

Of course, we have more goodies for market today as well, including...
* Baby Head Lettuce (first picking of the year!)
* Mesclun (Bayview only)
* Rhubarb
* Japanese Turnips
* Mustard Stir-fry Bunches
* Peregion Dry Beans
* Rockwell Dry Beans
And from Prairie Bottom Farm we have...
* Chard
* Kale
* Onion bunches
* Herbs
* Braising Greens
* Arugula
* Cress
* Limelight Beans
Mikey from Whidbey Green Goods is bringing (Bayview only)....
* Asparagus
* Basil
* Cauliflower
* Cucumbers
* Pearl Onions
And we have Emmer Farro from Ebey Road Farm and wheat, barley and Kamut from Georgina's Grains!  
Hope to see you at market!
Farmer Georgie
Willowood Farm of Ebey's Prairie


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