Our Favorite Chicory Salad with Pickled Red Onions, Roasted Hazelnuts and Shaved Parmesan.

This salad is our favorite way to enjoy chicories when they are in season on Lummi Island. Chicory come in all sorts of rich hues, textures, and flavors. They are known for being bitter, however we choose to grow and eat varieties that are the least bitter. This salad balances that minor bitterness with zingy pickled red onions, salty parmesan, and roasted hazelnuts. If you don't have hazelnuts or parmesan, try subbing in walnuts and blue cheese.
Don’t stop eating chicory at this recipe! It is the perfect complement to a citrus, avocado, and fennel salad and it is hearty enough to stand up to a Caesar dressing too.

Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
Two medium red onions
1 cup rice vinegar
1 Tablespoon Salt
1/3 - 1/2 cup whole, raw hazelnuts
4 oz parmesan
1 10 oz bag of chicory mix

Instructions
Wash and spin your chicory and place it in a salad bowl.

Slice two medium red onions crosswise and, in a medium bowl, top them with 1 cup of rice wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon salt. Mix it around and let it sit for 15 mins.

Meanwhile, roast your hazelnuts at 350 degrees F for ~10 mins, just until fragrant and toasty. Give them a quick toss half-way through baking to ensure even toasting. Let them cool on the pan or a plate.

Stir and toss the onion mixture again, trying to submerge the onions in the vinegar. Let sit for another 15 mins. They should start to soften a bit and become flexible.

Assemble Your Salad

Once the nuts are cool, chop or crush them roughly and sprinkle over the prepared chicory. Next, take a handful of onions and squeeze them out and sprinkle them on the salad. Add as many as you like. Dress the salad with a few teaspoons of the pickling liquid and good olive oil, and some black pepper. Finish the salad with some shaved or grated parmesan and toss to coat. Taste and adjust with some more pickling juice or olive oil, as needed.

You won't use all the pickled red onions, which is a good thing because they'll keep in your fridge for a couple weeks and are delicious on other salads, tacos, soup, eggs, sandwiches, dinner, ... you get the idea. You can find all the ingredients for this salad, except for the parmesan, on our farmstand.

Lis's Pear Galette with Hazelnut Frangipane

Bosc Pear with Hazelnut Frangipane Galette

This is a simple and special dessert that comes together pretty quickly.The crust is very flaky, well baked, and buttery and the frangipane soaks up any of the extra pear juices further flavoring the galette. Bosc pears are some of our favorites and they are perfect for baking as they have a firmer texture than other pears meaning they’ll hold up and won’t break down too far in the oven.
This recipe is also quite flexible. Hazelnuts are delicious with pears, but if you prefer almonds, you can substitute the hazelnuts for almonds. If you don’t want to use pears, you could use apples, or frozen fruit like plums, cherries, apricots, or peaches.

Ingredients:

Crust:
1.5 cups All-purpose flour (213 gr)
0.5 teaspoon salt
10 T. cold, unsalted butter (142.5 gr) cut in 1/2 inch cubes
4-5 T. ice water
1 egg yolk for painting crust
0.5 cups toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped and reserved - for topping crust

Filling:
3 Bosc pears
1/3 cup sugar

Frangipane:
1 cup (135 gr) toasted hazelnuts
0.5 cup sugar (100 gr.)
1/4 cup All-purpose flour
1/2 cup (8 T. ) unsalted butter, softened
1 egg yolk at room temperature, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
0.5 teaspoon almond extract

For topping the crust:
1/4 cup raw hazelnuts, roughly chopped
3 T. granulated sugar

Place flour, salt and butter in the work bowl of a food processor. Using the metal blade, process in pulses until the butter pieces are no larger than peas. Add ice water through the feed tube - 4 T. all at once, pulse to mix and then add the fifth T. of water if needed to bring the dough together in a ragged mass.
Gather dough into a ball, press into a 4-5 inch disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

While the dough is in the fridge, make the frangipane.
Put hazelnuts and sugar in the work bowl of a food processor. Process until finely ground, but still retaining some texture - do not make nut butter!  Add butter and flour, extracts and egg and process to a well-mixed, fluffy texture - do not over-process. Refrigerate covered for 1/2 hour or so.

Butter or spray a 9-10 inch cast iron frying pan. You can use any oven-proof baking dish or pan, but I prefer cast iron for the crisp crust it imparts. Line the buttered pan with parchment cut so it has several inches of excess all around - this is to make it easy to lift the galette out of the pan after baking.

Peel, quarter and core three Bosc pears. Cut quarters into halves or thirds - you will have 24-36 pieces. Don’t make the pieces very thin - err on the side of thicker. You want the pears to retain some texture after baking. 

Take dough out of fridge and let it warm up for about 5-7 minutes and roll out on a floured surface until you have a circle about 15-16 inches in diameter. This will take a little time - the dough softens as you roll it. Keep the rolling surface and the dough lightly floured. Transfer the dough to the parchment-lined cast iron pan by rolling it up onto your rolling pin. Center the dough in the pan pan, letting the sides hang over the edges. Spread the frangipane over the surface of the dough in the pan bottom. Arrange the pears slices on top of the frangipane, loosely and evenly to the edges of the pan. Fold the sides of the dough over the filling, leaving the center open and brush the dough with egg yolk. Sprinkle the egg-washed dough with a tablespoon or two of granulated sugar and the reserved chopped hazelnuts.

Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and dough sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool, in the pan, for about 15 minutes before removing the galette from the pan to a cooling rack. Holding the paper, do this in one swift, gentle move. 

Voila! You have an elegant dessert for at least 8. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or creme fraiche. Leftovers are wonderful for breakfast with coffee.

Spring has sprung!

Ed Lowe Photography

Spring has come to Full Bloom Farm

Well that was fast! April has come with some surprisingly clear and very warm weather and the recent rains are a welcome soak for the gardens. The island is beaming deep verdant green and is perfumed with sweet spring blooms, musky loam, and salty mist. The last two months we’ve been busy seeding, planting out starts, clearing new beds, and getting ready for the season ahead. We have a bumper crop of succulent kale raab, the first of the cauliflower and radishes are packed into the stand fridge, big asparagus spears are emerging now, and May will yield fresh butter lettuces, more radishes, arugula, spinach, and mizuna followed by early beets, peas, carrots, and other long-awaited Spring delicacies. Another bountiful time of year at Full Bloom Farm!

The Farm Stand Has a New Look + More Space!

Late last year we opened the farm stand back up at the barn and filled up our small “grab & go” merchandiser refrigerator. For the last few months we’ve been expanding the offerings on the Grab & Go stand for those that prefer to shop there. We’ve just started redesigning the farm stand to accommodate better in-person shopping and more space. This included adding a large three door fridge and opening up the entire porch area for the stand. It affords a clear view of the flower garden and lower orchard as well as the ability to watch us prepping produce at the wash station. The online stand will continue to be available for those who enjoy the added convenience or just want to order in advance to ensure product availability. We’re not done with the updates, so keep an eye out and stop in to check the progress and new products that are being added all the time.

