The farm received a blessed 1 ¾ inches of rain on Saturday this week. The rains came slow and fell softly over the course of a whole day. We feel lucky because other townships around ours receive as many as three and five and up to 11 inches of rain. We evaded downpours and torrential rains that could have caused soil loss and crop damage. Now the soil on the farm is moist and the crops look happy and undamaged and your farmers are satisfied for another week.
The rains on Saturday actually gave us a bit of a ‘rain day’. My brother and his family came to stay for the afternoon and overnight on Saturday and Adam got to actually spend time with family rather than being on the tractor all day. We played board games and made dinner together and watched the kids play. Even in the summer months, if family comes to visit, Adam always stops in for a quick visits but is right back out the door again after lunch. It is rare that we get an all-day rain on a weekend day and we get to spend time as a family. Saturday was a bit of a blessing in that way as well.
The strawberries are the only thing on the farm we felt the most sorry for. Strawberries are needing to be picked almost every day and it’s hard to keep with the patch. Strawberries do not love to be wet and we need to pick them during daylight hours when the crew is available for picking. We’ve been needing to dance around the rains pertaining to harvest and have had to pick them on the wet side at times. We’re hoping they make it to you safely, but perhaps this week you should eat them up quickly, as though you would let them sit around for very long before gobbling them up. There is no comparison to the flavor and texture of locally grown, seasonal strawberries!
The rains make more than the crops grow. This week we will be very busy trying to catch up on our weeding. The strawberry and pea harvest have been taking up a lot of crew time, but this week we’re going to prioritize weeding many of the crops that have been trying to compete with the weeds that could use a little help. It’s very difficult on a farm like ours with so many crops that need attention, deciding what is the most important task at hand when there are SO MANY important tasks that need to be accomplished. But I have to trust, as we have made it through so many seasons in the past, that we’ll catch up like we always have.
We put up what I feel is a really ugly deer fencing all around the perimeter of some of our fields this summer. We have ‘gates’ for entering these fields and the fencing is a bit of a hassle as we’re always needing to remember to open and close these gates. The beautiful vegetable landscape is encased in an 8 foot high plastic netting to keep the encroaching deer population from mowing down our lettuce, strawberries, beets, swiss card, carrots and more. But the ugly deer fencing is sure paying off. We’re finally able to keep the deer off the crops we have learned that they favor and are drawn to. We have yet to see them begin to take out crops they have historically left alone.
Your farmers and the crops live to fight another day on Salem Ridge Road.
Swiss Chard- Swiss Chard never looks as good as it does in the Spring/Early Summer like this! I love how the leaves look so smooth and healthy and vibrant! Swiss Chard is in the same family as beets and spinach. Chard has some of the earthy flavor that beets have and all of the smoothness that spinach offers.
Red Oakleaf Lettuce- The red oakleaf lettuce is very tender and soft. It has all the tenderness of a lovely spring lettuce, lacking some of the crunch. It is very smooth and colorful and nutritious and a fun variety to try out for the foodie in us all!
Romaine Lettuce- Beautiful heads of romaine lettuce. Romaine is also a Spring treat. We love to make home-made caesar salads with crutons and a caesar dressing. Romaine leaves are also a fun gluten-free wrap alternative. Fill the leaves with rice, hummus, meat, cheese or whatever you like!
Cilantro- Nice little bunches of cilantro this week.
Sugar Snap Peas – A small giving of .25 lb per member. The pea patch is waning, but still producing flowers. We’re hoping to keep picking them as long as they produce.
Strawberries– Another quart per member this week. Strawberries don’t last long, so eat them up quick! This variety (Cavendish) ripens fully with some white still on the berry- it’s tricky to pick them, but we love the flavor! We’re hoping to get one more week out of the patch before it is done for the season.
Kohlrabi- More kohlrabi! You may have received either a green or a purple kohlrabi. The purple and green kohlrabi have the same flavor and texture on the insides. Their texture is very similar to that of an apple, but they have the flavor of a broccoli stalk resembling a little of cabbage or even turnips or radishes without the spice.
Broccoli– One head per member. This is about the last of the first succession of broccoli. We thought they did pretty well considering all of the stresses of the spring weather changes (frost followed by several 90 degree days). The next plantings are looking great and were hoping for a good supply of broccoli this year!
Garlic Scapes- These are actually the garlic plant’s efforts at making a seed nodule. The plant sends out these scapes in mid June and it is the garlic farmer’s responsibility to snap these off so that the garlic plants invest more of their energy into making larger bulbs under the ground rather than sending its energy up to make a big seed head. Lucky for us all, these scapes are delicious to eat and a satisfactory supplement to garlic while we wait for garlic harvest in about a month. They’re a very rare seasonal treat. While you can eat the entire scape, the part of the scape that is most commonly eaten is from the blunt end where it was snapped off of the plant all the way up to the little nodule. Above the nodule the texture changes a little and it’s a bit more chewy. Garlic scapes will keep for a while, but we recommend using them up in your cooking anywhere that you would normally use garlic. They have a much more mild flavor without all of the heat and intensity of actual garlic. Enjoy!
Green Onions- Because life is so much better with onions and we’re still waiting for onion bulbs to size up!
Summer Squash or Zucchini – 1 or 2 per member. Summer squash harvest has begun! The production starts off slow, but will pick up soon. We will pick them every other day for 5 or six more weeks for a steady supply of this summer treat!
Next Week’s best guess: Bunching onion, Garlic scapes, zucchini and summer squash, fennel, kohlrabi, lettuce, kale or collards, broccoli and/or cauliflower, green cabbage, hopefully strawberries and peas!
Easy Caesar Salad with Romaine Lettuce
Home Made Oriental Salad Dressing
