Today Kristin saw a honey bee attack a native bee and take its flower at the holy basil, and the wasps in the greenhouse are doing something weird. There might be zombie wasps? We will have to investigate and report next week.

In other news, IT RAINED.

It rained twice on Thursday, and we got more than we’d had all year – 2.65″. This felt like a miracle was unfolding before our very eyes, and that is a hell of a drug. I imagine the plants felt similarly ecstatically surprised.

The miracle did come at a cost, as they tend to do (Kristin may or may not have made a deal with a genie or a devil at a crossroads I can’t say). I’d battened down the greenhouses just before it hit and Otis and I enjoyed the storm from inside our safe, sturdy plastic bubble – but some of our corn was blown over, a pear tree busted up a bit, and some field fruits were hail punched.

Worth it.

We haven’t had to irrigate the baby trees or the field ever since, which has been a pleasant respite – but this time I’m trying not to let myself believe that getting one rainfall means the drought has ended. (But I can secretly hope I reckon.)

The local fungal colonies are similarly guarded, it seems, and have not thrust their spore spreaders out from their lairs. So, no wild mushrooms from our woods yet. That isn’t the worst, really; time can feel so limited and there is so much delicious fruit to wild-scavenge. The first choke cherries are plump and ripe in their abundant, weighty clusters, and the standard black berries are out in good numbers, if rather drought-dwarfed in size. I get a strangely compelling pleasure from simply opening the freezer and beholding the many hefty, vibrant bricks of vacuum packed fresh-frozen fruits.

The trips out to the berry patches with The Boys feel like living a golden memory, live.

This is a good life, and we’re so profoundly lucky to live it.

Inside the Box

• Tomatoes – an assortment of cherry tomatoes and couple bigger ones of various types. We gave out some that are ripe and others which you can let sit on the counter to ripen for a few days.
• Italian Eggplant – Slice/Bread/Fry or chunk and cook as part of ratatouille , or mashed and smoked into babaganoush (spelled exactly as it sounds, that’s nice)
• Green Peppers
• Zukes- some yellow summer squash, golden zucchini, green standards & patty pans,
• Cukes – both picklers and slicers (picklers are great for eating too, but the slicers can’t be pickled). Don’t confuse the slender English varieties for zucchinis!
• Basil (both Italian & Holy Basil (aka Tulsi) – we wonder what Holy Basil honey would be like. That’s the stuff with the flowers that smells like heaven probably would -tuck a leaf in your lapel and a flower in your door frame to catch those heavenly whiffs.Can be dried for tea, chopped up and sprinkled on cubed melon … you can get weird if ya wanna. The other leaves in there are your familiar foodstuff.
• a Melon – probably a cantaloupe but somebody got a more crisp and elongated Asian melon. If you get a cantaloupe which is both sweet and tart, you got the Melonade variety. They’re all ripe and ready to go; I wouldn’t let mine go bad on the warm countertop, forgotten and oozing from the wounds of abandonment, but you do you.
• Beans – mostly greens with a smatter of purple and yellow.
• Sunflower Microgreens– Fun facts: can be chopped up if you’re adverse to biting food apart with your face, and microgreens instantly elevate any dish.

The Recipe A.I.deas for this week included:

1. Summer Garden Salad:
   Combine cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, and Italian basil in a refreshing salad. Drizzle with a lemon vinaigrette for a burst of flavor.
2. Zucchini and Eggplant Stir-Fry:
   Sautee zucchini and eggplant with green beans, using a soy sauce and garlic glaze for a savory and healthy stir-fry.
3. Caprese Skewers:
   Create tasty appetizers by skewering cherry tomatoes, mozzarella balls, and fresh basil leaves. Drizzle with balsamic glaze for a delightful touch.
4. Ratatouille Casserole:
   Layer sliced zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes in a baking dish. Season with herbs like Italian basil, then bake until tender for a mouthwatering dish.
5. Cucumber, Green Bean, and Tomato Salad:
   Toss cucumbers, green beans, and cherry tomatoes in a light dressing with a touch of lemon and fresh basil for a vibrant and crunchy salad. (It’s got a different dressing and green beans instead of green peppers, see.

