Monday, August 31, 2020
Week 15
Monday, August 24, 2020
Week 14
Week 14
Week 14! Summer is just cruising by with September just around the corner. Some of the vegetables in the field feel a little behind. Normally by now we are flush with sweet peppers and the field cherry tomatoes are loaded with fruit. Things are doing well, just coming in a week or so later than normal. Hope to have sweet peppers for everyone next week but we will see. I also hope to have another round of melons but they are getting ravaged by rodents. It is the classic scenario where they only nibble on the ripe ones. The watermelons are better scene but of course that is not what we planted a lot of this year. Ahhh, farming...
Have a great week.
Tomatillos - A lot of our winter meals revolve around what we put up from the garden. One of our staples is salsa verde. We freeze it so that I don't have to worry about the acidity and because I just think the qualtity is better. We freeze small portions but also some larger portions to braise chicken thighs or pork shoulder. Here is a very straight forward recipe for chile verde with chicken. I have also been known to throw frozen chicken thighs, a little liquid and all the ingredients for chile verde in an instant pot. Then I just puree the sauce with an immersion blender. It isn't quite as good but still a great way to go when you don't pull the chicken out of the freezer until after you get home from work.
Jalapeno
Poblano Peppers - Large Only
Shishito Peppers - Small Only
Slicing Tomato
Cabbage
Beets
Cucumber
Broccoli - Large Only
Monday, August 17, 2020
Main Season Week 13
The shift in seasons has begun. Kelly mowed the first round of cucumbers and zucchinis along with some older beds of salad and there are suddenly lots of gaps in the fields. It is a bit like putting away that pile of laundry that has been sitting on your office chair for too long or sorting through a pile of mail that you should have sorted through last week. Seeing all the weeds and decaying plants go away clears my mind a bit.
A crew member from a previous year started today and will help us finish out our season. Having some fresh energy, particularly when it is someone who knows how to do a lot of the work, is great for everyone's morale.
We had a dinner with a theme last week (I love dinners with themes). We made homemade ramen and watched the movie Tampopo. We only made it through a third of it, admittedly movies and summer farming don't really go together, but it was still fun and I look forward to watching the rest of it. I am thinking as things start to slow down in a month or so that a movie with a dinner that relates to the film might be a fun weekly ritual.
If you find yourself in need of some recipes there are a few blogs that I find very reliable. One is The First Mess. We are trying the creamy corn pasta tonight and recently made the napa and kale slaw with a pickled jalapeno cashew based ranch. I had intended to make the BBQ cauliflower to go with it but it just didn't happen.
Hope you all are enjoying the veggies.
Head Lettuce
Carrots
Zucchini
Cherry Tomatoes
Broccoli
Assorted Herb - One of the following: Parsley, Cilantro, Dill, Thai Basil, Basil
Persian Cucumbers - Large Only
Garlic - Large Only
Monday, August 10, 2020
Main Season Week 12
Here is the start of you box. On our farm walk last night we ate our first watermelon. Sadly it is a variety that has been discontinued and we only had a few seeds of it. It has been a favorite of ours for the past five years. It is a perfect size and really early. Johnny's Seeds who we buy it from replaced it with another great melon called mini love that we trialed last year. It is about a week later and while they call it an improvement I wish we could grow both of them. They really compliment each other. Our other early melon is called Sun Jewel. It is a Korean style melon that has also been discontinued. There are lots of other Korean melons out there but I can't imagine one as dependable as Sun Jewel. Fortunately we had a lot of seed and get it for an extra year. We are going to pick that variety today and see if it can go to some of you, all of you or if the melon party is going to have to start next week. I will update/finish the list tomorrow morning.
Have a great week.
Arugula - tender but pretty spicy
Cherry Tomatoes
Other Tomatoes - either saladettes or slicers
Red Gold Potatoes
Cucumbers
Poblano Peppers - Small Share Only
Sun Jewel Melon - crisp and sweet...this is not a a spaghetti squash, it is a melon.
Shishito Peppers - Large Share Only These are great grilled or fried in a hot skillet until showing a little char.
Lettuce - Large Only