It's time to customize your share for next week! You have until Sunday at midnight to do so.
On The Farm
This is the time of year when market gardeners like us usually start to feel some burnout. It is hot out and the marathon has been going since March. In the past two years we have taken a vacation at this point of the summer but this time the vacation is coming to us - my sister and her two kids are coming to stay with us for the month! Rosemary and Lark are also home now from school, camps, and preschool so I'm going to lean into the family time as much as I can. Rosemary joined us in the packhouse the last two Thursdays and it was nice to have her there. Yesterday we filled up a giant water tub we have (that is waiting to become a more efficient greens washer, lol) and she played there for so long. Summer is such a gift.
It's hard to believe but we have hit the halfway point in our (regular, not counting the fall) Farm Share Season!
To reflect on the first half - wow! We've had a really great run so far. We have been filling more weekly bags this season then ever before and our store is also the most successful it's been yet! Cucumbers in the new greenhouses have really blown us away as have the peppers and the tomatoes. Our spring brassicas (choy, kohlrabi and cabbage) were a hit and the broccolini is probably going to win MVP of the year because it is STILL producing sideshoots every single week. Can't wait to see our fall broccolini in action. We've also been growing beans in our hoophouse and they are slowly ramping up production and they are SO much easier to pick and last SO much longer than field beans. Carrots and beets remain our biggest battle despite all our best efforts. We may try to reduce how much we plant next year so we can just focus on learning what the solution is to these crops which we really want to grow well. Fingers crossed for those fall carrots and beets!
This week on the farm was ridiculously humid with some rain here and there. We're still waiting on our compost which we're getting a bit itchy about so hopefully it arrives soon.
What’s Fresh This Week
Peppers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes - plenty of these available. We also have lots more ground cherries and NEW this week are tomatillos! SALAD MIX is thankfully back, still a little less abundant than normal but I think we are over the hump. We have more beans this week too. Our second planting of zucchini is coming on now which hopefully means less wonky-looking zucchini...
Have you tried the Ground Cherries yet? They are actually so amazing. I love them so much! Try them out, and grow them in your garden if you have one next year.
From Pfenning’s Organics we have cauliflower, spinach, fresh red onions, and carrots.
Recipes & Tips
Tomatillos are new this week. They are in the nightshade family and grow a large fruit within a husk.
The most popular thing that I know to do with tomatillos is to make salsa verde. It calls for a short list of fresh ingredients: tomatillos, serrano chiles, garlic, onion, cilantro, and lime
Here's a recipe for Salsa Verde https://www.loveandlemons.com/tomatillo-salsa-verde/
Sheet Pan Dinners with peppers, tomatoes, etc.
This is one of my go-tos lately for cooking. It is a sheet pan dinner that is very versatile because you can swap up the veggies in it. But I like to make this when we have peppers and tomatoes because it just tastes...so....good when all those items are cooked together! I use the sausages Angela Wisnoski that we sell in our store.
https://www.themediterraneandish.com/sausage-peppers-recipe/
This is also a favourite of mine, but with chicken
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/268999/mediterranean-chicken-sheet-pan-dinner/
Hope everyone has a lovely long weekend!
Your farmer,
Kim
