Week 9: Weed, Water, Harvest, Eat, Repeat

I’m coming to you from the confines of indoors while beautiful rain is pouring down outside. What a good Monday! We were able to transplant a third of our broccoli from the greenhouse into a field before a thunderstorm thwarted our plans. Maybe tomorrow we’ll plant two beds and all three will be complete.

Joe, Alli and I standing in the barn during the rain and looking out at the field where we were planting broccoli.

Alli’s family came for a visit last week, so Joe and I threw down on the farm alone for a few days, including taking over trellising the 12 rows of tomatoes for our first time this season.

Alli giving her niece a tour of the farm.

The tomatoes are getting tall, tall, tall.

Per usual, we’ve been doing a lot of weeding, watering sans much rain, harvesting perfectly delicious foods, and eating scrumptious meals.

Yesterday we spent time with the Garrison CSA members and ate some delicious food at a potluck thrown by a Garrison member. Thank you for bringing us together to chat and taste each others cooking! If any Gardiner member would be interested in hosting a similar event, we’d love to figure something out.

Here you can see some of the tomatoes, the second succession of cucumbers, and the first succession of beans. We are winning the battle against the weeds here!

Me holding some just harvested curly kale.

Cucumbers going into a crock for fermenting. Tasty eating!

Last week we started giving out pints to choose from of a few different foods. To help you make your decision, here are some recipes for okra, Asian eggplant, shishito peppers, tomatillos and tomatoes to help you over the next several weeks and beyond.

Okra: This recipe by one of my favorite chefs, Bryant Terry. In one of his cookbooks I read him mentioning something like how he’s picky about okra dishes because he’s not into okra when it has a slime factor, so I thought he’d be a go-to person for making okra that appeals to many. In this recipe the okra is grilled or broiled. ://www.foodrepublic.com/recipes/blackened-okra-with-red-rice-recipe

Asian eggplant: http://steamykitchen.com/30476-chinese-eggplant-with-spicy-garlic-sauce.html

Shishito peppers (how to prepare this unique treat): http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/sauteed-shishito-peppers-summers-best-new-bite-51153400

Tomatillos: http://www.theppk.com/2008/10/salsa-verde

Tomatoes: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/garlic-toast-with-tomatoes.html

This week in your share will be:
Kale
Chard
Lettuce Mix &/or Lettuce
Arugula &/or Yukina Savoy
Basil
Napa Cabbage &/or Cabbage
Celery
Beets
Carrots
Scallions
Cilantro &/or Dill
Choice between Cherry Tomatoes, Tomatillos, Okra, Shishito peppers and Asian Eggplant*

*You are welcome to leave behind the pint box these will be in or return it on a following week. Any left or returned we will reuse.