Last August share...
In all shares:
Sweet corn- Sweet corn is a grass...a very strange grass cultivated in complex and amazing ways by the Southwest American Indians to produce its large cobs. The last few years of intensive modern breeding have led to much, much sweeter varieties of corn that no longer need to be cooked to be sweet and tender...lots of older recipes call for cooking corn for much longer than is necessary with modern varieties. These modern hybrids shouldn't be confused with GMO -genetically modified- corn, which is primarily in field corn and not as far as I know in sweet corn as of yet...although it's probably only a matter of time. Unlike genetic modification, hybridized crops have existed for decades and are merely the result of crossing two different varieties....in the case of sweet corn, the pollen from the tassels of the "male" plants fertilize the silks of the "female" cobs of a different corn variety.
Tomatoes- Unlike sweet corn, which modern breeding has arguably improved, modern science seems to only be interested in producing watery and flavorless supermarket tomatoes. Most of the tomatoes we grow on the farm are "heirlooms", meaning they are not hybrids, and existed before the middle of the last century when hybridization really took off. Heirloom tomatoes tend to have much better flavor, but have a shorter storage life, less disease resistance and oftentimes look a little funny as they are less cosmetically uniform.
Green beans- Beans are the third crop here that we have courtesy of American Indians, and along with corn and squash were the "three sisters" that made up a large part of the Southwest Indian diet. Beans are in the legume family along with peas, lentils, clover, alfalfa, and peanuts...all these crops are able to "fix" nitrogen in the soil, meaning they have root nodules that house bacteria that are able to take nitrogen out of the air and transform it into a form that the plants can use. Nitrogen is a primary nutrient for plants, and so legumes have long been used to restore the fertility of nitrogen depleted soils.
Carrots- Finally a crop from the old world...carrots are in the family Umbelliferae, meaning umbrella like for the shape of their seed head. This family includes a lot of herbs and aromatic vegetables, like celery, parsnip, fennel, parsley, coriander/cilantro, dill, cumin, and many more. They were cultivated from wild carrots that grow throughout Europe and west Asia, probably first in the Middle East.
Walla walla onions- Technically, it is illegal for me to call these Walla walla onions, as the city of Walla Walla, Washington has gotten a legal Appellation, much like the champagne region of France, which means that only onions grown within a certain area can be marketed as Walla wallas...but it is also the name of the variety that I grow, and rather that call them "sweet yellow onions of the Walla walla type" it is easier to just use the shorthand and hope their lawyers aren't reading my farm blog!
Parsley- As mentioned above, parsley is in the same family as carrots, and makes a great fresh herb garnish to finish a meal.
In large shares:
Sweet pepper- Another Southwestern crop, of course, sweet peppers and hot peppers are basically the same species, but bred for different levels of the capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their heat. These sweet peppers have basically none, but a great crunch and sweet flavor. Our peppers usually produce until the beginning of November, so they will be a regular in the second half of the farm share hopefully!
Summer squash- The third of the three sisters, although my understanding is that the Indians were primarily growing more what we would think of as Winter squash as a storage crop. Much like with the peppers, Summer and Winter squash are the exact same species, with different varieties just bred for different purposes; Summer squash for mild, juicy fruits produced over a long period in the Summer, and Winter squash bred to produce fewer but larger and much more nutrient dense fruits which can be stored and eaten through the Fall and Winter.
Garlic- Our garlic is all cut down and looking beautiful. Garlic is in the Allium family, along with onions, shallots, and leeks, but it is the only allium that we grow as a biennial in our climate, meaning we plant it in the Fall and don't harvest it until the following Summer. We will be getting ready to plant garlic soon, separating our own seed garlic from the garlic we can sell or give to you.
Summer keeps trucking along, although it's back to school season now, farming goes more by the true seasonal schedule, with Summer lasting until late September. That said, some Fall crops will be starting to appear in the shares over the coming weeks. Thanks!
Halfway point!
I believe this is the twelfth share, so the halfway point in our season long journey! Crazy, huh? Lots of late Summer and Fall shares still to come.
In all shares this week:
Lettuce- Head lettuce is back in the shares this week, after escaping deer predation for a few weeks we have a nice new planting on! It's back!
Chard- We have the nicest planting of Swiss chard we've ever had this time of year. Usually as the weather gets really hot and dry the leaves get smaller and less vibrant, but they're still super nice right now somehow in spite of the driest Summer ever.
