This Saturday we will host our annual Summer Evening Farm dinner. It’s on the fancy side of things for us farm folk. We put on clean clothes, catch up on the yard trimming, and set out nice tables with flowers. We have a glass of beer, snack on hors d’oeurves and enjoy live music from local musicians. We invite our loyal and committed CSA family to come to the source. We will host a Farm to Table Dinner in an outdoor setting and simply enjoy one another’s company, the good organic food that brings us all together, and a beautiful summer evening.
The purpose for this event is to create opportunities for you all to come out the farm. We want for you to come here and develop a sense of belonging, a sense of community, and to hold an image in your mind when you think about where you food is coming from. We live in a ‘global exchange’ world where truly knowing the source of where your food or goods come from is rare. And knowing the faces and names of the families who provide our goods is even more rare!
The farm dinner is a LOT of work to put on. While the tickets aren’t cheap, there is very little money made from this event compared to the effort that goes into it. But the money is far from our true motives. Setting up the lights, the tables, the chairs, the plates, silverware, tents, flowers, and an entire outdoor dining area as well as a complete outdoor kitchen, is a tremendous amount of work. Not to mention the hours of meal planning and the days of food prep that go into preparing a 6-course meal for 60 people. And then a full day’s work for a small crew in clean up when the event is over. Phew, what a task it is to pull off!
The real reason is to offer an experience that is rare and special and unique to our CSA members. To offer a romantic encounter on a small family farm, with the farmers, in the beautiful countryside, on a gorgeous summer evening. Meals where the food only travels a few hundred feet from field to table are exceptionally rare in the world today. The food is good. The food is very, very good. But the setting and circumstances are purely magical. In a world where the origins of our food, down to the very farm and bed they were raised in are nearly impossible to trace, I believe that dinners like what we will be hosting this Saturday night are not only uncommon, but extraordinary. The only way to get closer to the source is to grow it yourself!
I have always believed that a community farm like ours should have transparency. CSA farms should hold farm events or find creative ways to get their CSA members out to the farm so their CSA members can begin to cultivate a relationship with the place where their food is grown. When you have been here you can hold a lasting image and impression in your mind and heart of the actual place where your food is coming from. It’s not about being best friends with your farmers, but it is about being connected to the source of your food and the place and culture it is coming from.
Certainly, farm experiences do not need to be pricy. Coming up on Saturday, September 21st, we will be hosting a FREE family event. We are hoping to offer cider pressing, pony rides, wagon ride tours of the farm, and a potluck dinner as well as possible raspberry picking this year. This event is from 1-5pm and is an informal excuse to get out to the farm. Community farms are intended to be places for community to gather and what better way to build trust, encourage a neighborly network, or simply spend a beautiful fall Saturday than on the farm breaking bread with your friends.
Melons x 2- Cantaloupe and Watermelon or 2 Watermelons. It’s turning out to be a good melon year so far! We’re hoping to give melons for the next three weeks!
Sweet Corn- 5-6 ears per member. A reminder that sweet corn should be eaten up as soon as possible for maximum flavor and freshness. Sweet corn looses sweetness the moment it is picked while the sugars begin to turn to starches. We use the cooler to keep everything very cold until we ship it out to you.
Beets- Two beets or not two beets. Wink-wink. Beets keep best with their leaves removed in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Cucumbers- Cucumber production is finally waning. Just two cucumbers per member this year. We’ll continue to pick and share as long as they’re producing.
Onion- One white onion per member this week.
Green Breans- 1.10 lbs per member. Some members may have received a small amount of ‘dragon tongue’ beans in their bag. Dragon tongues are so fun to look at but they do loose their unique purple striping when cooked. A fun bean variation to share.
Lettuce or Kale- Summer lettuce is very difficult to grow in the heat, but we were able to grow these smaller heads to share. There wasn’t quite enough for everyone so some people received a bunch of kale instead.
Tomatoes- You may have received either a tomato or two or a half pound of cherry tomatoes. A couple notes on how we harvest tomatoes. We pick anything with a ‘blush’. This means we pick anything that is even beginning to ripen at all. They ripen so quickly off the vine and these are still considered ‘vine ripened’ tomatoes with wonderful flavor. What really sucks flavor from tomatoes is refrigeration. We recommend keeping your tomatoes this season out on your countertop until they have reached the desired ripeness. The cherry tomatoes ripen orange. The cherry tomato variety we grow is called Sun Gold.
Fennel- We had some pretty big fennel bulbs this week. Some had to be peeled back a bit. A lovely licorice flavor when shaved raw onto a salad. Resembles an onion once sautéed.
Flat Leaf Italian Parsley- Parsley is a super food that adds so much nutrition and flavor to your dish! You can also toss the raw leaves into your salads. Another idea is to un-bunch and let the leaves dry on a pan in your oven on the lowest setting with the oven door open.
Summer Squash/Zucchini– 1-2 squash per member. This is the final giving of summer squash and zucchini. It’s hard to believe that it’s over already.
Next Week’s Best Guess: Sweet corn, melons, green beans, carrots, onion, garlic, cucumbers, tomato, eggplant, mint?, kale? Red cabbage?
Recipes
Fennel and Sweet Onion Pizza with Green Olives
