This Week's Vegetable Harvest:
- Sweet Corn (not from our farm. See Notes from the Farm Kitchen for more info.)
- Green Curly Kale
- Broccoli
- Green & Gold Zucchini
- Parsley
- Green Beans
- Red & Gold Cipollini Onions
- Garlic Bulb
This Week's Fruit Share:
- Apricots
- Sour Cherries
- Peaches
Reminder: There is a field walk this Sunday from 4:00 until 6:00. Farmer Matt will lead a tour of the fields and answer questions about how your food is grown. Kids are welcome.
Farm Photo Journal
It's mid-July and things are really humming along. We started the week harvesting for CSA shares. In this photo Jessie makes bunches of kale.
In order to keep the zucchini from growing out of control, we harvest them 3 times a week.
Meredith and Nathan help bring in the onion harvest and lay the bulbs out to cure in the greenhouse.
Tyler cultivates beets and carrots with our 1949 Allis Chalmers model G.
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Derek, a 3-year Sandhill Organics veteran, trellises tomato plants.
...And Matt rides around on one of our electric carts, answering questions and giving direction. There are many days when keeping track of all the various activities is a full-time job in itself!
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Notes from the Farm Kitchen
Cipollini onions, pronounced chip-oh-LEE-nee, are smaller and flatter than most storage onions. They are slightly sweeter than regular yellow and white onions, and are therefore a great choice for carmelizing and roasting.
After doing battle throughout the course of last summer with huge hungry flocks of red-winged blackbirds and starlings, we decided to take a break from growing sweet corn. The birds, I'm told, are very disappointed. In order to minimize any disappointment on the part of our CSA members, we've included sweet corn from Didier Farm, a neighboring farm, in this week's share. While their sweet corn is not organic, it is local and delicious.
Kale is a nutrional powerhouse. It is high in fiber and rich in calcium and Vitamins A & E. Kale is interchangeable for spinach and broccoli in many recipes, but it takes longer to cook. The key to enjoying kale is letting is simmer long enough so that it becomes tender. Before cooking with kale, take a sharp knife and slice out the tough, center rib. Add steamed or boiled kale to omelets, quiches, scrambled eggs, lasagnas, and casseroles. Add chopped raw kale to hearty soups and pasta sauces mid-way through the cooking time. A couple of my favorite kale recipes from past newsletters include Portuguese Caldo Verde and Sesame Kale Salad. You can also make kale chips by ripping the kale leaves into chip-sized pieces and coating them with a drizzle of olive oil and a splash of vinegar. Spread leaves on a cookie sheet and place in a 300-degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Season lightly with salt.
Apricots have been grown in China for thousands of years but were not brought to this country until the 18th century. Apricots can be enjoyed fresh, but they also really shine in baked goods such as tarts, coffee cakes and cobblers.
This Week's Recipes
Next Week's Harvest (our best guess)... yellow potatoes, cilantro, peppers, cabbage, beets, tongue-of-fire beans, onions, cucumbers, blackberries, blueberries, red plums and more!
