Week 15

After Monday's pick-up I shucked about 15 ears of the multi-colored, open pollinated "sweet" corn that we put in your boxes.  I took a bite out of each one raw (our pigs finished them).  Two were sweet, some where a lot like the ones we had tried at lunch - not real sweet but nice flavor and some where horrible.  A couple had the texture of paste.  The bad ones were so bad that we didn't put them in Wednesday's boxes.  They were just a bonus but bad produce isn't exactly a bonus.

If the sweet corn we grow is tasty and reliable, which I think it is, than why do we bother wasting space on a crapshoot?  There are three reasons.  Corn is an interesting crop and there are many sweet corn types.  Supersweet hybrid corn, the most recent corn to be developed, can be up to 40 percent sugar.  We grow what is called a sugary enhanced hybrid sweet corn.  It converts sugars to starch slower then a normal sugary hybrid corn and is suppose to be sweeter and more tender.  It isn't as sweet as supersweet but I am sure that it has a high sugar content.   I  made a corn soup earlier in the summer with nothing more than garlic, onions, chicken stock, thyme, a little carrot and corn that was bordering on too sweet for me.  Modern sweet corn is bred for sugar and I am interested in something that while still sweet has less sugar and a more traditional corn flavor to grow in addition to the hybrid sweet corn.  The multi colored corn is also higher in phytonutrients.   The second reason is that although we grow several open pollinated varieties we are a hybrid heavy farm in general.  We like vegetables that look and taste good and it is important for the success of our farm that we have good yields.   Many open pollinated varieties have a lot of variability in looks, harvest window, flavor and some have poor disease resistance.  As a result we often choose hybrid varieties.   However, I believe that one of the reasons why there are not better open pollinated varieties out there is because a lot of time and money is put into developing hybrids.   Hybrid seed is big business.  While I don't have a problem with the concept of a hybrid they are often produced by companies whose policies I don't agree with and who also manufacture chemicals I would never support using in a garden.  I think that buying open pollinated seed is important because it both encourages old varieties to be saved and new varieties to be developed by improving those older varieties.  It also more likely to support smaller seed farms and individual plant breeders.  This year we are also trialling several other OP varieties including a winter cabbage, a broccoli, a couple cucumbers, a couple peppers and some tomatoes.  One of the best open pollinated item we grew this year was a watermelon that we look forward to growing in greater quantities next year.  The final reason is that it is easy to get stuck in a rut and while growing things that you know do well isn't the worst rut you can be in, in the long run I think it can hold you back.  Kelly just added that there is a fourth reason - because it is fun.

Anyway, you can still be pissed if your so called sweet corn had the texture of paste(I was) but at least you know where we where coming from!

Hope you all found a way to enjoy the amazing weekend.  We had several customers inquire about winter squash this week and we should be pulling it out of the field soon.  We have already pulled some spaghetti squash and some pumpkins.  The Wednesday shares will be getting the fennel that we didn't have enough of previously.

Carrots
Radishes -  They're back.
Beans - Our new planting isn't picking great but I am hedging my bets.
Mixed Peppers
Garlic
Broccoli
Cherry Tomatoes
Collards - Large Only
Shallots - Large Only
Fennel - Wednesday Only

Week 14

Today was a good day!  Our friends Bill and Cat came over and we now have the arches of a greenhouse up next to our house.

Kelly, Bill and Cat have been working on it for the past several Tuesdays, getting the site ready, digging holes, sinking posts and putting together the trusses. Not every Tuesday went smoothly and I think everyone was really happy to see things go so well today.  The greenhouse has been at the farm in pieces since Kelly took it apart in Elma and brought it to Shincke Road several years ago.  I knew it would go up eventually but I think other people were beginning to doubt us.  Perhaps it is because we have been talking about putting it up for six years!  Sometimes it just takes a while for things to fall into place.  The four of us celebrated with a nice fall meal of roasted potatoes, kale and chicken braised in mustard and white wine.  For desert we had ice cream with homemade mini ice cream cones.  I couldn't resist buying a pizzelle iron at a yard sale a couple weeks ago even though I had never made them.  I think it was the picture on the box of the pizzelle rolled into a cone shape that sealed the deal.

