Summer on the farm is busy. From the insects to the birds to the people, the farm is bustling. The farm is vibrating with a low hummmmmm. The lightening bugs, moths and crickets keep the night sky active and the bees and birds keep the day sky alive and moving along. The activity is high and the farm feels like a fast moving train chugging along at high speed.
We have momentum now to keep us going. The zucchini plants are so inspiring they way they keep on spewing forth zucchini after zucchini after zucchini when I think they probably would be sick and tired of birthing so many of them from just one plant. There are flowers on everything from the potatoes to the peppers to the melons. Everything is setting fruit while the onions are just now beginning to bulb and swell. If not for all of the work, anticipation and promise put into this whole project, we might be tempted to just lay down and take a nap in the afternoons.
You’ve heard the old adage “you make hay when the sun shines”. My father used to tell me that when I was growing up. I never really knew what it meant until I learned about the process of making hay, but now I know. This is our time to shine. The days move by fast and the ground moves quickly beneath our feet. Harvesting deadlines, workers coming and going, babies taking naps, zucchini harvest, dinner, laundry, lawn mowing, sleep, zucchini harvest, trellising tomatoes, seeding late broccoli planting, cup of coffee, zucchini harvest. We are highly productive. We are producing produce.
So many changes in us this time of year. We are moving so quickly and thinking so much about our lists of things to do, if we are not careful we can forget to manage some of the most important things in our lives that ride on autopilot. The relationships with our friends, our spouse, our children, and ourselves change. We ask the people we love to simply love us and to know that we love them while we survive the season.
The manageable stresses of the season turn into the rewarding and exhilarating feeling we get at the end of the season when the work is done. If not for the heat, we would not love the cool wind in the fall. If not for the dry, we would not appreciate the wet. If not for the busy, we would not value and cherish the still and calm.
Cabbage- Absolutely gorgeous green cabbages. These guys are perfect in every way. We left a few of the outer green wrappers on to impress you with their stunning beauty;) More cabbage coming in a couple weeks, use it up!
Kohlrabi x 2– We harvested enough to give everyone two this week. There may have been a smaller one and a bigger one, or a purple one and a white one. Remember that kohlrabi greens are good for cooking with and can be used like kale. Peel your kohlrabi and enjoy raw!
Snap Peas- A whopping .92lbs of peas for everyone. That’s almost a pound! This is the largest pea giving we’ve ever given. We tried a new variety of peas this year called Super Sugar Spring and we are very happy with it. We planted a few more than usual and refined our technique a little in planting and it all paid off in high yields! More where these guys came from next week.
Garlic Scapes- Generous bunches of garlic scapes this week as we went through and snapped them all off the plants. Use garlic scapes like you would use chives or fresh garlic. We use up to the light green nodule. Will keep best in a plastic bag in the fridge. Enjoy!
Green Onions- These beauties are sizing up nicely now. Use the green oinons all the way up to the tips of the greens. They’re still tender and tasty and looking sharp!
Swiss Chard- Another bunch of cooking greens for your cooking-green peasure. When time gets short, I will just sautee chard in a little coconut oil with onions and drizzle with a little tamari, toasted sesame oil and add a few nuts or sesame seeds and I have a great side dish. Or just use it like you would use spinach for cooking.
Lettuce- Slightly smaller givings of lettuce this week. We see plenty of lettuce coming up for next week! Our tender buttercruch and oakaleaf lettuce varieties are out of sseason now for a while. You will mostly just be seeing red leaf, green leaf and romaine for awahile as these varieties are the most heat tolearant.
Fennel (or an extra lettuce)- Still some amazing looking fennels out there, but we came up a bit short in being able to give everyone another one. We supplemented with an extra head of lettuce if you didn’t get fennel. Adrianne likes to caramelize her fennel in butter when cooking with it!
Zucchini, Yellow Summer Squash and Yellow Patty Pans- We’ve been squashed! We were able to give everyone at least 6 squash this week, you may have received a combination of any of the three. Imagine the time we’re spending in the squash patch! If it’s a little too much for you, you can just cube or grate your squash and freeze it. There is not need to blanche it first. I always find myself missing squash once it is finally out of season, it’s that funny?
Broccoli- More of those gorgeous heads of broccoli. The broccoli isn’t loving the heat out there, but it is hanging in there for us. We’re keeping it iced down very well to keep it nice for you. Remember the leaves of the broccoli plant are more nutritious than the flower. Eat those up!
Cauliflower– We treid to give everyone a cauliflower and a broccoli, or else you may have received two broccolis. We keep the outer wrappers on the cauliflower at harvest because the soft, white cauliflower will easily bruise and turn brown if bumped too many times. The wrappers are left on for protection. You can eat the leaves on the cauliflower as well.
Recipes-
