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This Weeks Veggies
Apples – Gravenstein
Beans – Enough to freeze!
Beets – Greens and Roots
Cabbage – This is the last of the cabbage until the end of the season.
Chard
Cucumber
Lettuce – Mostly Simpson Black Seeded
Summer Squash – Green and Yellow Zucchini or Round Zucchini or Yellow Crockneck or Patty Pan
Tomatoes – Washington Red Cherries or Golden Nugget Cherries or Matt’s Wild Current
Farm Life
Now that your shares are so large, we spend the bulk of our time harvesting. The beans alone take about four hours per harvest and there are two harvests a week. Plus there is weeding, mowing, planting etc to be done.
Meanwhile, we are ruminating about plans for the future. We plan to install one 30’x90’ high tunnel for seed starting and growing tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. This will be a semi-permanent structure so we need to site it in the right place the first time. Which space will have the least impact on our other activities, like turning around the tractor at the end of each planting bed? How will we get water to it during the winter months? Can we use the tunnel to help us manage our Canadian Thistle problem?
We are also considering adding an egg option to next year’s shares. On Wednesday we will visit some other farms that have incorporated chickens into their farms ecosystem. We will be exploring everything from mobile chicken coops to egg washing, to the cost and availability of feed, and the use of the manure in the fields.
We would also like your feedback about adding the egg option. Would you be interested in adding farm fresh eggs to your share? If so, would you prefer to buy the eggs by the dozen or by the each as is done in Europe?
Here’s a book recommendation for those of you with children. Try the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. These books contain elements of good vs. evil and high adventure. They are great for reading out loud to younger children while still keeping your pre-teen set interested and engaged. But the best part is the Feasts. Beet Root and Tater Pie. Shrimp and Hot Root Soup. When my son was young, I introduced him to new vegetables by having a Redwall Feast Night. It didn’t always work, but we had great fun doing it.
Featured Veggie of the Week
Are you running out of ideas for your chard? Here are two ideas.
How about this recipe for Swiss Chard Gnocchi? I haven’t tried it yet but it sounds great.
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1750,152163-253195,00.html
I have used a recipe similar to this Chard, Feta and Fila Pie. The flavors of chard and feta go well together. The last time I made it, I mixed the beet greens and the chard and it worked just as well. I have also made a version using a prepared puff pastry instead of fila.
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1950,150181-227199,00.html