The summer harvest is coming to close.  Suddenly we have a ton of empty crates that used to be filled with melons and tomatoes.  The end of melon season is sad but it gives a little break from lugging around heavy crates.  Soon they will be filled with winter squash.

Hope you all are enjoying your labor day weekend.


Carrots
Kale
Arugula
Lettuce
Onion
Cherry Tomatoes
Cucumber
Poblano Peppers - Large Only
Cilantro - Large Only

Week 13

When I sat down to dinner on Thursday night I looked at my plate and I thought to myself we have turned a corner.  It was a grilled steak,  a hearty slice of bread grilled an smeared with garlic butter, roasted fennel and a bunch of roasted kale thrown on top of everything.  Summer is fading and I think I am actually okay with that for once.  We will be having tomatoes, corn and zucchinis tonight for dinner so summer isn't gone for good, but it is defiantly waning.

Today we chose not to open the stand on due to the high wind advisory and instead we will open for a bit on Sunday.  We did our Sunday chores on Saturday and Sunday will be taken up mostly by having the stand open.  It felt great to have just a small change in our routine.  The work was the same but doing it in a different order was oddly refreshing and surprisingly confusing.  So many times today I had to remind myself that it wasn't Sunday.  I think one of the reasons why I am okay with shorter days, the rain, the big pile of kale on my plate is that I am ready for a little change in routine.  Normally I cling to tomato season and sunshine with desperation!

Hope you all found the storm to be a refreshing change of pace and didn't loose any trees (I can hear Kelly running the chainsaw on the tree that went down on our fence as I write this).

Carrots
Fennel - I love, love, love fennel.  It pairs well with tomatoes, citrus, apples, celery and seafood.  I love sautéing it until it caramelizes, I love it shaved in a salad, I love it just about anyway.  Cooking it softens the flavor.
Colored Bells - Another beautiful thing about late summer is red, yellow and orange bell peppers.
Potatoes 
Zucchini - No one has informed the current planting of zucchini that summer is on it's way out.
Broccoli
Tomatoes of some sort
Rainbow Chard - Large Only

Week 12

 Six little spotted piglets arrived today.  They are so cute!  I have spent most of the last hour feeding them watermelon.  They have had a lot of human interaction and are friendly.  We will keep them in a secure area for a few days before putting them out on electric fence just to make sure they know this is home a.k.a where the food is to be found.  However, these guys are so chill they probably would have been just fine outside right away.  The first pasture they will be in is where I someday hope to plant a new orchard.  We have 15 older apple trees at our house, which is great, but some plums, pears and quince would be nice.

There is corn for everyone this week.  I am hoping to make a corn soup with some of the culled ears.  If anyone has a recipe that they really like I would love to hear about it.  I usually keep it really simple but it would be fun to try something new.

It isn't easy to pull off a nice planting of napa cabbage and from a distance I thought maybe we had, but up close there is a bit of browning on the outer leaves.  As a result most of you will notice your napa cabbage looks rather pale.  That is because we stripped off the out leaves and left you with the blanched interior.  I love this vegetable.  You can use it in place of regular cabbage if you like slaw.  The leaves can be blanched and used instead of rice paper for spring rolls.  It can be stir fried, used in peanut noodles, chopped in salads, used in soups or put on sandwiches.  It is very versatile and mild tasting.

Carrots
Lettuce
Garlic
Corn
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Cherry Tomatoes
Napa Cabbage
Slicing Tomatoes - Large Only
Green Beans - Large Only 

Week 11

There is a farm share customer who always jokes that the purple carrots must have been planted too close to the beets.  Well, using that logic, today you also have beets planted too close to the orange carrots!  Interestingly, the orange carrots in your box most weeks, are descended from a wild carrot from Afghanistan that was purple.  I have thrown around that tidbit of information since we started growing purple carrots but last winter I read a book called Eat on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson.  I was prepared to dislike it because we had a few customers who seemed fanatical about it.  It turned out to be really interesting and I recommend it.  I won't bore you with a full critique and there were some parts of it that  annoyed me but the historical information on how certain vegetables were developed and how sometimes nutrition was lost in the process was fascinating.  She has a lot of interesting information on carrots including how the orange carrot came to be and also how much more nutritious purple carrots(higher in antioxidants) are than orange ones.  Given that, I thought she might have a lot of negative stuff to say about golden beets but apparently they have some health benefits.  Personally, I love them.  They are not as earthy as red beets.  They are mild, sweet and look beautiful when sliced in a salad.  As a bonus they don't bleed so if you find red beets to be too messy golden beets might be up your alley.

