Week 8

 Usually when food magazines arrive this time of year they sit on the coffee table untouched but this month they ended up on the front seat of my car and I had a chance to glance at them on Saturday.  A couple recipes caught my eye.  One I am making tonight, the grilled vegetable and barley salad, along with the roast chicken with sumac, lemon and garlic from the same issue.  Both will be modified a bit but I am looking forward to making them.  The other is a pappardelle with arugula pesto and zucchini ribbons.  I liked the way the zucchini ribbons mimicked the look of the pappardelle.  I might try to make that a bit later in the week.  I love cooking this time of year.

We unexpectedly welcomed seven new chicks to our animal family this week.  Kelly came home late one night from turning off water and heard one of the chicks sending out a distress call from the one piece of landscaping we have in the front of our house - a big bush by the front door.  It was stuck under a branch.  We let our chickens roam (hence the no landscaping) and we recently saw some feathers and a coyote in the back field.  We had assumed that the missing chickens (we don't count them when we close up the coop each night) had fallen prey to the coyote but apparently one was sitting on a clutch of eggs right by our front door for the last few weeks.  It is sweet to see a hen and her chicks.  They sometimes sit on top of her back or just peak their heads out of her wing feathers.  We moved them from under the bush to a safer place and they are pretty fun to watch.  If any of you need some new chicks for your flock I would love to find a nice home for them.

Alright back to the vegetables - happy cooking.

Carrots
Sweet Onion - It is hard to believe that some of our onions are starting to fall over (a sign of maturity).  If you feel the necks of these onions I bet you will find some that are starting to soften.   The sweet onions are always the first to mature for us but usually until August.
Tomatoes 
Lettuce 
Zucchini 
Beets
Cucumber
Green Cabbage - Large Only
Dill - Large Only

Pappardelle with Summer Squash and an Arugula Walnut Pesto

Week 7

We got our last planting of carrots seeded about a week ago.  It is the largest planting of the year and has fresh eating carrots of all colors as well as our winter storage carrots that we sell bulk bags of in the fall.  Kelly flamed most of the beds this morning and I did the last two as my meager contribution when I came back from delivery.  We try to flame weed all our carrot and beet beds.  Ideally the bed is made several days before we seed the carrots so that the weeds have a jump start.  Sometimes we have to seed into freshly formed beds and it is still a worthwhile use of time and propane to flame the beds before the carrots emerge.  We use the beets as an indicator.  When we notice the first beets starting to germinate we flame the carrots the next day.  Typically the carrots pop up a day or two later.  The beds still get hand weeded but it gives the carrots a head start and decreases the weeds considerably.

Our fall carrot beds and the flame weeder.  

Currently we have the propane tank attached to an old metal backpack frame and we wave the wand back and forth over the bed as we walk down the path.  A newer, better system is in our near future but this one has worked great for us the past several years.

Carrots

Lettuce 

Garlic

Basil

Tomato -  As Kelly predicted you all had tomatoes last week but they were stretched a little thin.   I know that those of you that had cherry tomatoes probably finished them before you got home!  

Japanese Cucumber

Potatoes

Parsley   

Red Cabbage - little guys

Arugula - Large Only

I am including a recipe for cucumber agua fresca because it is easy, refreshing, a beautiful color and super tasty.  If green beverages scare you (the water softens the color and makes it more opaque, I think it looks refreshing) you could peel the cucumber but I don't bother.  Below the agua fresca recipe is a link to a recipe for a white pizza topped with arugula.  Both Ian and Kelli who help harvest your veggies on Monday are nuts about arugula on pizza and this is one of Kelli's favorite recipes.  

Cucumber Agua Fresca

In a blender (I have to hold out a half cup water in my blender so it doesn't overflow) combine the following:

1 Japanese cucumber broken into a few pieces

1/4 lime juice

1/4 cup to 1/2 cup sugar (I use a 1/4 cup and find it plenty sweet but there are those who disagree)

3 cups water

Blend until mixture is smooth.  Strain into a jar or pitcher, chill and serve over ice.   

White Pizza with Arugula