Farm News – July 11, 2016
Hi Everyone, it was brutally hot last week but I guess most of you noticed that. We continue to receive much needed rain and I am very busy catching up with planting. We have another marvelous share for you this week. It turns out we still have some snow and sugar snap peas available, although the quantity will be less. We have delicious sweet onions with green tops (edible or good for soup stock). These are not good keepers, so use them up within a week or so. We are in rotation with the broccoli still, so it will be kale or broccoli, whatever you did not get last week. We have abundant squash and cucumbers as well as cooking greens.
We are beginning to dig our carrots and I hope you will too. Everyone’s favorite, I know; the one that everyone can identify and knows what to do with and the easiest to get the kids to eat. They are likely not as sweet as I would like but heat and dry conditions are not ideal for them. They are always much sweeter in the fall. We have a very cool green radicchio; what is called a “trevisio” type; it is shaped like a torpedo. We will offer this as a choice with dandelion greens. We still have some large and very beautiful fennel which we will offer as a choice with basil (some of which may be lemon or Thai). We are still heavy on lettuce so there will be 2 heads again this week. So please don’t get overwhelmed; make lots of salad or find a friend, neighbor, or family member to give some away to. It’s a great chance to brag about the beautiful abundance you get from your personal farmer!
Thanks to the wonderful volunteers from the Westfield group who came out to help harvest the garlic. We were blessed with mild weather but challenged by a thorny prolific weed. The harvest is complete and hanging in the barn to cure. And I immediately passed over the field with the disc harrow, slicing the prickly menace into oblivion. So consider your suffering avenged (lol).
The share for this week will be: Peas (sugar snap or snow), broccoli or kale, summer squash, cucumbers, sweet onions, choice of basil or fennel, kohlrabi, choice of green radicchio or dandelion greens, arugula, Swiss chard, lettuce, and choice of an herb (garlic chives, rosemary, or parsley).
Enjoy! Farmer John
