Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis)
Samascott Orchards
Harvested: Late April 2013

|Learn|
Asparagus was used in recipes dating as far back as third-century AD, and many societies identified ways of preserving it for consumption during colder seasons.

|Cultivate|
Asparagus is a perennial and one of the earliest producing spring vegetables. It can be easily grown from the crowns or roots and can take up to 3 to 4 years before a mature plant is established for harvesting - but it can be harvested for years after planting once mature. A fully grown plant can resemble a fern with thin spears. It is unique in that it can tolerate broad temperature variations; it grows in the Imperial Valley of Southern California, where temperatures can reach 115° F, and it grows in Minnesota, where temperatures can plunge to -40° F.* In the northeast they are generally harvested from late March through June.

|Taste|
Aspargus spears should be tender and sweet. This is the best way to tell they are freshly harvested.

|Identify|
There are hundreds of varieties, but often asparagus has smooth stalks with compact crowns and can come in colors like white, green and purple. Spears can range in size based on the time they are harvested.

|Prepare|
Only young asparagus shoots are eaten since once the buds of the plant start to open, the shoots quickly turn woody. Prep is easy: just trim off the bottoms of the spears. Then, enjoy them raw, fried, blanched, or simply roasted. Throwing them on the grill is also encouraged.

|Discover|
You can find Samascott Orchard’s Asparagus this week at Greene Grape Provisions in Brooklyn.

Here are some of the folks sourcing directly from producers who are organizing with Plovgh. If you’re looking for the first of the spring crops or eggs gathered within hours of reaching the city, stop in to find products from some of these farms. Brooklyn Kitchen - Williamsburg, NY

Cleaver Co. - Chelsea, NY

Foragers City Grocer - DUMBO & Chelsea, NY

Greene Grape Provisions - Fort Greene, NY

Pie Corps - Greenpoint, NY

Rose Water Restaurant - Park Slope, NY

A growing coalition of producers are beginning to sign up around the country to participate in Plovgh routes. If you’re interested in finding out more about how to join up, get in touch with us and we can let you know about routes that are being activated near you. Acorn Hill Farm - Walker Valley, NY

Adirondack Grazers Cooperative - New York/Vermont

Aqua Vita Farms - Sherrill, NY

Black Horse Farm - Athens, NY

Campanelli’s Poultry Farm - Kenoza Lake, NY

Catskill Native Nursery - Kerhonkson, NY

Cowbella - Jefferson, NY

Ferndale Farms - Cannon Falls, MN

Fitzgerald Farms - Kerhonkson, NY

Glebocki Farms - Goshen, NY

Good Fence Farm - Ft. Edward, NY

Hand Picked Farm - Flemington, NJ

Laughing Loon Farm - Northfield, MN

Lucky Dog Farm - Hamden, NY

Oasis Valley Orchard - Overton, NV

Rusty Plough Farm - Ellenville, NY

Samascott Orchards - Kinderhook, NY

Seeds Farm - Northfield, MN

Slow Roots Farm - Kingston, NY

Sprout Creek Farm - Poughkeepsie, NY

foragersnyc:

#foragersnyc #foragesgrocer #plovgh #localfood #spring veggies

This might not look exciting but @plovgh just delivered a lot of local produce to us! We’re really excited to unpack locally grown chives, cipollini onions, red leaf lettuce and potatoes!

Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum)
Good Fence Farm
Harvested: Early May 2013

When it comes to rhubarb it seems that people either love it or hate it. It struggles with its self-identity; vegetable or fruit? Sweet or savory? And though this spring has been slow to arrive, pushing the anticipated harvest time back a few weeks, we’re happy to say that time is here.

|Learn|
The Chinese have used rhubarb as a medicinal plant for thousands of years. Its presence in Europe was established when it was imported along the Silk Road. (A historical form of trade we are fans of here at Plovgh.)

|Cultivate|
Rhubarb is a seasonal plant that can grow in many areas. In temperate climates it is one of the first food plants ready to be harvested, usually around April/May in the Northern Hemisphere and October/November in the Southern Hemisphere. Ready-to-harvest, mature rhubarb can be pulled from the plant with a gentle tug. Stalks should not be harvested during the first growing season to allow the plant to become established, and after the first 3 years the harvesting period runs approximately 8-10 weeks long.

|Taste|
Freshly harvested, raw stalks are crisp and have a tart flavor. Red rhubarb varieties such as ‘Valentine’ and ‘Crimson Cherry’ tend to be more tender.

|Identify|
Rhubarb has short, thick roots, large leaves and long, fleshy stalks. The stalks of a rhubarb plant are usually a crimson red, but can vary from deep reds and pinks to pale green.

|Prepare|
Quite often, rhubarb is used in bakes goods such as crisps, pies and tarts. You can also preserve it as jams or by pickling. Or, use it in your new favorite cocktail.
Note: Be sure to only eat the stalks, as the leaves of a rhubarb plant contain poisonous toxins.