Mother’s Day Bouquets, Bonbons, and Eggs!

We are offering spring bouquets for Mother’s Day from the farm as well as chocolate truffles from Forté Chocolates and sea salt honey caramels from San Juan Island Sea Salt.
Forté Chocolates is a woman-owned and world-renowned chocolate brand based out of Mt. Vernon. They are considered one of the top 10 chocolate brands in the nation and their master chocolatier, Karen Neugebauer is the highest awarded chocolatier in America. We’ve put together a truffle box that features 5 unique truffle flavors including Pecan Turtle, Lemon & Pepper White Chocolate, Cherry Almond, Raspberry Fig, and Peanut Butter. These are very special truffles and they are absolutely delicious. We have a very limited number of these 5 piece boxes available so reserve now!

If caramel is more your thing, then you can choose from three different types of very tasty sea salt honey caramels from San Juan Island Sea Salt. While many caramels are made with corn syrup, San Juan Island Sea Salt makes theirs with local honey! They are perfectly balanced salty-sweet-buttery and they use their mineral rich sea salt. Each caramel is artfully crafted by hand by this family-run business! All ingredients are organic and they come in Honey, Cappuccino, or Chocolate flavors. (Photos of caramel above provided by San Juan Island Sea Salt)
We’ll also be offering a special Mother’s Day full dozen eggs in a pretty purple carton wrapped with a ribbon and a chive blossom.
The spring bouquets will come wrapped in white paper and candies come in their box with a ribbon. Both can feature a note card with a handwritten message of your choosing.
Order chocolates or caramel now for pick up at the stand anytime between this Saturday and the day of Mother’s day and pre-order bouquets and eggs for pick up or delivery on Mother’s Day. We’re offering a special early delivery time on Mother’s Day between 10:00am-12:00pm.

Flowers Galore!

Peony Subscriptions
This year we are offering a weekly peony subscription again starting in late-May. The subscription consists of a bouquets featuring 6 peonies and lasts for 6 weeks. If you are interested, don’t delay in reserving your subscription now as we have a very limited number and they sell out very quickly. Reserve here!

Seasonal Bouquets
Beyond peony subscriptions we’ll be making mixed bouquets again this year until late October. The first bouquets of the season will feature spring blooms like tulips, peonies, Lady’s Mantle, sweet peas, lilac, foxglove, rhododendrons, and ferns. Then we’ll move into summer arrangements with penstemon, dahlias, scabiosa, gomphrena, salpiglossis, honeysuckle, catmint, zinnias, lavatera, cosmos, hydrangea, bee balm, bachelor buttons, sunflowers, and salvias. Autumnal-inspired bouquets will follow with statice, black-eyed Susans, echinacea, goldenrod, marigolds, yarrow, strawflowers, dahlias, celosia, and amaranth come next. We are finishing out the season with gorgeous dried flower, seed pod, and foliage bouquets and wreaths that will last through the winter months. Bouquets can be ordered in advance online or purchased at the stand daily. Like our produce, our flowers are grown in no-till beds without pesticides or herbicides.

Dahlia tubers for sale!
We have 5 varieties of dahlias available for planting now! Look for them on the stand and online. Sorry we don’t know their names! :)

New & returning on the stand!

Here’s a list of new and returning items at our stand, including the latest Northwest Good Food Award winners! Each year the Good Food Foundation has a blind tasting of craft food producers who meet strict environmental and social responsibility standards before choosing the top 200 in the US.

Dairy
Cascadia Creamery, a Good Food Award winner! We are stocking three of their award-winning cheeses! These are very special, raw and “beyond” organic cheeses that are aged in lava tube caves in Trout Lake, WA. Every single one of their cheeses is truly delicious. Read more about each type below.

Glacier Blue - An approachable blue with a luxurious texture and deliciously rich flavor. Considered the "The Gateway Blue” for those of you that weren’t a blue lover before. Natural rind, aged 75 days.
Cloud Cap - A dynamic cheese with grassy notes that reflect the mountain pasture where the cows graze. A milky, firm, yet creamy and citrusy interior that transitions to a mushroomy outer layer capped in a natural rind reminiscent of a soft cloud. Aged bloomy rind - aged 60 to 75 days.
Sleeping Beauty - Smooth, sweet and buttery with a supple sharpness and herbal notes. Natural rind, aged 75 to 100 days.

Cherry Valley Dairy Gray Salt Cultured Butter is back on the stand and is now $5.50! This was a customer favorite. If you haven’t tried this yet, we highly recommend indulging in a 4oz tub. Their butters have won Best Butter at American Cheese Society awards and it’s clear why. They’re very creamy, rich, and have delicious cultured buttery flavor.

Meat and Fish
Osprey Hill Farm Pastured Chickens
We have a limited number of really delicious pastured broilers from Osprey Hill Farm. We were lucky enough to get some of these last fall and they flew out of here (pun intended). If you have never tried a pastured chicken, these are truly so flavorful and juicy it’ll be hard to go back to the chickens we’re used to picking up at the grocery store.

Coro Salami
We are offering Coro Salami’s new sliced packs that feature two flavors in one. These are great options for a picnic, hike, or the beach. Coro Salami just won a Good Food Award! We also have two new flavors in whole salamis, Lemongrass and Chorizo. The chorizo is a limited edition so will only be around for another month or so. We also have their whole salamis in eight flavors!

Skagit River Ranch Sausages
We have Skagit River Ranch breakfast sausage and bratwurst! Both types of sausage are delicious - lean without being dry, juicy without being too fatty and full of savory flavor. Try them with the sauerkraut from Oly Kraut

Lummi Island Wild Smoked Sockeye & Tinned Albacore Tuna
Lummi Island Wild Smoked Sockeye Salmon and Canned Tuna is back on the stand!

Fermented Foods & Beverages

OlyKraut Sauerkraut and Pickles
OlyKraut, also a Good Food Award winner, offers organic cultured sauerkraut, pickles and sipping brines. They are based in Olympia, WA and have some great fermented products. We currently have their sour pickles and sauerkrauts on the stand. These are currently only available on the grab & go stand!

Iggy’s Honeybrew Kombucha
We really like Iggy’s Kombucha and find it much lighter and less acidic than most kombuchas on the market. We have two delicious, fresh and thirst-quenching flavors of kombucha on the stand right now, Hibiscus Sage and Oolong Jun.

Carbs & Friends
Cinnamon-Raisin and Salt Bagelry Bagels have been added to our bagel and bialy selections for pre-order. We also put out extra bagels on the stand as well, but best to preorder if you have a favorite variety. In addition to the bagels, we also have Lox and Italians cream cheese spreads from The Bagelry as well. We are lucky enough to have the Bagelry in Bellingham which uses a gimbaled oven that boils and bakes the bagels in the traditional way.

