spring orzo salad with lemon sunshine vinaigrette
and some honest thoughts from a very tired and overwhelmed farmer
Happy MAY!
Growing up, I always loved the month of May. It’s my birthday month, the month when spring is the most vibrant, when school wraps up for the year, and generally when it’s a gorgeous time to be alive.
But to be honest, for the past few years, May has been a no good, very bad, terrible month. In May 2022, our whole family came down with Covid, and then I was bedridden for days with an awful case of mastitis. In May 2023, I got super sick and ended up with a double lung infection and had to cancel weeks worth of events and classes. And last May, when my daughter Hudson was just 6 months old, she had a serious allergic reaction to peanuts and I freaked out and basically had a month-long panic attack, and made myself sick with intense fear and guilt.
This is all to say that I have complicated feelings about this month. And, as a surprise to absolutely no one, this week as we steamroll into May, I’m feeling entirely overwhelmed by… everything.
This time of year, the farm requires a LOT of attention (constant harvesting, planting, weeding, trellising, pruning, watering, etc) – and I’m struggling to run the farm, sell all the veggies, care for two toddlers, do the majority of the household work, teach hands-on cooking classes, test + photograph new recipes, write this newsletter, and, oh yeah, be a good partner / mom / daughter / friend to the people I love. This week, I hit a breaking point and finally acknowledged that the amount of things I’ve put on my plate is actually physically impossible to accomplish.
And to be clear, it's not like I'm doing this alone! I'm so freaking lucky to have an amazing village – an incredibly supportive husband, a badass crew of ladies who share their muscle with the farm, plus help from family and friends (especially the best grandmas ever), and a truly magical full-time preschool for Sawyer and wonderful part-time childcare for baby Hudson. But sometimes even a kickass village can’t take all the burdens off our shoulders.
I just started reading the book 4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, and it’s kind of blowing my mind. The gist is that rather than striving for crazy productivity and trying to accomplish *all the things*, we ought to accept the fact that our time on this planet is limited (about 4,000 weeks, if you’re lucky), and to focus our time/energy on a smaller number of things that really matter. It’s about shifting our priorities and freeing ourselves from unrealistic expectations. It’s about not trying to control time, and realizing that you can actually find more joy and meaning by embracing the finite nature of this life.
Well yeah, that all sounds great, but putting it into practice is freaking hard (especially for a type-A, perfectionist, Enneagram 3 like myself). But your girl is trying! So a heads up that for the month of May, I’ll still be sending out a new email every Friday, but some weeks it won’t be a new recipe – it might be a video tutorial, or a quick garden guide, or something else that is striking my curiosity in the garden or kitchen. I’m just trying to mix it up a bit this month and take a bit of the pressure off my plate, while still showing up for this community.
I don’t glorify being “busy” or hustle culture. And I’m definitely not sharing all this for sympathy. I just want to be real and honest about life in this moment, especially because when folks see photos of our farm on Notes or on instagram, I know it can come off as being dreamy and romantic and easy breezy.
Speaking of which… just look at all these beautiful vegetables we grew and harvested this week !
Sometimes even I take for granted the amount of time, energy, and skill that it takes to make these veg boxes week after week, but at the end of the day, I’m still wildly grateful to do this work and to get to feed my neighbors. I just really need a nap.
(Anyone else need to vent? Feel free to use the comment section and let ‘er rip).
PS - local friends, I just posted the veggie box available for pickup next Tuesday (May 6th), here’s the link with all the details and place your order.
And a reminder that if you have any gardening or cooking related questions, I’m here to help! Send in your questions on our private community HELP LINE, where I’ll always personally answer within 24 hours. There’s no question too big or small. :)
Keep reading for this week’s new recipe, spring orzo salad with lemon sunshine vinaigrette. It’s the first Friday of the month, which means the recipe is available to ALL subscribers!
TLDR: I didn’t know anything about orzo, now I do, and this salad is the absolute best thing I’ve cooked/eaten all season.
As someone who went to culinary school this is mildly embarrassing to admit, but up until a few weeks ago, I had never in all my 35 years on this earth cooked with orzo. Honestly, I was still like… what even IS orzo? Is it rice? Is it pasta? What do I do with it?
Well, I can now say that I’m low key obsessed with orzo, and wondering where it has been all my life?! Just in case any of y’all are in the same boat, here are some quick orzo facts:
Orzo is in fact a type of pasta! It is a short cut pasta in an oval, rice-like shape.
Orzo is traditionally made from durum semolina wheat, and it does contain gluten.
