I’m not sure if it has ever been this busy at the farm. So busy I have no time for the weekly newsletter, which is already two days late. The nice thing about having a late newsletter is I don’t have to guess what is in this week’s shares since we already have given some out. However I do have to remember what we gave out.
Anyway, here are a few observations from the farm this week.
- The tomatoes are ramping up very quickly. We are giving out tomatoes at 4#s for a CoupleShare and 6#s for a FamilyShare. (For you younger readers the symbol “#” means pounds, not hash tag). Get your tomato cookbooks out or learn how to preserve them for the winter (see below).
- The onions are at that awkward teen years where they can’t really be called green onions but haven’t completely dried yet. The tops are half green and the bulbs are not dry on the outside. So the tops are pretty unusable and we can’t clean the bulbs by removing a layer of papery skin. So they are kind of dirty. My suggestion is to store them in a cool dry place and wash them right before using them. If you let them dry long enough you can cut off the tops and wipe off the dirt.
- The corn has been less than large. I’m not sure what to blame, the lack of rain or something else. Since I can’t figure out the something else I’m going with the lack of rain. It tastes good but it isn’t the best we’ve done.
- The cucumbers are slowly ramping down (except for the lemon cukes which are still ramping up). The squash are down as well. It is funny though, the squash plants aren’t producing as many squash but the ones they are producing are growing far faster than we’ve seen them grow before. Hard to keep them at the tender, toddler stage. But they are still great! If anyone is looking for an interesting use for them we made a ratatouille by grilling all the veggies then combining them into the ratatouille. Very tasty!
- Lately there have been more HAVE to work outside days than GET to work outside days.
- Broccoli is looking fantastic! This is not how it is supposed to be. We have never had broccoli this late into the season and we’ve never had summer broccoli that looks this good. I have no idea why it is working out this way this year. If you have any recipes that call for broccoli and tomatoes this is the year to make them. It doesn’t happen this way very often. Very odd.
- Still waiting for the cauliflower to head up. Equally odd.
- We missed yesterday’s rain but also missed yesterday’s hail.
- The fall crops are looking great. The fall broccoli may end up maturing right about the time the summer broccoli is done for the season. The fall cauliflower may head up before the summer cauliflower. For those who will be missing the fennel (this is the last week for the summer fennel) never fear, we have a bunch more for the fall! The fall beets are looking great. We’ve been watering the fall salad mix and it is peeking out above the dirt. We transplanted kohlrabi about a week ago and will be transplanting bok choi sometime next week.
- We also have leeks, parsnips and rutabagas for the fall! The Brussels sprouts aren’t as big as previous years so they may be lacking some. The shallots are doing great though, as is the Napa cabbage. Pumpkins and winter squash are doing well but not as great as previous years.
- Watermelon! Yes we have some fantastic looking watermelons. And we have a bunch of watermelons with holes in them from the crows pecking at them. I suppose this is their source of water. Sad to see since the watermelon plants have never looked better.
- Oh, I should mention the potatoes. We planned on digging them this week but I broke the tractor so we couldn’t. I have fixed the tractor so we will resume the digging any day now, if we can find the time with all the other things we have to harvest.
- Speaking of other things, I shouldn’t forget the eggplants are still going strong. And we will be harvesting peppers one of these days. Frankly there is more out there to harvest than we have time to harvest it.
- And the garlic: we got most of it out of the ground but still have a few rows to go. This is a project that I wish was done already so we can move on to the other projects.
- Rebecca picked over a hundred pounds of beans this week. She’ll have picked more than 180 pound before the end of Monday. I hope everyone if enjoying the beans. Feel free to thank Rebecca for all the sitting around she is doing while picking the beans.
- We’ll get back to digging more carrots one of these days.
- We are halfway through the harvesting season!
That pretty much covers a lot of what is going on here at the farm.
We have canning tomatoes and basil for sale. Canning tomatoes are tomatoes that aren’t perfect enough to eat fresh due to big blemishes or bad spots but are still tasty and delicious. It is pretty subjective as to what is a canning tomato. If you would like to can tomatoes this year please let me know. For people picking up here at the farm you can purchase them as you need them (as long as we have them available). A little notice would be helpful though. For drop site members please let me know if you’d like some and we will send them with the next shipment (as long as we have some). Price is $18 for a half bushel. I should mention that they are usually pretty ripe so you need to be ready to can them within a day or two of receiving them.
We sell the basil by the pound: $10/pound A pound is about the amount you can fit into a t-shirt bag. We need a couple days notice if you want to purchase basil. It is great for making into pesto to freeze for use in the winter.
We are carrying local, certified organic fruit from Elm Tree Farm, located just up the road in Afton. It is hard to find local certified organic fruit! We had a few bags of pears available in the pick-up tent this week. Soon we will have plums. Later this month/early next we will have apples! There should be a large enough quantity of apples to deliver to drop sites. I don’t have pricing for them yet so stay tuned.
One of our members sent me this link for preserving your summer bounty for the winter. Check it out!
Preserving your veggies: http://nchfp.uga.edu/
This week we have tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, eggplants, beans, carrots, broccoli, chard, kale, cabbage, fennel, onions, sweet corn, cucumbers, and summer squash. The herb of the week is basil.
Also this week is EggShare, CheeseShare, FruitShare, ShroomShare, and SalmonShare.
Don’t forget to RSVP to the First Annual Fresh Earth Farms Fall Film Fest; everyone on my email list should have received an evite. Two nights ago I finished my video for the event. You don’t want to miss the world premier!
As always feel free to send in questions, comments, suggests, jokes, etc.