Week 15

Happy Labor Day!  I hope you all had some time off and fun picnics with family and friends.  It’s always nice to have this ‘end of summer’ holiday, although it isn’t quite the end of summer just yet, especially with temperatures in the 90s the next couple days.  It seems, as of now, that there’s the potential for some rain this Thursday, so we’ll see if our crops get some of that water they are craving!  We do see signs of fall fast approaching though, with a break in the heat coming later this week and the sun setting earlier and earlier each day, not to mention that the fall greens and roots are growing like crazy!  It’s nice to have some overlap now of those with the summer veggies (which are definitely slowing down a bit).  Ahhh, September…what a great month!

I even had a brief chance to sneak away from the farm this weekend and attend a fabulous wedding in Ohio for some of my college friends.  It’s trips like these that sometimes serve to remind me what an interesting little bubble the Hudson Valley is, especially in terms of the food and farm culture here.  Quite a few of the people I talked to were shocked to meet someone who was a farmer, and they were extremely curious to find out more about organic farming, what we grew, and where we sold it, most of them hearing about a CSA for the first time.  Here in the Hudson Valley, there are so many different kinds of farmers, so many different CSA farms, and so many fabulous market customers and CSA members.  This means it is sometimes easy to forget that, in many places, there is neither demand for nor access to a diversity of fresh, organic, or locally grown foods.  I was in rural Ohio, and I drove past plenty of farmland, but it was just countless huge, flat fields of corn and soybeans.  Alison and I often think about how lucky we are to have the opportunity to live here in Gardiner and grow this type of food for so many people who really appreciate it, and it’s great to have that reaffirmed sometimes.  So thank you all, truly, for demanding good, clean food and for supporting the farms and farmers who grow it.

Beet Greens

Okra (which seems to be enjoying this heat quite a bit…we are growing a different variety this year, and its productivity is out of control!  We’re getting far more than we could have expected from the same amount of plants.  So for those of you who just aren’t okra lovers, please be sure to place your quantity in the swap basket for those who are!)

For your tomatoes:

http://dishingupthedirt.com/recipes/pizza/heirloom-tomato-pie-with-almond-flour-crust-creamy-cashew-herb-filling/

Enjoy, and have a great week everyone!