Happy to open up the CSA to Farm Stand customers for a Friday pickup this week. Welcome! Farm Stand customers, please come to the farm between 10am-2pm on Friday or text Phil at 301-461-6574 for other arrangements.
PLEASE NOTE: If you are currently a CSA member, note that Farm Stand orders are not your CSA shares.
U-PICK CROPS ARE INCLUDED!
U-PICK crops are a fun way to get involved in the garden every time you visit the farm. This week we are picking green beans and the long purple beans in the Bean Hut. There are a few cherry tomatoes ready if you are a good hunter. There are flowers to pick; bring a jar for your bouquet if you like. And ask us to show you what is ready in the Herb Garden.
FEATURED CROP: EGGPLANT
The beautiful eggplant are here! We grow Italian eggplants (the big ones) and Asian varieties (long and skinny). You will have weeks to explore eggplant dishes. I love eggplant slices marinated in olive oil and spices, then grilled. Babaganouj is a delicious dip, like hummus with roasted eggplant instead of chickpeas. I use a recipe from the original Moosewood Cookbook. I found someone’s blog that includes a photo from the cookbook, so you can see the recipe here.
WHAT'S GROWING ON: TOMATOES COMING SOON!
We’ve been waiting patiently...We are beginning to harvest tomatoes! They will be included in our Farm Stand very soon, I expect next week. This is a pretty normal time to expect tomatoes to start ripening in Maryland. However, we are used to harvesting tomatoes weeks earlier than this, as we grow ours in the hoophouse. So, why the delay? Do you remember the deep freeze we got Mother’s Day weekend? Somehow it got into our hoophouse and damaged month old tomatoes planted in the ground in the hoophouse. We are resilient...we grabbed trays of extra seedlings from our tables and replanted over 350 plants. This delay will affect our wholesale tomato sales, where being first matters. But our farm share/CSA customers get tomatoes whenever they come in. This is the beauty and strength in the CSA model for farmers, so we thank you for your support of the whole season! The month of May continued to be cold, also slowing things down. But the spring greens loved that weather! Diversified plantings are fun like that. Weather can challenge one crop but help another.
House in the Woods Farm is well known locally for our heirloom tomatoes. We also grow a couple nice hybrid varieties for a red slicer. Your boxes will contain a mix of them. We have been selling tomatoes and garden plants at The Common Market for many years. We are starting with Persimmon variety and probably some Cherokee Purples. There is a poster on the wall in the Veggie Shed with descriptions of heirloom varieties.
We are harvesting lots of zucchini, patty pan squash and cucumbers. They need to be picked every other day! It is hard work, but a bulk of food produced in quick time. You could pull up a chair and watch the squash grow. Gardens are amazing.
