Small Family CSA Farm

September First 

And the leaves on the trees here at the farm are showing the first signs of changing colors.  I watch for this with hopeful anticipation each year.  I love the decompression that the farm starts to feel as the seasons slowly turn.  The heavy demands of weeding, harvesting and planting all at once give way mostly harvesting, a small amount of weeding and the planting is all done for the season, save for our garlic which won’t get planted until Early November.

Adrianne, one of our worker shares, harvesting tomatoes

A larger tomato harvest than we expected this week!  And we spent many hours picking green beans on our bums and knees.  A variety of helpers came and we had several different people pitching in with the green bean harvesting this week because, as you may know, green beans are a very time consuming harvest!  It leaves time for plenty of chatting about off-the-wall subjects like other life forms, re-incarnation and memories from our childhoods.  You would be amazed what kinds of things we start talking about when we’re out there from hour-to-hour doing the same thing.  We get to know our worker shares quit e well and have developed close friendships with many of them. 

The cooler weather that is expected will offer a pleasant relief from the 90 degree temperatures that have been testing our endurance.  The dry weather has also offered some relief.  I sense that the plants are also thankful for the monsoon season to be ending.  Although, by the time the rains arrived on Tuesday night, we were actually in need of some moisture.  Our fall plantings of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi and radish were in need of a drink of water.  We have some lettuce plants out there that also looked like some rain would do them good. 

This week we had some baby chickens hatch out after some ‘broody’ hens sat on a couple piles of eggs for a 21-day marathon of not moving from their eggs except to consume a small amount of food and water.  Adam is in charge of the laying hens and these 10 baby chicks that just hatched out are an exciting new arrival for the farm.  We’ll need to raise them for at least 2 months before we know if they are male or female chicks.  The females will be new egg layers on the farm and the males will become gifts to anyone looking for a rooster…or dinner, one or the other. 

 Sooo, What's in the Box???

Red Norland or Youkon Gold Poatoes-  Just un-earthed a couple days ago.  We do not wash our potatoes because they store better with the dirt on them, they're difficult to clean, and it can damage the tubers handling them so much. 

Scarlet Nantes Carrots-  Beautiful, firm orange carrots.  These carrots looks so much better than the last bed we dug. 

Green Cabbage-  The last of the cabbage until our fall successions begin to come on.

Green, Yellow and Purple Beans-  A labor of Love.  Beans are quite perishable, eat them up soon!  The purple beans turn green when you cook them!

Momma Jane harvesting cherry tomatoes

Tomatoes-  Your classic pink Brandywine, Purple and Green Cherokee Purples and the new Yellow Brandywines.  We also gave some more of the common red tomatoes and the oblong paste, roma tomatoes.  If they are not quite as ripe as you like them, leave them sit on your counter for a couple days and they will be ripe in no time. 

Bell Peppers-  Green, Red and Purple Peppers.

Hot Peppers-  Hungarian Hot Wax are the long, lime-green peppers.  The long, skinney and red ones are the cayennes and watch out for the short orange peppers that are the Habaneros.  The Habaneros are among the hottest of all the hot peppers. 

Parsley-  The parsley can be dehydrated if you don't think you can use the whole thing.  Or else, it's a nice addition to almost any meal in small doses. 

Swiss Chard-  The Swiss Chard leaves this week looked absolutely stunning.  Some cooking greens to hold you over until our lettuce is ready! 

Cherry Tomatoes-  The Sun-Gold Cherry tomatoes are the small, orange ones.  There may have been some of the larger, red cherry tomatoes in there as well. 

Recipes

August Twenty-Fifth

Julie harvesting Tomatoes in the warm, sunny afternoon towards the end of our summer days!

Jillian cleaning onions in the greenhouse for this week's CSA deliveries.

Sooo, What's in the Box???

Melons!-  Most of our members received a ripe muskmelon this week.  But we also delivered some red watermelons this week too.  Eat up your melons soon, they're ripe!

Detroit Dark Red Beets-  We're cutting the tops off these beets now because the greens aren't the best of shape.  We have another bed of young beets coming on with nicer tops for next time.  Beets will store for months in a plastic bag in your fridge with the tops cut off. 

 Red Onions-  A red onion for your salsa!

Sweet Corn-  Like I said, we don't specialize in growing sweet corn or anything, but it's still good corn!  We didn't have a big problem with the corn worms this year, so we're doing good!  Most the ears are on the smaller side, but the corn is very sweet.  Eat this corn as soon as your are able.  Corn does not store well and it looses its sweetness every hour that goes by after it being picked as the sugars turn to starch. 

Cucumbers-This may have been the last week to receive cucumbers.  They're almost completely gone now.  Enjoy them while they last! 

Cherry Tomatoes-  Orange Sun-gold cherry tomatoes, Red Cherry Tomatoes or an eggplant this week.  We're trying to mix it up, those who get the eggplants and those who get the cherry tomatoes.  It can be hard to do the mixing up, but we're trying. 

Bell Peppers-  There are plenty of peppers now!  Some folks receive a red pepper for as long as we had them and then we started giving green peppers. 

Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers and a Cayenne Peppers-  Hot peppers for your salsa!  The long and skinney red one is the cayenne, the Hungarian Hot wax is also called a 'bananna pepper' or a lime-green long pepper.  The Jalapenos are the short and squat dark green peppers.  All three of these peppers have the potential to be very hot, however the Hungarian Hot Wax are not a very hot pepper. 

Green Beans-  More green beans this week than last week.  We're expecting at least one more strong week of beans, maybe two!  There were also some yellow and maybe some purple beans mixed in as well. 