Girl Meets Dirt Preservers and Shrubs
Check out the Girl Meets Dirt Rhubarb and Lavender Preserves. We really enjoyed this preserve with croissants from Iron Rooster Bakery in Fairhaven and thought it was delicious on a cheese plate. Seems to fit both sweet and savory pairings very well. Tart, sweet, floral, delicious and local! Made on Orcas Island from local rhubarb and lavender. Yum! Also from Girl Meets Dirt is the Italian Plum Shrub. This bottle makes 25 drinks and is a refreshing alternative to soda. We drink a lot of shrub at Full Bloom as it is a delicious thirst quencher mixed with ice cold sparkling water during a break in weeding or harvesting.

For the home
Agave Washcloths
We’re excited to offer hand-woven ayate washcloths made from 100% agave and grown, harvested and woven in central Mexico by the indigenous Otomi women. The ancestral technique for making these is passed from one generation to another. Women are taught the skills when they are children and encouraged to become leaders in their community to carry on the tradition. This natural fiber washcloth is our favorite for gentle exfoliation in the bath and it can also be used in the kitchen. When wetted the natural fibers soften, expand, and then the weave tightens back to improve its strength and flexibility. 

 The cloths are mold and mildew resistant, fast-drying, and can be washed with other laundry. They last many years, and because they are biodegradable, can be composted when you’re ready for a new one! We love them!

Happy Healthy Chickens Means Delicious Eggs

It makes sense that putting laying hens out to pasture would be good for them. There are bugs and wild forage, they can scratch and dust and gobble pebbles for their crops. But there are other considerations. Predators like raccoons, hawks, eagles, and coyotes abound so we developed a chicken tractor with a moveable enclosure to keep the hens secure day and night. Supplemental feed is critical for their nutrition because chickens cannot glean adequate food only from the pasture. The hens require a healthy amount of organic feed that includes various grains, legumes, and minerals which we mix into a mash and ferment. The fermentation process aids in their digestion and adds even more elements the birds require. That (and some good conversation) produces happy hens, delicious eggs and bright yolks!
We are running low on egg cartons! Please continue to bring your spares to us and we will reuse them! Just leave them on the stand in the “egg carton recycle” box. Thank you!

Moving Toward More Sustainable Packaging

With plastic permeating our environment we are reducing the use of plastic bags at the stand as much as possible. We have been packaging durable produce without plastic for online orders and using recycled paper only when necessary, but there are some items that won’t stay fresh and crunchy without the use of plastic bags. We’re looking into inventive solutions and are trying them out on the stand. We are starting to put items on the stand in large clear plastic containers. If you have your own bags, please bring them to the stand when shopping. If you forget, we have some for you on the stand. :)

We’d love to hear from you

If you have ideas for better packaging or just other products you’d like us to stock or grow, let us know by simply sending an email to hello@fullbloomfarm. We are open to suggestions and value your feedback.

Follow us on Instagram to stay up-to-date!

While we try to pack as much as we can into each blog post, things change around here so quickly that a once-a-month post just isn’t enough to keep up on all the happenings. We try to post regular updates to our Instagram account, so please follow us there if you’re interested in getting real-time updates on new products, events, and more! Thanks for following along. https://www.instagram.com/fullbloomfarm

Wintertime on Lummi

Snow isn’t in the forecast this Christmas, but we are sure to have memorable days of winter seas and skies on the Island. Whether it’s a tequila sunrise with Mt. Baker in silhouette or lemon and blueberry light slanting across Legoe Bay, it’s delicious out there. Mark and Livie have been taking walks in the afternoon, meeting others who seek their own peace and calm hiking along the beach, watching the sunset from their cars, taking photos of sea, sky, and clouds or riding bikes fast with the wind in their faces.

A Continuum of Seasons

Now we have time to reflect on last year’s garden, make plans for next, sort saved seeds or buy new ones, schedule the planting of starts, and get the beds ready for spring planting. We are tarping dormant beds, building new compost piles, managing the chard, kale, cabbage, lettuce, Chinese greens and herbs that are still producing, and moving the chicken tractor around the pasture daily. New work has begun. Roger has vermiculture underway and he’s making apple cider vinegar from our last pressing. Olivia is making a new flower beds for daffodils, anemones and ranunculus so we can have earlier flowers and finding new products to stock next year on the stand

Good News for the Farm Stand

Due to popular demand, the online Farm Stand and the Grab and Go Farm Stand at Full Bloom Farm will both remain open year round! That means regular weekly bagel orders will continue - yay! Note: for this and next week only, bagel pick ups will be on Tuesdays due to the Holidays. You have until 2pm on Tuesday to get your order in for pickup after 4:45 later in the day.
We will continue to source from excellent local farms to offer more choices for you. New to the farm stand this month is breakfast sausage from Skagit Valley Ranch and Chili Chive Onion Gouda Cheese, a seasonal offering from Samish Bay Cheese Company. AmaRosa Fingerling potatoes! These are delicious and beautiful with burgundy skin revealing intensely dark red flesh rich in antioxidants. They stay bright in color even after cooked. You’ll also find, red cabbage and green Savoy cabbage from Ralph’s Greenhouse, and Lacinato kale from Cabrera Farms.

Last minute treats and gift ideas!

• Olympic Provisions Pepperettes - mini cured sausages that come in petite boxes that are adorable and make delicious snacks. We sell them in packs of 3 so you or your gift recipient can try all the flavors.

• Coro Salami - these 12 oz sausages are the perfect stocking stuffers. Coro salumeria in Seattle (a women-owned business) produces very tasty salami with inventive flavor combinations using old world Italian style sausage-making techniques. These are a filling and satisfying treat. Don’t miss out on them. They are great!

• Farmhouse Granola - we have lots of bags this week, which I think would make a great stocking stuffer.

• INNA Jam Bay Laurel Shrub - only a handful of bottles left. This makes delicious drinks and we’ve been making their version of Gin & Tonic with it.

• Mark’s solar evaporated sea salt - As of right now we have 4 bags of this special salt that he makes on the farm with Salish sea water. We won’t have anymore of this until mid-summer next year when we have enough sun to start evaporating again!

• Fat Gold Olive Oil - makes a wonderful gift! It is our favorite olive oil. The packaging is so pretty and vibrant all it needs is a bow!
  

  For more information on each product, read the product pages on the online store.

