Hello and Welcome to week 6!
We hope you can come out this weekend to the Annual Coop Farm Tour Saturday, July 16th anytime between 10-4 pm!
This is an event where you travel around to participating farms throughout the day from 10-4pm. It is typically a very busy day for us as over a hundred or so people come throughout the day. You can self-tour around the farm as you wish and see our animals, fields and everything! We will have our own hotdogs and brats grilled up for a suggested donation and we will also have a "farmstand" of veggies and meats for you to take home (don't forget a cooler!)
We had the great Scott Streble out to our farm to take photos this past weekend. He is the photographer for Farmaid and he travels around to farms to get lots of great stock photos. We also end up with some great photos, too!
This week we have green beans and some broccoli! Summer crops are right around the corner- the sweet corn is to my waist and we have picked (well, Ronia has picked!) a few pints of cherry tomatoes.
Again we hope for rain and it seems to be hitting lots of other parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota, but alas, not us. We continue to irrigate around the clock.
Here is what you may see in your box this week:
Green Beans- yay! Beans are so veratile. Eat raw- they are sweet! Grill, saute, stir fry, steam... Keeps well in the bag.
Peanut Chicken with Green Beans
Celery-This crop is kinda personal for me. I've struggled with it greatly- it's not easy, fast or anything like that. But, in stores, you see it all the time- it's ubitquitous. So I've put my mind to growing it well, or at least better, and the last 2 years so far have been great. The key is to grow it in a hoophouse with consistant water! Use this with any potato, egg, tuna, or fresh greens salad. It is excellant in a spaghetti sauce with carrots and onions or a stir fry with broccoli and summer squash. Seriously, other than carrots and onions, I use celery more than any other veggie!4
Broccoli, Celery and Carrot Stir Fry
Carrots-We decided to top them this week which allowed us to better sort and wash them for you. We have a wierd case of nematode in our carrots that seems to be making a lot of them have many, many legs! They taste fine, but are harder to wash, chop and bunch! Keeps for months in the bag! But so sweet fresh.
Golden Beets- These bunches are a little smaller than I would like as we had ALOT of mice chews on our beets. There is just no way to keep wild life out of our veggies fields- go figure.
Scallions-These are pretty darn big, but they taste the same and go further. We chopped them up with cilantro, napa, lime and salt today for a quick fresh "salsa" on our tacos. SO GOOD!
Green Head Frilly Lettuce- Wash again before eating! A nw succession of lettuce that is nice and tender despite the heat.
Cucumbers- This is the first year I am trying cucumber beetle lure traps and so far, so good! We do have them on some plants pretty hard, which means they suck the juice out of the new fruits/flowers sow do not get many or any cucumbers from that plant. But the traps do seem to keep them at bay pretty well and they must not be reproducing like they could. This may change, though!
Summer Squash/Zucchini- In full force! We will try to not give you too many! We do love them, tho. If you overcook them until the are mushy they are no good. But high heat, lots of oil and other herbs, veggies make a great squash dish! Zucchini Boats?
Parsley- So versatile!, so fresh! store in a container or plastic bag in the fridge.
Lacinato (Dino) Kale- We've been holding out on giving you kale because we know it is a not everyones favorite. Hopefully, this beautiful dino sways you! If you massage it (I seriosuly mean grab it and squeeze it!) with lemon, oil and salt it is really great!
Broccoli (some)- Just starting to come on! We are trialing a new purple bunching broccoli type that you cut and recut and it is really easy to cut up for stir frys or steaming. It seems very tender, delicious and versatile. Keep broccoli in a container or plastic bag so it does not go soft.
Kohlrabi- Last week! We promise! We just had a really good kohlrabi year and could not see it go to waste. we hope you have enjoyed peeling and eating it raw, with dips or makde into fritters!
dill heads- In case you wanted to make a quart of quick pickles!...
Willem with the first head of broccoli!
Bean patch!
Have a great week!
Your Farmers
