Summer’s peak continued to fade this week, with noticeably shorter days, less humidity, and at least one morning of temps in the 40s.

It also continued to not rain – only a total of 1.02″ for August. The grass is crispy again, and the crops require us to run the drip irrigation daily just to keep them alive. I was hoping I was wrong about this being our new normal, but it increasingly seems that I was right. Our sandy soil had us trained in moisture management, fortunately.

We ran the smokers and made our first batch of salsa, and tried to gather some chokecherries (but the drought meant our search was … fruitless.)

In other news, a mysterious tomato pecker is raiding the high tunnel. A chicken is suspected but we don’t know who … hopefully just one, so we can catch it and stop the reign of terror … a live trap baited with pecked tomatoes and a game cam are set. Updates pending. On Friday I was convinced to attend a punk concert in Minneapolis to see some old friends play … and it was quite lovely. An all-out reunion more than merely a show, which made it worthwhile getting less than 4 hours of sleep before the farmer’s market Saturday morning! Not something I’ll be making a habit of, but quite pleased to have made it happen.

Inside Box 11

Bird-Damaged Sweet Corn – Our field was assaulted by avians this week, and they pecked the ends of the second round of sweet corn … but it’s still delicious! Seems like this always happens to our later corn crops … I’m gonna have to invent some kind of awesome scarecrow with the boys next year. Anyway just cut off the damaged tips and use as normal.

Tomatoes – ripe and ready to enjoy! Store on the counter upside down for best results, as the shoulders are more firm. 

Shallots & Onions

Cherry Tomatoes – a medley of various types we grow

Cucumbers – we thought these were done, but there were some lovely survivors for the box.

Zucchini

Eggplants – maybe this is your week to make ratatouille?

assorted sweet Peppers 

Beets – we tried to group them by size, so some of you got a few big oners, others got a load of littles. But everyone got over a pound of whichever type! 

Spaghetti Squash 

Basil

Radish Microgreens – add some zippy to any dish! we love them on tacos.

a Watermelion i- f you hadn’t had one yet