Christmas and New Year’s Eats

Our squash harvest this year was mighty. Squash must be grown to maturity, picked at the proper time, and some varieties require up to 2 months of curing to reach optimal flavor, texture, and storability. Our squashes make the perfect holiday meal accompaniment. Some of these squash can be daunting in size (see 25lb Hubbards on the stand) so we are offering meal-sized portions of them on the grab and go stand. The Sweet Meat, Hubbard, Carnival, and Pumpkin all make incredible ravioli filling - but a simple, silky gratin alongside turkey or ham would be eyes-rolled-back perfect.
Here are some more recipes we’re enjoying with our squash …
Vietnamese-Style Spaghetti Squash “Noodle” Bowls with Skirt Steak - the sauce almost makes this dish taste like papaya salad. We really enjoyed this dish. Don’t skimp on the sauce!
Brown Butter Winter Squash - you can make this with just about any winter squash and it will turn out delicious.
Grains and Roasted Squash with Spicy Buttermilk Dressing - This makes a very tasty meal and it’s something you can make and then assemble throughout the week. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can use milk instead since you’ll still get some tang from the yogurt. We added a bit of garlic to the dressing as well.

Wreath Raffle A Success!

Lis made a beautiful Holiday Wreath that we raffled off last weekend. The raffle was great fun to put on and we were amazed by the response. THANK YOU ALL! Because it’s always fun to have an extra surprise, two additional raffle tickets were pulled to receive $20 gift certificates to the Farm Stand for some holiday cheer. The raffle raised $150 which Full Bloom matched for a total donation of $300 for the Beach School’s Lummi Island Foundation for Education.

Thank you all for your continued support this year!
Wishing you all a safe, joyous, and restful holiday season,

Mark, Lis, Livie, and Roger

Fall Progresses

The sun skirts the treetops and the days grow shorter. There’s a chilly edge to the air. Storms grow more intense, bringing November’s rains and the rumblings of winter. Dense cloud cover dulls the light yet, the sun breaks through in displays of brilliant color. Ed Lowe captured this perfectly in this stunning image of our pond above.

It’s a time of transition at Full Bloom Farm, hoop houses coming down and raised beds covered for next season, but despite the wind and a couple of frosts, our fall crops are robust and delicious; rainbow chard, celery, fall greens, herbs, all thriving in the blustery weather. The Asian greens and cabbage will be ready soon. The squash and Bosc pears are fully cured and on the stand along with many new items from other local producers and farms.

It has been a season of change, demolition, resurrection, improvements, new online operations, and the expansion of product lines to adjust to the realities all of us have had to face. We are gratified by the kind words, cooperation, and support of our community. It means a lot. Thank you, everyone!

Grab & Go + new items for the holidays!

Now that we’re past the high season, we’ve opened the farm stand to the public for limited Grab and Go with items like eggs, bagels, farm-made sea salt (last batch of the season), sausages, potatoes, culinary pumpkins, squash and other fresh produce. Stop by anytime to take a look! We are open 24/7, but please take precautions between 5-9pm when people pick up their online orders at the stand. Just leave cash or a check in the yellow tin can on the hay bale next to the hand sanitizer or use Venmo or Paypal.

Our online store will continue to have the most up-to-date inventory with all our products and will be open until Christmas.

The online stand has just been restocked and we have added a bunch of new goodies from Olympia Provisions and Cherry Valley Dairy just in time for your Thanksgiving table (or a tasty snack you might really be needing right now). We’ve added three new cheeses, four new cured meats, jars of stone-ground mustard, boxes of gourmet sourdough crackers, and pink crabapple jelly so you can pick and choose and make a wonderfully special meat and/or cheese board. Add some sliced Bosc pears, and pick up some pickles and nuts at the store and you have an epic spread.

We still have a few of the best culinary pumpkins you’ll find (Winter Luxury), which make the best pumpkin pie.

We are particularly excited about the Meadow Bloom cheese which is a luscious, tangy, unctuous, mushroomy triple-crème bloomy rind cheese which is only available from Cherry Valley in Duvall, WA for the fall and winter months when the fat content in the cow’s milk increases. Also from Cherry Valley is a 4 oz wedge of their Coho Tomme-style cheese with a lightly washed natural rind that is brothy, with notes of sweet cream, toffee, dried apricots, and finishing with hints of the sea. It is creamy and melts like a dream.

Meadow Bloom Cheese
Photo Credit: Cherry Valley Dairy

Coho Tomme Cheese
Photo Credit: Cherry Valley Dairy

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Also new is the Thai Chili & Garlic Chèvre from Lost Peacock Farm. This is a very tasty, slightly spicy, and savory soft goat cheese that won the Washington Artisan Cheesemakers Festival 2018 People’s Choice Award! It is delicious paired with our crabapple jelly.

In addition to the above charcuterie and cheese board options, we also have a classic breakfast sausage seasoned with fresh sage and real maple syrup. Pair that with our eggs, roasted potatoes, granola and yogurt and you have a hearty breakfast. We also have Kaserkainer which is an Austrian inspired pork sausage studded with Emmentaler cheese and smoked over apple wood. They make a very tasty and easy dinner served with winter squash or potatoes, chard or kale, and a big chicory salad.

Shrubs from INNA Jam!

We’re excited to have a very limited number of delicious Shrubs available from our friends at INNA Jam in Oakland, CA. If you are unfamiliar with Shrub it is a fruity-vinegar-sugar syrup that is used to make delicious drinks (both alcoholic and nonalcoholic). Mixing 1 part shrub with 5 parts sparkling water renders a fruity-tart and highly refreshing, thirst-quenching beverage. We currently have Marsh Grapefruit and Bay Laurel flavors on the stand as well as Topo Chico Sparkling water. Roger’s favorite drink is the Paloma recipe featured, but with 1/2 Mezcal and 1/2 Tequila. Cheers!

EVOO from FAT GOLD!

Made by more Bay-area friends is our favorite olive oil, Fat Gold! In case you didn’t already know it, you shouldn’t be hoarding your nice olive oils for years. True extra virgin olive oil is best consumed as soon as possible (burp!) and Fat Gold makes that easy because it is delicious on just about everything. We use it as a finishing oil to top soups, salads, pastas, avocado toasts, a bowl of yummy beans, roasted veggies, on a hard boiled egg, drizzled over steak … you get the idea. This makes a wonderful gift and each 500 ml. tin comes with a zine full of information as well as a discount code for a future Fat Gold purchase. If you know someone who loves olive oil they also offer an olive oil subscription! (Full disclosure, we’re subscribers).

Pies and Wreaths for a great cause! Don’t forget to order by Monday, November 23rd!

Several Lummi Island organizations host regular holiday activities that are well-worth supporting. Here are a few of our favorites and their deadlines are fast approaching!

LIFE Thanksgiving Pie Sale
Lummi Island Foundation for Education’s annual Pie Sale is happening now. Fill out the pie order form here to order your pie (pumpkin, apple crumble, and maple pecan YUM!), or sign up in person at the post office or at the Islander. Each pie is $20 and all proceeds go to supporting education on Lummi Island. Deadline for getting your order in by THIS Monday, November 23rd.

Lummi Island Heritage Trust Wreaths
The Heritage Trust’s wreath-making has become a traditional event for many on the Island. Their lovely handcrafted wreaths are made from local greenery by volunteers. Reserve your wreath here or call the office before 5pm on Monday, November 23rd at 360-758-7997. Two sizes of wreaths, artfully crafted using natural materials, decorative bows, and holiday adornments will be ready to pick up at the Resource Center after Monday 12/7 or delivered by Friday 12/4 for an additional $5 donation. All proceeds go towards Preserving the Nature of Lummi Island: $30 Medium/Large and $45 for an Extra Large.

