Half Cured

Thank you helping us stock back up on packaging!

We were able to accumulate more delivery supplies last week thanks to your attention. We are trying to make use of materials in the harvest and delivery process as simple and low-input as possible and your effort to recycle with us is critically important. We really appreciate your efforts!

Your week 8 produce box includes the following foods:

Sweet Corn

We sowed five sweet corn varieties, mostly bicolor, to extend our harvest window this summer. We were really happy with the opening harvest last week. Each family received four of our best ears from our earliest maturing crops. This harvest, we’ll continue down the row, grabbing primary ears from the later-maturing varieties that are shuck-ready. Through the end of July and into August, secondary, smaller ears fill out low and slow on the stalk for later fresh eating or preservation.

Summer Squash

The early flush of Zucchini has slowed a bit and yellow courgettes are fruiting just in time to pick up where the greens left off. We’ll continue to distribute what is available.

Green Cabbage

As much as we make an unreasonable effort to harvest our produce the morning of deliveries and pick ups, sometimes it doesn’t work out, or make sense that way. Last week, before the rains came and while we were still experiencing a legitimate mini-drought, we ran a casual garden-check. Our focus has been on the big fields of summer garden vegetables like peppers, tomatoes, squash, and maize. Some spring crops like carrots, onions, potatoes, cabbage, and some garlic, remained in the ground, not necessarliy to grow actively, but to simply stay put in living storage, giving us time to direct our attention elsewhere while we wait for the right harvest opportunity.

But last week, we noticed a rotting cabbage and freaked out a bit. We impulsively harvested the whole row of heads, paranoid the rot would spread, or the conditions that led to the rot would be felt more broadly (it didn’t, they weren’t). An early, impulsive harvest isn’t such a big deal with a storage cabbage like this. Like an onion or an egg, its outer leaves protect and preserve even when storage conditions are less than ideal. All this is to say that some cabbage this week will lack its squeak and uniform color. They’re still great eating, and should last a good while once they get in the refrigerator or fermented in a crock, but you may choose to sacrifice an outer leaf layer or two.

Yellow Onions

We were similarly startled by the condition of one of our onion rows at the peak of the drought last week and decided to impulsively harvest. We have generally distributed onions fresh out of the ground, like new potatoes, without the shelf life you would expect from a long-term storage grocery store onion, but with an eating quality you can only expect from fresh vegetables.

For onions to have long-term shelf life, they need to be sun-cured for as long as a week. This effort helps encase the bulb in its outer layer, protecting it from elements and preserving the interior for later use. Because we decided to harvest early and impulsively, we needed to attempt to cure them- and then the rains came.

So, the onions you receive this week are sort of “half cured.” This wasn’t an ideal harvest but again, good eating, you’ll just likely have to sacrifice a layer or two. You may wish to keep these refrigerated, especially if they lack a papery outer layer.

Specialty Peppers

We’re continuing to pull banana peppers and Shishitos, with an eye on our other specialty varieties: Jalapenos, Nadapenos (mild Jalapenos), and Anaheims. These will be distributed as available.

Green Carmen Peppers

Mild pepper production is going as well as we could hope. We have plenty of greens to pull and share, while still leaving maturing fruits attached to turn red-ripe with warm nights. This week, we’ll return to long sweets as we continue to alternate with bells.

Beans

Dragon Tongue beans this week. Snap off the stringy tips, snap them again into forkable portions, boil them and saute with oil and seasoning. Thanks to our CSA volunteers for helping us keep up with these prolific legumes!

Basil

We’ll revisit our basil patches this week as a compliment to ongoing tomato shares.

Cherry Tomatoes

These plants will continue to produce as long as we keep picking fruits and keep happy shoots.

Full-Sized Tomatoes

As we harvest, ripen, and share our full-sized tomatoes, we’ll try to make an effort to give families a ripe tomato ready to be used quickly and one that ought to spend a few days on the counter to finish ripening. We have red Moskovich slicers, pink Martha Washington slicers, and big funky purple beefsteaks.

Eggs

We’ll have a half dozen eggs for folks this week as we try to get back to steady, controlled egg production. Thanks for your patience and support as we battle the elements with these wild poultry.

Flowers

We’ll have fresh bouquets to brighten up your space. This time of year, the swarms of pollinators sharing our airspace is a reminder of how beneficial it is to incorporate these ornamentals into our garden design. It feels good to share these blooms with our ecosystem.

We truly appreciate sharing the farm with you all, thank you for your support.

Erin & David