Just the one announcement then on to farm related stuff (though of course the announcement is also farm related so I’m not sure why I said that).
I’m still working on resolving the EggShare situation. I talked to my contact at the supplier who gave me the scoop from her perspective. Basically there was a disagreement between the Amish farmers and their partner organization that sells and distributes their products. This rift caused the partner organization to call it quits and left us without a contact. So I’ll put some more work into figuring out how to get a hold of the supplier and if I can resolve it we will move forward with them. I’m also looking into other potential egg suppliers. I haven’t had much luck yet. Finding organic, free-range eggs is more challenging than I thought.
Let me also put in the announcements that FlowerShare starts this week.
Farm News
I imagine most of you who read this newsletter don’t work outside. Nor I imagine if you do work outside you don’t work in weeds/tall grass. Sometimes there are benefits to working in a climate controlled environment. One huge benefit this year is working in a tick-free zone.
In all my years of farming I have never had as many ticks crawling over me as I have this season. The problem is so great that just now, as I am writing this newsletter, I found yet another tick crawling on my arm (see photo at the top of this newsletter). In a typical year I would get maybe a half a tick. Wait, how do you get half a tick? Well, I guess if you don’t get a tick half the seasons and only one the other half then you would typically only get half a tick per season, isn’t that how the math works?
This year I am getting anywhere from three to six or seven ticks per day! Yikes! Thankfully I have only had two or so that latched on and not for very long so I am hoping for no tick borne diseases. But it is a bit creepy when you are just sitting around watching TV or reading something on the internet and suddenly you feel something crawling across your neck. Then of course once you feel one you start to feel a bunch of phantom ticks crawling on you. Every little touch feels like a tick. It’s like your nervous system goes into overdrive. Tick, tick, tick ,tick, tick. It’s like a time bomb.
I don’t know why this year is so bad. Last year the weather seemed to be similar — late, short spring followed by a dry and hot summer. So it doesn’t seem like it would be weather related but maybe it is with a one year delay so next year will be twice as bad. Hopefully they will slow down soon and we can get back to gnats and mosquitoes, both of which seem to be less prevalent this season (I didn’t write that out loud did I?)
Other than ticks we have the usual array of pest problems, the number one being deer. Maybe there is a correlation? We put up our fishing line deer fence last week hoping the deer would leave our crops alone and not require us to put up a more extensive eight foot plastic mesh fence but alas it didn’t succeed. I don’t know if the deer have figured it out or that one side was down and let the deer in but they did a number on our beets and lettuce this weekend. Too bad Lyme disease doesn’t cause deer to desire lambsquarters or quackgrass over lettuce and beets. Come to think of it, they seem to have acquired a hankerin’ for okra!
Though we have another planting of beets to go and there are still some beets that were not eaten, this year we may be a bit short on our beet goal. If it wasn’t for all the pests farming would be a lot more fun. The pests and the diseases. If not for those two things along with the heat. The heat, the pests, the diseases and the frost. If we could not have heat, frost, pests, diseases and too little rain, things on the farm would be so much better. Those five things and too much rain. Pests, diseases, heat, frost, too much rain, too little rain and equipment breakdowns. Figure out a solution for those seven things and farming would be a breeze. Pest, diseases, heat, frost, too much rain, too little, rain, equipment breakdowns and produce spoilage. And hail. That’s really all these is to figure out. Solve those few problems and you too could be a successful farmer.
What will we have this week?
Some beets. A lot of bok choy, lettuce, green onions, snap peas, snow peas, some garlic scapes, a few kohlrabi, lots of summer squash/zucchini, a few eggplant, some radishes, some cucumbers, some pickling size cucumbers, some basil and probably a few okra. I feel like I am forgetting somethings but maybe not.
We will start FlowerShare this week. The bouquets look great for being this early in the season! The plants seem quite healthy. Plan to pick-up your flowers at your usual pick-up location.
No other shares this week.
Recipe of the Week
Since we are inundating you with bok choy (sorry, we are halfway through the bok choy so just three more weeks to go!) I felt it was my responsibility to come up with another way to use it. I made this over the weekend and found it to be delicious!
Bok Choy Salad
Ingredients
- 1 head bok choy chopped
- 5 green onions sliced
- 1 pkt ramen noodles crumbled & toasted
- 1 T sesame seeds toasted
- 2 T olive oil
Salad Dressing Ingredients
- ¼ c brown sugar
- ¼ c olive oil
- 2 T rice wine vinegar Other vinegar could work as well
- 1 T soy sauce
Instructions
- Crumble raman into a pan with olive oil. Add sesame seeds. Saute until toasted and lightly browned. Cool and set aside.
- Wash and chop bok choy into bite size pieces. Put into salad bowl.
- Wash and slice green onions — including tops — into small pieces. Add to bowl.
- Add all dressing ingredients into a small mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Add cooled ramen/sesame seeds to bok choy.
- Pour dressing over bok choy. Toss.
Notes
That is all for now. Feel free to send in questions, comments, suggestions, jokes, etc.
Finally, I had a salad joke but I tossed it.