This is week 11 out of 19. Despite it being the last week of August we are just over half way done with the season. Which do you prefer? The vegies of spring and summer or those of late summer into fall? Either way we still have so much more to go!
As I mentioned last week I’ve added a Facebook “group” to help facilitate discussion among our members about how they are using their produce. So far there has been a decent amount of activity and helpful recipe sharing. If you’d like to join in the fun go to our farm Facebook page and click on the “Join Group” button. You might even be able to access it by clicking here.
Farm News
There seems to be a rapid change on the farm from the summer crops to the fall crops. The tomatoes have slowed down considerably. I’m not sure why but I do recall the exact same thing happening last year. I’m thinking it might be a day length thing since this summer’s weather is significantly different from last summer.
Speaking of summer, the summer squash/zucchini have finally slowed down as well — only 76 harvested today! The first planting of cucumbers is coming to an end and the second planting isn’t as prolific. So the future of cucumbers this season is looking far less abundant.
Cherry tomatoes hit their peak last week. We harvested close to 200 pints from 60 or so plants. We’ll harvest some more for this week but after that I think the cherries will be few and far between. The plants are succumbing to some type of tomato blight and the rain is accelerating their demise.
Corn is also near the end. This will be the last week for sweet corn.
On the fall crop front, the winter squash is looking quite good. I hate to start harvesting it this early but we may do so just to keep it from going bad. However it is advised to wait for some cold weather to increase the sweetness. The same goes for our rutabagas. They look great now but have not had a decent cold snap to sweeten them up. What to do? Decisions, decisions. The popcorn is also looking great. We are just waiting for it to dry up before we harvest it.
What will we have this week? New this week is garlic! As I mentioned in a previous newsletter the garlic is quite small this season. It was just not our year for garlic. But you’ll get some nonetheless. It will be a bit dirty; just wash it off prior to using it. We’ll also have the last of the corn, a few cucumbers, some summer squash, lots of beans, onions, a few tomatoes, some cherry tomatoes, a pile of peppers, one eggplant (from the 800 plants we planted!), okra (there is a recipe for okra on the facebook group page), cabbage, kale and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting.
Here is a recipe from one of our delightful members posted on our equally delightful facebook group page: Greek Kale Salad. I haven’t tried it yet but it looks delightful!
Only FlowerShare this week. No fruit, eggs, cheese, ice cream, coffee or salmon this week.
As always, feel free to send in questions, comments, suggestions, etc. I’m running out of material and need something to newsletter about.