Another week of our phone alerts misinforming us about incoming thunderstorms and of big beautiful rainstorms sliding past us, close enough to smell but leaving us in the dust. We did get one decent rain which doubled our total for the month of July … of course, since our total was barely a third of an inch, it wasn’t all that amazing, alas

But

Remember when we didn’t run the irrigation at all for a summer and remember when the screen porch got moldy because it rained so much and the fungus was a problem with crops and when the spreading quackgrass was a crisis and remember having to keep the weeds and grass cut underneath the electric fence line and bad hatches of mosquitoes! Hey look, the ripe tomatoes never get split on the vine by surprise rainfalls! And the driveway, it never washes out.

And this week when we determined that the well was putting out even half as much water as it can usually muster, we didn’t panic (much) – after taking apart the well shed and testing the things, I figured out that the problem seems to be with the pressure tank, and not the pump itself (which is 11 years old and we are keenly aware of its mortality during times of extreme drought). Still slightly ominous, but it’s nice to know (or strongly suspect anyway) that this is what has been causing the increasingly hard to ignore pressure fluctuations and air spitting and low yield … as well as (ha) it’s much easier and cheaper to fix a surface component than the one hats almost 150 feet below ground. We’ll see that the Well Guy has to say, but in the meantime we can reinflate the gradually failing air bladder as needed – bringing the flow back to a respectable 6.5 gallons per minute. The aquifer abides, and the kids are alright.

PS – Did you know that there are no poisonous berries here that have the aggregate fruit shape familiar from raspberries and blackberries? So you can gather and eat them with impunity, feed them to random children and relatives and strangers. The only threat is picking them under-ripe when they aren’t tasty. (OK and scratchy thorns and mosquitoes and ticks and perhaps even berry bears. But no poison fruits.)

So feel free to gather up the mixed mulberries and blackberries from your neighborhood brambles to enjoy your seasonal local foraging opportunities – you can eat them fresh or make jam or, during this coming heatwave keep them in a ziplock in the freezer and snack in them like chunks of nature’s popsicles.

PPS – Today our new WWOOFers George & Jude the Dragon arrived from Northern California, eager to enjoy the heatwave and smoky air with us for a couple of weeks.

Inside Box 7

• Tomatoes – the full size ones are just beginning to ripen, and the cherries are hitting their stride.
• Eggplant 
• Green Peppers
• Cabbage – not Napa, just the regular green cabbage type
• Zucchini 
• Cucumbers 
• Italian Basil
• Radish Microgreens – add some zip to your tacos, eggs, and sammiches

THE A.I. IS ON STRIKE

So here are some recipes that Kristin thinks you might enjoy in this heat wave week:

• Tangy Loopy Cukes
• Cold soup is the only good soup in this heat … and you have zucchinis! This recipe also uses cucumbers, or this one looks tasty too:

Neighbor Marcia Field Flowers Cam

Knock Knock? (Who’s there?) Nora. (Nora who?) No rain!

Hmm. Otis has been into knock-knock jokes, but he wasn’t into that one, either. The irrigation held the line. This local drought is, well, pretty interesting really. And, it’s satisfying to abide.

We picked and preserved a pleasing supply of the seasonal wild berries of the neighborhood. The juneberries are almost done, with the remaining fruits mostly having gone Past Purple and into the “Fruit-Leather Nuggets” phase. Kristin observes that they are unique in being enjoyable at all stages of ripeness. She’s right. Its a rare and prized fruit that hits the trifecta of tastiness when ripe, under ripe, and over ripe.

The red and black cap raspberries are at the end as well, black caps drying on the plants and final reds ripe and relished by the wild life. Simultaneously the first ripe dew berries are arriving. The earliest of the blackberry clan, they sprawl low on the edges of bare sun-baked sand, the largest such berries seasonally seen. Blackberries and grapes remain green, but seem probably plentiful,

No new bear or deer or mosquitoes. The blister beetles – a newcomer to our field – are quite plentiful, but seem to eat a little of all kinds of things instead of destroying just one whole crop of something, which is very polite of them. We listen to Wood Thrush in the evening, Whip-poor-Wills at night, and Ravens whenever. And something – Wabbits? – is munching down soybeans and parsley-or-maybe-that-was-cutting celery.

