Just one quick announcement: We are hopefully harvesting the garlic Wednesday afternoon and most of Friday — weather and time permitting. If you’d like to lend a hand please contact me (text or email) prior to coming out to confirm we are actually following through on the plan.
And another quick announcement: We don’t take the egg cartons back. We tried to do that at one time but wet vegetables and egg cartons don’t seem compatible. So feel free to recycle them. However, we do take pint sized clamshell containers. They need to be pint-sized please. No other sizes. Feel free to leave them in the pick-up tent or in your delivery tote. We’ll also take back the small rubber bands. Probably easiest to save them up for a few weeks or the whole season then return them all at once so they don’t get lost.
Now on to this week’s news!
Farm News
It’s that time of year again. What time is that Farmer Chris? The time of year when I run out of newsletter topics. It seems like we’ve covered pests (bad), and weather (ok). And that is pretty much all there is with farming so running out of topics is pretty typical. You can only complain about the deer so many times before people get the point. And don’t get me started on the weather!
Anyway, I figured for this newsletter we’ll just take a quick tour around the farm and update you on the various crops. That seems like a worthwhile endeavour. So lets’ start in the northeast corner and work our way counter clockwise. As some of you may recall the northeast corner is where you helped plant the potatoes. The plants are looking mighty fine. Some of the blue potatoes (I didn’t order these but here we are) and some of the fingerlings didn’t emerge from the soil — we think the pieces were cut too small — but otherwise everything looks good. We had a bit of a potato beetle problem but that seems to have dissipated after we sprayed them with an organic pesticide a few times. We’ll be digging these as soon as we start finding time to dig them.
Up next on our rotation are the fall crops. We plant successions of many crops so that you don’t get everything all at once (see kohlrabi discussion below). One succession we recently planted was the fall crops that include broccoli, Napa cabbage, beets, salad mix and daikon and watermelon radishes. Everything looks good here but there is still plenty of time for things to fail. Right along side the fall crops are the beets and carrots. We’ve been giving out the beets the last few weeks and for the most part they are doing well. The deer seem to be leaving alone the tops which is allowing them to grow finally after a few years of being devastated by hungry deer. The same can be said for the carrots. The deer seem to be leaving them alone. They haven’t sized up yet but we’re hoping they do so in the next few weeks.
Next we have the nightshades — peppers, eggplants and tomatoes. As I mentioned in a previous newsletter the deer topped many of the pepper plants. They are still growing but they are half the size of the non-topped plants. We typically don’t get peppers until late August so we are right on schedule. The eggplants are doing quite nicely. I hear a few of you groaning. I think it is time for you to start embracing the eggplant. They are delicious! The tomato plants are also doing well but are a few weeks off yet. Maybe cherry tomatoes by the end of July. Of course if we get rain they could all die from a horribly painful disease. And finally the tomatillos are also doing well. We may see them by the end of July.
Tucked in among the nightshades are the okra. This is the second year we’ve found that deer like okra plants. So, much like last year’s okra, this year’s okra may be in short supply. But in my opinion, if there is one crop we can sacrifice to the deer it would be okra.
Maybe I should stop there. Then next week I can focus on the northwest field. Then the week after, the southeast field, and finally the week after that the southwest field. This gives me four weeks of topics! Yee-haw!
What will we have this week?
Sweet corn! Yes the first of the sweet corn is ripe and ready for your pleasure. How do we know it is ready? Well yesterday the field looked great. Today a bunch of it is eaten by deer. So, what remains must be quite tasty! It is a smaller but fast maturing bicolor corn named Trinity. I always find it funny when people say something like, “Oh I love bicolor corn. It’s so tasty!” Why do I find this so hilarious? Because there are dozens or maybe even hundreds of bicolor corn all with different attributes that include flavor. It’s like saying, “I love red apples. They’re so tasty!” Anyway, this bicolor corn is tasty and may have been the origin of this crazy talk.
What else will we have this week?
We will also have lots of kohlrabi. I mean like lots and lots. Why? Because we have been so focused on harvesting cucumbers that we haven’t had the time to harvest the kohlrabi. Well, now is that time so we are getting it pretty much all at once. Get the Google out and start searching for kohlrabi recipes!
Is there anything else this week?
What, corn and kohlrabi isn’t enough? Ok, we’ll also have lots of cucumbers, zucchini, onions, some beets, a few broccoli, some lettuce, some kale, some chard, some basil, the remaining garlic scapes, some pickling cucumbers, a few bok choy, some snap peas, some snow peas, some shelling peas, some eggplants, some radishes, and the always present some other things I may have forgotten.
We’ll also have CoffeeShare, FlowerShare and ‘ShroomShare.
Recipe of the week
Let’s focus on kohlrabi since most people know what to do with sweet corn. Typically we just cut-up kohlrabi and put them raw in a salad. But since we have so many this week I figured we should go looking for additional ideas. I found a few on Google that seems appealing. Like this one, Roasted Kohlrabi with Parmesan cheese. Anything with Parmesan cheese is delicious.
Martha Stewart’s Kohlrabi and Apple salad sounds refreshing! She also suggests making Kohlrabi Chips. Then there is this recipe that uses kohlrabi, apples and mint! We’ll harvest some of our orange mint for those who’d like to try it. Let me know if it’s good! If anyone has some other ideas they’ve actually enjoyed please send them my way and perhaps I can put together a special kohlrabi edition of the newsletter later this week.
Joke of the Week
Since there are no kohlrabi jokes — at least according to Google — I have to settle for one of the ubiquitous corn jokes.
What is corn oil used for?
To prevent corn from squeaking.
As always, please send in questions, comments, suggestions, kohlrabi recipes and kohlrabi jokes.