Recipe of the Week: Turnips with Bacon and Pickled Mustard Seed

    It's belated, I know. Things have been busy for me. The holidays are creeping up- and for me that means thoughtful, homemade gifts for everyone. My birthday was also last week. I am working on my first ever crop plan that is proving quite a task. I keep thinking, "Ok, I need a bunch of carrots for 15 boxes for...say..3 weeks? Will people be tired of carrots by week 3? No, 3 weeks is good. So, 15 bunches for 3 weeks is 45 bunches. So, how many feet is that? Well, there is about 10 carrots per foot and there are 4 rows of carrots...but how many in a bunch?" So, sufficed to say, things are slow going. There is so much I don't know that it is really slowing me down. Se la vie. 

 

    We planted our garlic this past week. Here is how it went:

At the 8 a.m. garlic "crack party". Only big cloves are worth planting, so they must be separated.

My view while cracking out garlic. The fire was warm and there was tea. Those are my favorite kinds of farm chores.

Sorted, counted and ready to be planted!

You can see we were painstakingly precise as we threw them...right? Lol, no worries- is food, will grow!

My lovely wife, Tarra poking in the garlics and braving the cold. 

 Things are still busy out here on the farm. With the CSA boxes and the Food Bank and School District crops, there isn't that lull in season you might expect. I mean, there is never a "break" but there is pretty busy come spring, super busy come summer, super mega busy come fall, and busy come winter. Well, all of that is totally relative to what you're growing too... my point is that there is still a lot of messing around with the crops while the tools need caring for, the cold frame needs organizing, cover crops planted, orchards tended to... I need more arms. 

   The roots are the things that seemed to do best in the freeze. I have been taking it easy on the greens since the frost, they just all look so sad! While they recover, you'll notice your boxes have a great variety of things grown underground. I would hate to think you're getting bored of something, so I wanted to share this recipe for turnips that my family LOVED this Thanksgiving. The recipe is from Bon Appetit magazine, my guilty reading pleasure. I added the turnip greens in on the action too. Remember that most roots that come to you with greens are EDIBLE!

Turnips with Bacon and Pickled Mustard Seeds

• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup white balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
• ¼ cup yellow mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• ¼ pound thick-cut bacon, cut crosswise ¼” thick
• 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
• 2 pounds baby turnips, trimmed, halved or quartered if large
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
•  

Bring sugar, vinegar, and ¼ cup water to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in mustard seeds. Let stand at least 4 hours, or cover and chill up to 12 hours.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat; add bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until brown and crisp, 8–10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to a small bowl and stir in pickled mustard seeds and whole grain mustard; set vinaigrette aside.

Meanwhile, cook turnips in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain and pat turnips dry.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add turnips and vinaigrette and cook, tossing, until warmed through, about 2 minutes; season with salt and pepper.