Garden Happenings: Peachy Recipes, Featherstone Farm Stand & More
#23: Summer Happenings @ Featherstone Garden
Welcome to Featherstone’s Summer Happenings Newsletter! Each week we will share a variety of garden updates, heirloom seasonal produce features, veg-ed(ucation) content, farm stand news, plant-centered recipes and more. As a subscriber, you will be the first to know all about our Garden Happenings. If you’re not a subscriber but would like do be, you can click the button below to signup.
Harvest Spotlight…
It’s officially peach season in Michigan! Unfortunately Featherstone Garden is too young to have peach trees, though we hope to put fruit trees in next spring. Regardless, peaches are a favorite of all of our team members. This week we are featuring the closest thing we have to a sweet peach: heirloom orange peach tomatoes from Baker Creek Seeds.
“The original peach tomato is an old French variety called Yellow Peach. It was used to make a marmalade that was a convincing substitute for the real thing! The Orange Peach, which we find even more peach-y was a chance cross found growing in the tomato patch of Pennsylvania farmer and heirloom expert James Weaver.”
– rareseeds.com
Fruit and the Climate Crisis
Climate change is having a profound and devastating impact on agriculture and wildlife all over the world. For example the Western Canadian coast lost 50% of their cherries during the July heat wave. The cherries literally cooked while still on the trees. Scientists recently learned something interesting about the resiliency of wild peaches; they’ve identified genes that may help domesticated peaches become more resistant to the pressures associated with climate change, and climate stress.
Brilliant Detroit
This week we are featuring an organization that has a wide reach in Detroit, particularly on the east side near our garden.
“In 2015 Brilliant Detroit was created to provide a radically new approach to kindergarten readiness in neighborhoods. The idea was to create a unique delivery model in [the] approach to early childhood development by using underutilized housing stock to create early child and family centers in neighborhoods. Input was gathered and a model that is designed with, for, and by neighbors was built. Brilliant Detroit homes provide holistic services for kids 0-8 predicated on evidence-based programs around health, family support, and education. Brilliant Detroit was born to create kid success neighborhoods. Today, in each location, neighbors come together for fellowship, activities and learning to assure school readiness, and provide needed support for families.”
- Brilliant Detroit
To learn more about Brilliant Detroit’s offerings, check out their programming calendar.
Featured Stir fry recipe:
Red Coconut Curry with Brown Rice & Seasonal Veggies
Our newest recipe feature was created by our Stir Fry Kits developers, Jessi Patuano & Phoebe Zimmerman. You can find the full recipe & serving suggestions here on Garden Goodness blog.
Featured Peach recipes:
For a healthy breakfast recipe, we suggest trying out Renee’s Rose Petal Milk Overnight Oats (shown above). In her recipe, she layers the chilled overnight oats with greek yogurt, fresh peaches (the fruit, not the tomatoes!), sliced apples, and dates. We also recommend adding shaved almonds on top for extra protein.
Another recipe recommendation: this chilled Tomato Peach Soup recipe from Food52 sounds like a perfect, light summer dish, especially considering the high temps we’ve been having lately. If you have a chance to make it out to our Wednesday Farm Stand this week (@ 4178 Lakepointe Street, Detroit), you can pick up some of our farm-grown heirloom peach tomatoes, and sweet Michigan peaches to make this dish! We have a very limited quantity of our peach tomatoes, so we suggest getting there early.
This week in our stir fry kit we are featuring some special asian veggies from one of our favorite stores, 168 Asian Mart in Madison Heights. Keep an eye out for green thai eggplant, and mini thai eggplant. We also couldn’t help but buy some hot wassabi flavored peas , hello panda chocolate chews , and Hi-Cheu chewy fruity candy. We know these aren’t particularly healthy, but why not splurge once in a while?
Red Coconut Curry Assembly Instructions
For Stir Fry Kit Subscribers…
Pre-assembly notes:
Ratio: 1 cup brown rice to 1 ¾ cups water. No need to rinse: The outer layer has antioxidants, which can help lower cholesterol. For cooking rice: using a heavy, thick-bottomed pot prevents scorching.
Step 1
Cook the rice: bring a pot of water & rice to a boil, then simmer slowly, covered, until water is absorbed, approx. 45 minutes. Steam to finish: Keep the rice covered, off heat, for 10 minutes after cooking.
Step 2
Heat stove to medium-high, add 2 Tbsps of cooking oil in a large pan, and sauté pre cut stir-fry veggies until slightly translucent and edges begin to crisp, adjusting the heat as needed. Try to avoid overcrowding the pan to prevent veggies from steaming. Once veggies are sautéed to your liking, add red coconut curry to pan and heat through.
To serve:
In a bowl serve yourself some rice and spoon veggie/ curry mixture on top. Garnish with Crispy shallots and basil.
Enjoy!
Stir Fry & Breads and Spreads Kit Pickup/Delivery Reminders
Kit delivery is on Tuesdays between 3-7pm.
Subscribers, Please leave your insulated grocery bag on your doorstep on Tuesday. If you have an extra ice pack, we suggest putting that in the bag too!
Kit pickup is on Wednesday from 2-6pm at Featherstone’s weekly Farm Stand at 4178 Lakepointe Street, Detroit
Featherstone’s Weekly Farm Stand
A friendly reminder that our weekly Farm Stand is open on Wednesday from 2-6pm at 4178 Lakepointe Street, Detroit. This week, we will have a limited quantity of our Peach Tomatoes available for purchase, as well as sweet Michigan peaches, sourced from Western Market in Ferndale.
Thanks for reading!
For more about our small-scale garden, follow us on instagram (@featherstone.garden), and check out our website. Don’t forget to share our newsletter with a friend by clicking the button below.
Have a great week,
Annie, Aaron, Renee, Jessi, Phoebe, & Chili (the farm cat)