Have you been to the Dockside Market yet?
Debbie and Pete Granger have been spearheading efforts for the Working Waterfront Coalition. The latest addition is a fisherman’s market in Squalicum Harbor. It’s wonderful and a long time coming. We went to the first market and purchased delicious black cod right off the boat. What a treat and how wonderful for us to be able to now have direct access. It is well worth a trip to town. Please support their efforts and enjoy the fresh fish, crab, oysters, and clams. Tuesday, November 24th 2pm - 4:30pm at Squalicum Harbor is the next market and they keep an updated page here for you to reference what will be available.

Fall has arrived

Autumn has arrived in a burst of vibrant color, blustery weather, and chilly nights.  We’ve been busy at Full Bloom Farm, planting seasonal crops, harvesting, bagging potatoes, curing pumpkins, squash, onions, walnuts and Bosc pears, sweating apples for cider, taking down greenhouses, and preparing beds for winter rest.  It’s also a time to fire up the woodstove and tuck into the best food that this season has to offer.  Despite the cold and rain, fall crops thrive and fruits reach their prime. Apples, pears, kale, chard, mixed chicories and luscious lettuces, herbs, celery, beets, carrots, and storage crops like winter squash and potatoes are plentiful and have robust fall flavor.  Tatsoi, bok choy, gai lan, arugula, spinach, radishes, cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts are growing nicely.

The animals are stocking up too, so we have to compete with the flickers, racoons, and blue jays for the fruit and nuts and help out the Cedar Waxwing fledglings that get caught in inclement weather. Here is a video of Mark feeding plump red currants to an exhausted baby waxwing who got separated from its mother.  

There are Kennebec and Red Norland potatoes on the farm stand. We spent a few days harvesting winter squash and after some curing, the early varieties are ready, including Spaghetti, Acorn, Delicata, Red Kuri, Carnival and Winter Luxury pumpkin (in 3 different sizes). The Hubbards need to cure for another month to allow their flavor to fully develop. You can buy squash online, or we have some available at the stand for purchase. We also have lots of corn stalks for free on the stand that make nice Autumn decorations for your front door. Please help yourself!

Our favorite winter squash recipes are listed in the product descriptions for each type. Pumpkin ravioli with brown butter and crispy sage is taken to a new level when you use a fresh-from-the-farm Winter Luxury Pumpkin.  This variety is also used in our favorite pumpkin pie recipe from Rose Levy Barenbaum. Rose lines the inner bottom of the pie crust with gingersnap crumbs and cooks the pumpkin with spices and purees it in a blender resulting in a super smooth and mellow custard. OMG!

Quiche Florentine

We’re offering nice spinach from Hedlin Farm right now! Livie makes a delicious quiche Florentine with spinach and aged gouda and whisks béchamel into the egg custard mix before baking. The result is decadent and creamy. If you haven’t tried making quiche this way, I recommend it, especially if you find quiche to be too eggy. Livie uses 1 parts béchamel to 3 parts egg + milk mixture.

Romanesco broccoli from Crows Farm

Here is the easiest and most delicious recipe for romanesco (the prettiest of broccolis). It’s written by Carla Lalli Music and it’s great. We also like to stir this roasted romanesco into cooked short pasta like Gemelli with some parmesan, salt, and pepper, rich and grassy Fat Gold Olive Oil and a touch of starchy pasta cooking water to bring it all together. We have a limited amount of big Romanesco heads on the stand for the next few days.

Sharron’s Apples

Three Pheasants Farm continues to supply us with beautiful apples.  The latest are Gold Rush Apples.  They have gorgeous pink freckles that speckle their skin, are crunchy, sweet, and well-balanced - similar to a Golden Delicious, but a lot better! Eat fresh or use in baking.

Autumn Wreaths

I have been making wreaths with wisteria vines and decorating them with farm-grown Nigella seed pods, black wheat, hydrangea blossoms, crab apples, hazelnuts and colorful fall leaves preserved in glycerin. They will be on the stand for you to see when you pick-up your orders.

Gravlax! 

Now that drydock is over and we’re able to go into town for bagels, we’ve been making gravlax with our salmon and sea salt. If you like lox, this is a great way to take a simple piece of salmon and make it even better. While the reefnets did not have an opening for sockeye this year, we do have Lummi Island Wild sockeye portions. Or buy from another local fisherman and scale the recipe up. Just remember to freeze any salmon you plan to cure prior to curing and eating. This isn’t necessary if you use our 6 oz portions of Lummi Island Wild Sockeye as they have been previously commercially frozen. After curing for 24 hrs in salt and sugar, the salmon is ready to eat however we like to give it another 24 hrs because it improves the texture. Smoked salt can be used to make it taste like true cold-smoked lox or add lemon zest and white pepper to the curing mixture to give it a spicy citrus flavor.

Ingredients
6 oz salmon, skin on, (previously frozen)
⅓ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup kosher salt, (if using sea or Morton's salt, use ¼ cup)
¼ teaspoon pepper, (white is preferable, but black or pink is fine)
½ teaspoon lemon zest, (optional)
¼ teaspoon each of coriander and fennel seeds, (optional)
4 sprigs fresh dill, minced or 1 teaspoon dried dill, (optional)

Directions
Thaw the salmon.  Mix the above ingredients together in a bowl.  Tear off a piece of plastic wrap about 12” x 12” and place on a dinner plate. Your dinner plate needs to have edges or be slightly sloped to catch a small amount of liquid from the curing process. Sprinkle ⅓ cup of the salt/sugar mixture directly on the piece of plastic wrap and form it into the rough outline of your salmon piece. Next place your salmon piece, skin side down, on top of the salt mixture and then top with the remaining salt mixture. Make sure it is evenly distributed and covering the salmon - you can sort of pack the mixture onto the salmon with your hands and then wrap it up in the plastic wrap tightly.  Use another dinner plate to place on top of the salmon package. Place something heavy from the fridge on top or use a big rock - we have saved flat rocks over the years that work very well (our Gravlax rocks).  Something roughly 2-4 lbs works well. Place in the fridge and after 24 hours, remove the plate and weight and drain off the liquid. Flip the salmon over, put the plate and weight back on and let it cure for another 24 hours. Once it is done curing take it out of the plastic wrap and rinse gently under cold water to remove the excess salt and pat dry. Your gravlax is ready to eat! It will keep in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for 2-3 months if vacumn-sealed or double wrapped in plastic wrap and foil.

Gravlax is wonderful sliced very thin and served on toast or bagels with Vache or other cream cheese, but have you tried it with cultured butter or in an omelette or in our creamy pasta sauce?

