In the Share: Week 10

GREEN BEANS:  Enjoy round 2 of green beans for this year. Our favorite thing to do on the farm is a good harvest, but we may be approaching too much of a good thing!

KALE: A new planting, this is the first picking, so leaves are fresh as can be - great for a kale salad.
http://fairsharenews.blogspot.com/2015/05/what-to-do-with-your-share-week-2.html 

TOMATOES: Our second planting of tomatoes are kicking in. They are a bit non-descript, round, red and firm.  However, once fully ripe and slightly soft, they have great tomato flavor.

GARLIC: One head of hard neck garlic

SWEET PEPPERS: The long red peppers are sweet fresh. Their thin walls make them perfect for frying.

CARROTS: These tasty roots have sweetened up while stored in our walkin cooler.

EGGPLANT OR SALSA PACK: Tough choice. Hope you have a chance to try each of them a couple times this summer.

CUCUMBER OR SQUASH: This round of cucurbits is waning, but still tasty. If you haven’t yet this year made some gazpacho we recommend it.
https://fairsharenews.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-to-do-with-your-share-week-12.html 

BASIL OR SUMMER SAVORY: The herbs of summer continue.

PURSLANE: This is the weirdest vegetable you will be getting in your CSA share this season.  The leaves of this succulent are mild and sometimes even citrusy. When cooked it can serve as a thickener, but we recommend simply adding it to any fresh salad you might make this time of year.

The purslane in the share is from an area that we have fallowed from vegetable production the last few years. Since our last cultivation of this plot, the purslane has thrived. When a “weed” is prominent in a field it is often an indication of the condition of the soil. Purslane is said to indicate a rich soil
https://permaculturenews.org/2017/04/14/using-weeds-read-soil-basic-concepts-get-started/

FARM REPORT
Summer is at its peak this week. The green beans are overwhelmingly us with the enormity of the harvest. Our nimble crew of three brought in the majority, with some help from the CSA.

It looks like Rebecca is the only one picking the beans, but no, there were others!  Everyone in the CSA will get a pound this week. The remaining 50+ pounds are on the bulk list. Don't delay your order as this week will be the only opportunity to put some of these in some pickles or freezer bags for those who want to preserve some of the summer harvest.

Whilst out in the fields, we sometimes get the reward of viewing wildlife up close.

Leopard frogs are fairly common on the farm and can eat as many as 100 insects per night. When the weather turns dry, our irrigated fields provide good habitat for amphibians of all kinds. Their presence reminds us to treat their home with care. Their porous skin allows toxins to enter their bodies easily. Growing food organically is the least we can do to protect these beautiful creatures.

Summer is also the hay-making season. Since 2012 the Graff family has worked to establish a native, perennial grasses on the land that surrounds our fields. The bluestems and Indian grasses provide year-round cover, habitat for wildlife and income through seed sales. Hay is cut and baled in areas with poorer stands of pure seed, but plenty nice enough for quality winter food for our neighbors’ cattle or weed-free mulch for our crops. Six of these big beauties are destined for our fields in 2020.

In the Share: Week 9

EGGPLANT OR SALSA PACK: If you haven’t been eating your eggplant you are missing a treat. Today member Dani Hurst brought some homemade baba ganoush. Bake or roast your eggplant until soft enough to puree with some olive oil, lemon juice, mayo or tahini, salt and garlic. Yum!

TOMATOES: We are so happy to be able to provide a nice share of tomatoes this year. We have been making a lot of panzanella salad. A great use for some stale bread, soaking up the dressing and tomato juice. And using cheese and bread from the CSA really adds to the flavor.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017518-panzanella-with-mozzarella-and-herbs 

SWEET PEPPERS: First ripe peppers of the season! They are starting to ripen and we have a lot of fruit in the patch right now. These peppers are good in a panzanella, fried with onion, or just munched on whole.

CUCUMBERS OR SQUASH: Another week or so of the cucurbits. Enjoy these summer fruits.

GREEN BEANS: How much you get this week will depend on our harvests. They have just now reached the point of needing a picking. We had some fresh beans today at lunch and enjoyed them with some baba ganoush, a nice paring.

DESIREE POTATOES: Freshly dug on Saturday by the CSA. Blushed on the outside, creamy gold on the inside.

SWEET ONIONS: The wet Spring has kept them smaller than usual, but they are still sweet.

HERB: Basil, herb celery, or summer savory/thyme. The basil is essential for panzanella. The latter two herbs go especially great with potatoes.

FARM REPORT
Last week we were able to get away for a few hours and have a date night in the city. We visited the Stonehenge exhibit at Union Station and were especially taken with the role of the first farmers in the construction of the monument.

To bring agriculture to Salisbury, they brought their pigs, stone axes and pebble hammers.

The first job for the first farmers was to clear the fields by cutting down the trees with their beautiful stone adzes. All farm land sits within an ecosystem and often degrades it in the process. One cannot deny the role of agriculture in the demise of our planet’s ecosystems. As the inheritor of this legacy, we have an obligation to find a better way. We don't have all of the answers by any means, but we start by studying nature.

Meanwhile, the fields are looking good. We have a bumper bean crop, the tomatoes are ripening lusciously and the farm is full of flowers.

Tithonia, or Mexican sunflower, is one of my favorites. All sorts of native bees and butterflies eat its pollen and nectar.  It reminds me of the vivid colors of Mexico.

The fall high tunnel is eating its dinner of cowpeas.

After a mow we made the raised beds with our electric Allis Chalmers G, watered it, and then covered it with the silage tarp.  Occultation provides a moist dark environment that makes weed seeds sprout and then die in the darkness, but the real benefit is making a perfect environment for the soil organisms to get to work turning the cover crop into a nutrient-dense food for the leafy greens and roots that we will plant in September.  Until then, happy eating soil friends!