This week, we finished building the solar dehydrator.
Once we move it into place, it will use the sun to generate a current of hot air up and through the drying racks, providing us with a new way to preserve the herbs and vegetables that we grow. Next week, we’ll experiment with using it!
Speaking of dehydration, it’s dry AF. We haven’t had a meaningful rainfall in weeks now, and have had to start running the irrigation nightly to keep the plants happy. Somehow, the cucumbers and zucchini are still finding enough water to produce prolifically, perhaps from a parallel dimension.
With summer’s abundance came the abundance problems, which in turn led to the full-onset of canning season, as the excesses of the field are alchemically transformed and preserved as dilly beans, pickled beets, and cabbage pepper relish.
Inside Box 8
- Tomatoes! – a random assortment of what’s ripe or almost ripe! If you find a type you really really like let us know.
- Basil – (Italian & Purple) – pesto? A caprese salad with the tomatoes?
- Eggplants – Bright Pink or Purple Italian, or perhaps Thai
- Zucchini
- Jalapeño Peppers – the heat of the high tunnel makes for some nice peppers! Keep them whole to keep them spicy, or you can even make them mild, by seeding and deveining them.
- Three Bean Medley – combine colors as appropriate to please your uncle who loves either the Vikings or the Packers.
- Kale (either dino, curly blue, scarlet, or red Russian variety)
- Assorted Slicer Cucumbers – the weird yellowish white one is a Poona Kheera, it is supposed to look like that, and it should be quite tasty.
- an Ugly Rutabaga – some kind of jerky bugs are chewing up the outside of all the rutabaga roots, rendering them rather hideous to behold, but mostly unharmed (we cut open several and found even the worst of them to be damaged only on the outer surface).Once you chop it up and cook it with the potatoes that you had the foresight or luck to preserve from last week’s box, no one will ever even know.
Views of Week 8
