We're thrilled to have some new items back in shares this week. Still plenty of cherry and slicer tomatoes coming out of the tunnels, but also some lovely surprises of sweet peppers, eggplant, kale, and broccoli that have come back after the hailstorm. We also have a bunch of very large watermelons on hand - more on those later in the newsletter.
Overall, we're feeling better about the status of the farm this week. We are overwhelmed (in the best sense of the word) by the generosity of our members and other supporters who have donated to our GoFundMe campaign to recover losses. Plus those who have come out to volunteer or offer support in their own ways.
The fields are also looking generally better. A couple of the fields that were total losses in the storm (bell peppers) have now been "cleaned up" by mowing and tilling in. Now we're not smelling rotting peppers every time we pass by... In others, such as field tomatoes and watermelons, the plants were pretty well killed in the storm, but a percentage of the fruits are salvageable, so we're still keeping them around to pick what we can
My earlier worry that brassica crops (esp. broccoli, cabbage, rutabaga) would be more likely to contract a plant disease appears to have been warranted. Rutabaga and the next two broccoli plantings all have a big uptick in disease symptoms. Severity will be influenced by the weather in the coming weeks (dry is better). So far, the kale seems to be fending off disease, and our cabbage plantings should have decent genetic resistance to this disease, so hopefully will still be able to size up heads over the next few weeks.
But there are also lots of crops recovering and looking much better - kale, chard, root crops, lettuce, herbs. It's been a while since I felt there was anything photogenic on the farm, but I captured a nice shot on Friday evening while the sun shined and rain fell, simultaneously.
Notes on items in this week's shares:
- Watermelon this week is food service-size: large. We grew these for public schools, but we lost this market due to changes because of COVID-19. They range from 13-25 lbs, with most in the 17-22 lb range. We are, however, valuing them at or below our wholesale price, so members are getting good bang for their buck.
- We will have to get creative packing these in shares, and quite a few fruits might get their own box. So if you are expecting a watermelon in your share, be sure to check for a second box with a handwritten 2x4 label (your primary label should say "1 of 2").
- Like last week's fruits, most have little nicks on them from the hail, but we tried to sort out any fruits where the hail penetrated the rind and created a soft spot. Sarah has a couple of recommendations for creative ways to use watermelon when you have a lot - make a cocktail out of it or grill it!
- A few Personal Share members might have gotten a watermelon assigned to their share, and it will take up close to half of the share value, resulting in a share with just 3-4 items. We want to remind you that you can always swap it out if it's just too much watermelon for you!
- Sweet onions are pretty well cured, so can be stored for a few weeks at room temperature. They don't have the same shelf life as red or yellow onions, though. Some sweet onions have a greenish hue from exposure to the sun during drying - we eat these all the time and notice no ill effects.
- Green and red bell peppers were again donated by Julie Grossman's lab at the U of M!
- Mini sweet peppers are a mix of red and orange mini-bell shaped fruits. This class of pepper are sometimes called lunchbox or snacking peppers, are great for eating as-is rather than dicing up for a recipe (although you can certainly do that). They have a tidy seed cluster below the stem, which is pretty easy to eat around. Some of these will have some marks from hail, but it should not affect flavor or use.
- Poblano peppers - mildly spicy and great for stuffing. Much more flavor than green bells, but only a small amount of heat.
- Eggplant - some of these have little hail pocks, but upon cutting into them, they seem to have minimal damage to the flesh inside, so we decided to put them in shares rather than culling them.
Cheers to the drop in heat and humidity - we plan to enjoy the incoming weather, and hope you do, too!
Gratefully,
Dana, Karin, and the team
