Full Share: Salad Mix, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Sweet Corn, Sungold Tomatoes, Carrots, and Head Lettuce
Partial Share: Salad Mix, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Sweet Corn, Sungold Tomatoes, and Shishito Peppers
Hello CSA members!
It’s high summer here on the farm, and I can tell, because this is about the time of year that the pants that were a disconcertingly snug in the spring, are now falling off my hips. So, basically, it’s suspender season. Luckily, I won’t need to pair them with a bugnet, because the mosquito pressure has finally abated! And what a difference that makes from an enjoyment standpoint.
At this point in the season, our days are busy with harvest, washing and packing vegetables; moving irrigation pipe; and catching up on weeding and planting our last successions of the year. Most of the cool season crops have either been harvested at this point, or have succumbed to bugs, so we shift away from broccoli and cauliflower, and into the warm season crops like tomatoes, peppers, and sweet corn.
The sungold tomato plants are huge and loaded with fruit. After the countless hours spent trellising these plants (mostly Rebecca), it’s amazing to see them loaded with so many tomatoes!
It’s a little known social media secret for farms, but you should always have a tall person and a short person on staff. When you want something to look big, such as your crops, you put the short person in the photo. And if you want something to look small, like the weeds, you deploy the tall person. Unfortunately, Rebecca was not available for the Sungold Tomato photo, so I violated this important rule…but you still get the point….the tomato plants are over 7 feet tall!
Last week we managed to get all of the garlic harvested and laid out in the greenhouse to cure, so that is always a great feeling each year. We estimated somewhere around 17,280 bulbs, plus or minus 3 🙂 It takes about two weeks for the paper wrappers to dry down, so that when you go to peel your garlic, you can actually tell the difference between the wrapper and the part you of the clove you eat.
As for the share this week, everyone will be getting sweet corn. My recommendation is you eat your corn as soon as you can. If you let it sit, the sugar in the corn turns to starch, and it’s quality declines. So there is no better time to eat it than the day you get it. For partial shares, you’ll be getting the first of the shishitos. These are a mild pepper, and can be used many ways, but one way stands out well above the rest….seared in a hot pan. Heat up a skillet until hot, add a bit of oil, and dump in the shishitos. Sear them until brown, then flip them. Then put a lid on the pad, add a splash of water to help the peppers steam down a bit, and then serve as an appetizer (total cook time is probably 4 or 5 minutes). You can eat the entire pepper, minus the stem, and there are basically no seeds in it…they are super tasty this way.
This week was also cut back the salad mix portion for full shares simply because the romaine head lettuce is the size of a small child, and we didn’t want to overwhelm you. Some of you might get romaine, some might get butterheads, but all the head lettuce is looking surprisingly good given it’s August.
Well, enjoy the hot weather while it lasts. Given the summer we’ve had so far, we’ll probably start frosting next week 🙂 See you at CSA delivery!
Todd
