Rows of broccoli ready for harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

We have a beautiful Spring crop of broccoli & several kinds of cauliflower!  Look for these in your CSA shares or come pick some up at the farmers market this weekend (for a full list of the markets we attend, please click here).  Check out these images of the harvest taken by our photographer, Scott David Gordon.

Vicente harvest broccoli. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Close-up of Vicente harvesting broccoli. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Filling up the harvesting bins. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Porfirio harvests cauliflower. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Cauliflower in the field. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Bringing in the harvest. Photo by Scott David Gordon

by Louis Singh | dishalicious.com

Crispy & roasted is a good way to enjoy broccoli.  Crispy roasted broccoli with a warm dressing of fried capers, garlic & golden raisins is even better.

Though the flavors evoke Mediterranean, this recipe has us thinking about science.  Thank the Maillard reaction for the deliciousness of this recipe.  This complex chemical reaction is responsible for the outrageous aromas and flavors that occur when meat, vegetables and even bread are browned at high heats.

The roasted broccoli, the fried capers, and the toasted golden raisins all have their flavors elevated thanks to this reaction.  Try this recipe with your JBG broccoli and watch science in action!  Plus, the results are delicious.

You’ll need:

2 cups broccoli florets 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for roasting 1 tablespoon capers, drained and dried 1 tablespoon golden raisins 1 clove garlic, sliced thin parsley, minced salt & pepper breadcrumbs (optional)

Here’s how:

-Preheat the oven to 425°.  Drizzle the broccoli with a little olive oil and season with salt & pepper.  Roast in the oven until browned and tender, about 10-15 min.

-Meanwhile, warm two tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high in a small skillet or pot until hot.  When oil is just beginning to give off wisps of smoke, add the capers.  BE CAREFUL, they will pop and splatter as they fry.  Use a pot lid or oil splatter screen to protect yourself from the hot oil.

As the capers fry, they’ll blister and pop open.  Once fried, remove the capers with a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain.

-While the oil is still warm, add the raisins to the pot and sautee until puffed and golden.  Add the garlic & parsley and stir well, then remove the pot from heat.  (Careful not to burn the garlic!)

-Remove the broccoli from the oven and transfer to a dish.  Dress with the warm caper & raisin dressing and top with toasted breadcrumbs, if using.

And that’s it.  Now you have the technique, play with it.  Use cauliflower instead of broccoli.  Add some in some sautéed leeks, or top it with toasted nuts.  Take this technique and make your own recipes.  Get cooking!

Got cooking questions?  Get answers.  info@dishalicious.com

Broccoli,
Black Radish or Watermelon Radish,
Leeks,
Chard,
Salad Mix,
Kohlrabi,
Spinach,
Cilantro,
Carrots,
Fennel,
Beets

savsavvysav!  Thanks for sharing this beautiful picture of JBG's fields.

Take your best shots of anything JBG-related – the JBG logo on a truck, the JBG vegetables in your CSA box or the meal you cooked with them, JBG at the Farmers Market or in the grocery store, etc. Then, label your pictures on Instagram with #jbgorganic or #johnsonsbackyardgarden. Each week, we will select winner to be featured in the newsletter. The winner will also receive his or her choice of a JBG hat, tote, or t-shirt. Get out your phones and start taking pictures! We can’t wait to see what you create.

Photo by Scott David Gordon

This past week, our photographer, Scott David Gordon, captured some beautiful shots of flowers in our fields.  We hope you enjoy these images of Spring.

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Photo by Scott David Gordon

 

Photo by Scott David Gordon

Duane shows off some JBG broccoli at the farmers market. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Come see us at the farmers market this weekend!  We will have some beautiful broccoli in our booths.  Here's a list of where will be be today, Saturday, April 27th from 9am to 1pm:

SFC Farmers Market Downtown, SFC Farmers Market at Sunset Valley, Burnet Road, New Braunfels, Cedar Park, & Barton Creek Farmers Markets

And on Sunday, April 28th, you can find us at these markets:

Lonestar (10am-2pm), Mueller (10am-2pm), Great Hills (10am-2pm), HOPE (11am-3pm), & Highland Farmer Markets (10am-2pm)

To see a full list of all the markets we attend plus a map of their locations, please click here.

A lady bug lands on a head of broccoli. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Tomato stakes go into the ground. Photo by Scott David Gordon

This week, it was evident that we are on the brink of one of the busiest times of year for us.  From now until about mid-July, we will have our hands full as we work to keep up with the harvests of late Spring and early Summer.  One big task we've been tackling this week is the staking all of our tomato plants.  Luckily, our Field Crew Manager, Angel, came up with a really great way to get these stakes in the ground that saves time - and, more importantly, our hands! In the past, we drove the stakes into the ground by a back-breaking and blister-causing method of using t-post drivers.  These drivers are extremely heavy to lift and require us to pound the hardwood stakes into the ground by hand. This time around, though, we simply put the stakes in place and used the tractor bucket to push them down.  As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

Bonifacio holds a stake as Angel uses the tractor bucket to push it into the ground. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Lots of tomato stakes! Photo by Scott David Gordon

In addition to adapting to the increase in work, I have had an extra concern on my mind: wild hogs.  Over the last couple weeks, I've received some disturbing reports from my neighbors that are nothing short of wild hogs on a rampage.  A nearby corn farmer described how, every night, these animals have been eating and tearing up acres of his corn.  My next door neighbor said the hogs have wreaked similar havoc on his bermuda grass pasture. Maybe I have been watching my wife's TV programs too much, but when I consider all of the destruction by the hogs around us, it makes me think JBG is a "zombie fortress."  Really, though, I'm not fooling myself - I know it's probably just a matter of time.  I started reading about wild hogs, and this only increased my concern.  It turns out that wild hogs are an extremely invasive and destructive species, and their numbers are growing in almost all of the 50 states; however, the population is the largest in Texas (some estimates put the number of wild hogs in Texas as high as 4 million).  They are extremely adaptive, very smart, can survive in all kinds of environments, and will eat almost anything (they are, “opportunistic omnivores”).  They aren't native to the US, but were introduced to what is now the US in the 1500s.  Then, in the 1930s, for the purposes of hunting, Eurasian wild boars were brought to Texas and released; consequently, they bred with domestic animals that had escaped or were free-ranging.  In the 1980s, the wild hog population exploded in Texas when ranchers started to actively encourage their growth so they could sell hunting leases on their land.  Now, the nation, and most acutely, Texas, is facing a serious feral hog problem.  As a farmer, I can think of only three ways to battle this problem: fence your land, set out traps, or hunt the hogs.  Right now, I am relying on the effectiveness our zombie fortress, but know I need to develop a more realistic plan for the future.  To read more about the growing wild hog problem, I recommend this article in the Smithsonian Magazine: A Plague of Pigs in Texas.