This Week's Vegetable Harvest:
- Broccoli
- Baby Portabella Mushrooms (from River Valley Mushroom Ranch in Burlington, WI)
- Sweet Peppers (red, green or purple)
- Tomatillos
- Cilantro
- White & Purple Kohlrabi
- White Japanese Salad Turnips
- Beefsteak Tomatoes
- Juliet Tomatoes
- Heirloom Tomatoes
- "Tokyo Bekana" Salad Greens
- and maybe red potatoes (either this week or next)
This Week's Fruit Share:
- Purple Concord Grapes
- Bartlett Pears
- "Yellow Smoothie" Apples
- Macintosh Apples
Farm Journal
Monday, 6:30 a.m.
I'm standing in the kitchen clutching my first cup of coffee and trying to put together a plan for the week. The crew will arrive in less than a half hour and I'm a long way from having a coherent plan for beginning the week's harvesting activities. As I wait for the coffee to kick in, I lean against the kitchen sink and watch with rapt attention as an enormous white spider begins to wrap up a plump fly unfortunate enough to have gotten tangled in her web. As near as I can tell, our arachnid friend is a goldenrod crab spider. She's a beauty all right, and she's been sitting there for about 2 months on the web she constructed across the outside of the kitchen window. Watching this spider is a little like watching ants in an antfarm; the glass that separates me from her affords me a pretty terrific front-row seat, and I can press my nose right up against the glass with only the slightest shiver running down my spine.
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All of a sudden the spider somehow manages to drop the fly, and it falls down, down, forever out of her reach. "Oh, no!" I blurt out with what, in hindsight, was maybe just a bit too much emotion. "What's wrong?" the kids ask. They are now looking up from their bowls of oatmeal with mild alarm. "Nothing, nothing. I'm just watching the spider again." The kids go back to their breakfast, and I wonder to myself if maybe it isn't time to break down and buy a TV.
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For weeks I have half-expected to wake up and find that our little Charlotte has woven a message into her web. I recently finished reading E.B. White's classic children's book to the kids. It wouldn't suprise me at all to look up one of these days and see the words TERRIFIC or RADIANT or SOME PIG written in spider silk across our kitchen window. Except we aren't raising any pigs this year. We did, however, raise a couple of lambs. It was our first experience with sheep, and it's something we will almost certainly do again next year. The bond between sheep and spiders appears tenuous at best, however. Our Charlotte kept entirely mum throughout, and the sheep went off to the butcher last Wednesday. Raising sheep was an interesting experience, full of adventures and misadventures, but those are stories for another time and another newsletter. Have a great week! --Peg
She's a beauty, isn't she?!
The inspiration for a larger flock next year perhaps.
Notes from the Farm Kitchen
This week's baby portabella mushrooms were grown by Eric Rose and his crew up at River Valley Mushroom Ranch in Burlington, Wisconsin. Eric is a friend we've known since our days of farming in nearby East Troy. He's been growing chemical-free mushrooms since the late 1970s. He also grows tomatoes, asparagus, eggplant, corn, and herbs for use in the sauces and preserves that he makes and sells at his farm and at farmers' markets. For more on River Valley Ranch, check out this recent article by The Bayview Compass.
Concord grapes are one of my favorite fall treats. They ripen in September and October and are used commercially to make grape juice. Many of Mick's grapes are sold to Welch's for juice, but he has reserved some of the nicest ones for us and for his farmers' market customers. Each fall I make my own grape juice concentrate, and this fall I'm making grape freezer jelly for the first time. I recently came across some very helpful instructions for making freezer jelly at a website called The Hungry Mouse. Concord grapes also make a great snack. Munching on a handful of concord grapes is much like the experience of eating a slice of watermelon--spitting out the seeds is part of the fun!
Tokyo bekana is a mild-tasting asian salad green that tastes a little like bok choy. Because of it's delicate texture I prefer to use it raw in salads, but you can also stir-fry it quickly as long as you are careful not to overcook it.
The tomatillo, also known as the husk tomato, plays an important role in Mexican cuisine. It is the primary ingredient in salsa verde, a popular salsa that also calls for garlic, onion, chile peppers, cilantro and lime juice. Store at room temperature, with husks on, for up to 2 weeks.
This Week's Recipes
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Next Week's Harvest (our best guess)... broccoli, carrots, eggplant, squash, tomatoes, dill, mustard greens, napa cabbage and more!
