Keeping it going

This is a busy, busy week for the Morckels on and off the farm. As you all know, Erin is back to teaching full-time, and her absence from the farm is palpable. David also maintains an off-farm career as a freelance audio engineer, working with sound crews at live events and helping to facilitate audio recording for local video productions. Balancing our important work here on the farm with our career responsibilities and opportunities can be a challenge and this week is particularly demanding.

This weekend, Erin is voluntarily providing flower arrangements for a good friend’s wedding and while we had hoped to arrange bouquets for both the event and our CSA shareholders, our available hours make it unfortunately implausible to satisfy both. We regret that we won’t have flower bouquets this week, but will continue to provide an ornamental accompaniment to our whole food shares for the remainder of the season. This week was a challenging one, and we appreciate your support and patience. Thank you again for the privilege to grow for you, an opportunity that gives us exposure to a unique, meaningful, and fascinating experience.

Here are the whole foods available this week:

Delicata Squash

This summer/winter squash hybrid is a farm favorite. It’s an acorn-type squash. They’ve been cured and ought to store well outside of refrigeration, though the skin stays tender enough so that peeling’s unnecessary. They’re versatile and while they’re traditionally halved from stem to bottom, scooped, and roasted, it’s not inappropriate to chop them into smaller, thin potato-like fry pieces and throw them on the skillet with stir-fry veggies.

Potatoes

We’ve had quite the potato harvest. These aren’t the creamy, early, new potatoes from previous boxes, but rather the mature storage spuds we’re all used to. Their foliage died back after devoting all the plant’s energy to growing big tubers. They’ve been waiting comfortably below the surface for the right harvest time and we’re happy to have dug some big’ns.

Tomatoes

We’ve likely distributed all of our big heirlooms but there are still plenty of red and pink mediums to go around.

Cherry Tomatoes

The nights have been chilly lately haven’t they? It’s a welcomed hint at autumn for those of us working and enjoying the outdoors, but the tomatoes aren’t crazy about it. We’ll continue milking these plants for all they have but it’s been a long summer and they’re getting deservedly tired. Don’t disregard the splitties! We pick them ripe and intact but they’re getting more fragile.

Bell/Carmen Peppers

More fresh mild peppers included this week for the stir fry or raw salads.

Nadapenos

Specialty varieties of peppers are really starting to produce. No spice this week as we’re circling back to the heirloom mild “Nadapenos.” We’ll thin these rows this week and later revisit Shishitos, hot Jalapenos, Bananas, and Anaheims until it gets frosty.

Head Lettuce

Our frilly Salanova heads are back in the rotation. These are similar to traditional Iceberg and Romaine varieties. They’re useful chopped up for salads or as single leaves for BLT’s. They store well and ought to go a long way. The red heads are good luck :)

Swiss Chard

More nutritious, colorful chard bunches to include in salads this week. These will be great chopped up with your Salanova heads to make a colorful, healthy greens base.

Herbs

We’ll have Parsley bunches for our home delivery folks this week, an appropriate compliment for potatoes and salads. We’re hoping our cilantro crop regenerates in time for our Sunday farm pick-up families.

Eggs

Half dozens for all families this week as production continues to fluctuate this summer. Thank you again for your patience

Thanks and have a great back-to-school week!

Erin & David