What to Do With Your Share---Week 11

It's that time of year when the National Weather Service alerts us of excessive heat. Their recommendations note to "Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible... reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear light weight and loose fitting clothing... drink plenty of fluids avoiding caffeinated and alcoholic beverages...stay in an air-conditioned room and out of the sun... and check up on relatives and neighbors."

We supplement these suggestions with the consumption of lots of vegetables to restore our energy and replace any lost minerals and micronutrients. Eating root crops is a good way to do both those things. We like to peel beets and then grate them raw into a slaw. Cabbage, sweet onion your favorite dressing and a sprinkling of cutting celery gives you a fresh, crisp summer salad.

To keep the cabbage crisp you should chop it, sprinkle salt on it and then let it sit for 10 minutes. This allows the salt to draw water out of the cabbage leaves and keep them from getting soft.

Another purple item recently in the shares has been eggplant. These first fruits of the season are always the best. We do hope you enjoy them. Our consistent recommendation for enjoying eggplant is to cook it to the consistency of a mushroom. It absorbs flavors and provided helpful fiber to your system.

The soil needs feeding too, and this week we bought a load of 12 round bales of straw for use on the strawberries, garlic, herbs, and chickens. The remains of the wheat harvest, the stalks that make up straw are mostly carbon, and provide biomass to the soil. This year's load was a third reference from local farmers we have bought from in the past. This straw comes from south of Excelsior Springs.