We've definitely reached peak season, with tomatoes now in full swing, watermelons ripening, and abundance all around. Note that we have cases of 2nds slicing tomatoes that are great for processing - now's the time to start thinking about making sauce and salsa for winter enjoyment. We anticipate having these available for several weeks. They're priced at 1/2 of our retail price and most blemishes are fairly small and superficial.
The other major change last week to our weekly workflow is the beginning of the hot pepper season. In August and September, we harvest thousands of pounds of hot peppers each week for local sauce and salsa makers. This is a busy but exhilarating time of year and we're so glad to have our partnership with Saidang Xiong and his crew to help us with harvest. See the crew in the photo below harvesting Anaheim peppers with our conveyor. This is the chile featured in the "Verde Good" salsa from Double Take Salsa available as an extra each week.
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Watermelon notes: Many of you have been reading about our ongoing battle with wildlife in the watermelon field, and a few of you have reached out with ideas and condolences...thank you :) We have noted birds (particularly crows) becoming our primary pest, and we've installed reflective "flash tape" throughout the fields to scare them away. I think it's reduced the damage, but we're still routinely seeing fresh pecks in fruits :-( We also happened across a rather striking scene with several crushed fruits...definitely something bigger than a raccoon, but what?
We do have watermelons going into some share this week - there will be an assortment of varieties:
Sureness - yellow flesh, with seeds (small and medium sized)
Tom - red flesh with seeds (mostly medium sized)
Serval - red flesh, mini seedless
Selection of ripe watermelons is a very nuanced process with multiple different indicators of ripeness, none of which are guaranteed to mean to a perfectly ripe fruit. Since we are losing so many fruits daily to birds and other animals, we are erring on the side of picking. This means there is a chance some of the fruits going into boxes might be marginally less ripe than we prefer. We have cut open a dozen or more fruits during the harvest process to calibrate ourselves, and have tasted several "almost ripe" fruits with slightly paler flesh color that still had great flavor and sweetness. Hopefully we are striking the right balance with harvesting before the wildlife get them but also sending our members great tasting fruits.
We're taking a week off from crew bios this week - we were busy, busy, busy this week the wholesale chile harvest, plus harvesting over 2500 lbs of tomatoes... Next week, Sarah will introduce you to our trainees from Uganda, Michael and Godfrey.
Notes on items in this week's shares:
- Watermelon - see notes above.
- Cucumbers have been a challenge for us this year. Our main planting got a foliar disease early on and never produced much fruit, and we pulled those plants out and composted them this week. We have a small field planting, from which this week's cukes are coming. There is strong cucumber beetle pressure this year, and we don't spray them because of the large numbers of bees visiting cucumber flowers, so there's some scarring from the beetle damage. Just peel 'em and you won't know the difference.
- Our second planting of fennel has come in in full force, so that's a featured item this week. Here's a fennel, sausage, and white bean hash recipe we included in our CSA newsletter a couple years ago. Scroll down to the bottom to see the recipe. Fennel bulbs store quite well for a week or two if kept bagged in the fridge.
- We're excited about the first colored bell pepper harvest this week. A good portion will be yellow or orange, with some red, as well. We'll try to give members a mix of colors when possible.
- Poblanos are one of my favorite peppers - I use them in place of green peppers often. They have mild heat and sooo much more flavor than green bell peppers. They're a favorite choice for stuffed peppers (chile rellenos). Removing membrane/pith and seeds will cut down the heat.
In line with the whole "peak season" thing mentioned at the beginning, we have lots of produce available for this week's shares, so there are lots of swapping and extras possibilities. Only half of members are customizing their shares at all, so we just want to remind you that there's lots of other options for swapping if you aren't happy with your initial share design.
Have a wonderful week!
Dana
