This week many weeds gave up their lives so that crop plants might flourish. The giant western weed wall fell, but not without a valiant fight, taking one of our riding lawnmowers down with it in its death throes (with a melted belt). The corn rows got their final weeding of the season, which took two people a whole day – from here on out the corn will be tall enough to shade out any competition that emerges. The peppers, eggplants, and melons all got weeded, and an entire knee-high row of lush weeds were rolled flat and buried beneath landscape fabric. So much weeding … it’s been awhile since we’ve had so much repeated rain, and therefore so much vigorous weed explosion.
Potato plants were mulched, potato beetles were picked, and old seed potatoes were discovered – the root cellar potatoes have gone feral in there. (The boys and I partied with them when we beat the heat by transforming the cellar into the Art Cave.)
WWOOFer Rog made two kinds of delicious ice cream with ingredients we procured – strawberry with a foraged juneberry swirl, and a mint leaf chocolate stracciatella. Where has Rog been for the past decade?!
inside Box Five
- Zucchini – the first of the season!
- bit o’ brassica bag – some broccoli, cauliflower, and/or kohlrabi
- Rutabagas – they’re almost always eaten cooked. Boil em, mash em, put them in a stew. Or roast em and use them like potatoes.
- Sugar Snap Peas – toss into stir fries for crunch, blanch into a chilled salad with vinaigrette, or saute with garlic and butter as a quick side … if you’re bored with eating them raw like an animal.
- Green Onions
- Napa Cabbage – Asian cabbage – usually has more of a head, but we picked it early because it’s hot and we feared they were going to bolt. Great raw in a salad with seasame dressing, or the crunchy stems make for delicious stir fry.
- Oregano – season your zucchini with some of it, add to pizza, or dry it to use at your later leisure.
