What’s in the Box: Heirloom tomato, slicing tomato, green cabbage, cured porcelain garlic, summer squash, patty pan squash, cucumber, red watermelon, sweet yellow onions, torpedo onions, collard greens, baby dill, cherry tomatoes, leeks and cantaloupe (bi-weekly only).
What’s going on at the farm:
This last week we finally got a decent rainfall, our first in a month at least. Our fall onions are nearing harvest and we are very busy prepping fields and preparing for fall plantings amidst all the bounty of summers harvests this coming weekend we will pull all the fall storage onions from the field to cure. Our fall varieties include storage reds, yellows, and plenty of buttery golden shallots as well! The summer onions we have now are plentiful and the yellows are sweet. An excellent dish for any extra sweet onions is french onion soup! Watermelons are in and we have a red seeded icebox variety for you. Cantaloupe is in as well and we have an exceptionally firm and sweet melon variety for you but they are coming in slowly. To spread out the harvest of slowly ripening cantaloupes we are giving bi-weekly members these melons first this week to insure they get both types of melons. Regular season members will get them next week. Your garlic this week is a porcelain garlic. It is a little less spicy then the purple stripe with white wrappers and large cloves. Our garlic is cured so it stores well on the counter, do not refrigerate your garlic or onions from this point on as it induces sprouting. Cherry tomatoes are in this week too and our mix is a blend of yellow, orange, white, pink, red, black, and orange roma cherries.
The last of the green cabbage is going out this week, and it makes an excellent slaw or kraut! We made some fresh kraut at home this week with it and it is very simple and easy. simply slice up your cabbage, rinse it, and salt it in a bowl or crock. The salt will draw liquid out of the cabbage and after it sits out a day press it with a plate so it is submerged in its own liquid. within a couple hours after this pack it into a quart jar keeping it pressed down under the liquid and it will continue to naturally ferment in its own juice with a lid on. You do not need to refrigerate it but let it lacto-ferment for about 3-7 days in a dark room temperature place. You must open the jar every day to release gas and pour any extra liquid out. Pack the cabbage down if it rises during this process and once it tastes pleasantly sour place it in the fridge!
We may have some changes to the box this week too as there are more options for packing this time of year. We may pack some sweet peppers (we are patiently waiting for them to turn) and we may pack cantaloupe for all members but it depends how fast they come in this week. Thinking of trying to get some salad greens in the box this week too but the weeds are winning out on the summer greens so we will be planting more this week too! I expect we will likely stick to the plan above but just letting you know. Some new crops coming in the next week or two also will include celery, red cabbage, sweet peppers, and dragons tongue beans. Enjoy the summers bounty!
