Well then. The main message of last week’s newsletter was basically “it sure is great that it’s not smoky out.” Three hours later I saw the forecast of coming smoke. And then we spent a few days in this:

And of course, it was also a steam cooker. We were quickly reminded how much we’d been taking for granted the pleasure of casually breathing air that doesn’t hurt. It was … bad.

But we’ve gone through this before (albeit to a lesser extent), a few years ago, and it didn’t take us too long to remember how we could adapt. We found the n95 masks for when outdoors was necessary, and we battened down the hatches so we could shelter indoors – with the HEPA air purifier and portable AC that we’d picked up the last time we were living in the wildfire miasma. We worked out methods for timing the use of our air quality devices to preserve our solar battery. I remembered that forecasting the smoke, and getting accurate readings of current conditions, were problematic – and re-worked out which apps and maps and settings actually worked. (Purple Air online map for current AQI readings by location, and the Near-Surface Smoke map on the NOAA Air Quality app for the smoke forecast)

And so, after an initial panic and scramble, we were again … dealing with it. Habits adjust, coping mechanisms evolve. Quickly, the psyche builds callus over the uncomfortable parts, as we create new ways of living our days to deal with new factors we have no control over.

And then the smoke faded. And the heat dome released us.

Sure, they will be back. Probably worse, and probably for the rests of our lives. But we can deal with it. We are learning, adapting, evolving.

And even better – it makes me appreciate a cool breeze, allows us to savor the first deep outside breath of the day on a smokeless morning.

It’s beautiful out today. Breathe it in, and pay attention.

It sure made for a lovely harvest day:

Inside Box 6

• New Potatoes – with the very tender skin that doesn’t need peeling.
• a Cabbage
• Peas – sugar snap or snow. And one of you got a mixed bag. We are coming to the end of pea season.
• Eggplant – either the little ball ones, or an O.G. white one.
• Cucumbers – slicers & picklers. And there’s a white variety of this too.
• Zucchini & Summer Squash
• Red Onions
• Summer Savory herb – will go well with the the potatoes – or it dries easily to enjoy later.

Heat Dome Week!

Really, it’s not been that bad. Because it’s just really hot, not scorching heat combined with wildfire smoke, or on top of a prolonged drought. We’ve been through some of those, so now this isn’t demoralizing.

We hydro-cool our veggies and our selves: wet shorts and hats, trips to the rivers, cooling showers. We plan outdoor efforts around the sun’s power, spend time in the rivers, and do town errands to air-conditioned spaces during sunpeak.

That same abundant solar energy charges our array of batteries by day, so we can run fans on blast throughout the nights. And in the field, Kristin has simply … adapted without having to sacrifice any functional hours from her days. It’s impressive. And sort of scary. I reckon I married well.

Pro Tip From Kristin: “When you weed the corn, you weed in the shade.”

Inside Box 5

• Fresh Garlic – uncured garlic – no papery wrapping, a fleshy wrap instead. still has cloves inside to use. You can let it dry on the counter for later, too.
• Peas – most of the year, we can’t have delicious fresh peas. But today is not then.
• Italian Basil
• Zucchini & Summer Squash
• Cucumbers

• Napa Cabbage – can be eaten raw or sauteeded.
• Curly Kale
• Radishes – It’s been hot, so these are likely extra zippy. If that’s not your thing, they could be cooked into submission.

We went to The Waterfall again this week; my sister was in town. We found beauty, meaning, and the sandals that Otis has left there last week. So that was good.

It rained some more. That seems to keep happening. I can let my drought trauma hyper vigilance guard down. A little anyway. Maybe.

The crops are recovering nicely from the hail. Perhaps a couple weeks behind where they’d have been sans stoning, but feeling frisky.

At dusk, there is often a chorus of two or three whippoorwills near our windows. It’s such an intense and interesting sound; The farm is the only place we’ve ever heard it. I love that the boys are growing up with it for reasons I can’t explain.

There are still not mosquitoes. I’m not sure what to think about this, but I can’t deny how I feel about it. And that is GREAT, with a little apprehension that I’ll take it for granted, and get acclimated to their absence, and later struggle with the transition back into a world of swarming.

Maybe the whipporrwhirls are eating them all.

inside Box 4

A bunch of Sugar Snap Peas – serve chilled, accompanied by a heat wave or heat dome.

A bit of Snow Peas – they might wanna get with your Thai basil

Green Onions

Broccoli – did you know that Boron is a critical micro-nutrient for plants? It is.

Red Cabbage – we might have finally found a variety that works well for us this year!

Zucchini – so it begins

Micro Mix Microgreens – sunflower, radish, broccoli, red cabbage, kale, amaranth

Kohlrabi – I already told you to peel these, I hope. You could cook em. PIckle em. Let then turn into a shrunken head prop for Halloween, forgotten in the back of your fridge. Choose your own adventure.

