Despite the few hot days last week, spring has been cool. That is the main reason you are finding so many leafy greens in your boxes. Typically, around this time we should have plenty of summer squash and cucumbers but not this year. The summer crops are taking their time. A good sign that things are changing, however, is to see the garlic scapes coming. Scapes are the flower shoots of hardneck garlic. They are an indication that the plants are maturing and the bulbs are hardening. We remove the scapes before the flowers open and that makes the plants use that extra energy to finish up the bulbs. But the scapes are quite a delicacy. Their sweet, mild garlic, taste is a delight that many people look forward to every spring. They can be used in just any recipe. We love it in pesto, particularly because the garlic taste is mild and it doesn’t linger in your mouth afterwards. The only downside of garlic scapes is that the season only lasts about two weeks. So here is the first one. Do you have a particular garlic scapes recipe that you love? Share them with us on Instagram at #saintisidorehomestead
About the farm
We are a small family farm located in Grottoes, Virginia, serving the city of Harrisonburg and the counties of Rockingham, Augusta, and Greene. We produce high-quality food using sustainable practices and ethical principles of care for the common good. Having witnessed the healing power of good food in dealing with family health issues, we started farming in 2015 in an effort to sharing with others the benefits of fresh, nutritionally-dense food, grown in a clean environment, using integrative agricultural methods. We believe that in order for food to be healthful, the environment in which it grows has to be healthy. To that end, we integrate animal and plant systems in ways that, in their natural interactions, they create an ecological balance leading to abundance and quality.
We grow over 50 different vegetable crops, perennial vegetables and fruits, and raise pastured pork, as well as ducks and chickens, for meat and eggs.
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We grow over 50 different vegetable crops, perennial vegetables and fruits, and raise pastured pork, as well as ducks and chickens, for meat and eggs.