CSA WEEK 9 and update!!
Hi Friends!
First off! The 5:30-6:30 window seems to work well for you monday folks. So we will keep that for now.
In other news, this summer has been an intense one so far. Not for the heat. But for the pests! My hypothesis is that the mild winter did not kill as many insects as it does other years and the pressure has been worse this year than any other year we've farmed. Most of them are arriving early and in droves. The most intense ones have been the cabbage loopers, the striped cabbage worm, the tobacco horn worm, squash bugs, cucumber beetles which is spreading bacterial wilt, Colorado potato beetle, DEER!, and squash vine borer.
The last one is a recent discovery and we are kind of freaking out about it a little. But we are looking into ways to manage this.
All of these are early and many are severely damaging our crops. So bare with us during this time and we'll load you up with abundance now just in case we experience some failure with our cucumbers and squash.
The deer have found ways into our garden by ignoring our deer fence and have been munching on some of the crops, particularly the okra, surprisingly. But Jesse has come up with a solution that kept them out last night. So keep your fingers crossed!
Some good news is that we harvested all our onions and they look fantastic! Also, our peppers are also looking amazing and we have some zinnias coming in which always makes us happy. We continue to do well at markets and with restaurants, which has been amazing for our business. Also we've been sampling the potatoes and they are delicious and we'll be digging them in the next couple weeks. Finally, we got a second round of tomatoes in last friday night and we're really excited to see how they do.
Here are some photos from the week! This first one, all the veggies in it became an amazing pasta sauce right after this was taken! The second photo is the result!
Here is your CSA for the week!
Green Beans or Squash (If you don't get them this week, you'll get them next week!), green peppers, cherry tomatoes, leafy celery, jalapenos, cucumbers, zinnias, purple carrots, topless scarlet queen turnips, eggplant, a bunch of slightly ugly basil for pesto (you can use the flowers!), leeks, and garlic (not pictured)!
So the beans aren't producing like crazy but we want you to all get some. So we will spilit them up between this and next week. Also the celery stalks are totally great and so are the leaves! Check it out!
7 reasons celery leaves deserve more attention
Here's a classic pesto recipe just in case any of you need some guidance.
If you get squash this week, it could be a good week for some variation on Ratatouille.
Remember you can always substitute. Squash for zucchini, leeks for onions, etc. You can also alter the quantities based on what you have and with the right herbs it should taste great.
Thanks so much for your support, everyone!
Love, your farmers,
Lizzie, Jesse, Turner, Rachel, Tony, Erin, Winnie, Stormy, Sheep, Cows