MORE WORDS

Whats in Box 6

• Potatoes – we had some kind of new, powerful weed pushing up the landscape fabric in the field this season, something more tenacious and powerful than anything we’d faced before. Well, it turned out to be potato plant volunteers, sprouting from the apparent army of spuds that we missed harvesting from the 2022 weed forest. They pushed up and through the weed barrier, found their way to the sunlight and somehow gathered enough moisture to form the spuds that we harvested for you today. Everyone is getting a mix of reds, purples, and whites – but sorted by size so some of you get a few big lunkers, some get an equivalent volume of adorable little miniatures, perfect for roasting whole, and most of ya; have a quart of taters somewhere in the middle size range. Bone apple tea, as they don’t say.
• Tomatoes – probably. They’re juuuust getting started, so you’re going to get either ONE full sized tomato, a handful of cherry tomatoes, or maybe just an IOU and a muttered apology..
• Onions – They’re biggening.
• Cucumbers – surely you used them all up from last week by now right? Right?!
• Zucchini
• Garlic – more volunteers from those who went MIA among last year’s mega weed forest. Thanks Baby Jasper, we wouldn’t have any garlic this year without ya!
• Bok Choi
• Napa Cabbage
• Mint Medley – spearmint, peppermint, and mountain mint. They all go great on your refreshing mock tails and mojito s! In the bag with your bok choi.
• Micro Mix – a downright delectable blend of kale, broccoli, amaranth, sunflower shoots, pea shoots, red cabbage, and radish microgreens.

Recipe A.I.deas

The robot was being a bit silly today and tried to recommend that we caramelize the napa cabbage, but I think we reigned it in now …

• Garlic Butter Roasted Potatoes: Toss diced potatoes with minced garlic, olive oil, and salt. Roast until golden brown and crispy.
• Cucumber and Napa Cabbage Slaw: Shred cucumber and Napa cabbage, then toss with a light vinaigrette dressing for a refreshing and crunchy slaw.
• Bok Choy Stir-Fry with Zucchini: Sauté sliced bok choy and zucchini with soy sauce, ginger, and garlic for a flavorful and nutritious stir-fry.
• Zucchini and Onion Fritters: Grate zucchini and onions, mix with a bit of flour and egg, then pan-fry until crispy and delicious.
• Garlic Roasted Napa Cabbage: Drizzle napa cabbage with olive oil and minced garlic, then roast until tender and caramelized.
• Potato and Micro Green Salad: Boil diced potatoes, toss with lemon juice and a light mustard dressing and top with micro greens for a delightful salad.
• Feel free to adjust the quantities and seasonings according to your taste preferences! Enjoy these recipes in your CSA newsletter.

Well, we can start the newsletter in the customary manner: we had no rain this week again. Our total rainfall since April is less than two inches, and it’s … well, it;s interesting I guess. We’ve had years of growing in sandy soil and dryish conditions, two previous years of extreme drought, and a decade of learning how to get water to the field with our little well and how to make the most of it … and so, the field isn’t the desert wasteland it might otherwise be. It’s quite satisfying to behold.

A friend from the farmer’s market had dozens of hay bales get wet by an unexpected rain, rendering them useless for them – so we got to use them to get some additional mulch down around the green beans and soy beans, both as a weed barrier and a moisture retention tactic. With the drought, we hadn’t had any of the big round bales we used to use exclusively for mulch, so this was a pleasant boon; the landscape fabric has been working well, but we prefer the hay when we can get it (and have time/hands to apply it), as it also breaks down and nourishes our soil.

I’m also happy because Kristin had commandeered my hoard of autumn leaf bags for mulching the potatoes, but now I’ll at least get some for my chicken yard composting needs. (NOTE: this autumn, we would love your leaf bags if you have them! And your neighbors’ leaf bags. ALL THE LEAVES.)

It was a great berry foraging week – while Kristin did fieldwork with WWOOFers Kim and Laura, I’ve been hitting the trails through the woods with The Boys gathering pounds of wild raspberries and juneberries.

We don’t have time to can them now, but want to capture their peak freshness and deliciousness – so we borrowed Kristin’s mom’s amazing vacuum sealer, which sucks all the air out of a bag and heat seals it, making perfect solid bricks of fresh foraged fruitiness that we will thaw out when summer slows a bit, and make jam. It also means we can combine early season fruits with some of the later season varieties – our pears and apples, wild chokecherries and blackberries, and our fall bearing raspberries too.

