The weather this week was cloudy, except for when it was sunny.

 

The gray made the sunny days even more beautiful by contrast; it worked so well that in my memory, this whole week was marked by beautiful weather and warm blue skies. Although I think the facts may not support it, I’m gonna leave my impressions unrevised. It was a beautiful week, and today was a gorgeous harvest day – one of those idyllic summer weather days that we will fantasize about for all 15 months of winter weather, not humid, puffy towering clouds, warm but not baking sunshine, a gentle intermittent breeze. The kind of day that you call in sick to work to be outside in because life is short and our time in the sun so precious.

Yeah, I liked it. Harvest went nicely too, with a good crew and an increased collective understanding of how to get done what needs doing.  We’re getting better at a lot of this farming business, really – the field looks amazing, we’re getting wonderful yields from the notoriously sandy soil of the Barrens, we’ve been setting personal records at the farmers’ market … feels good, like we have our footing for the things coming next in our lives.

This week we lost Brooklyn (Baxter, Alexi, & Sean) as they departed for the rest of their year-long destination-less pilgrimage, and gained Mexico (Azela), as she begins her USA adventure with neither destination not duration determined.

We foraged feral apples and wild choke cherries,  saw the late season salad greens emerge and thinned them out, and began the annual tactical retreat from the rising tides of tomato blight.

We laid in the grass in the rain and witnessed the eclipse peeking out through the edges of the rainclouds, we preserved the fruit we’d foraged and the tomatoes too flawed to sell, we lived and we loved it and we hope you did too.

 

 

 

And now, a word from our sponsor:

BOX 11: the Stuff Inside

Tomatoes – the star of the show, the belle of the box. We are in prime tomato-time now; cherish them now for soon the ravages of entropy and time take their toll.

Carrots – Three colors, infinite shapes, many bites. We topped them so you wouldn’t have to (and so no one would forget and get the saggy carrots (also there was no room in the box for em)

Baby Broccoli – just a little bit of the side shoots that the early season crop is still producing (The fall crop is looking good, but still tiny and headless)

Beet Greens – Tasty and healthy, almost the same thing as Swiss chard. Best when cooked down a bit. Omelette or frittata? Juiced?

a Beet or Two –  we cut these off of the greens and included them. Did you know that the root of beet greens is edible? FACT!

Sweet Corn –  seems a little less sweet than the first batch, but still quite edible. Works well if cut off the cob and used in a fresh salsa, corn chowder, etc.

Eggplant – just one!?!  You guys are getting soft. Back in my day, we ate eggplant at and between every meal.

 

Zucchini – ONLY TWO zucchini!? I remember when even the CSA box itself was made out of zucchini.

Slicing Cucumbers – I blame the single digit cucumber content on The Millenials and their lack of discipline.

Sweet Pepper Medley – None of these are hot, despite appearances … we do have a lot of hot peppers starting to ripen; do you want hot peppers?!

 

 

 

 

Another beautiful week in the Barrens! Actually, the weather was pretty blah – lots of gray, lots of cool drizzle – but the people and the places and the things around us were just lovely.

Friends and family visited, helpers were pleasantly abundant, the biting bugs waned, and many good dogs partied hard.

We did a lot of foraging out in the Barrens , questing out randomly and finding some weedy logging road to crawl through in the Subaru, window shopping for fruits and fungi, then hopping out to pick here and there when good spots were found.

The haul this week was mainly chokecherries, which are having an abundant year – almost anywhere we stopped, we found little trees laden with clusters of them.

Eaten straight from the tree, they’ll make most anyone grimace. But the astringent aspect is tamed by processing their juice with sugar, and the resultant jelly is absolutely delicious. – especially when mixed with a bunch of blackberries, which are ripening all over our own woods this year.

Kristin was busy with all kinds of preservation projects, actually, from the “Barrensberry” jelly, to wild cherry extract, to pickles and relish, to dehydrated kale chips.  The Brooklynites Sean & Alexi helped her out, as they were interested to learn how these things work.

