Welcome to week eight everyone! The last week was a doozy with not only intense heat but strong storms building up as a result. We were lucky to get through it all without any damage despite loosing power for 4 hours on Thursday when a line of intense storms hit on market/delivery day. Tuesday delivery was also hit by storms so we got the rain we needed but had to work right through the storms. For me a feeling of excitement and respect for the power of nature comes with these big summer fronts. On Thursday I raced the storm home from market and watched winds gusting sideways rain just ahead of the road home as the winds pushed the van sideways with every gust. The plants just ate up the heavy rain and the soils drained well with no flooding issues at all… The heat has been hard to work in but the tomatoes are coming in hot now and if you liked the cherry tomatoes you got last week there are more coming along with the first slicing tomatoes! We harvested all of our garlic today and it looks amazing with very good size and probably the best garlic i’ve ever grown. That will sun cure in the greenhouse for a week or two to cure before we clip it up and send it out in shares. I also ripped out old beds and started some field clean up so with the space opened up from garlic and the beets that finished and the carrots coming out we will make room to plant more greens and roots for late season shares. Here is the list of crops for this week.
Cherry Tomatoes: These are great just as they are and we have invested a lot of time and effort and money into growing the perfect cherry tomato. These grow in a special hot house I finished in December of 2018. The perfect growing environment and lots of TLC gives these tomatoes great flavor and texture . They are also the perfect kabob tomato, good in salads, or as their own salad with oil, cheese, salt, and maybe some pepper.
Heirloom tomatoes: Our tomatoes come in many colors and sizes but this season we have a lot of pink tomatoes which i like for their texture uniformness and flavor. We also have two types of black slicers, red, orange, and three types of striped tomatoes this year including a pink with green stripes, yellow with red stripes, and yellow with white stripes and white flesh. CSA shares will get a few tomatoes selected randomly from the weeks harvest but most should receive pink this week.
Swiss Chard: This saute green has many different colored stems. Some insect damage this week as the rain and humidity increased bug pressure but it still tastes great.
Pea shoots: Pea shoots are our micro green this week and they are great with lettuce for salads or used on sandwiches.
Summer Squash: These golden yellow fruits are my favorite to grill with the zucchini in spears and marinated in soy or terriyaki sauce with a little chili powder or sauce.
Zucchini: As mention above I like to grill these in spears and get nice grill marks to make a healthy grilled veggie teriyaki steak of sorts.
Cucumber: Cool crispy fruit for your salads and sandwiches, or juicing.
Yellow Carrots: These thick yellow carrots have a bright yellow color throughout and are great roasted or raw.
Leaf lettuce: Red leaf lettuce will grace the boxes again this week as a new batch we planted late this spring is ready. Great for salads and more!
That all the crops that will make it for sure this week. Im on the fence about harvesting our napa cabbage that is almost ready and also our celery. Those will likely make the shares next week and are some new crops to look forward to along with our sought after tomatoes. Peppers are very nearly ready too and the very first shisito, and jalapeño should be ready soon. Most of the peppers we grow are sweet peppers and we let them ripen up on the vine which should be sometime in august but lots of sweet and hot pepper will be coming in a few weeks. Thanks all and enjoy the food!
