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.
Pandora Sphinx Moth caterpillar
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
Kristin thought this looked like one of those cheap puzzlesanother red caterpillar we’ve never seen before!
you’ve heard of broccoli raab; here’s Broccoli Rob.
In other news, we finally started construction on a solar dehydrator, with which we hope to dry and thus preserve all manner of produce. We’re hoping the one we’re building will be well-suited for our climate of relatively weak sun and high humidity.
Marty & Rob building the dehydrator’s solar collector
We also were joined this week by a couple of new folks – Baxter the Woof and his humans, Lexi and Sean. With the crew we have at hand, I think we’ll be able to cover our garden needs while also getting started on the concrete block business of building our root cellar, although we’ll wait until the dehydrator is finished to begin.
WWOOFers Rob, Lexi, & Sean
Box #7
a Tomato or few. The first of 2017! All are either ripe or close to it, including some green ones – we have a few varieties this year that stay green even when ripe.
Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage – the last of the cabbage for awhile! This will keep for up to two weeks in your crisper drawer if you’re just not ready now. A great cabbage for slaw or kraut!
Vita Verde Cauliflower or Gypsy Broccoli – yes that cauliflower is supposed to be green!
Bag o’ Beans – Purple, green, yellow wax
Jar o’ Flowers – We grew bachelor buttons, and zinnias for the first time this year; the sunflowers just keep coming back everywhere on their own, and we let them grow anywhere they’re not too in the way. Also featuring wild prairie sage, anise hyssop, black-eyed susans, bee balm, and flea bane. Artfully arranged by WWOOFer Sarah!
Zucchinis – Just a few smaller ones, but let us know if you like lots, because we have a whole lot of it on hand right now!
Cucumbers – Picklers or slicers! Slicers are longer and smoother, picklers are bumpier and shorter. Only the picklers pickle but they all sandwich and salad just delightfully.
Onions – We encourage you to also use the green onion tops!
Potatoes (Norland Red or Yukon) – the tater plants aren’t done yet, but we harvested some surface spuds for the boxes, leaving the rest of the plants intact.
This week, we appreciated the delicious silver linings of the recent logging going on around our farm . While we loved the scrubby oak forest, and miss it … it’s damn hard not to enjoy a generous bribe of fresh wild fruit!
As we’d hoped/predicted in May, the severely-logged area adjacent to our land has erupted into edibility.
The fruit bushes which had been patiently plotting and biding their time down in the shadows of the tree canopy are seizing their moment in the sun, as we discovered late last week on a walk through the woods – when we realized we couldn’t even walk between the ripening raspberry bushes without squishing the abundant clusters of ripe blueberries growing beneath and around them.
Plus it’s sort of a return to it’s long-ago form – as our local historian explains, “The Indians called the Sterling Barrens “Mashkode” which we translate as “flower covered prairie.” It was mostly open when the first white settlers came with low brush including blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, and all sorts of wild cherries, hazelnuts, and butternuts. It was still mostly open at the turn of the century, until fire control and tree planting started in the 20s and 30s.”
So I’m glad I refrained from wailing, ranting, and gnashing my teeth too much. Because I need those teeth for eating all these delicious berries.
In field news, the peas are fading, as the beans are rising up and threatening world domination.
The high tunnel tomatoes are flush with green globes that refuse to rush into reddening, there is just one brave pioneer eggplant in the field, seemingly unconcerned about the rising tides of zucchini and squash plants that seem poised to bury us all in their foliage.
Box #6
We hadn’t had a rainy harvest in awhile, so this was a refreshing morning! Plenty of rain, but the ominous thunder merely provided a soundtrack for a smooth harvest.
Red Cabbage – don’t be intimidated by the beautiful beast! Here are a couple of recipes recommended by your fellow CSA members:Melissa’s Recommendation: Deb’s Cabbage Slaw Recipe:
Dressing:
½ cup mayonnaise or olive oil (if allergic to eggs)
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. prepared mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
¾ Tbsp. poppy seeds
Juice of half a large lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Whisk together dressing ingredients.