And now for dessert … Basque Cheesecake

We are now official Basque Cheesecake converts. It’s much easier to make than traditional cheesecake, requires no water bath, no crust, and it is almost impossible to mess up. 
We looked at a few recipes and found Tavel Bristol-Joseph’s recipe to be excellent, with only a small edit of adding some salt. We’ve been baking this using our farm’s eggs with Samish Bay Cheese “Vache” cream cheese and it is delectable. The outside becomes caramelized, almost making its own crust, and the inside stays soft and creamy. It’s also not too, too sweet! A springform pan makes this a bit easier, but not at all required. It can be made in a cake pan as well. If you don’t want to make an entire recipe, trying halving it and making a smaller cake. We’ve been making 8” cakes.

And a few reminders …

Bagels are back!!!
One of the best things about the end of dry dock is that Bagelry Bagels are back on the Farmstand.  Bagels are a must with Gravlox and cream cheese - always better toasted first! Just a reminder that bagels are only available for pick up on Fridays, but you have all week to get your order in (up until noon on Friday pickup days).

Egg Cartons, Please!
If you have egg cartons, we want them! We are running very low! Just leave them on the stand we’ll get them the next day.
Returned egg cartons have a special quarantine process here at Full Bloom Farm. First they quarantine in our garage for a week and then we give them a spray with alcohol before bringing them back into rotation.

Dry Dock Update

We hope you are staying safe and not going stir crazy in this impenetrable haze.  Sounds like we have a few more days until things start to improve.  The smoke has created its own weather with cooler temperatures, fog, and drizzle.  Despite the challenges, the vegetables and fruit are growing well and we look forward to a bountiful fall harvest. 

FRESH REEFNET SALMON

The reefnetters have an opening to fish coho salmon until October 15th and this year there are only 3 gears operating. Roger has fished a few tides and plans to go out as often as he can. If salmon are caught, they will be sold directly off the beach by the fishermen. If you’re interested in being notified when salmon are available, sign up here to receive an email. We’ll do our best to let you know as soon as possible after the catch. Prices will be around $5/lb.

New Local Products

We’ve had requests for honey, humanely raised meats, salad dressings and soups so Livie went to work finding great products.
We’re very excited to be selling local honey from Jo Ann Philpot of Jo’s Bees on Lummi Island. This honey is unfiltered, blonde, and delicious. Our supply is very limited since Jo’s Bees is a small operation!Livie had tried Osprey Hill Farm chicken recently and decided it was perfect for the farm stand. The birds weigh in at a hefty 4.5lbs and are flavorful, meaty, and juicy. Osprey Hill Farm is a family farm that pastures all their birds. The chickens are fed a supplemented diet of 100% WA grown, corn free, soy free, certified GM free feed.
We had a limited quantity of the delicious salad dressings, soups, (and meatballs!) from Ebb & Company, which sold out quickly. There will be more coming soon, so stay tuned. 

The chicories are starting to head up so we’re offering a beautiful chicory salad mix with crunchy green escarole, red radicchio, and pretty speckled castelfranco. This delicious combination of greens is perfect with the baked goat cheese and many other salads. We’ve been growing these hardy fall greens for several years, right into the winter.  They are tasty and plentiful, even after the first freeze. 

🍅🥕Dry Dock Delivery Special! 🏎️💨  

Since your car might be on the other side during dry dock, we are offering free delivery for all orders over $40 and reducing the delivery charge to $5 for all orders under $40.

Recipes!

We might be stuck inside, but at least we can cook.  We’ve listed some recipes at the bottom of this note that we’ve been enjoying while produce still flows from the farm - dishes like pasta with roasted fennel, tomatoes, mozzarella, and shaved salami and a warm, baked goat cheese salad.  A new favorite of mine is a simple and irresistible Plum Cake Tatin made with Queen Victoria Plums.

Photo Credi Scott Philips - Fine Cooking

Pasta with Roasted Fennel, Tomatoes, Mozzarella, and Salami

This dish is delicious and incorporates two items that are in season and growing on the farm right now: fennel & tomatoes. We also just so happen to have the finnochiona salami that the recipes calls for too!

Photo Credit - Molly Watson, Spruce Eats

Baked Goat Cheese Salad
This is a classic and satiating salad very popular in France. The goat cheese is coated in bread crumbs and baked until golden and crispy, then placed atop dressed greens. This is super tasty with our chicory salad greens

Photo Credit: Food Network

Plum cake Tatin
A play on a Tarte Tatin, but much easier! This incorporates rich and deeply flavored prune plums, but we used Queen Victoria Plums from Cloud Mountain Farm. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream for a satisfying late summer dessert. Yum!

September on the farm

Crabbing is open so corn is on the menu, whether you choose on the cob, succotash, corn risotto or elote. Days are shorter and the increasingly oblique angle of sunlight turns green to gold, complementing the pinks and purples of sunrise and set. There’s a chill in the evening air that carries whispers of coming frost. Kale, chard, escarole, radicchio, celery, cabbage, squash, and potatoes all assert their flavors and colors - a fall palate takes over.

DRY DOCK
Annual ferry maintenance is part of the pulse of Lummi Island. It means adjusting to a walk-on boat, parking on the other side, using the shuttle or dusting off the island car (we’ve seen every iteration of conveyance, even riding lawn mowers) and stocking up on food and fuel. But it is also an opportunity to enjoy the serene quiet of the island and a chance to chat with old acquaintances on the crossing.
We’re all making plans for dry dock and Full Bloom Farm wanted to let you know that we will be open during dry dock with most of our regular items, except for bagels. The Bagelry Bagels freeze very well in zip lock bags, so if you want bagels through drydock, we recommend stocking up and freezing them. September 11th will be the last day to get bagels through the Farm Stand until the end of dry dock when we will have them again.
The demand for products is high this time of year, particularly for organic, pasture-raised eggs. To keep up with demand and ensure we don’t sell-out constantly, we will offer certified organic and pasture-raised eggs from Skagit Valley Ranch during dry dock.

PICKLE KITS
We’ve restocked our DIY Pickle Kits! These have been a lot of fun to put together and we’ve really enjoyed seeing your photos of pickles in the making! Keep them coming! In about a week you can have pickles from this kit. AND Dilly Bean Kits are now available on the stand too! The dilly bean kits include an airlock top so that you can make all sorts of other fermented foods that may require an airlock for optimal results.

TOMATOES, CORN & BEANS
Our tomatoes are showing their color in the tunnels and are bursting with flavor right now. We’ve been offering Full Bloom Farm yellow and gold heirlooms with reds and pinks from our neighbors, Hillcrest Farm, to give a satisfying mix. The cool snap we had earlier in the month meant our tomatoes slowed down a bit, but now that the heat is back, they are starting to ripen much faster. We pick everyday so if we are sold out one day, check back the next!
There are only a few more harvests of green beans before we plant fall crops on that ground. This year we’ve had four varieties of green beans and we are nearing the end of the season with only a few harvests of the Provider variety left. They are delicious and succulent blanched with thick slices of fresh heirloom tomatoes, Lost Peacock Creamery goat cheese, and vinaigrette dressing (recipe at the bottom of this note).

