It’s hard to believe that we’ve been sending produce to your homes for fourteen weeks now. Thank you all so much for your continued support. I hope you are enjoying the flavors and nutrient dense foods from the farm.
This Week in Your Box …..
Plums: You’ll need to gobble up these ripe purple plums. They are so sweet inside with a slightly tart skin.
Cherry Tomatoes: The red Jasper cherries are plentiful and there are a few pints of Gold Nuggets each week coming off of a couple bushes.
Cucumbers: Lemon cucumbers are always a favorite. One is just the right size for a whole meal so you don’t have to store part of a cucumber. The marketmore green cucumbers continue to produce too but are recovering from a hard harvest last week so there aren’t as many available.
Cauliflower: A walk through the field this morning discovered some beautiful stark white heads of cauliflower. Enjoy!
Basil: The sweet Italian large leaf basil will continue for a few weeks. If you have lots of fresh in the kitchen, don’t hesitate to dry it. About 24 hours at 110F will dry it enough to store until you need it this winter. You can also freeze pesto in ice cube trays and then store it for future use.
Romanesco: The Romanesco continues to produce a few more heads. This can be eaten raw which provides a more peppery flavor. The pepper flavor disappears when cooked however. You can steam it like broccoli and cauliflower or put it in a riser and use it to replace risotto pasta. Toss in an assortment of vegetables and you have a wonderful mean to eat hot or cold. One of our farm share members shared this picture of her Romanesco meal.
Jalapeno Peppers: Stuff ‘em with cheese, slice them into chili or grill them with your steak. You really can’t go wrong with jalapeno peppers.
Shishito Peppers: These mild Japanese peppers are a favorite in restaurants. Since we can’t go to restaurants, share your favorite recipe with me and I’ll pass it on to the other farm share members.
Broccoli: If you have a lot of mouths to feed, I’ve got a few large heads left. Alternatively, you could freeze it for that fresh farm flavor later.
Bunching Onions: This succession brings more purple and white bunching onions. Delicious raw in salads or cooked into any dish.
Summer Squash: Zucchini and crookneck are still plentiful, but I’m mixing the 8 ball zucchini and Y-star scallop squash this week which go great together.
Red Beets: SO many beets still growing! Have you tried pickling them or canning them? Tis the season for canning!
Swiss Chard: There are a few bunches of Swiss chard this week for those of you who are missing the greens.
Carrots: Little snacker Parisienne’s and long Napoli bunches still available.
Strawberries: I cannot keep up with the strawberry picking! So everyone gets strawberries this week. I’ll pick at the last minute because they are so ripe, they don’t hold in the cooler very long. Try them over ice cream, mash them into your water with some watermelon or slice them into a salad with chicken and walnuts. Mmmmmm.
Extras:
1. Eggs
a. Dozen Lg
b. Dozen XL
c. Dozen Jumbo
2. Garlic Basil Pesto: 8 oz container made with garlic scapes, basil and cashews. I have frozen it so give it a stir when you get it home.
3. Soothing Salve for your skin: I use this on my lips too and anywhere that my skin is chapped and dry.
4. Dried Pepper Flakes made from my own mixture of dried Poblano, red and green bell, hot padrone and paprika peppers
5. Dried Basil made from my own sweet Italian basil and bottled in a shaker bottle.
6. Dried Lavender Bouquet – this is the last week for dried lavender bouquets!
And yes . . . Bagels are back!
7. The Painted Rooster Bakery is back open after making some necessary remodel modifications to meet the Covid-19 requirements. These bagels are not gluten free and come in a 4-pack.
a. Blueberry
b. Sun dried tomato Parmesan
c. Everything seed
d. Jalapeno cheddar
8. I’m waiting on a price from the bakery and hope to add their Blueberry Ginger muffins too so keep checking your Harvie account to see if they appear in the “Extra” list during your customization period (Sun 8pm to Tues 8pm). These are my absolute favorite item that the bakery makes.
What’s Happening on the Farm?
It was a wonderful week weather-wise with the temperatures cooling to the 80’s . It was truly the break I needed after that miserably hot week previously.
This week I’ve been ripping out the crops that have stopped producing (peas, cabbage, lettuce, etc.) and feeding all the crop residue to the chickens. They eat virtually everything but the hard stems. It’s a wonderful way to enhance their organic diet. My 100 chickens eat about 20 lbs of grain a day, so when they forage a bit more, they eat less grain.
Harvesting and weeding continues and I enjoyed clipping all the dahlias off to share with those who stop by the farm stand. Dead-heading flowers is essential for flowers to keep producing. Mixing the sunflowers, zinnias and dahlias just adds some nice color to the table too.
With fire season at an “Extreme” level now, cultural practices like mowing become a little more difficult. A working farm is rated under the Industrial level so I can still mow after 8 pm but with restrictions. That only gives me about 45 minutes before sunset and then I have to stay up until 11pm to watch for any potential fire that might start keeping the water lines charged. I noticed this morning that I missed a few spots mowing in the dark last night but it’s much safer now and I have reduced a lot of insect habitat by mowing down the weeds.
Keep cooking and savor the flavors! Have a great week.
Blessings, Carrie