Slaw Ingredients:
2 small carrots thinly sliced
½ cup golden raisins
2 green onions thinly sliced (optional)
½ c. chopped pecans or peanuts
¾ of small to medium head of purple cabbage (approximately 3 pounds), thinly sliced
Directions:
Combine salad ingredients with dressing.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
a Bag o’ Beans(Green, Yellow and Purple varieties)
Broccoli in your bag o’ beans, because alliteration
Zucchini / Summer Squash
Garlic
Carrots
Beets (many varieties … Detroit Dark red, Chioggia, baby beets, golden … or secret mystery beets)
My favorite moment from this week was the Sunday evening that the whole crew spent on the screen porch,watching as the massive thunderstorm system rolled past and toward us.
The first of the cells were dozens of miles to our south, yet still visible as the constant silent barrage of high-atmosphere lightning snapped streaks across the roiling clouds.
And we weren’t the only ones watching.
The lightning bugs – which had been present but not all that common up on our hill, were out in unprecedented numbers, all around us – and not just casually blinking while leisurely flying around, either – they were darting and dashing, their lights flashing stroboscopically through the shadows of the oaks and pines.
It was an incredible display (sadly not capturable on my phone), and it seemed clear that the fireflies were flashing in response to the electrical storm going in the skies around the farm. Maybe this was really why they’re called lightning bugs!
Other than the storm, it’s been a pretty standard work week on the farm – plenty of weeding and mulching in the field, and pruning and trellising tomatoes in the high tunnel. Oh and we set the field on fire a little bit … Kristin was flame weeding while WWOOFer Marty ran the extinguishers, keeping the hay mulch from catching … until a miscalculation left him afield with an empty extinguisher just as the a new section of drier mulch caught fire in earnest.
I heard the screaming from all the way up on the hill, and came running with a big bowl of water, joining Sarah, Rob, and Marty in putting out the several patches of flaming hay that had erupted during the confusion.
Once the flames were vanquished, we took stock of the damages : a melted section of irrigation hose, and several beet plants with one side singed. Not too bad, well worth it in exchange for the refreshing burst of adrenaline and that old lesson renewed … fire is a tricky monster, even when it’s being your friend.
What else? The first ripening has begun among the tomatoes – just cherry tomatoes for now, but so it begins … there are lots of green ones throughout the rows, ripe with promise, if not redness. The peppers are peppering, the okra is downright okratic.
It’s good to be growing.
Box #5
During the course of today’s harvest, Neighbor Marcia went to check on the three baby chickens … and discovered that a fourth had just hatched!
Happy literal birthday, little chicken.
Garlic – fresh dug & uncured, which means great flavor and a lack of the papery skin you’re probably used to. Treat like regular garlic!
Baby Carrots – cut off your tops!
We leave them there because they’re beautiful, let you know they were harvested today, and they’re edible! Great for vegetable broth (perhaps with your green onion tops?) But if you are saving your carrots for a future day, give them crew cuts before they hit the fridge, or the carrots will get all rubberylike.
Zucchini – the first of several, gods willing. Kristin recommends that you chop them up and sautee them with garlic and onions, and after removing it from the heat, throw in some basil!
Kohlrabi – The aliens are getting larger and more menacing … but are still tender even at this size, as the Grand Duke variety is bred to get big without becoming woody.
Spring Onions – The green onions have now graduated to the next phase of onion plumpness!
Sugar Snap or Snow Peas – If they’re flat, hey’re snow peas and ideal for stir frying – if plump, they’re sugar snaps and best raw … in my opinion. Really, you can do both with either!
Purple & Italian Basil – DO NOT REFRIGERATE!
It will turn black and you will be sad. Put the stem in some water, or leave it in the plastic bag on the kitchen counter if you’ll be using it within a few days.
