July 30th

July 30, 2020

Our Vibrant Friends!

We’ve come to the time in our season wherein the flower game is rip roaring, rootin tootin ravishing.

Our fields are blooming, rich with color, new buds opening with fervor as the sun rises and sets. Buffets for bees, deep leaves low to the ground providing dew-catching respite for frogs. We harvest, we deadhead, we weed. The flowers keep coming, stems growing taller, floral faces smiling as wide to us as we to them. Sometimes we find a rogue zinnia that has not one center but 7. We scream with delight and admire nature’s humor. We cut it for our flower alter. We swoon over how the peachy Queen Lime zinnias look so perfect with the deep plum purple gladiolus and the butter yellow cosmos and the pale grey green eucalyptus… OMG OMG OMG. Delicious!

And then there are the blooms that are actually delicious, to eat! Not only spicy nasturtium, but bachelor button, snapdragons, squash blossoms, pansies, marigolds… we pull some for our lunch breaks and scatter vibrant petals over our salads or wrap sandwiches. Lovely. Luxury. 

On flower harvest days, we arrive before sunbreak to get started in the cool before the blossoms wilt as we wilt ourselves later on, mists rising off the unfolding rows of color before us, the pale pink swath of dawn enveloping all. Occasionally we start in complete darkness, headlamps lighting the way as we gather, giggling to ourselves as if we are on a caper of some kind, kids at Summer Camp, hahaha is this real life?? 

Often we pause for a moment, and look outward over our VVF vista, this land we are so lucky to know and tend to and champion. 

We select only the best stems for our cuttings, but still fill our whole cooler with flowers, knowing that in a matter of days there will be even more than before to cut in the fields. We sell at market. We sell to florists. We bunch for you. We donate to Black Lives Matter memorials and art installations. We bring flora home for our loved ones. We dry certain varieties for the winter. We string fat marigold heads into garlands for altars, bedside hospice, our own doorways. We weave bridal bouquets and memorial flowers, life and death and regeneration a part of all, from the seed to the soil to the reward to the reaping. We watch the season shifting. We breathe. We bloom. We bow down in the land and tend soil. 

Until next week, with love and gratitude to you and yours,

-- Rosemary Stafford for Vibrant Valley Farm

ROSE’S RECIPE IDEAS OF THE WEEK:

VVF Bodacious Brunch!

Lovely Little Gems with Buttermilk Blue Cheese Dressing

Dressing Ingredients:

• Dash dash dash dash of olive oil

• Dashes of apple cider vinegar

• ½ cup buttermilk

• As many chunks of blue cheese as your heart desires

• A shallot or a shallot and a half, finely chopped

• Salt and pepper

Sweet Simplicity Preparation:

Lightly tear the tender lettuces and drizzle the dressing to your taste over them. Gobble gobble.

Cool Kid Cobb Preparation:

Follow as above but then add:

• Cooked to your liking hearty chunks of thick cut bacon

• Sliced hardboiled eggs

• Caramelized cuts of Walla Walla sweet onion

Grilled Summer Squash with Lemon and Salt

Preparation:

Either on a grill pan in a BBQ or stovetop, grill sliced summer squash with a bit of olive oil until slightly blackened, melting some butter over the squash at they finish. Immediately squeeze liberal amounts of lemon and then salt. Enjoy. 

Fried Eggs with Chopped Scallions

Just do it. Could also add some fresh mozzarella or burrata if you’re feeling foxy.

BBQ or Broiled Crispy Chard with Spicy Sweet Hell Yes Glaze

• Chard

• Juice of 1 or 2 limes

• Dash or two of fish sauce

• Spoonful of brown sugar

• Pinch of red pepper flakes

• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Dress with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Place directly on BBQ and cook until blackening at edges, flipping as needed. OR place on sheet pan and broil, until the same effect has been achieved. 

While chard is blackening, emulsify fresh squeezed lime juice, fish sauce, sesame oil, red pepper flakes and brown sugar. Set aside.

Remove crisped and blackened chard from heat. Using a sharp knife, cut leaves from stems and arrange on plate. Toss the stems OR flash pickle them! Drizzle Spicy Sweet Hell Yes Glaze over top of leaves. Serve and enjoy immediately. Helllllll yes.