Please accept our apologies for the later arrival time of these Farm Share emails for a couple of weeks! We are taking turns transporting our kids to summer camps, which means only one of us (Janet or Dan) is at the farm on certain days for a stretch of time here. That makes our systems not work quite as well as usual and many things happen more slowly or later than usual. It's a tough reach to find work-family balance around here!
Add to that -- Peak Summer heat makes for a wild time on the farm. The heat stresses both plants and people. Death abounds (because this is a time of year when many plants die), and yet Watermelons also abound. And Tomatoes. And smoked & grilled Eggplant. It's so hot and so dry and yet also so humid, and then comes along a blessedly sweet rain. Or a slightly-stressful-but-so-beautiful lightening storm. It's a time of year of great contrasts. We're exhausted but life is also so full of fun things. Farm Share members and customers at market and our FarmStand here at the farm are amazingly grateful for what we do. Our apple and pear trees (family projects!) are having a productive and delicious year. Our kids are active on two vivacious sports teams and those keep us hopping between farm and sports, plants and people, tomatoes and swim caps, watermelons and bike helmets.
FYI -- We PROUDLY grow Watermelons with seeds inside them, because fruit should have seeds! (That's how they reproduce!) We eat the seeds - we just swallow them. Try it!
This time of year is particularly unique because we are maintaining the Summer crops (they need pruning and trellising in addition to watering and feeding, plus any disease or pest management) but we are also planting fall crops. We have hundreds of kale and cabbage plants in the ground, and they do NOT love August weather. But if we don't get them planted now, they aren't ready to harvest when we want to harvest them. So we baby them through this heat. There's some farm education for you!
Hanging out at the bottom of this email evvvvverrryyy week is a list of our Storage Tips for various vegetables. There are some gems of info in there! The most salient points this week are: -> Keep Tomatoes and Eggplants OUT of the fridge. (Eggplants have the shortest shelf life of anything we grow. Eat them soon after getting them from us.)
Eggplants will feel softer/less firm after a few days at room temp, but they are still very fine to eat.
Our meals are still a constant combination of roasted/grilled vegetables and salads, plus protein from a friend's farm and some bread or rice or tortilla. Oil and Salt and Garlic are our best friends to make our meals complete... and vinegar.
Vegetable prep suggestions:
- Dice up Tomatoes and Sweet Bullhorn Peppers and toss with olive oil, garlic, and salt. Maybe also Balsamic vinegar. Put on top of Salads or simply enjoy as its own side dish.
- Use Lettuce leaves as wraps/boats for any assortment of fillings: tunafish, chicken salad, tofu "chicken" salad, egg salad...the list of options is loooong.
- Same for cooler(s) at pick up locations with any cold items that aren't vegetables (tomatoes, eggs, fermented vegetables, etc...)
- Preparation ideas and recipe suggestions are in your email. Also check out our Pinterest Page for lots of recipe ideas, organized by vegetable.
Vacations:
If you will be gone and can't pick up a particular week's share you can reschedule that week's share for a different week in the Harvie software, or you can have a friend or family member pick up for you. Just forward this email to them so they know the details.
Janet, Dan, and the whole Broadfork crew (Julie, Mia, Natalie, Sophie, Magda, S., Zach, and the farm kids)