We frantically pulled onions last Thursday just in case it really did rain on Friday.  We were a little doubtful but what shower we got - such a nice change of pace to where rain gear.  Looks like we are back to hot and sunny for a bit.

Small shares will have a choice of either cherry tomatoes or slicing tomatoes.  Large shares will get both.

Have a great week.

Head Lettuce
Purple Carrots
Golden Beets
Ridiculously Large Sweet Onion - Some of these are so big they make me laugh.  I know we might not share a sense of humor when in comes to vegetables but if you like sweet onions these will put a smile on your face.
Red Slicing Tomato 
Cherry Tomatoes
Tomatillos - make some salsa - it is easy and delicious
Choice of Melon - We have lots of watermelon, some Tuscan melons, some piel de sapo and maybe a couple other random types.
Cilantro - Large Only
Bell Pepper - Large Only

Week 10

Sometimes when we put together boxes I realize they have a theme.  This week's box was headed towards a purple theme before we switched things up a bit.  Who needs all their anthocyanins in one week?  I do think it would be fun to do a rainbow box - rainbow carrots, rainbow beets, rainbow chard.  I will see if we can pull that off this fall when we have rainbow carrots available.  We will have purple carrots for you in next week's box.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Carrots
Lettuce
Purple Potatoes 
Cherry Tomatoes
Slicing Tomatoes
Korean Melon
Herb Choice - basil, parsley or dill
Japanese Cucumber - Large Only
Bell Pepper - Small Only green or purple or a mix of both
Corn - Large Only

Week 9

If you were to walk around the farm right now you would probably think it looks great but I see signs of decline.  The plants look a little tired.  I am happy it is August.  It has felt like August for weeks and now, finally, it is okay that I feel exhausted, that everything has a quarter inch of dust on it, that I am tired of being hot, that I am eating tomatoes and watermelon.  It is okay that I broke down and bought some tater tots at the corner store.  It all makes sense now - it is August.  Why those things were all happening in July I don't know and I don't really like it.  I don't feel like any part of the garden or any crop is in particular jeopardy but things just aren't normal out there.  It is unusual to see yellowing on both the melons and the winter squash leaves this early.  I suspect it is just a sign that the plant is at a more mature state than it usually is this time of year.  We won't be putting pie pumpkins in your boxes on Labor Day but they might be ready to harvest!   One thing that has become normal for us is to see downy mildew in our onions.  We have taken to purchasing an organic approved fungicide (actinovate) in the beginning of the season so that we are prepared.  This year our onions look great, probably the best year ever, and there is no sign of downy mildew.   I suppose that in some ways all this variation is normal.  The weather is never consistent and no season is ever the same as the previous one.

Tonight after dinner we are going to go on a melon exploratory mission.  Over the past week we have eaten one very under ripe watermelon, one almost ripe watermelon, one ripe decent watermelon and one fantastic ripe watermelon along with a decent pile de sapo melon.  I don't know if we will have melons for your boxes tomorrow but we will definitely have some for you all to eat while you pack up your veggies.

I hope you all had a great weekend.  Our tired faces may not always show it but we appreciate the heck out of you folks.  Thank you for joining the farm share.

More than most weeks I am a little unsure of exactly what is going to be in your boxes.  I will update this list when I become more certain.

Carrots
Cilantro
Red Onion - Our onions are falling over already(the sign that they are done growing).  These are mature onions but they are not cured/dried down.  They can be left on your counter out in the open but they may attract fruit flies.  Your other option is to put them in a bag in the fridge(don't do this with cured onions).
Garlic
Broccoli
Cherry Tomatoes - Small Share Only 
Slicing Tomatoes - Large Share Only 
Green Cabbage- Small Share Only
Eggplant - Large Share Only
Melons - a definite maybe

The barley salad I made last week was awesome.  Here is a link.

 Grilled Vegetable and Barley Salad