In other news, we had a real shitty day on Thursday. But it wasn’t the bad kind. Well, that’s not entirely true … the metaphorical Shit Happened but it was outweighed by the literal shit, which was Good Shit …

So our friends and CSA members Al & Dan, owners of the Munch Bunch herd of goats, have a barn in which their herd spent the winter – and that barn was full of poop. They wanted that poop gone – and we wanted that poop for our field … goat manure is a wonderful soil amendment, especially with sandy soil. So we sent a crew over to help muck out the barn and get the brown gold outside where it could be loaded into a dump trailer with their skid steer.

To make things easier and faster, they rented a walk-behind power shovel machine … but it barely fit through the door, and was almost impossible to maneuver back out.

But they got enough out to fill up the little dump trailer Dan had fixed up for this purpose, and the first load hit the road. Literally, unfortunately.

When they were almost to our farm, a tire blew … and then the rim ripped off of the hub and the trailer, piled high with heavy rich goat manure, was capsized on the side of the road.

Things seemed hopeless for the trailer and its load of fertilizer … until our friend, neighbor, and CSA member Dave rolled up on his tractor like a knight in shining armor and saved the day. He and Grandpa Jim coordinated an amazing mechanical ballet, effortlessly spinning the crippled trailer around to level it and tipping it vertically to empty it out into a pile the tractor bucket made quick work of cleaning up (transferring it to the neighbors’ larger dump trailer).

With that trailer along with Dave & Marcia’s truck, we were able to go back and use shovels, wheelbarrows, and the skid steer to clear out about half of the barn and get the contents home to be used next year. It was a lot of work and stressful when the trailer imploded, but everything got back on track so quickly and easily thanks to the power of experienced and kindly neighbors that it felt like something good that happened, instead of something … well, yeah, shitty.

Sometimes you need those little tragedies as opportunities to let the good times toll, the good people shine, the serendipity and magic and blessings that surround us to reveal themselves. And sometimes it’s literally poop. I love this life …

What’s Inside Box 5:

• Sugar Snap Peas
• Broccoli – this year has been the Battle for the Broccoli. Every bite should taste of victory wrested from the literal jaws of death.
• Kale & Collard Green Mix
• Sunflower Micro Greens 
• Green onions
• Cucumbers – it’s fresh cucumbers and pickled pickles time. Are you ready? Go!
• Zucchini

Recipe Idears

1. Fresh Veggie Stir-Fry: Sauté green onions, sugar snap peas, and zucchini in a splash of coconut or peanut oil. Season with soy sauce, garlic, and ginger for a quick and healthy stir-fry.
2. Crunchy Green Salad: Combine thinly sliced cucumbers, broccoli florets, and kale/collard greens. Toss with a tangy vinaigrette made from green onions, lemon juice, olive oil, and a hint of honey.
3. Zucchini and Kale Frittata: Sauté chopped zucchini and kale/collard greens with green onions in a non-stick pan. Pour whisked eggs over the veggies and cook until set. Serve as a delicious and nutritious breakfast or brunch.
4. Refreshing Cucumber and Green Onion Salsa: Dice cucumbers and finely chop green onions. Mix with lime juice, a pinch of salt, and fresh cilantro for a zesty salsa to enjoy with tortilla chips or as a topping for grilled fish.
5. Broccoli and Sugar Snap Pea Salad: Blanch broccoli florets and sugar snap peas until tender-crisp, then cool them down. Toss with a light dressing of green onions, lemon zest, olive oil, and a sprinkle of sunflower shoot micro greens for added freshness.
6. Asian-inspired Kale and Sunflower Shoot Salad: Massage kale leaves with a drizzle of olive oil to soften them. Toss with sunflower shoot micro greens, thinly sliced green onions, and a sesame-ginger dressing. Optional: add toasted sesame seeds for extra flavor and crunch.

Haikus by a bot ; inspired by the essence of the CSA newsletter:

Drought tests our patience,
Little rain, sandy soil, still
Field blooms, satisfaction.

Mulch from wet hay bales,
Weed barrier, moisture’s friend,
Nourishing our soil.

Foraging delights,
Raspberries, juneberries found,
Nature’s sweet rewards.

Vacuum-sealed fruits,
Preserved freshness for later,
Jam-making awaits.

