Last week I was mentioning to a few people how we never seem to have the day long or multi-day long rains anymore. If we get rain it always comes as storms that blow in, dump a bunch of rain then vanish — all in an hour or so. Well, based on the weather from Sunday into Monday it looks like I now control the weather. By the way, it seems like we never have a week of days where the temps are in the 70s with low humidity and plenty of sunshine.
We continue to be in need of more help, especially starting the week of August 28th. Send all your unemployed friends our way.
Farm News
Last week we really pumped out the produce. I don’t know if everyone was able to consume all that we provided but I felt it was beyond what we typically intend on a weekly basis. This week we’ll slow it down so that it is more manageable both from a harvest and delivery standpoint as well as a consumer standpoint. I hope that meets with your approval.
I feel we are at an inflection point in this harvest season. Many plants are winding down and others are ramping up. Up to this point I think we can all agree that we’ve been inundated with cucumbers and zucchini. I’d be surprised if there is anyone still clamoring for more of these. Fortunately for the rest of us who have had our fill, both of these crops seem to be waning rather quickly. Typically the cukes would still be going strong as we harvest the second planting of cukes but since the deer took a liking to the plants when they were but wee little lads (the cukes not the deer) they never got to grow big enough to produce good fruits. There are some that survived and are producing but not to the level we were planning. Then again the first planting went far beyond our expectations so I guess if we average it out over the whole cucumber season it worked out perfectly!
When we first started farming we would plant a second succession of zucchini. The idea was for zucchini to be available for the whole warm weather season. However we found that by the time the second planting started to produce the first planting was still going so it just increased the number of zukes for our members to consume. And by then everyone had had their fill of zukes. So we stopped planting a second planting and now we find ourselves with fewer and fewer zucchini. Hopefully that is your desire as well.
On the ramping up side are the tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. On Friday we harvested over 400 pounds of tomatoes. These, plus all that we expect to harvest this week adds up to two pounds of tomatoes per share. And for those who haven’t quite figured out how our farm works, that means a CoupleShare gets four pounds of tomatoes and a FamilyShare gets six pounds! I hope everyone likes tomatoes! We also harvested over 100 pints of cherry tomatoes. And as I checked out the fields yesterday it looks like there are quite a few more to harvest this week.
We are also in the part of the season where we have larger harvest tasks. What I mean by that is that the crops we are beginning to harvest typically aren’t harvested every day or even every other day. And these crops tend to store quite well so we’ll harvest a lot of them at one time than give them out over the course of the week or longer. Garlic is a great example of this. We harvested all of it a few weeks ago and we’ll give it out over the rest of the season. Carrots are another example. Since digging carrots is time consuming, we’ll dig enough carrots for the week all at one time and then give them out over the course of the week. True of potatoes as well. Our plan was to start digging the potatoes this week but when I complained about not having gentle, day-long rains I didn’t take potato digging into account so now it is too wet to dig. Maybe my complaint about the lack of sunny, dry weather will fix this by Friday.
Onions are like garlic in that they are all ready to be harvested now. We just have to find the time to harvest them. We can then cure them and store them for future shares. And finally there is the winter squash. We typically harvest these in one or a few sessions in the middle of September. Looking at the squash today it could be far earlier if we can find the time.
Anyway, as you can see this is a time of transition. Out with the old and in with the new.
What will we have this week?
Certainly tomatoes. Plus cherry tomatoes, eggplants, some tomatillos, onions, garlic, some peppers, some hot peppers, some broccoli, some cauliflower, some cabbage, a few zucchini, some cucumbers, a few melons (they are also winding down), a couple of fennel (we don’t plant a lot of this so its pretty much a one and done type of thing), sweet corn (same variety as last week), a few beets, and the usual things I am forgetting.
This is a “ShroomShare, FlowerShare and CoffeeShare week!
Recipe of the Week
If it was up to me I would have this recipe be the recipe of every week. It is one of my favorite ways to eat tomatoes and cucumbers. I hope you enjoy it an much as I do!
Voula’s Greek Salad
Ingredients
- 2 medium cucumbers cut into bite-sized pieces
- 4 medium tomatoes cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 medium sweet onion cut into bite-sized pieces
- 8 oz feta cheese
- 2 T oregano chopped — fresh preferred
- ½ c olive oil
- ¼ c red wine vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combined chopped cucumbers, tomatoes and onions in a large salad bowl.
- Crumble feta cheese over vegetables.
- Add chopped oregano.
- Add oil and vinegar.
- Toss.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
Another recipe idea — Caprese Salad. There are many recipes for this found on the internet but basically it is cut up tomatoes, cut-up fresh mozzarella cheese and basil, combined and drizzled with olive oil. Now of course you can season to taste with salt and pepper. Or be fancy and layer the tomatoes and mozzarella. And if you are adventurous, drizzle it with a bit of balsamic vinegar. No need to look up a recipe unless you really want to.
Joke of the Week
How do you tell if a Minnesotan has no friends?
During the summer they buy zucchini at the grocery store.
As always, do not hesitate to send in questions, comments, suggestions, jokes, etc.