Sweet corn, melons and tomatoes oh my! The box this week is pretty “sweet” as we like to say. Our sweet and crunchy carrots, amazing melons and a surprising sweet corn harvest make the box interesting this week. Many thanks to our good ol farm dog, Mugzie, for protecting the sweet corn from the raccoons each night. We tie our favorite farm dog out by the sweet corn each night with a bowl of water, a bag of treats and little hut to keep the coons at bay. We’ve all worked too hard to grow this sweet corn to loose it all in one night’s sleep. Week 11 Bounty
Farmer Adam’s hard work is really paying off this year in the yields we’ve been seeing on crops like the melons. It was Adam’s idea to cover our melons this Spring with row cover (like a big blanket) to keep the plants protected from the wind, hold in soil moisture and to create a ‘greenhouse’ effect over the plants to give them the added warmth they needed to get off to a good start. Combined with regular watering the melon harvest turned out to be our best year ever. We predict that there will be melons in the week 12 boxes as well-becoming the most times that we have ever given melons in one season.
You may also notice the ‘humongous’ onions that we grew this year. Farmer Adam also took a special interest in growing the biggest onions ever;) If onions are kept weeded and watered at the crucial times they will bulb out to become very nice sized onions. We’re making sure to get them harvested before the rain to get them into the greenhouse and cured down nicely so that they stay dry and don’t begin to rot. Plenty more of Adam’s famous onions where these came from!
They say that a watched kettle never boils. We’ve been watching these tomatoes like children watch TV, and it feels like the tomatoes are never going to ripen. Okay, they will ripen, but it’s not happening fast enough for me! We suspect that because of the cool nights (Tuesday night’s low was 46!) and the cool days that the tomatoes just aren’t getting the heat they need to turn. The same story goes for the peppers. We need time and warmth for these tomatoes to finally turn. It’s going to be a great harvest once they begin!
Melons- There were a medly of different kinds of melons that we shipped this week. We picked what was ripe and needed to get out of the field. One of the melons is an Ananas variety of melon which has a slightly more firm texture with an ivory colored flesh. We also shipped some classic muskmelons with orange flesh and we shipped some medium to small watermelons with red flesh. No matter which one you got, they’re all pretty tasty!
Carrots- We think that we’re up for the ‘Sweetest Carrot’ award. Definately tasty!
Sweet Corn- Thanks to Mugzie, we have sweet corn this week! About 8 ears per member this week with another large harvest coming up for next week’s box. Sweet corn loses it’s sweetness every moment that it is off the corn stalk. Use it up quickly to taste the sweetest it can be. Also, a very unfortunate fact about growing organic sweet corn is that it is usually quite buggy. There are very few pest control methods for keeping the worms out of the tips of the corn. You’ll just have to snap or cut off the tips of each ear where the worms are. The only effective organic pest control method to control these worms is to walk down the sweet corn rows when the corn silks are still very young and tender and inject a little corn oil into each ear so the bug that lays it’s eggs in the silks can’t get into the ears. Very simply put, we do not have time for this control method.
Green Beans- A whopping 1.85lbs per member this week! Holy cow! Many hands made light work. We’ve been eating green beans like they’re going out of style.
Cilantro- The fresh flavor of cilantro is back. We tried to time it so that it would come on right about tomato time, but the timing was a bit off. We’re hoping to have cilantro again next week, so keep your fingers crossed for a bigger tomato harvest next week!
Mugzie-the one who protects our sweet corn at night! Thanks Muggs!
Collards- More cooking greens to add to your soups.
Lettuce- A tender head of green or red leaf lettuce. Taco salads? Lettuce keeps best in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Eggplant- It rained eggplant on our farm this week. We don’t quite know what we’re going to do with it all. You may have recieved one or two eggplants this week! Eggplant keeps best outside of the fridge at about 50 degrees or on your counter.
Celery- Yes, the celery keeps on coming! This celery is wonderful in soups. Some of the hardy folks around these parts are blanching and freezing it or chopping it up and dehydrating it. The greens are great in soups as well.
Jalapeno Pepper- Careful of the heat! There were some red cayenne peppers in the box that are a long and skinney red pepper.
Garlic- Garlic keeps best in a cool, dark and dry area.
White Onions- One nice onion for your everyday cooking. Onion will also keep just fine in dry storage on your counter or in the pantry for about a month.
Bell Pepper, Tomato, or Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes- Yes, there were some tomatoes this week. Some of the tomatoes will ripen yellow, some will ripen red or orange. The un-ripe tomatoes will ripen outside referigeration. Keep your unripe tomatoes on your counter-top and they will ripen within a few days. They will not ripen in the referigerator. The Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes ripen the color orange. We pick tomatoes with any kind of “blush”. As long as a tomato begins blushing or ripening even just a little bit, they will ripen off the vine with a very nice flavor. If we waited until they were fully ripe, they would be too soft to ship to you and would split open in the box. You may have also received a green or red bell pepper.
Chilled Smoky Eggplant with Yogurt and Cilantro
