Bounty. The good earth is giving. Despite the drought this season, the land is fruitful. Because Adam has been working so hard this summer to keep the irrigation lines dripping, we have beautiful looking food right now-and lots of it! Because we finally got a little heat wave last week, our tomatoes and peppers decided to turn red. Harvesting our pumpkins here and the rest of our winter squash! Hard work!
It feels a little like we’re defying nature when we’re running plastic hoses of drip line irrigation all over the farm. It’s shameful to run the gasoline engine water pump to break the beautiful silence and the sound of the crickets and cicadas. It feels punishing day after day to check the 5 or 10 day forecast to see bright yellow sunshines all across the board. Where is the reprieve?
We need a good cleansing. A good rain. We need a rain that starts with a dark sky, the kind that gives you the willies and makes you roll up your car windows, bring your laundry in from off the line and sends you running indoors so you draw the shades down on your windows. We need a rain that brings thunder and lightening and wind and RAIN! We need a rain that will start in the evening after 5pm and will pitter and patter on the rooftop slowly all night long. A rain that comes down long and slow and soaks into the ground the way sleeping eyes soak into bed.
The rain not only waters our crops, it lifts our workload and brightens our spirits. A modest ½ inch of rain might be enough to keep us hopeful and optimistic and believing that rains will come. But because we are farmers and we aren’t willing to throw in the towel that easy, we remain forever optimists. We’re forgiving and understanding and tolerant and hardened. We’re hardy and maybe a little bit crazy too.
Maybe the tomatoes are the reason we do it all. Yeah…that’s probably it. We do this hard work all Spring, Summer and Fall for the tomatoes. And they’re finally here! There is nothing I love more than a fully ripe, yet slightly firm, large, juicy, in-season, late-summer, red heirloom tomato. I truly believe that my love for these tomatoes plays at least a minor roll in my drive as a farmer. I love BLT’s too. I love eating thick slices of tomatoes on almost everything that I eat in breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole duration of tomato season. No matter the forecast, rain or sunshine, at least we have our big bags of tomatoes. Ahhhh.
Red Cabbage- These are nice dense heads of cabbage that are great for shaving raw onto salads or making a hot cabbage slaw (see recipe below).
Carrots- I think the carrots are getting sweeter as the season goes on. Maybe it’s the drought concentrating all of the sugars, but these guys are tasty. The best is yet to come as the fall carrots get even sweeter!
Yellow and Dragon Tongue Beans- Growing side by side we had the yellow wax beans growing next to one of our new favorite varieties of beans- the Dragon Tongue Beans. These beans are naturally a bit larger, but seem to have a great flavor even though they’re a bit bigger. These are an heirloom variety as well. The Dragon Tongues will loose their purple color when cooked, unfortunately.
Tomato Mix Bags- 8 lbs per member this week! We grow so many different kinds of tomatoes it’s hard to decide where to begin. Some varieties are red, yellow, orange, purple, pink or bi-color. You’ll know if your tomatoes are ripe by giving them a very gentle squeeze. We are now in the tomato glut. It won’t get much better than this folks. But new varieties will come into season as we continue on. Remember that if your tomatoes are not fully ripe, leave them to ripen on your countertop and do not put them in the fridge, unripe tomatoes will not ripen in the fridge.
Broccoli- Beautiful heads of broccoli again this week. Broccoli likes to be kept very cold, this is a good reason to get to your dropsite as quickly as you can to get your broccoli in the fridge. Broccoli keeps best when it is kept very cold.
Sweet Red and Yellow Bell Peppers- A whopping 5 peppers per member this week. Stuffed peppers anyone?
White Onion- A nice sweet onion for sauteeing with almost anything.
Garlic- Another bulb of garlic to boost your immunity as the seasons begin to change. These guys are good and cured now, so they will last best in the fridge for several monthes, or on your countertop for several weeks.
Jalapeno Pepper- A nice and hot pepper to spice up your life. Remember not to touch the membrane with your fingernails. I wear gloves when chopping Jalapenos, call me a woose, but I’ve been ‘burned’ too many times. 
Jillian, Joe and Todd harvesting Basil on Tuesday morning.
Eggplant X2- I know, I know, I KNOW! You’ve had eough eggplant. I haven’t actually gotten any mercy e-mails or phone calls, but some of the locals have been hinting towards too many eggplants, so I’ve been getting the message. But the plants are so productive and it’s a shame not to share the bounty with you. I have learned how to cook with eggplants over the years and have learned to love it. If you make eggplant parmensan, you will love eggplants, I promise.
Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes (or extra slicers)- Either a clamshell of the glorious, orange Sungold cherry tomatoes, or extra slicers in your box.
Swiss Chard or Red Curly Kale– We tried to pick swiss chard for everyone this week, but the plants were looking really rough since this is one crop that we did not have on drip line. We are stringing it up this week to get the drip line on it to bring it back to life. When we ran out of swiss chard to pick, we filled in with red curly kale.
Basil- The basil plants have not been picked in a few weeks, so the plants were going to flower. You’ll notice that your basil bunches have plenty of flowers on them, just snap the flowers off and use the leaves for pesto or pizza or drying or however you prefer. Have fun with this aromatic herb!
