August Eleventh
The farm received nearly 7 inches of rain the past week. Heavy winds and rain hammered down this past weekend making for a very muddy harvest on Monday morning. The crew was getting their boots stuck in the mud. The bins were muddy, the produce was muddy and there was mud virtually everywhere. The sweet corn was a very tricky harvest this week as much of the corn was actually laying on the ground at harvest time. We don’t wash sweet corn, so the corn is muddier than we would ever like to send it to you. The crew was muddy, their hands were muddy, the truck was muddy and it was raining. Please pardon any extra mud and dirt this week. We took a lot of extra time this week to wash items that we wouldn’t normally even have to wash such as green beans and all of the melons. It was a very muddy harvest week!
Tomato Plants do not love moisture on their leaves and the plants are revealing that they have blight in many areas that were previously looking just fine before all of this rain and moisture. 7 inches of rain leads to soil loss and erosion on a vegetable farm with exposed soil. We did do some tilling right befor the rain to plant our fall spinach beds. We’re hoping the spinach seeds didn’t all wash away! We do a number of things to prevent soil loss on our farm during heavy rains. We have contoured some of our fields so that they follow the hillside curves. We also do some cover cropping between the rows of the tomatoes and have experimented with it between the rows of other crops. We use mulch on some crops which will help hold soil in place as well. We also only till our soil when we absolutely have to because we are aware of the delicate life int he soil that is disturbed in tillage.
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CSA Family! You may know that our farm belongs to a coalition of CSA Farmers called Fair Share CSA Coalition. It’s a coaltion of CSA Farmers banding together to spread the good word about CSA farming and all of the health, social and economic benefits. The coaltion facilitates educational workshops and field days for farmers to share their knowledge and insigt. The Fair Share CSA Coaltion is also very well known for all of the good work they are doing to make fresh, local and organic food available to low-income families. Each summer they host a couple giving drives and ask the farmers in the coaltion to spread the word. The money goes to supporting low income families and their access to fresh, local and organic produce. If you have the means, feel free to donate to this worthy cause at www.fairshare.kindful.com
Sweet Corn- 4-5 ears per member. The corn was a little dirty this week. The crew had to harvest in the mud and rain. We do not wash sweet corn, so you’ll have to pardon the mud this week on this item. Sweet corn is best eaten as soon after it was picked as possible. We recommend eating it up as soon as possible for optimum flavor and freshness! Corn also should be stored very cold if you must hold it to prevent the sugars from turning into starches.
Watermelon- 1 smaller yellow watermelon. The melons were smaller this year for some reason. Watermelons are notoriously trickly to grow. The seed companies all warn growers of ‘watermelon wilt’ which is a disease that affects the health of the watermeon vines that happens very often in watermelons. We just hope each year that they size up in time before the watermelon wilt sets in. Tasty, but on the smaller side.
Canary Melon or Cantelope- The Canary Melons are not to be mistaken for Spaghetti squash. These are the bright yellow melons with a hard rind. When you cut into them they will have a crisp flesh that looks a little like cucumber flesh. It’s quite crispy, but once you take a bite you’ll understand why we love this melon so much! Canary melons taste like candy when you get a good one! If you did not receive a Canary Melon, you would have received a cantelope. Cantelopes are easy to identify and have the creamy orange flesh that is delicious and sweet! Yummy!
Cucumbers– 2-3 Per memer this week. Cucumbers are waning in production now. We should still have them for another week or two, but they’re almost over at the Small Family Farm.
Red Cabbage- These are very cute, dense little heads of red cabbage. Will keep quite nicely in the fridge in the crisper drawer, but don’t hold onto anything too long, so much more to come!
Onion- Because onions make everything taste so much better!
Carrots- 1lb of YaYa carrots this week. We found them to be very sweet and crispy and a nice size too!
Zucchini and or Summer Squash- 1-2 squash per member this week.
Broccoli- 1 per member. The peak summer broccoli isn’t our best broccoli. Broccoli does not love all of this rain and heat. Typically broccoli is a cool weather loving plant, so the fact that we even have it in mid August is a miracle. We’ll have to enjoy what we have here.
Fennel- Nice bulbs of fennel. Fennel can be tricky to learn to love, so if you’re new to it, keep searching for the right recipe! We love to just slice it up like an onion and caramelize it and use it like an onion in many different dishes. Put it on pizza, in a stir fry, fritatta, or feature it raw shaved onto a salad. The frawns make a beautiful garnish as well! Don’t forget to cut out the little core in the center of the bulb.
Romaine- 1-2 smaller heads of lettice this week. Lettuce doesn not love the heat of the summer, like broccoli. So many of these heads were smaller. This is the final lettuce giving of the season for awahile.
Jalapeno Pepper- These are the little green guys in the box. They are HOT!
Hungarian Hot Wax- These are also called a bananna pepper. Technically they are considered a hot pepper, but are amungst the most mild of all hot peppers.
Green Beans- .82 Lbs of Green Beans per member.
Tomatoes- 1-2. You may have just received 1 if it was a bigger tomato or two if they were smaller. This is the very beginning of tomato harvest. We’re hoping for more ripe tomatoes every week for the next several weeks. It is also helpful to know that we pick our tomatoes with a ‘blush’. Any tomato showing any signs of red will be picked so that we can get them before they ripen too much on the vine and become too soft for shipping. These tomatoes are still considered ‘vine ripened’ as we do not use any artifical means for helping them ripen. Allow your tomatoes to sit out on the counter until they are the desired ripeness. Only put a tomato in the refrigerator if it is in danger of becoming over ripen and you need to buy yourself some time before you use it up.
Next Week’s Best Guess- Melons, sweet corn, onion, cucumbers, broccoli?, tomatoes, kale, carrots, green beans, eggplant, peppers?
Risotto with Sweet Sausage and Fennel
