Full Share: Salad mix, Carrots, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Cauliflower, Spring Onions, Broccoli and Basil
Partial Share: Salad Mix, Cauliflower, Zucchini, Broccoli, Basil, and Cucumbers.
Hello CSA members!!
It’s a special time of year on the farm. The brown fields of April have given way to an amazing array of greenery in mid-July. The entire 14 acre field is planted and everything is looking great in spite of the heat. The insect pressure is early and intense, and the weed pressure is even more significant. It’s amazing how fast Pig Weed can grow! Fortunately, the crew has done a stellar job at staying on top of it. At this point in the season, we are focused primarily on harvest, washing and packing vegetables, with some irrigation and weeding thrown in to keep the crops healthy.
The wildfire smoke adds an eery lighting to the farm, especially early morning and late evening. Evenings have always been my favorite time to walk the field and take in the view. I took a few photos to give you an idea of what things look like tonight. These were all taken within a few minutes of each other, but depending on which direction I faced, the lighting was very different.
The one silver lining to all the smoke is that it has kept the high temperatures damped down, which has made afternoon field work more manageable. Also, by reducing the sunlight, the broccoli and cauliflower crops are less likely to sunburn. That said, the lower light is likely slowing down the tomatoes and corn.
The summer crops, such as tomatoes, are just starting to produce, so as they pick up steam, you should start seeing them in the shares soon. One thing that already has a full head of steam is the yellow squash! Holy cow….to address this abundance, we have given you some extra yellow squash in your share. As a recent convert to the wood pellet stove grill (Camp Chef or Traeger), I can say that slicing these squash into planks and grilling them is my new favorite way to eat them (you can brush with oil and sea salt, but not necessary). And if you have any garlic scapes sitting around still, throw them on the grill as well. Along with the spring onions and the cauliflower. Basically, just grill your entire share this week, except the salad mix, cucumbers and carrots…save those for your salad. And blend up your basil with olive oil to spread on the grilled veggies when done.
Well, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then 6 pictures must mean I’m done writing the newsletter 🙂 We’re still starting our shift at 6:30am every morning, so I need to get my beauty rest.
See you all at CSA distribution!
Todd