Strawberries- After packing the shares on Wednesday of last week, we picked the berries again on Thursday, and the fruit was suddenly just bigger, shinier, juicier and sweeter than it had been just a few days before...I don't know why, the berries are a total mystery to me this year. But it made me feel like we should have waited a week! Then I thought, what the heck, no one will mind getting strawberries two weeks in a row. And we suddenly have so many!
http://www.food.com/recipe/simple-strawberry-sorbet-236642
Tomatoes- The tomatoes have definitely been a bit slower to hit their peak this year than in the past few seasons, but they are really starting to produce heavily and ripen more quickly now. We should have some really nice ones for the shares this week.
Apache bunch onions- These are the red bunching onions that were in your share back in the late Spring, but this is a new bed that was direct sewn, so the onions are a bit smaller but really delicious, like big sweet red scallions.
Radishes- Radishes haven't been in all shares for a good long time, so here they come.
Summer squash- Just one or two squashes to round out this week's share. Bobbie wants to get a spiralizer after we had some delicious zucchini pasta at a friend's house last weekend:
http://inspiralized.com/the-three-best-ways-to-cook-spiralized-zucchini-noodles/
You can do a version of this with just a peeler, too.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-to-make-zucchini-noodles-with-or-without-a-spiralizer/
Large shares only:
Beets- A handful of topped mixed beets in the large shares...use your beets, radishes, and chard in a flash:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/roasted-beet-salad-with-flash-pickled-radishes-and-chard-56389491
Sweet corn- Our earliest beds are still going, but the newer beds haven't started, so we still don't have tons of corn on yet.
Lemon cucumber- A few more of our little round yellow lemon cukes. Great for snacking.
Well, Max and Angela have headed South, but I'm so happy that Jack is back for a few weeks to help us get through the rest of the Summer! Jack has been working with me at Ebb Tide for four years now, but left this season to pursue a career teaching high school math...about as far from farming as you can imagine! Fortunately for me, he has some time to kill before beginning his classroom observation requirement in mid September, and decided to spend it on a working holiday back on beautiful Whidbey Island. By the time he has to leave in September I'm hoping that things will have slowed down a bit and we will be caught up on some big harvest projects to get by with just myself, Jess and Brian.
The warm dry weather continues, but it is great for all of our fruiting crops right now. I am preparing for the first signs of Fall and trying to enjoy the last bit of high Summer!
In all shares this week:
Lettuce- Head lettuce is back in the shares this week, after escaping deer predation for a few weeks we have a nice new planting on! It's back!
Chard- We have the nicest planting of Swiss chard we've ever had this time of year. Usually as the weather gets really hot and dry the leaves get smaller and less vibrant, but they're still super nice right now somehow in spite of the driest Summer ever.
Strawberries- After packing the shares on Wednesday of last week, we picked the berries again on Thursday, and the fruit was suddenly just bigger, shinier, juicier and sweeter than it had been just a few days before...I don't know why, the berries are a total mystery to me this year. But it made me feel like we should have waited a week! Then I thought, what the heck, no one will mind getting strawberries two weeks in a row. And we suddenly have so many!
http://www.food.com/recipe/simple-strawberry-sorbet-236642
Tomatoes- The tomatoes have definitely been a bit slower to hit their peak this year than in the past few seasons, but they are really starting to produce heavily and ripen more quickly now. We should have some really nice ones for the shares this week.
Apache bunch onions- These are the red bunching onions that were in your share back in the late Spring, but this is a new bed that was direct sewn, so the onions are a bit smaller but really delicious, like big sweet red scallions.
Radishes- Radishes haven't been in all shares for a good long time, so here they come.
Summer squash- Just one or two squashes to round out this week's share. Bobbie wants to get a spiralizer after we had some delicious zucchini pasta at a friend's house last weekend:
http://inspiralized.com/the-three-best-ways-to-cook-spiralized-zucchini-noodles/
You can do a version of this with just a peeler, too.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-to-make-zucchini-noodles-with-or-without-a-spiralizer/
Large shares only:
Beets- A handful of topped mixed beets in the large shares...use your beets, radishes, and chard in a flash:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/roasted-beet-salad-with-flash-pickled-radishes-and-chard-56389491
Sweet corn- Our earliest beds are still going, but the newer beds haven't started, so we still don't have tons of corn on yet.
Lemon cucumber- A few more of our little round yellow lemon cukes. Great for snacking.