Goat manure’s treasure,
Neighbor’s help turns mishaps bright,
Brown gold for our fields.

Battles for broccoli,
Victory in each bite won,
Taste of resilience.

Crunchy green salads,
Zesty salsas, frittatas,
Recipes to savor.

Well, little cages and brick barriers and mists of clinging castor oil all seemed ineffective, as we have lost over 80 seedlings at last count, munched down to their stumps in the prime of their babyhood. My memory is quite faulty but I’m pretty sure that Vole Despair is a regular season we must go through here at the farm … at least I hope so, because then it will have an end and we can marvel once more about how we somehow managed to make things work remarkably well in spite of the nightly mass casualty events. Every broccoli we get this year should be considered a miracle and eaten with all appropriate mindful reverence and ritual.

The rain … it’s back to its usual tricks. We haven’t had a significant rain for a week and a half now, and so we are back to running the irrigation daily and trying not to hurl curses at the towering thundering masses of clouds that pass and form close enough to smell, but never be moistened by. We get “thundersun” regularly, which is just what you’d figure it is.

This is an odd harvest newsletter to write – for perhaps the first time ever (10 years of this now!), Kristin and I don’t have to do deliveries to town! Thanks Walter and the GrandSehrs! It’s weird to write this sitting in the pack shack listening to the chickens and chicks and chickadees instead of trying to form coherent thoughts over the vagaries of traffic and baby and Otis’s amazing neverending stream of language. A chipmunk just ran over my foot though.

Inside Box 4

Today’s harvest was fun with a solid crew; WWOOFers Kim & Laura, all-stars Marty & Marcia, and 8-year CSA veteran Walter and partner Dante all made these jam-packed boxes flow into reality without much trouble at all. The drizzle we got was timed perfectly to the break for lunch, and the cloud cover was much welcomed by both vegetables and those who picked ’em. Since we had extra hands we even did a salad mix we hadn’t planned on; enjoy!

• Salad Mix – red and green lettuce, arugula, a bit of radish green leaves, and a smattering of tat soi and a few peas tips
• Green onions
• Peas – mostly sugar snap and a few snow peas
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Turnips
• Napa cabbage
• Radish microgreens

Recipe A.I.deas

We had a chat with the bot and here’s what we came up with together:

1. Sugar Snap Pea and Napa Cabbage Stir-Fry:

•    Heat oil in a wok or skillet and stir-fry sliced green onions, sugar snap peas, and thinly sliced small turnips until crisp-tender.
•   Add a splash of soy sauce, minced garlic, and grated ginger for flavor.
•   Serve the stir-fry over steamed rice or quinoa for a light and vibrant meal.

2. Turnip and Cucumber Salad:

•  Thinly slice small turnips and cucumbers and place them in a bowl.
•  Toss with a refreshing dressing made from a combination of lemon juice, olive oil, honey, and chopped green onions.
•   Season with salt and pepper to taste and let the flavors meld in the fridge before serving as a cool summer salad.

3. Radish Microgreen and Green Onion Pesto:

•   Blend radish microgreens, green onions, garlic, Parmesan cheese, toasted pine nuts, and olive oil in a food processor until smooth.
•   Use the pesto as a flavorful spread for sandwiches or a topping for grilled vegetables, roasted chicken, or pasta dishes.

4. Zucchini and Turnip Fritters:

•   Grate zucchini and small turnips and squeeze out any excess moisture.
•  Mix them together with whisked eggs, breadcrumbs, chopped green onions, salt, and pepper.
• Shape the mixture into small fritters and pan-fry until golden brown and crispy.
• Serve the fritters with a side of Greek yogurt or a tangy dipping sauce.

5. Green Onion and Cucumber Salad with Sesame Dressing:

• Thinly slice green onions and cucumbers and combine them in a bowl.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, honey, and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.
•  Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss to coat.
•  Let the salad marinate in the refrigerator for a while to allow the flavors to meld before serving.

6. Grilled Napa Cabbage with Soy-Ginger Glaze:

•  Cut Napa cabbage into wedges and brush them with a mixture of soy sauce, grated ginger, minced garlic, and a touch of honey.
•  Grill the cabbage wedges until they are slightly charred and tender.
•  Serve as a tasty side dish or as a unique addition to a grilled vegetable platter.