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.

It rained!!

I was pretty much resigned to it never raining again, and so I didn’t feel prepared for sky water at all when we got a half inch on Friday night, and then 3/4″ on Sunday – over three times more rain fell over the weekend than we’d had all year!

This woke up the weeds, of course, so now we spend the time we don;t have to do hand watering and move hoses around on pulling weeds from around the crops.

But it also woke us up. It feels so much less … harsh now. The dull coating of dust and old oak pollen was cleansed, our spirits, likewise renewed.

Which was good, because we needed some gumption to face the next challenge: the return of the voles. After losing almost all of our attempt at a spring broccoli crop to cutworms and deer, we were chagrined to have 20 of the fall broccoli plants devoured overnight by voles the day we put them out into the field. We quickly worked through the traditional stages of grief to the “bricks” one, and used some as an attempt at defense – plus liberal spraying of castor oil to the survivors.

Night two – they seem to have moved onto eating huge holes into kohlrabi roots, but we had enough of those to bear the wilderness tax. The broccoli abides …

What’s in Box 3

• Kohlrabi, by the A.I – One simple way to use kohlrabi is by peeling off the outer layer and slicing it into thin matchsticks to make a crunchy kohlrabi slaw. Toss it with lemon juice, olive oil, and a pinch of salt for a refreshing side dish. Don’t forget about the greens of kohlrabi. Sauté them with garlic and a splash of soy sauce for a quick and nutritious side.
• Wild spinach aka lambs quarter – We had a problem in which our entire carrot row was carpeted with a soft carpet of lambs quarter weeds. So this morning, instead of harvesting salad, we weeded the carrot row – producing a bounty of the most tender, ideal wild spinach leaves we’ve ever managed to harvest. You can use it like spinach in any recipe, but don’t cook it for too long – this is very tender stuff. Be gentle to the Microweeds.
• Green Onions
• Bok Choi
• Peas – sugar snap and snow peas
• Summer Squash / Zucchini
• Micro Mix – kale, amaranth, broccoli, radish, sunflower, pea shoots, red and cabbage micro greens – I wouldn’t eat it on my cereal, but it adds a zabinga to just about anything else.

Things You Might Try, by the A.I.

We curated its suggestions some though, the thing has some interesting ideas that we don’t want to recommend:

Here are some recipe ideas that feature two or more of the ingredients you mentioned:

1. Stir-Fried Bok Choy with Snap Peas and Spring Onions: Sauté sliced spring onions and snap peas in a wok or skillet until crisp-tender. Add chopped bok choy and stir-fry for a few minutes until wilted. Season with soy sauce, garlic, and ginger. Serve as a side dish or over rice.

2. Zucchini and Snap Pea Salad: Thinly slice zucchini and blanch snap peas until crisp-tender. Toss them together with a light vinaigrette made from lemon juice, olive oil, Dijon mustard, and fresh herbs like basil or mint. Top with shaved Parmesan cheese for extra flavor. This just doesn;t sound good. Unless you make a killer dressing.

3. Kohlrabi and Snow Pea Slaw: Shred kohlrabi and combine it with sliced snow peas in a large bowl. Add a dressing made from Greek yogurt, lemon juice, honey, and Dijon mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Let the flavors meld for a while before serving.

4. Lambs Quarter and Bok Choy Stir-Fry: Sauté lambs quarter and bok choy with garlic, ginger, and sesame oil until wilted. Add a splash of soy sauce and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes for heat. Serve as a nutritious side dish or with steamed rice. The bok choy would need more time sauteeing than the lambs quarter .. but if you’re careful it might be … I dunno Kristin says it sounds like a bunch of mush.

5. Zucchini and Kohlrabi Fritters: Grate zucchini and kohlrabi, squeeze out excess moisture, and combine with beaten eggs, breadcrumbs, grated cheese, and chopped spring onions. Form into patties and pan-fry until golden brown. Serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt or a zesty dipping sauce.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. Feel free to experiment and modify the recipes based on your preferences and available ingredients.