Full Share: Zucchini, Garlic, Red Potatoes, Cucumbers, Carrots, Sungold Tomatoes, and Salad MIx

Partial Share: Zucchini, Garlic, Red Potatoes, Cucumbers, Carrots, Sungold Tomatoes, and Basil

Hello CSA Members!

It appears this July was the hottest month ever recorded in human history, and that means the tomatoes are really thriving here in Montana! Pardon my gallows humor 😉 This week the sun gold harvest really picked up a notch, so everyone will get some in the shares this week. While the corn could probably be picked this week (two weeks earlier than normal!), I feel like the kernels still need to plump up a bit, so I’m pushing it off until next week. The decision to wait on the garlic harvest turned out to be a good one, and the bulbs that we harvested look really good. Some of them are downright huge! And yes, for the first time ever, we managed to harvest the entire crop in a single day. So, while they are still a bit green, and might be difficult to peel for another week or so, we’re going to include some in your share this week.

With the garlic out of the field, the farm suddenly feels a bit smaller. I always compare the farm to a sand mandala….we start in April with a brown field, by mid-July it is bursting with color, and by October it is brown again. It’s so much work, but it also seems to go so quickly. At this point I am seeding cover crops into all the areas that have been harvested, but we are running into the water issue I was worried about. The Stillwater River is so low at this point, that the pump we have down by the river can not recharge fast enough for us to water all our crops. Instead of watering 5 lines of sprinklers at a time, at this point we only have enough water for 2 lines. And given it’s not August until tomorrow, the risk of running out of water before the end of summer is a real risk. But, as I told a fellow farmer today, in farming you often just have to play the hand you are dealt. Or, maybe we’ll come up with a creative hack.

It also looks like the first potatoes of the season are ready (the red ones!) so we’ll dig some tomorrow and see. Digging “new”potatoes is tricky because the skins are super delicate and get easily damaged when handling. So, we’ll do our best to get them to you with most of the skin intact.

I think I’ll keep things short and sweet this week. Today is Rebecca and my wedding anniversary. We have been married 13 years, but have been farming together for 16 years (you can tell where our priorities were when we were young and passionate). It’s certainly a relationship that has been forged in flame, working together on a farm all these years, but I couldn’t have chosen a better partner for this journey.

Happy August, everyone!

Todd