Deconstructed Napa Cabbage – it’s been a lousy year for Napa cabbage – we planted extra this year, and to our dismay it all started to flower instead of growing complete heads. It must have been the weather this year, as several of our grower friends from all around the area have had the same thing happen.
Instead of sending them to the chicken compost pile, we decided to embark upon a laborious salvage mission – pulling apart each head, removing bad leaves and the flowering centers.
It was a ridiculous amount of work and not very pleasant (our volunteer helpers almost revolted, but we stemmed the rebellion with a box of donuts). Napa has great crunch, and is very versatile – can be used fresh and raw, or stir fried, or fermented into delicious kimchi!
It’s hot. And all last night it was somehow hotter. And wetter. Not rain – we’d have loved rain – but sticky, icky humidity. The air was so wet that the mosquitoes dog paddled through it, diving through chinks in our screen armor, and snorkeling their faces down through our sweaty skin, all night long. It was a lousy sleep, but hey, it was over soon enough, as we woke up with the dawn to race the sun’s desiccating rays to the salad and pea rows.
This week’s harvest was brought to you in part by a grant from strong coffee.
But really, mostly, we’re exhausted because life is awesome and we’ve been graced with a lot of fun people and times. We’ve been up too late, imbibing too much, having too many people over, and perhaps even spending too many hours floating languidly down the Saint Croix River, sunburning ourselves in unusual spots.
4th of July float – 6 rejuvenating hours down the Saint Croix. I can see how I got the sunburns on my inner thighs …
It’s been great, but we’re excited for some home/work time, to get re-grounded; we’ve been leaving the Farm far too often for our tastes, as we make important connections with friends and family – and prepare to trade our house in South Minneapolis for a nest egg to hatch out here in the Sterling Sand Barrens.
Kristin emerges from beneath West Saint Paul
It’s all wonderful, all worthy, and we sure as heck recognize how blessed we are to face every single one of the stresses we have … but still, damn I’m hoping to fall asleep early tonight, wake up late, and spend several days without leaving the Farm at all.
CSA Members Aaron & Robby scale a wall, because it was there.
Box #4
As usual, everything in your box was harvested fresh today!
Salad Mix (red & green lettuce, green mizuna, arugula, pea tips, baby kale) We’re getting toward the end of spring salad days, as the heat cranks up and the cool-weather-loving plants throw up their seeds in surrender to summer.
this salad mix is punk as fuck
Beets (mostly Detroit Dark Red & Chioggia varieties) – Kristin likes to use feta cheese with beets, sometimes simple olive oil and salt and pepper, or compliment them with citrus flavors. We often roast the beet roots, and then chop the beet greens and toss them in toward the end, letting them wilt and combine into a beetastic dish.
(Since we are obsessed with doing all in our power to preserve the freshness of your food, we cut off the greens and bagged them together – once they leave the ground, root crops left attached to their leaves lose moisture and become withered and rubbery and sad.)
Sugar Snap Peas – also getting toward the end of these – the plants hate this heat and aren’t doing much in the way of flowers (future peas) anymore.
Green Onions – These are getting bigger now – did you know that the bulbing of onions is triggered by shortening day length? So now that we’re past the summer solstice, the onions are putting on some girth.
Broccoli – A good harvest this week!
Matriarch Deb splitting up the broccoli harvest
Hakurei Salad Turnips – these are done until maybe fall – you’ve had them a few times, maybe change up how you’re using them – if you’ve been enjoying them raw, try them roasted, or vice versa!
Sage – We ate ours in grilled hamburger this week and it was delicious; highly recommended. If you’re not able to use it now, it’s easy to dry and use later!
Shareholder Melissa’s beet/salad mix dish made this evening
WWOOFer Sarah celebrates the completion of the final row of hay mulching!
WWOOFer Marty surfs the logging operation’s woodpile
Farm babies! One of two (so far) new arrivals – spawn of Slick the Rooster & Grey Goose, the Gray
lean, mean, weeding machines
Kristin (right) getting a tractor ride from grandpa on the Farm, back in the 1980s.