In the field, we worked on getting some of the last fall planting done; already, the radishes, turnips, lettuce planted earlier in the week are now coming up, tiny green stalks questing  up into the sunlight.

Speaking of life, we went in to the doctor and found out that our baby is perfectly in sync with the CSA – both are 10 weeks along!

And speaking of that, here’s …

the Week 10 Box:

A great box to make ratatouille or moussaka with!!

Tomatoes – the plants in the high tunnel are looking good, but the field are struggling a bit right now – the voles have decided that tomato plant roots are a delicacy, and they’re slowly messing them up but good.

Mild Pepper Medley  –(green bell, sweet banana, purple bell, frying varieties) – you may get some or all of the above, but regardless, none will burn your face off.

Shallots – often described as “the flavor of garlic and onion combined,” we decided to grow this since we have such trouble growing garlic (it must be planted in the fall, and then the voles like to feed on the bulbs underground all winter). Use like an extra-tasty onion!

Cucumbers

White Onions – weren’t planning on including these in this week’s box, but some were starting to flower so we pulled em, before they started turning their bulb energy into flower energy …

Zucchini

Eggplant – Eggplants are going strong! There will be more … be ready! They are underrated in our culture, but very versatile and, when done right, absolutely delicious …. Kristin’s advice is not to try to make them healthy, cook them with lots of oil! Or, simmer them in a tasty sauce – they absorb flavors nicely after awhile.

Beans –  the bean plants are FINALLY slowing down production, thank the gods.

Rutabagas & Rutabaga Greens – the greens can be cooked in a recipe and used anyplace that collards or turnip greens are called for. The rutabagas root have cosmetic damage from Cabbage Root Worms – not sure why the critters like them so much this year, but que sera sera – this is what you must sometimes face when you grow organically, without pesticides! We pulled the entire row up and gave you the least damaged ones – just carve or peel off the outside damage, and chop up, avoiding any ugly spots if you’d like.

Herb Mix – parsley, sage, savory, Mexican tarragon, purple basil

 

 

 

This was the week where we all realized that winter will happen. The nights have been cool, and the mornings sometimes downright chilly. We had just enough summer heat to adapt to it, and now 50 degrees brings the brrrrs. Bonfires were had, and the canning of dilly beans and the baking of chicken and chocolate beet cake were done in the inside kitchen, in order to trap some heat for the nights.

I turned 40 on Thursday, and it was not only chilly but it rained all day long, dashing plans for a day of waterfall frolicking. It would have been a bummer, except we were pretty excited for the rain – it had been awhile, and the field really needed it. So we rejoiced, indoorstyle.

When the sun returned to the land, we started testing out the new solar dehydrator, and found it quite serviceable, turning batches of kale leaves into crispy kale chips within hours.

We’re also using it to infuse jars of sunflower oil with pinion pine resin (which we’d collected in New Mexico two winters ago … once done, this will be used to make a rejuvenative salve for dry skin).

We also got some foraging in – as a birthday present, Kristin let me skip the farmer’s market and go mushroom hunting with Sean & Alexis, the Brooklynites.

We came away with a good haul, and enjoyed a delicious mushroom dinner the next night.

And then we all went out picking wild chokecherries for preserves, and some prickly ash berries for a toothache tincture.

Box 9

• Sweet Corn – eat it soon for maximum sweetness! I enjoy it fresh and raw, but it’s also good grilled & buttered.
• Heirloom Tomatoes –  everything is either ripe or close to it – even the green, orange, and yellow ones. If it is slightly giving to a gentle squeeze, it’s good to go. Let us know if you have a favorite!
  
• Potatoes (Purple or Yukon)
• Tomatillos & Jalepenos –  salsa time!
• Slicing Cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Beets
  
• Eggplant
• Beans (Purple, Green, & Yellow)

 

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.

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

 

 

This week was a game-changer.

But we can talk more about that later.

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.

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.

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.
  
• Dill – this would go great in a cucumber salad.