Our corn is maturing, but not quite ready so we picked up some first-of-the-season corn from Hedlins Family Farm in Skagit. We like it on the cob with butter and sea salt, but we’ll also be eating it in a satisfying corn risotto where you use the cob to make rich corn broth. Here is a link to a recipe. Summer and winter squash and cucumbers are taking over with their vines reaching out to be picked. We’ve been making a gratin of potato, cauliflower and summer squash that’s delicious. Keep reading for the recipes.

SEA SALT
Mark has been producing salt from the Salish Sea for several years on our farm. Normal table salt is highly refined and is stripped of the nuances of flavor inherent in sea salt. Our sea salt has a flavor that is distinct to Lummi Island, reflecting the terroir of the land and the body of water surrounding it. We use solar-evaporation to extract it. This is the salt that is featured in our pickle kits. This is also our table salt and Livie uses it when baking sourdough bread.

PEARS AND APPLES
Our pears are starting to ripen and our earliest variety, Harrow Delight is available now. These pears are juicy and have very smooth flesh. We only have a limited amount of these, since the trees are juvenile, but the flavor is unique, sweet and unforgettable. Full Bloom Farm started an orchard in the lower field seven years ago and the trees are now starting to produce a reasonable amount of delicious fruit.

We also recently sourced Ubileen pears, a variety from eastern Europe with a smooth, juicy and buttery flesh from Cloud Mountain. These are tasty eaten fresh and also would be wonderful canned as they have a firm flesh.

The Akane Apples (the bright red beauties pictured here) from Three Pheasants Farm are delicious, firm, small to medium-sized fruit that have a perfect balance of sweet to tart. The Akane apple was developed in Japan and is regarded as one of the best early-season apples. It’s good fresh or for baking. Thank you Sharron Antholt for growing these! Three Pheasants Farms will be supplying apples to us this fall as they ripen so stay in touch.

MELONS
Full Bloom Farm has been offering melons of different varieties for some time. They are difficult to grow in this environment but rewarding, the aroma in the melon greenhouse is heady. Nestled in a bed of sweet smelling mulch, they are our babies and will be ready soon. This year we are growing a mini musk melon variety. They’re adorable.

In the interim, we’re lucky to be getting three beautiful varieties of melons (Arava, Halona, and San Juan) from Cloud Mountain Farm Center in Everson, WA and all of them are exceptional.

Arava melons with a light green flesh are aromatic and very sweet, with prominent floral, tropical, and nectar-like flavors; Halona melons (a musk melon with orange flesh) are unusually sweet with full flavor, these would be incredible with prosciutto, and the San Juan are aromatic and have a pear-like, sweet, and slightly spicy flavor with ivory-colored flesh.

PLUMS
Also from our friends at Cloud Mountain are giant Seneca plums which are a European variety that are very similar to Italian prune plums, but almost three times as big! They sweet and juicy and freestone.

We have many many flowers and the garden is brimming with summer color. All of this will soon be covered in frost so we’re picking as many flowers as we can while they’re here. As the season changes so too will the bouquets. The yellows of Goldenrod and Craspedia are making an appearance now.

We are looking forward to the brief respite that drydock gives us.  It’s a time for walks, hikes, getting on the water, bike riding and enjoying all the beauty of this very special place.  We would like to invite you to come and visit Full Bloom Farm where kids can ride on a swing and enjoy the chickens up close.  Please email us at hello@fullbloomfarm.com for an appointment to insure a private and safe time.

Thank you all for your support this year.  A pandemic is not an easy thing to confront, but we are all doing it however we can. Thanks for your willingness to try something very new and strange - an online farm stand!  Whoa, whoa, whoa! ;o)

Lis, Mark, Livie & Roger

RECIPES
Here are some recipes we are cooking right now that we thought you’d enjoy …

Fennel-Celery Salad

Ingredients:
5 - 7 celery stalks, with leaves on (ideally)
1 Fennel Bulb
6 Sprigs of flat leaf parsley, stems removed
Juice of one lemon
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
⅓ cup shaved parm ( roughly 2 ounces)
Salt and Pepper

Directions:
Slice the celery and fennel bulb thinly. You can use a mandolin for uniformity, but a sharp knife should do the trick. Place in a salad bowl once sliced. Roughly chop the parsley and place in the bowl. Pour over the lemon juice, olive oil, parm, and season heavily with salt and freshly ground pepper and mix well. This salad holds up well in the fridge and stays crunchy for days. It will wilt slightly, but in the best kind of way :)

Roger’s Smokey Grilled Tomatillo Salsa

Ingredients:
12oz tomatillos
1 jalapeno or 1 serrano
½  a yellow or white onion
2 cloves garlic, peeled
½ cup chopped cilantro
Juice of one juicy lime
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper

Directions:
Heat up your grill so it’s smoking hot. We prefer charcoal, but gas is fine too. In the meantime, remove the tomatillo husks and wash the tomatillos under cool water. Fun fact: you’ll notice they are quite slippery and feel soapy as you wash them with water. This is because tomatillos naturally excrete a saponin (the same compound used in soap making) called tomatine that helps the plant defend itself against pests. Don’t skip the washing step as this saponin is quite bitter and will make your dish unpalatable. Once the tomatillos are washed, place them on the hot grill along with the pepper and onion and turn 2 minutes or so until well-charred on all sides. This should take about 5-7 minutes. 

Remove the grilled veggies to a plate and let cool for a few minutes. Place the grilled items, the garlic, cilantro, the lime juice, and salt and pepper in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. We make enchiladas with this sauce, eat it with chips, or serve it with eggs, beans and tortillas for breakfast. If you’re into canning you can hot pack this salsa and it’s a real treat in the middle of winter. 

Tomato, green bean salad w/ chèvre + salad dressing

Ingredients:
One large heirloom tomato or a couple medium-sized ones
½ lb of green beans (any type will do)
2 oz goat cheese
⅓ cup vinaigrette - see this blog for our salad dressing recipe
Salt + pepper

Directions:
Slice the tomatoes into thick slices and fan them out on a serving plate. Trim off the stem ends of the green beans. Fill a medium mixing bowl half full with ice and fill with water to half full, set aside. In a medium to large pot, bring lightly salted water to a boil and add green beans. You should have enough water to cover the beans while boiling. Boil for 3-5 minutes then using a slotted spoon or tongs, transfer the beans to the ice bath. Let cool for at least 2 minutes before transferring the beans to a clean towel to dry off, gently. Place the cooled beans on the serving plate with the tomatoes, top with crumbled goat cheese, drizzle with vinaigrette, and season well with salt and pepper. If you have cooked beets they are a delicious addition as are slices of peeled fresh cucumber, but by no means required.

