We are still bone dry. I hear there has been good rain all around us, but we are in a rain shadow. This is nice in wet years.
New this week is beets. Lots of beets. You will be seeing beets for the next six weeks. Let’s try to make this “blog” work like a blog. If you have good, simple ways you fix beets, please comment below in the “leave a reply” box so all our members can see it.
I have heard only good comments about our “point system” this year. I am going to experiment with a little variation. I am on an email list of other CSAs and we have been discussion how we do our CSAs – fill boxes for folks, etc. A couple others let folks choose like we have, but they usually have two to three items that everyone “has” to take. This would allow me to concentrate one day on something that may be new to most of you, knowing that everyone will get it, so I will take time to share some recipes. It also will help be sure everyone gets something that I can see is plentiful one week but will be absent or very limited the next week. So, this week, unless you are bona fide allergic to beets, please take beets. My favorite beet prep is roasted beets: slice larger beets in about 1/2″ slices, coat with olive oil, and stick in a hot oven (400) a few minutes until fork tender. You can peel before if you wish (the slices are easier to run a knife around to peel than the whole beet is, or you can cool the cooked beets and the skin comes off easily) or just eat the tender skins. With smaller beets I wrap a bunch in aluminum foil to bake or put on the grill. This steam/roasts them.
I think melons will be relatively plentiful tomorrow!! Cukes are limited. Even the second planting of cukes is looking unhappy. Some may be dryness, but also foliage disease is getting to them. Zukes and squash harvests are declining, but I think we will still have plenty this week.
Kale and chard are plentiful.
Broccoli has been plentiful, at least the little side shoots. These are nice because they don’t need trimming. I plant varieties that have larger, looser beads than those you get in the store. They are more tender. I think some of you are looking at them and thinking they have “gone by”. Not so. In another couple weeks we should have Napa cabbage again.
I cut back the vines in the organic farming trial to toughen the skins for harvest. We should have potatoes next week or the week after. You will be given a sample and asked to evaluate it.
Onions are plentiful, but they did not cure well because of all the insects and diseases out there this year, so take lots but know that some will need trimming. If the neck is soft, some of the rings inside” may be mushy. I just take those rings out and rinse off the nice rings. We are going through garlic by size, and have larger ones this week, which sell for $1.50 each, so a point will be two garlic bulbs.
The drop dead gorgeous red tomatoes will come to a screeching halt in another couple weeks. I am cutting the vines in the hoophouse now to ripen the remaining tomatoes and dry the vines to get them out of the way so we can plant fall/winter crops. We should have “field tomatoes” for you, which taste incredibly good because they are in even better soil, but most have cracking, mottled coloring, etc. Really good, but not drop dead gorgeous perfect looking.
Hot peppers if you like them are an easy “u-pick”. Those green beans have not been mowed off yet so if you want snap beans, have at them. All you want to pick.
Large carrots again this week. Our new carrots are a little larger than my fingers, so they should be wonderful in a couple weeks, if we get some rain.
We’ll see what else we come across for you tomorrow.
Have a good day.