Garlic-  A medium garlic for your salsa.  To be stored in a dry, dark and cooled place.

Tomatoes-  We pick our tomatoes "with a blush", or anything that's even starting to turn pink in any way.  They ripen rapidly after this.  Tomatoes produce a gas called ethelene which makes them ripen.  If you have a couple tomatoes that are slightly under-ripe, leave them on your counter top until they have turned completely ripe, I promise it won't take long. 

Cilantro-  For making salsa! 

A very simple Fresh Salsa Recipe

Onions drying on the tables in our greenhouse and some onions that have been cleaned in the bin below.

August Eighteenth

It’s mid August and the tomatoes are here in full force, right on schedule! I have so missed their juicy, ripe flavor. There are few vegetables that I long for in the off season as much as I long for tomatoes. I have a love for them that I cannot compare to many other vegetables. Their highly perishable nature only adds to the esteem.

Heirloom tomatoes, in particular, deserve an introduction. Heirloom plants are usually open-pollinated plants. Heirlooms are cultivars that were commonly grown during earlier periods in human history. By open pollinated, I mean plants that were allowed to be freely pollinated by bees, birds or wind and their seeds were saved from the female parent plant that may have had slightly different characteristics from the plant we are eating from now because the male parent plant is usually unknown. Conversely, a hybrid plant comes from controlled pollination where the female and male parent plans are known and are deliberately bred so that the seeds they produce contain desirable characteristics from each parent plant, such as the right shape from one plant and the right color from the other, for example.

(Yawn) – Us nerdy farmers get into this sort of thing.

Open pollinated or heirloom cultivars preserve genetic diversity (this is what is cool about them). Since they are open pollinated, from year to year they are naturally bred to ‘evolve’ so to say, with the times, the farm’s soil conditions, and other fancy things like the ability to resist blights. Who knows what kinds of things these mysterious plants are adapting to from year to year. Heirloom plants are usually continuously bred by seed savers because of their hardy nature and the superior flavor, color, shape and textures that the fruits themselves possess.

Oh, and one other thing about heirlooms, they usually look really funky. I’m a funky sort of a gal, so I dig funky vegetables. They are usually in-consistent in their shapes and their colors sometimes vary, you can see how this would annoy your average grocery store produce buyer who wants all the tomatoes on their shelves to look the exact same. Heirloom vegetables have a superior flavor as they are bred primarily for flavor and their genetic adaptability. Enjoy your Heirloom Cherokee Purple and Brandywine tomatoes. We are also sending you some heirloom San Marzano Romas (paste tomatoes for sauce). Salsa anyone?

Sooo, What's in the box???

Red Norland Potatoes-  You woudn't believe this, be we actually dug all of the potatoes this week with a pitch fork!!!  The ground was too wet for us to pull our digger through and the machine kept getting clogged and the tractor tires were spinning.  Arrgh!  But we know that potatoes are a must-send item, so alas, potatoes in the bag with dirt and all!  We don't actually wash our potatoes because it's too much extra work and the potatoes actually keep their firmness and will store better with the dirt on. 

Purple or Green Cabbage-  We tried to give everyone a purple cabbage, but when we came up short we supplemented with some green cabbages.

Lemon, Asian and/or Slicing Cucumbers-  Lemon Cukes are the round, yellow/lime-green, prickly looking things.  The Asian cucumbers are the gnarly, long and skinny cukes and hopefully you know how to identify the regular slicing cukes by now.  The Cucumber harvests are beginning to wane.

Zucchini, Summer Squash and/or Patty Pan Squash-  Squash harvest is waning quickly now!  Another week or so, but then we'll be out of summer squash.  Enjoy it while it lasts!

Carrots-  These carrots were dieing back really fast from all that moisture.  They weren't quite as mature as we had hoped, but it was an urgent harvest.  I'm willing to bet they won't last long in your fridge.  

Basil Leaf-  For everyone that didn't make it to the pesto party, we're sending the pesto to you!  Remember that basil does not like to be put in the refrigerator or it will turn black.  These Basil stems can be trimmed and stood upright in a glass of water.  Basil will keep best like fresh cut flowers.

Lacinato Kale or Redbore Kale- Dark green lacinato kale leaves are a little holy this week from all the heavy insect pressure during the heat.  The insect pressure usually goes way down when the nights get cooler and they all slow down on their munching.  Just hold onto the stem and strip the leaves off when you're ready to cook with them.

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes or Eggplant- We tried to give those who got an eggplant last week cherry tomatoes this week and vise versa.  The eggplants are taking a bit longer to flower this year.  We're expecting more fruits in a couple weeks.  We'll continue giving eggplants as long as we have them.  I trust that it won't be long before everyone has had plenty of eggplant;)  Sungold Cherry Tomatoes are ripe when they are bright orange.  Some of the large cherry tomatoes are red.

Heirloom Tomatoes, Roma Paste Tomatoes, Regular Slicing Tomatoes- Slicing Tomatoes are mostly Heirlooms such as brandywine or Cherokee Purple.  The Cherokee Purple Tomatoes are ripe when they are soft and they are actually purple.  Yum!  Some of the San Marzano paste tomatoes look like hot peppers.  Note the difference between a paste tomato (for making salsa and sauce and they contain less juice) and slicing tomatoes (juicy tomatoes for sandwiches, eating raw and whatever else you want them for (I'm putting them on everything I eat).

Recipes:

Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil

Sesame Kale Salad

Roasted Eggplant and Garlic Hummus