Potato, Squash, and Cauliflower Gratin

Ingredients: 
2 large red Norland (or other waxy) potato 
12 oz patty pan squash
1 small head of cauliflower 
1 ½ to 2 cups heavy cream 
1 ½ cup chicken broth 
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
3 tablespoons unsalted butter 
2 garlic cloves 
1 teaspoon Herb de Provence 
2 sprigs thyme 
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 
1/2 cup grated parm 
1/4 cup good olive oil 

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Peel the potatoes and slice them and the cauliflower and squash into discs roughly a quarter inch thickness. Some of the cauliflower will fall apart, that’s fine. 

In a large soup pot place the potatoes, cream, chicken broth, nutmeg, butter, garlic, Herbes de Provence, salt, pepper, and thyme sprigs and bring to a light simmer. Try to nestle the potatoes down into the liquid as much as possible so they boil evenly. Stir occasionally to allow even cooking. Cook for 5-7 minutes at medium heat. Add the squash and cauliflower and cook for 3 minutes or until the liquid starts to thicken. It should go from milk-like to a creamy consistency. If it has not reached this consistency yet, give it a few more minutes on the stove to simmer.

Carefully pour the hot mixture into a casserole dish and try to lay the veggies as flat as possible, nestled down into the cream sauce. Top with parm and more salt and pepper and drizzle with good olive oil. Put in the oven and bake until browned and crusty and bubbly, but NOT so far that all the liquid has been absorbed. Roughly 20-25 minutes, but keep an eye on it.

The gratin should be nicely browned and have a thick sauce gurgling when you take it out. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

A blueberry buckle, salads for dinner, and your thoughts ...

We’re deep into summer now, eating as many vegetables as we can. This year we grew more food than we have ever grown before. Zucchini, crookneck and patty pan squash will be on the stand in the next few days, maybe tomorrow! And the cabbage is ready now and gorgeous. We have one more variety that is still growing and heading up that is supposed to be perfect for sauerkraut. Currants, too have just reached their peak. If you have not had fresh red currants, you’re missing out. They are very special and their season is so short. I make currant jelly with them every year, and this year I am making currant gin! We’re also adding them to cakes, buckles, and eating them fresh. We’ve put them on the stand and they’ll be available for as long as they last!

A shelf in the packing room

Livie in the corn

Freshly picked red currants

A baby cucumber growing

Red Currant Gin in the making

Our tomatoes have just started to blush since we trimmed the leaves around the fruit yesterday. It’ll still be a few weeks before they are ready to pick, but they are coming, along with our peppers. Our son-in-law, Roger, who grew up in Nebraska, planted a few varieties of sweet corn this year and they have just started to tassel. Our prospects for my favorite meal of corn, tomatoes, and crab are looking bright!

With all the vegetables available right now, dinner salads are a staple at our home so I thought I’d share one that Livie made recently using albacore tuna from Lummi Island Wild and snow peas in place of celery. Serve it with some crusty garlic toast and a glass of white wine, if that’s your thing. This would be equally delicious with smoked salmon too!

Dress some greens with a simple vinaigrette and top with this tuna salad:

SNOW PEA + ALBACORE TUNA SALAD

1 6 oz can Lummi Island Wild Albacore Tuna with all the juice
6-8 large snow peas, diced
2 tablespoons chopped red onion or shallot
2 tablespoons chopped pickle (dill is our preference, but you could use sweet too)
1 tablespoon good quality olive oil
2-4 tablespoons mayonnaise (depending on how you like your tuna salad)
1 squeeze of lemon juices
Salt & Pepper to taste

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OTHER SALADY THINGS …
Stay tuned for more dinner salad ideas. In the meantime we have really nice iceberg on the stand which I use to make wedge salads as well as Larb Moo. Here’s the recipe for the Larb Moo (ลาบหมู) we made using iceberg as lettuce cups/wraps and Hillcrest Farm ground pork and it was GOOD!

BLUEBERRY (or any berry) BUCKLE

We’ve been buying big, beautiful, organic blueberries from Hopewell Farm and eating them on granola, by the handful, and in this blueberry buckle. This is a simple cake to make and is great as a coffee cake, snack or dressed up with some whipped cream, sweetened mascarpone, or ice cream for dessert.

Ingredients

½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
½ stick of butter, at room temp
1 large egg or two small, at room temp
Zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk, at room temp
1 pint fresh blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, or strawberries (chopped)

Topping

½ stick of butter, softened
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup chopped nuts of your choice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and grease an 8” square or round cake pan with butter or neutral flavored oil. These can also be made in muffin tins too!

In a medium bowl mix all topping ingredients with a fork until it comes together into a crumble. Place in the fridge. 

In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl whisk the sugar and butter briskly until creamy. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment. Next add the egg, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and milk and mix until well incorporated. Fold in flour mixture (or mix in with paddle attachment) until all the flour is incorporated and then add the blueberries and gently fold until the blueberries are evenly distributed.

Spread into prepared pan and top with crumble topping and bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating the pan after 25 minutes. Test the cake before removing from the oven with a cake tester or toothpick. It should come out clean. Let cool on cooling rack and enjoy by itself for breakfast or as a dessert with ice cream or whipped cream!

BODACIOUS BOUQUETS

Almost all of our flowers are finally in bloom which means our summer bouquets are so fun to make and incredibly vibrant. As the season winds on we’ll have more sunflowers, goldenrod, craspedia, and black-eyed susans. We realized that we had so many edible flowers on the farm so we started making mini-bouquets for people to use to adorn their dishes.

DON’T MISS THE LAVENDER!

Did you know that Three Pheasants Farm’s lavender is in full bloom right now? Their U-pick field (located just south of the corner of Tuttle Lane and Centerview Road) is so incredibly beautiful and the lavender field feels like you’ve escaped to France for a quick trip. Something we all need right now. The lavender doesn’t bloom for terribly long, so go now or tomorrow, or as soon as possible. It’s $5/bunch, bring cash and some scissors, and a mask. Sharron is also selling her delicious raspberries that she grows on the farm.

A COUPLE NOTES

BAGELRY UPDATE: As of right now we still have some bagels and bialys available! You have until 12pm on Fridays to place your order for same-day pick up that evening after 5pm. Thanks to everyone who has ordered and continues to. We’re becoming known at The Bagelry for our big Lummi Island orders and it feels really good to be able to support them.

BLOG RECOMMENDATION: I found the currant gin recipe on the Diversivore blog and it is a really remarkable find. I encourage you to look through all the incredible sounding recipes. Sean Bromilow is the person behind the blog and he is based out of Richmond, BC - not so far away!

FEEDBACK: If you’d like to give us some feedback, we’ve setup an anonymous survey below to get a sense for what you’d like us to stock, what you’d love for us to grow (we’re planting our fall/winter garden now), and anything else you’d like to share. We value your ideas and input! As a thank you, when you fill out the survey, you’ll be given a coupon code for 10% off your next order with us.