Week 7 Shares

Well you won't hear me asking for rain again at least for a couple of weeks.  We received just shy of 10 inches from Friday through Tuesday morning!  While it was very much needed, it put a bit of a wrinkle in our normal Monday and Tuesday harvest schedules.  It was all hands on deck this morning to pick and bag/containerize as much as possible.  Beets and arugula got pushed off to next week, however everything else made it in!

Our next batch of chicks arrived yesterday, they are acclimating well to their new home, spending most of their time eating and sleeping.  They will be at the fuzzy, yellow, and cute stage for about the next two weeks, feel free to bring the kids and stop by to check them out

The field tomatoes are starting to come in this week, we've got a couple of new heirloom varieties this year:  Purple Ukraine and Kellogg Breakfast.  Like many heirlooms they still have green/yellow shoulders but the rest of the fruit is ripe and delicious.  The Purple Ukraine are a cool red and green on the inside as well. 

Purple Ukraine on top, Kellogg Breakfast and Brandywine on bottom

And of course because we were already running behind on harvesting.....the front tractor tractor tire that I knew had a cut in it but had not had a chance to replace yet, completely blew as we were going back to pick up potatoes, so there was a lot of manual hauling of harvest totes from the fields to the shed today.

This week's share contents:

  • Sweet corn
  • Tomatoes
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Cucumbers
  • Cilatro
  • Zucchini/Summer Squash
  • Jalapenos
  • Red Potatoes
  • Green Beans
  • Garlic
  • Blackberries
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Week 6 Shares

Another hot and dry week!  We are starting to see some signs of stress on a few crops, but hopefully the weather forecast is accurate and we get some rain at the end of the week.  We are picking what the raccoons have spared from the first planting of sweet corn, from my walk through count yesterday it looks like 3 ears for a half share and 6 for a full.  The ears are smaller due to the lack of moisture, but the one I sampled still tasted great!

Our daughter Clare used some of the blackberries this past week to make a delicious batch of cupcakes with blackberry frosting.  The recipe link is:  http://dfo-recipes.weebly.com/lemon-cupcakes-with-blackberry-frosting.html

Our cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen up and I'm excited for everyone to try a couple of the new varieties we planted this year.  One type, Sweet Pea Currant, was a bit of a mistake, I didn't realize it was a bush variety and that the tomatoes are only about 1/4" - 1/2" in size, picking is quite laborious but they taste good and are cool to throw in a salad.  By far my favorite new variety is Sun Gold, it is a bright orange cherry with an amazingly sweet flavor (and it's way easier to pick than the tiny sweet peas)

This weeks shares will include:

  • Red Potatoes
  • Sweet Corn
  • Summer Squash / Zucchini
  • Cucumbers
  • Tomatoes
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Green Beans
  • Lettuce
  • Basil
  • Jalapenos
  • Blackberries

A note on storage for the basil - it does not like to be refrigerated.  We've found that keeping it in a glass of water, with the cut stem end down in the water, seems to work the best.

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Week 5 Shares

Add bacon and bread to the grocery list, BLT season is beginning!  We began harvesting some tomatoes from the hoop house this week, they are a combination of Big Beef and Hungarian Hearts both provide large slices perfect for a sandwich or burger!

This weeks shares will include:

  • Lettuce
  • Cucumbers
  • Summer Squash/Zucchini
  • Tomato
  • Green Pepper
  • Jalapeno Pepper
  • Garlic
  • Blackberries

The apples are progressing well at the orchard, the drier than normal weather has resulted in lower pest pressure so far, but we continue to monitor yellow sticky cards for apple maggot fly.  Two rows of McIntosh are looking good as well as several rows of Red and Golden Delicious.

The racoon battle continues, they have shown zero interest in the cans of tuna that I have been using for bait that worked very well last year.  Several dozen ears have succumbed over the last few days, in fact they seem amused to leave partially eaten ears right next to my traps!  After consulting with my dad yesterday I switched to dry cat food for bait and I scored two overnight and had no crop damage, perhaps the tide is turning....

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Week 4 Shares

Our hot summer continues!  Hope everyone was able to find some shade this past weekend when we had the 100+ heat index days.  We spent the weekend and Monday in Washington DC and Philadelphia on college visits and doing some quick sight seeing.  Lots of water breaks and stops at air conditioned buildings!

The heat has the accelerated the blackberry ripening and we started picking this morning!  Wednesday shareholders will be the beneficiaries of the first picking today and Thursday/Friday shareholders will start seeing theirs next week. 

We dug the first row of red potatoes yesterday, as I have mentioned before, they are one of my favorite crops to grow and harvest.   Whether boiled and tossed with butter, salt, and parsley or mashed as in this recipe mashed reds, they are delicious!

The raccoons made their first visit to the sweet corn last night, they "tested" 4 ears but found it wasn't quite ripe yet.  Traps are going out tonight!!

This week's shares will include:

  • Lettuce
  • Cucumbers
  • Zucchini/Summer Squash
  • Radishes
  • Red Potatoes
  • Broccoli
  • Jalapeno Pepper

 

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