Thai basil – stir fry stir fry stirrrrr frrrrrrryyyyyyyy

This week Ranger brought a new friend home, the ice-shredded field is recovering, and I no longer squish the potato beetle larvae; now I pick em & drop them into a bucket of soapy water that I wear on my belt. It feels more like foraging than hunting, which is pleasant.

It also, and moreso, feels good that last week’s tentative optimism was likely justified. Sure, it’s hot and muggy – but yesterday we took a Waterfall Day, and it was ridiculously perfect: the bad storms skipped by just north of the Magic Waterfall, and the heat dome stayed just south of us … the serendipitous vortex there worked its magic, made our day, and massaged our souls, which we perhaps quite needed.

inside Box 3

Otis took photos at today’s CSA harvest (he was mostly interested in being allowed to take the “aerial” shot from atop the semi trailer.)

• Bok Choi – the older leaves tell the take of the last week’s drama . Since the stems are the main event, we left some on even though the leaves have been through hail n back.
• Kohlrabi – to know it is to love it. I like it chilled and sliced, sometimes salted and peppered.
• Sunflower Microgreens – Grandma Deb puts them in salads, sandwiches, and scrambled eggs, when not eating them plain.
• Cabbage – we removed the brunt-bearing outer leaves.
• Sugar Snap Peas – don’t eat too many handfuls without anything else. Turns out they contain a ton of fiber and something called Galacto-oligosaccharide, which is a complex carbohydrate chains that humans lack the proper enzymes to fully break down. They pass into the large intestine, where gut bacteria ferment them, producing significant amounts of gas. Don’t ask me why I know. And don’t tell Kristin I’m writing about this in the farm newsletter.
• Snow Peas – stir fry favorites
• Salad Turnips
• Mint (Peppermint & Apple Mint) – one has fuzz and one doesn’t. I don’t remember which is which but they smell and look different …. make a muddle mix in your mojito. Or tea. Or infused water, that’s a thing. Wait, isn’t that just tea?
• Green Onions
• Garlic Scapes – How About Garlic Scape Pesto
  • Ingredients:
  • 1 cup chopped garlic scapes1/2 cup toasted nuts (walnuts, pecans, or pine nuts)1/2 cup olive oil1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese Juice of 1 lemon
  • Directions: Pulse scapes, nuts, and cheese in a food processor. Slowly drizzle in olive oil and lemon juice until it reaches the desired consistency. Toss with pasta or freeze in ice cube trays for later.

And Jasper took field pics today:

We came into today’s harvest renewed, and hopefully some of that will show in your food this week.

By the time you read this you will have already noticed that the box this week is …. surprisingly lightweight. Pretty vacant. Well. Remember last week, when I said something about how even though the rain skips around us, at least the storms do too? Yeah..

After 13 lucky years, our luck ran out. Last Friday, we were in the field harvesting for the farmer’s market when our phones blew up with a tornado warning. Radar showed a purple blob among the incoming red stormclouds, rolling straight at us. . I watch radar like some dudes watch sports and I knew it was a doozy and I knew it wasn’t going to miss. I hurried from the field, shut the high tunnel up tight, rounded up the kids and the dog and the cat and herded them into the root cellar.

The purple blob came into view over the western treeline. Crazy clouds. I don’t know what they’re called, but I think they’re hail clouds. Because we didn’t get a tornado or even much for wind, but we got a sustained and intense downpour of ice . “Shreddy sized.”

When we emerged the world felt like someone left the freezer open and smelled of the insides of plants. “Like someone just mowed a lawn, but the lawn was our vegetable garden.”

We scooped thick piles of ice away from the tattered remnants to avoid adding freeze damage to their 99 problems.

It was bad. The worst we’ve had in thirteen years.

So your box isn’t one of the best in those thirteen years.

But ….

We have seven new baby chicks, peeping and hopping and serving as the living embodiment of hope.

And on the heels of the storm, we began a visit from one of our O.G. WWOOFers – Grace, who was here for all of the 2016 season!

In the intervening decade she had four kids, all near our kids ages, and the whole squad came to the farm for several days. Good times ensued.

Clan Grace headed for home after we finished up with the CSA harvest just now:

Inside Box 2

A moment of silence (or noise) for the kale, bok choi, and lost lettuce. I really wanted to include some “hail-massaged kale” but it was just way too ripped up.

But! We did get some lettuce for you – the leaves shielded by kale or weeds or their fallen brethren! The sweetest lettuces are these, according to Folklore.

The Snow Peas are sometimes blemished by hailstones. (We ate the ones that were blasted open while harvesting the rest.)

Salad Turnips

Oregano

Garlic Scapes

Radish Microgreens

Spring Onions

postscript

I, feel … hopeful. Things are definitely set back, and will need time to grow some new new stems and leaves. We’ll lose some things, but there are always some that don’t make it for one reason or another – and others that flourish. I see little tiny leaves pushing out of the wreckage. Life uh, finds a way. There are some really good, positive metaphors to be mined here, if you’d like.

But dang, it’s absolutely pouring rain here (I write these in the ride from farm to The Cities.) I’ll take my cue.