Ramps (Allium tricoccum)

Lucky Dog Farm

Harvested: May 2013

The ramp, also known as the wild leek, is the alliums’ herald of spring. It is a fleeting introduction to a new season and a foraged onion that has the ability to throw people into a frenzy.

Wild ramps have close ties with the folklore of the central Appalachian Mountains. In the region, they have long celebrated spring with the arrival of the ramp, believing it to have great power as a tonic used to ward off the ailments of winter.

Ramps are members of the lily family and a perennial plant. They grow in groups strongly rooted just beneath the surface of the soil. They don’t take well to traditional farming, but grow wildly as far north as Quebec, as far south as Georgia, and as far west as Oklahoma.

Ramps have a peppery taste and a pungent aroma that is a mix of onions and garlic.

Ramps have broad, smooth, light green leaves, often with deep purple or burgundy tints on the lower stems, and a scallion-like stalk and bulb. Both the white lower leaf stalks and the broad green leaves are edible.

Ramps can be sauteed, grilled, baked, pureed or pickled. We like ours sauteed with butter, chopped and served with eggs.

Ah, the food system. It’s a mess, huh? Seems like farms, trucking companies, commodity brokers, even retailers that get to gargantuan scale really muck things up for everyone else. That’s why we’re excited to bring small businesses like Matthew Clancy’s into the Plovgh network. Have a look at this local transporter who got your crops into your neighborhood this week.

Transporter’s name: Matthew J. Clancy, Clancy’s Transportation Solutions

Homebase: Rotterdam Junction, New York

Years in operation: We are a newly formed business.

What do you drive? 2010 Chevrolet Express van.

What do you do? We offer the best solution to people and businesses that need something moved across town or across country. We provide our clients with a low cost alternative to the big name companies (emphasis added) with the care only a family owned small business can offer!

Why did you start this business? What’s unique or compelling about how you operate? I started this business to find a more fulfilling way to provide for my family’s quality of life. After years of working for the State of New York as a manager, the time spent away from my wife and children coupled with the fact that I felt uninspired by my work led me to leave it behind in order to focus on making Clancy’s Transportation Solutions (CTS) a success. CTS is a family owned and operated small business aimed at helping our local community and beyond. We are focused on providing custom transportation solutions to our clients that result in the highest levels of customer satisfaction.

Welcome, Matthew! The maiden voyage was a success and we look forward to many more.

We’d like to extend a hearty welcome to Mark, who drives his first Plovgh route today, connecting farms’ harvest with New York City. We met Mark through Slow Food NYC and we’re excited to fuel the movement of harvest from source to city. 

Transporter’s name: Mark Jaffe, The Fresh Connection

Homebase: New York City

Years in operation: 1

What do you do? The Fresh Connection is an NYC-based company that provides transportation and logistics services for food producers who are independent, artisanal, and environmentally and economically sustainable. 

Why did you start this business? What’s unique or compelling about how you operate? Through talking to people and through my own previous experience in the local and sustainable food world I saw that the groundwork has been laid in New York City for a strong local food system with many small- to mid-size farmers producing high quality product and customers eager to receive these goods. There are also many groups and individuals working to build networks for the local food system. However, these networks often do not fully address the needs and challenges of actually transporting product from Point A to Point B (emphasis added). I started The Fresh Connection with the aim of creating an efficient model for product delivery in and around NYC and providing the local food system with an affordable transportation and delivery service.

The Fresh Connection is unique in that we combine practical knowledge of the food distribution industry and the logistics surrounding it with an ideological belief that we must create a food system that supports independent producers whose products are environmentally and economically sustainable, with an emphasis on locally produced goods. We offer a flexible model and are not looking to simply replicate the traditional distributor model but to help in creating a new distribution system that addresses the needs of a local and sustainable food system.

Say hello to Mark when you see him along his route. This kind of collaboration is the beginning of the change we want to see. To get your farm on one of the Plovgh routes, or to order from the farms on Plovgh, get in touch here!

One reason we are building Plovgh is to re-connect people with the source of their food. Drawing on the relationships that once linked producers and consumers, we are leveraging technology to shift the current agricultural transaction and change how the supply chain operates.

The soil food web outlined above with the help of Dr. Elaine Ingham and the folks behind the Lexicon of Sustainability is a natural example of sustainable connectivity. It shows how ecosystems work to maintain balance and manage the interconnectedness of organisms that provide healthy soil necessary for growing food. It’s interesting to think of Plovgh in this perspective, coordinating all of the people that make up a supply chain to develop a more efficient and reliable way through which they can engage with one another. It is an alternative take on an outdated system, and one that aims to foster an approach that is more healthy and sustainable.