We’re feeling pretty good about the farm these days. Rainy days allow us to pay attention to parts of the farm that are sometimes forgotten. The crew pulled up all the over-wintering flowers from the hoop house, added compost, and forked it all in. That house is ready for the late season cucumbers to be planted next week. There were many more sowings that have started to fill up the greenhouse again. We were able to get everything out of our over-wintering and Spring crop field and sowed it to buckwheat. One of the new fields that we opened this Spring was also sown to buckwheat, so in about a month there will be over an acre of flowering buckwheat, and if we’re lucky our bees will go to work and make buckwheat honey from it, a destinctive, dark, and tasty honey. Our next big project is to get all the potatoes out of the ground. We bought a potato digger from Italy last year which helps speed up the process of getting the tubers out of the ground and into boxes. But many hands make light work so if anyone wants to lend a hand on a fun job, come on out.
The plums in your boxes this week amy not be ripe yet, some are, but they’re all mixed up. These are Japonese plums and are yellow when ripe. They should be a little tender, not firm, when ripe. The skins are a little tart with sweet yellow flesh.
The sweet corn is a bi-color. It’s got a rich and sweet flavor, don’t cook them to long, 5 minutes max.
Nick’s Corner
A long awaited event finally occurred at the farm on Friday. With the days of the past few weeks hovering in the 90’s and no rain in sight, the irrigation was running full blast during last week. However, during the late afternoon harvest of blueberries, the sky turned dark and we all had smiles on our faces as we got soaked with the liquid of life falling from the sky. I must say that I was as giddy as a five year old on Christmas morning when I saw the rain coming across the valley. With everything being so dry it was wonderful to see the earth darkened by the rain, knowing that the rain falling will bring about a flurry of much needed plant growth and production. It is our hope that the rain will continue to grace us with it’s presence, I think that it’s during it’s long vacation it most likely used up all of it’s PTO time so it’s got to keep coming, right?
In other exciting news we have some summer staple crops coming in. Sweet corn and tomatoes. These two veggies are ones that I always think of when I think of summer and it’s so nice to have them ready to harvest right out our front door. Other corn just doesn’t come close to the sweet corn we had for lunch. Heck I’ll be honest, the sweet corn is so good it is good straight out in the field without even needing to be cooked. Tomatoes are the same way. There is something about a big fat juicy tomato that just hits the spot on a hot summer day. I’m especially fond of some of our heirloom varieties. Many of them have colors and patterns not seen in your everyday red tomatoes. With a combination of green stripes that are similar to a zebra, sunburst red and yellow, and a deep rich green and burgundy, these tomatoes pretty much look like art. Their flavors are almost as artistic and unique as their outer appearance. These tomatoes are amazing and I hope that all of the CSA members will be able experience the beauty these tomatoes encapsulate.