Well, Max and Angela have headed South, but I'm so happy that Jack is back for a few weeks to help us get through the rest of the Summer! Jack has been working with me at Ebb Tide for four years now, but left this season to pursue a career teaching high school math...about as far from farming as you can imagine! Fortunately for me, he has some time to kill before beginning his classroom observation requirement in mid September, and decided to spend it on a working holiday back on beautiful Whidbey Island. By the time he has to leave in September I'm hoping that things will have slowed down a bit and we will be caught up on some big harvest projects to get by with just myself, Jess and Brian.
The warm dry weather continues, but it is great for all of our fruiting crops right now. I am preparing for the first signs of Fall and trying to enjoy the last bit of high Summer!
Farm share for August 16...
Well, the smoke has mostly cleared and after a pretty inconsequential amount of rainfall, the dry warm weather continues. Lots of crops still in the field, but we are beginning the late Summer project of bringing in storage crops, with the first onions coming out of the field yesterday.
Here's what's in all of this week's shares:
Strawberries! Thank goodness, they are finally back. We have picked a lot of berries over the past week so I think we can finally get them back in the share for the first time in weeks!
Carrots- So many carrots! I thought I was planting less carrots than last year, but it seems like we have more than ever. I don't quite understand how this happened. It's nice to have lots of delicious carrots though!
Fresh beans- It is peak bean season now, and the plants are loaded with them. They take a while to pick, but are otherwise fun and easy to grow. This week you'll get a mix of green and purple beans.
Use this recipe for your carrots, beans, cucumbers, cauliflower...whatever you want...
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-quick-pickle-any-vegetable-233882
Garlic- All of our garlic varieties should now be dry and ready to eat, so it's time to start cutting them all down. What better time to put some more garlic in the farm share...
Sweet corn!! Our first planting of sweet corn has a lot of ears that are veeery close, but I think there are enough ripe ones to put two ears in each share. More corn to come! Hoping to have it in the shares pretty regularly over the next month.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/222352/jamies-sweet-and-easy-corn-on-the-cob/
Cucumbers- It feels like the cucumbers have been producing forever, but they will begin to slow down soon. It really isn't a super long season, starting at the end of June or early July, and then petering out through September, so enjoy them while they're still around!
https://www.gardendesign.com/recipes/spicy-cucumber-salad.html
Dill- A bunch of nice fresh dill to go with the fresh beans, cucumbers, or both...it's up to you.
And in large shares:
Tomatoes- After the cooler weekend we actually don't seem to have as many ripe tomatoes as last week, but I'm guessing it's the calm before the storm, as there are tons of green tomatoes on the vines, and I'm hoping that the return of the sun means we should have lots and lots of tomatoes after this short lull.
Cauliflower- This is the last of the Summer cauliflower! Our whole Summer brassica field is slowly emptying out...they are planted way down at the bottom of the property with the onions, which will also be quickly winding down and will soon be brought into the barn, leaving a big empty field with nothing but scallions and leeks! It's time to start planning to put in cover crop for the Fall and Winter already....we will have more Fall brassicas later on that are planted in a different spot.
Sweet onions- These are the onions mentioned above that are the first to be brought out of the lower field. They were planted earlier and so are a bit ahead of our other long storage onions and shallots, which we'll probably be bringing in a few weeks from now.
Sadly, this is the last farm share pick day for our interns, Max and Angela. They are headed back South, first to see the eclipse in Oregon and then Angela will return to school in Los Angelos later this month. They have been a huge help on the farm this year, arriving at the end of May and getting us through our busiest season in June and July.
Many small to medium sized vegetable farms now rely on interns like Max and Ang to provide affordable seasonal labor. The farm gets help with planting, weeding and harvesting during the busy Summer months, and the interns in turn get housing and fresh food, a modest living stipend, and most importantly experience and education on a working farm. This was basically how I started my career in farming back in 2007 at Sauvie Island Organics, a few miles outside of Portland, Oregon.
Many farm interns go on to start their own operations, so this is really a key part of the growth in small organic farm operations all over the U.S. Max and Ang have been hard workers with a great attitude all Summer long....they will be missed!
Here's what's in all of this week's shares:
Strawberries! Thank goodness, they are finally back. We have picked a lot of berries over the past week so I think we can finally get them back in the share for the first time in weeks!
Carrots- So many carrots! I thought I was planting less carrots than last year, but it seems like we have more than ever. I don't quite understand how this happened. It's nice to have lots of delicious carrots though!
Fresh beans- It is peak bean season now, and the plants are loaded with them. They take a while to pick, but are otherwise fun and easy to grow. This week you'll get a mix of green and purple beans.
