A Flying Cucumber!

I guess with farming becoming so popular they needed to send out the Goodyear blimp to provide aerial coverage.

Anyway, two quick announcements then on to just a whole bunch of stuff.

We plan to harvest garlic this Friday! With the forecast being perfect weather I thought I would offer everyone the opportunity to help us. We’ll start in the morning and finish when it is done. If you’d like to help please let me know. There is plenty to do and the more hands the better!

I sent our an email to EggShare folks last week asking what they want me to do with their money. If you are an EggShare purchaser and didn’t receive the email, first check your spam folder and if not found, send me an email and I can forward it to you again. If you did receive it and just haven’t responded that’s fine. I’ll assume you’ll let me know when you feel confident in your answer. Let me know if you have any questions.

Now on to a Bunch of Stuff.

Farm News

First, we started harvesting the first round of sweet corn on Thursday so Thursday and Friday members got corn last week. Tuesday and Wednesday members will “catch-up” on the corn this week. The corn plants are quite small. I feel like a giant when I walk through the field. As one would expect, the corn ears are also quite small. It is typical for early corn to be small but this year it is particularly so. I believe there are several factors for this. First, the corn was subjected to extreme weather during its early growing period. It endured cold temps in May. Then it experienced 100+ degree temps in June. It also had very little rain though we did irrigate it a couple of times. Doing a bit of online research I’ve learned that these types of temperature extremes can cause corn plants to elongate early which limits their growth and their production. Thanks climate change.

Second, one variety of broccoli we grew this year seems incredibly susceptible to heat stress. How can we tell the broccoli is stressed? First, it seems to lash out for no particular reason. Second, some of the heads have leaves growing through them. Third and most prevalent, the florets elongate randomly resulting in very lumpy heads. We tasted the broccoli to be sure it was the right flavor and it seemed ok. Not as good as broccoli that matures in cool weather but certainly good enough given the weather. So if you get a head of broccoli that looks funky know that it is due to the heat just like everything else this season and not what we intended it to look like.

Speaking of broccoli. There may be cabbage worms (otherwise known as caterpillars) in the broccoli. We try to prevent them from living on our broccoli and for those that do escape our preventative measures we have a procedure that works most of the time to remove them. But of course there are always the one who just has to be different. So be aware they may be there but rest assured we tried our best to send out pest-free broccoli.

Some people have asked why we give out bulbing onions with their tops still attached. The answer is, “Why not?” The tops are edible and can be used like green onions. In the not too distant future these tops will start drying and will no longer be palatable so we will cut them off prior to giving them out. Feel free to cut them off and compost them if you have no use for them. The same can be said for the kohlrabi tops. One member mentioned using the kohlrabi tops in a broccoli cheese soup recipe. Might be something to consider.

Speaking of kohlrabi, this recipe for kohlrabi slaw was recommended by a member. I haven’t tried it but it sounds delicious! I like the idea of substituting other veggies for some of the kohlrabi. Unfortunately, though we grow many of the ingredients, it doesn’t seem like they all come ready around the same time. For example, our limes are way behind the kohlrabi (that’s a joke for those who don’t know limes don’t grow in Minnesota).

Speaking of tops, the fronds from the fennel are edible and can be used to make a delicious pesto. If you have a good food processor you can grind up the whole frond. I’ve found cutting the bigger stalks into smaller pieces prior to processing helps in the grinding processes. The fronds can also be used to flavor salads, soups, fish, or other things that benefit from a bit of anise flavor (heh, heh, he said anise).

One downside of having rain — especially heavy, fast rain like we had on Saturday — is the soil gets splashed onto the plants and the plants’ fruits. For most of the fruits this isn’t a big deal but for zucchini — especially the yellow zucchini — the soil can get embedded into the zucchini skin. We try to be careful to not grind the soil into the zucchini but unfortunately we can’t be that careful and complete the harvest in an appropriate amount of time. So some soil gets embedded. We could scrub the zucchini to get it off but then the skin would be scratched and that would shorten its storage potential. So some soil removal is left as an exercise for the end user. Feel free to scrub to your heart’s delight since you can then use it right away. And think of it as another way we give each of you a little piece of the farm.

If you are looking to use up a lot of squash, and frankly who isn’t these days, I highly recommend getting a spiralizer to make zoodles. We have the one from OXO but I have no opinion as to whether this is a good one or not. If you are unfamiliar with a spiralizer, it is a device that takes fruits and veggies and turns them into different types of spirals. Zoodles are zucchini that are spiraled into noodle-like strands. They can be used just like regular noodles. We made some pesto this past week (we used basil but fennel pesto would be great as well) and put it over slightly sauteed zoodles. It was delicious!

If you are looking for another use for zoodles you can’t go wrong with this recipe for Zucchini Noodles with Avocado Pesto & Shrimp. Avocado pesto sound delicious! (Note to self: Find a synonym for delicious).

You can also cut the zucchini into planks and use them as a noodle replacement for your favorite lasagna recipe! (Note to self: buy more exclamation points!)

Another member mention this squash skillet casserole recipe for using the zucchini. I haven’t tried it but anything that has that much cheese, cream and butter has to be delicious!

Now that we are getting some tomatoes and still getting a lot of cucumbers I should mention one of my favorite summer treats: Vuola’s Greek Salad. This is a recipe from a dear friend of ours who happens to be Greek and who makes delicious salads. It is delicious!

What will we have this week?

Blimp-shaped zucchinis of course! Plus broccoli, blimp-shaped cucumbers, onions, the last of the garlic scapes, small ears of corn, some tomatoes, some cherry tomatoes, some fennel, some kohlrabi, some snow peas, a few green beans, fewer yellow beans, some mostly non-blimp-shaped eggplants, the last of the lettuce, parsley, pickling cucumbers, and it seems like some stuff I am forgetting.

It is a ‘ShroomShare and FlowerShare week as well.

This week’s joke of the week

I saw a joke written on the side of a blimp

It went over my head.

As always, let me know if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, jokes, or other bits of info that might be of interest.