Cook orzo like any other type of pasta noodle – in a big pot of boiling salted water. Because the size of orzo can vary based on the brand you buy, it’s recommended to follow the package instructions for how long to cook it (but it’s generally around 8-10 minutes).
When cooked, orzo has a lovely, velvety texture, and the individual grains have a delightfully toothsome bite.
Orzo is super multifaceted and is lovely when used in soups, casseroles, and pasta dishes with a creamy sauce.
Okay, but back to this salad!
For real, this spring orzo salad is sunshine in a freaking bowl. It’s filled with fresh spring veggies and herbs, and everything is drenched in a bright, lemony vinaigrette. And at the end you add some crumbled goat cheese while the pasta is still warm, which turns it into a kind of light, creamy, irresistible sauce.
This salad is super adaptable, so feel free to swap out any of the veggies/herbs with whatever you have on hand. It comes together in about 20 minutes and can be enjoyed warm, room temp, or cold – so it’s great to bring to a potluck or to make ahead and serve at a party.
So PLEASE for the love of pasta give this recipe a try, I promise it will be on repeat in your kitchen!
Keep reading for the full recipe (and a handy 1-page PDF for easy printing).
PS – This week *everyone* gets access today’s recipe! If you enjoy this newsletter and want to receive a new hyper-seasonal recipe every Friday, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers also get access to my (ever-growing) full recipe archive, handy gardening guides, video tutorials, and access to our private community Help Line.
Spring Orzo Salad with Lemon Sunshine Vinaigrette
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
1 ½ cups orzo
Kosher salt
1 bunch asparagus, chopped into ½” pieces
1 cup frozen peas
6-8 radishes, thinly sliced
½ cup crumbled goat cheese (3-4 ounces)
½ cup finely chopped fresh parsley or mint (or even better, a combination of the two)
Lemon Sunshine Vinaigrette
1/3 cup olive oil
1 lemon, zested and juiced (about 1/4 cup juice, make sure to zest before juicing!)
1 small to medium shallot, finely chopped (about ¼ cup)
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch ground pepper
PREPARATION
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 1 tablespoon kosher salt. Add 1 ½ cups orzo to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally. Cook for 8-10 minutes (follow the package instructions), and taste for when the orzo is al dente (ie still has a little bite). When al dente, add 1 bunch chopped asparagus to the pot and cook for 1 more minute.
Put 1 cup frozen peas in a colander, then pour the cooked orzo and asparagus over the colander to drain. (The heat from the pasta will thaw and gently cook the peas).
To make the lemon sunshine vinaigrette, in a mason jar combine ⅓ cup olive oil, the zest and juice of 1 lemon, 1 finely chopped shallot, 1 tablespoon dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon honey, ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, and a pinch of ground black pepper. Fasten the lid and shake well until the vinaigrette is emulsified.
Transfer the cooked orzo, asparagus, and peas to a large salad bowl. Pour about half the vinaigrette over the warm orzo, and stir to combine.
Add 6-8 thinly sliced radishes, ½ cup crumbled goat cheese, and ½ cup finely chopped parsley and/or mint, and most of the remaining vinaigrette (you may not need to use all the vinaigrette). Stir to combine and taste, then adjust seasoning as needed – I usually add another ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
That’s all for this week! If you enjoyed this newsletter, it means the world if you tap that “heart” button below, share this with a friend, subscribe, or leave a comment (it really helps more people find this newsletter)! Thank you so much for your support!
I just sent a very similar, yet not nearly as eloquent, email to my amazing crew of recipe testers. I was also just telling a friend that I feel overwhelmed and incredibly busy, but I can't really complain because it's all stuff that I have chosen to do... Raise baby chickens in my basement, why not? Plant two gardens at two different locations, how hard could that be?
Then there is life, the stuff we don't choose, but really we should expect it, the husband recovering from knee surgery, the child that is good enough at soccer to keep getting invited to play more, and also developed a staph infection this week that made me feel like a complete failure and worrying is exhausting!
Keep at it, both the challenges and the attempt to simplify and choose the things that work for you and leave the things that don't. My children are older than yours and usually, I feel as though it is much easier than when they were toddlers, but the self induced pressure to become something more than a 'mom' starts to weigh heavier as you face life as an empty nester.
May IS a busy month for most things farm and garden and landscape too. So I decided to put the stress in April and take a 2 week vacation in May. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!?!
I know I'll come back to weeds weeds weeds and will have missed all the lovely blooming of peonies, azaleas, rhododendrons, and lots of other things. See you are the only crazy person. And remember it actually does get easier as the months go by.