Use this recipe for your carrots, beans, cucumbers, cauliflower...whatever you want...
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-quick-pickle-any-vegetable-233882
Garlic- All of our garlic varieties should now be dry and ready to eat, so it's time to start cutting them all down. What better time to put some more garlic in the farm share...
Sweet corn!! Our first planting of sweet corn has a lot of ears that are veeery close, but I think there are enough ripe ones to put two ears in each share. More corn to come! Hoping to have it in the shares pretty regularly over the next month.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/222352/jamies-sweet-and-easy-corn-on-the-cob/
Cucumbers- It feels like the cucumbers have been producing forever, but they will begin to slow down soon. It really isn't a super long season, starting at the end of June or early July, and then petering out through September, so enjoy them while they're still around!
https://www.gardendesign.com/recipes/spicy-cucumber-salad.html
Dill- A bunch of nice fresh dill to go with the fresh beans, cucumbers, or both...it's up to you.
And in large shares:
Tomatoes- After the cooler weekend we actually don't seem to have as many ripe tomatoes as last week, but I'm guessing it's the calm before the storm, as there are tons of green tomatoes on the vines, and I'm hoping that the return of the sun means we should have lots and lots of tomatoes after this short lull.
Cauliflower- This is the last of the Summer cauliflower! Our whole Summer brassica field is slowly emptying out...they are planted way down at the bottom of the property with the onions, which will also be quickly winding down and will soon be brought into the barn, leaving a big empty field with nothing but scallions and leeks! It's time to start planning to put in cover crop for the Fall and Winter already....we will have more Fall brassicas later on that are planted in a different spot.
Sweet onions- These are the onions mentioned above that are the first to be brought out of the lower field. They were planted earlier and so are a bit ahead of our other long storage onions and shallots, which we'll probably be bringing in a few weeks from now.
Sadly, this is the last farm share pick day for our interns, Max and Angela. They are headed back South, first to see the eclipse in Oregon and then Angela will return to school in Los Angelos later this month. They have been a huge help on the farm this year, arriving at the end of May and getting us through our busiest season in June and July.
Many small to medium sized vegetable farms now rely on interns like Max and Ang to provide affordable seasonal labor. The farm gets help with planting, weeding and harvesting during the busy Summer months, and the interns in turn get housing and fresh food, a modest living stipend, and most importantly experience and education on a working farm. This was basically how I started my career in farming back in 2007 at Sauvie Island Organics, a few miles outside of Portland, Oregon.
Many farm interns go on to start their own operations, so this is really a key part of the growth in small organic farm operations all over the U.S. Max and Ang have been hard workers with a great attitude all Summer long....they will be missed!
Warm smoky Summer
All Shares:
Beets- It's been a while since beets were in the farm share, and we've got a lot of them, so we'll give you a mix of our red, gold, and chioggia beets this week. If you still have some carrots in the fridge:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/beet-and-carrot-salad-with-curry-dressing-and-pistachios
Lettuce- After a few weeks of lettuce hiatus, it's back in the farm share....hopefully the deer don't get into the field to chomp it down before we can pick it. Our high fence lines do a pretty good job of keeping the deer out through the growing season, but when it gets this dry and all their other food sources start to peter out, they get very motivated!
Tomatoes- The tomatoes are ramping up, we seem to get a little more each time we pick them. Just this week we topped the plants to encourage them to set and ripen more fruit, and stopped watering them, which should encourage ripening and make the fruit more flavorful. If you have tomatoes in pots or in a super dry spot in your garden you wouldn't want to do this, but their roots go incredibly deep by the time the plants get mature, so ours should have no problem finding plenty of water deep down in the soil.
I love to have toast or a bagel with cream cheese and tomato slices, salt and pepper when the tomatoes are in season. And we've got a long ways to go, knock on wood...hopefully several months of tomatoes in our future.
Melons- Melon time! Very exciting. Our melons came on very early and very suddenly this season, so I think we should be able to put a full melon in each share! Most will be "Visa", our green fleshed Galia melons that are a bit earlier, but there will be a few Charentais french cantaloupes and maybe a few other cantaloupes mixed in too. A great breakfast or dessert this time of year!
