We looked at the weather radar on Thursday, and EVERYWHERE but here was covered in rain. We got about 3 hrs of very light drizzle- enough to settle the dust, but not much more. Today the soil was bone dry again. This year has been a season of extremes- extremely hot, extremely dry, extremely buggy (new insects only vary rarely seen in Michigan have shown up!), extremely good people on the farm, extremely nice salad mix. Extremely gorgeous sunflowers. Extremely late cucurbits, due to the 1st two extremes. We just keep watering and irrigating, watching, hoping for rain. CSA members really keep me going during this time- all the support you showed up front this season, trusting us to grow your food and take care of this land, throwing in your lot with the farm for the season, never suspecting we'd hit record drought conditions. THANK YOU for the vote of confidence. Thank you for the up-front cash. Thank you for being adventurous and excited about the food. Thank you (those of you who are coming) for helping harvest garlic on Tuesday, and participating in Farm Beautification on Sunday July 29.
In your share this week:
Cherry Tomatoes- it's true! The hoophouse is finally cranking them out in CSA-quantities. AND we just got our first ripe tomatoes from the field today- shouldn't be long before the big heirloom slicers come on.... yum.....
Some mighty tasty, funny-looking Broccoli- these suffered in the heat wave, from both heat extremes and temperature fluctuations, but they taste amazing!
Baby Arugula- try an arugula salad, tossed with chopped roasted beets, toasted walnuts, and crumbly goat or blue cheese. And a simple vinaigrette. OR make arugula pesto- just like basil pesto, but arugula.
Baby Hakurei Turnips- the sweetest, most tender turnip I've ever had. We eat these raw, either in the field like an apple, or sliced and salted, eaten as appetizers or snacks. Seriously, they are so sweet and yummy that they might surprise you. You can EVEN make roasted roots with these and the beets..
Scallions- fresh from the hoophouse; pretty soon the sweet onions will be ready, too!!!
Cilantro- ok, so I know your cherry tomatoes aren't going to make it into a salsa (will they even make it home?), but I was in a salsa mood, so here's cilantro in case you have any extra tomatoes lurking around and want to make salsa. OR Indian curry. OR Thai rice noodles with coconut curry. Storage tip: Cilantro maintains its flavor best (in my experience) at room temperature, not refrigerated, so keep in a glass of water, like a cut flower, at room temp until you use it.
Beets! Are back. Remember last year's member preference survey? The results were all over the place (you are an eclectic crowd), but the two things anyone agreed on were MORE kale and MORE beets. Here's our first go at MORE BEETS! Don't forget to use the greens, too- anything you do with chard or spinach you can do with beet greens.
That's it-hope you enjoy the food. -Michelle
No comments:
Post a Comment