Buckwheat in full bloom
Next round of lettuce, beets, carrots, squash, cukes, melons, beautifully weeded.
Upper high tunnel ready for the late planting of cucumbers
The winter squash is growing by the foot each day!
Greenhouse full of kale, cabbage and broccoli
We had a great time on ASAP’s farm tour this past week end. About 130 folks made it out to the farm and toured around our fields, learning about our farming practices, what we grow and a little farm history. The hazelnuts were a big draw. It will be more satisfying to show off the hazelnuts once we get a solid harvest off of them but for the now the shrubs look healthy and do have some nuts on them. They also are home to thousands of japanese beetles, as our visitors informed us over and over again. Finally I got out jars filled with soapy water and suggested that they pick off a few. Some people did! CSA worker members have also been helping out with our japanese beetle onslaught with atleast 6 quart jars filled to the rim with beetles yesterday!
We’ve had a couple of wonderful rains in the last week and the vegetables and flowers are taking off. So are the weeds and our crew is out there right now going at them with our full arsenal . The crew this year doesn’t cease to amaze us with all they can get done in a morning. I try to remember to thank them everyday and am so grateful for their willingness to do this work. Not every one has it in them! The summer cover crop is finally growing as well, one big field of buckwheat and two fields with clay and iron peas, millet and sunflowers. The buckwheat is flowering and the sunflowers will be soon, so we’ll have a good amount of nectar for our honey bees and lots of beneficial insects.
The first of the tomatoes are in your box today. Just half a pint of cherries but it is a start. Soon we’ll be sick of tomatoes and wishing for kale again.
Please return your CSA box next week. These boxes are waxed and are not recyclable, but we reuse them. So PLEASE remember to bring them back next week.
Ideas for Cooking
(We want to thank long time CSA member John Loyd for providing ideas and inspiration in this section!!!)
“Cabbage: A vegetable about as large and wise as a man’s head.” Ambrose Bierce
This Week’s Recipes (click link)
Buttermilk & Cucumber Dressing