Week 10: Goodbye July, Hello Rain!

Anna’s bee photography career continues with this sunlit sunflower.

Hi all, Alli here.

August is here and brings us to week 10 of the CSA! Crazy, but true. But we welcomed August with open arms, as it seems July was sad to be over and (thankfully) cried tears of rain all over the farm! We’re always happy to have a few nights off from running sprinklers on our new crops, and our more well established plants were definitely in need of a deep drink of water. It was even more satisfying that we were able to get our broccoli, fall Napa, yukina, and some bok choy in the ground before the weekend.

Joe and Anna surveying the newly planted broccoli. We’re hoping it can live up to last year’s amazing fall harvest–please keep your fingers crossed for it! 🙂

We were able to start harvesting some of the onions on Thursday, before the rain. Now that the rest have been soaked, we’ll have to wait til they dry out a bit before harvesting them. In the meantime, we’ll keep busy with weeding now that the soil isn’t quite so hard and dry!

The red onions were the first to be harvested…

…then laid out to cure in one of the farm’s hoophouses.

This week will be the final harvest for a few of the items you’ve been getting (Napa, cabbage, scallions, and possibly even the basil–a good time to make kimchi or freeze some pesto), but the peppers, eggplants, okra, and so on are just getting starting! The tomatoes do seem to be taking their sweet time this year, but that’ll just make it even better when they finally do appear (we were hoping to have enough for the CSA this week, but that doesn’t seem likely now with the cooler temperatures of the past few days…soon, though!).

A tiny tomato harvest…more to come soon!

Here’s what we think will be in your share this week:

Kale

Lettuce

Arugula and/or Yukina Savoy

Scallions

Beets

Carrots

Napa or Cabbage

Celery

Summer Squash

Cucumbers

Basil

Peppers

An herb

Beans (green and/or Dragon’s Tongue–give them a try!)

Cherry Tomatoes or Tomatillos

Okra, Shishito Peppers, or Eggplant

Garlic

Shishito peppers really are one of my new favorite foods. I only started eating them about 2 years ago (they became pretty trendy–rightfully so!), but I think I’m hooked for life since growing them last year. Here, I’m just started to blister them in a hot pan with a little oil. Once cooked, they are delicious sprinkled with a bit of salt (and maybe lemon!). One member also sent me a recipe for grilling them, so try that out, too!

A CSA member recommended the site ‘Yummly’ to all of you for recipes, so check it out if you’re looking for inspiration. Here are some of my finds for the week:

A very simple bean dish (using Dragon’s Tongue, but either will work):

http://www.itaintmeatbabe.com/2009/08/dragons-tongue-beans-with-garlic.html

While I think scallions are a delicious topping for pretty much any meal, why not make them the star with some scallion pancakes?!

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-scallion-pancakes-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-107405

Happy eating, everyone, and enjoy week 10!