Melons are fun and challenging to pick, usually they change colors a bit when they are ready, but then a gently tug on the vine reveals whether or not they "slip", or release when they are fully ripe. They make for heavy crates though, and heavy farm shares.
http://www.marthastewart.com/search/results?keys=melon%20recipe
Summer squash- Still chugging along, the summer squash show no sign of stopping yet. If you're sick of grilled or sauteed squash, you could try doing a quick pickle for something different.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nancy-fuller/quick-pickled-zucchini-3539077
Scallions- These scallions were direct sewn in the Spring, rather than transplanting starts, and they have grown up beautifully and are the perfect size right now.
Small Shares:
Cauliflower-Large shares just got cauliflower last week, so I thought we'd just put it in the small shares this week....lots of cauliflower in the field right now!
Large Shares:
Carrots- It is not such a bad thing to have too many carrots, as they hold well in the ground until it's time to dig them up. But boy, we have a lot of carrots in the ground right now! See the recipe above for beets and carrot salad...
Green peppers- The first pick from our pepper plants...these green peppers will eventually turn red if left on the plants, except the plants set so many fruits early in the season that they have trouble ripening them all. By thinning for some green peppers it actually can help the plants a bit, and you get some delicious green peppers to show for it.
Basil- Bobbi made a delicious and simple basil dip this week by just blending up some basil, yogurt, salt and pepper and i think olive oil and garlic in the blender. It was great with raw veggies like carrots, cauliflower, beans and cucumber.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/basil-flatbread-with-roasted-tomatoes-and-basil-oil-5710
Kale- We haven't had as many braising greens as usual in the large shares of late, so I figured some Lacinato kale would be nice.
In the heart of the farming season now, and I think everyone is having a great time. It has been a bit warm and muggy, and of course very smoky at times out in the field lately...but mostly it just makes me grateful to be farming here on Whidbey and not somewhere that experiences real Summer heat. Angela, our farm intern, is from Las Vegas, where it was recently 116 degrees or something crazy like that. I can't imagine. I actually enjoy warm and even humid weather for the most part, but I would not enjoy farming in it, not to mention all the bugs!
It is great to get a few weeks of warmer Summer weather, to help ripen the tomatoes, corn, and peppers and melons, to feel motivated to go jump in Goss Lake as much as possible, and we have been taking longer lunch breaks to be in the shade for a bit. But after being impatient for the Summer to come throughout our cool Spring, I'm usually starting to look forward to the Fall by the time September rolls around.
Beets- It's been a while since beets were in the farm share, and we've got a lot of them, so we'll give you a mix of our red, gold, and chioggia beets this week. If you still have some carrots in the fridge:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/beet-and-carrot-salad-with-curry-dressing-and-pistachios
Lettuce- After a few weeks of lettuce hiatus, it's back in the farm share....hopefully the deer don't get into the field to chomp it down before we can pick it. Our high fence lines do a pretty good job of keeping the deer out through the growing season, but when it gets this dry and all their other food sources start to peter out, they get very motivated!
Tomatoes- The tomatoes are ramping up, we seem to get a little more each time we pick them. Just this week we topped the plants to encourage them to set and ripen more fruit, and stopped watering them, which should encourage ripening and make the fruit more flavorful. If you have tomatoes in pots or in a super dry spot in your garden you wouldn't want to do this, but their roots go incredibly deep by the time the plants get mature, so ours should have no problem finding plenty of water deep down in the soil.
I love to have toast or a bagel with cream cheese and tomato slices, salt and pepper when the tomatoes are in season. And we've got a long ways to go, knock on wood...hopefully several months of tomatoes in our future.
Melons- Melon time! Very exciting. Our melons came on very early and very suddenly this season, so I think we should be able to put a full melon in each share! Most will be "Visa", our green fleshed Galia melons that are a bit earlier, but there will be a few Charentais french cantaloupes and maybe a few other cantaloupes mixed in too. A great breakfast or dessert this time of year!
Melons are fun and challenging to pick, usually they change colors a bit when they are ready, but then a gently tug on the vine reveals whether or not they "slip", or release when they are fully ripe. They make for heavy crates though, and heavy farm shares.
http://www.marthastewart.com/search/results?keys=melon%20recipe
Summer squash- Still chugging along, the summer squash show no sign of stopping yet. If you're sick of grilled or sauteed squash, you could try doing a quick pickle for something different.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nancy-fuller/quick-pickled-zucchini-3539077
Scallions- These scallions were direct sewn in the Spring, rather than transplanting starts, and they have grown up beautifully and are the perfect size right now.
Small Shares:
Cauliflower-Large shares just got cauliflower last week, so I thought we'd just put it in the small shares this week....lots of cauliflower in the field right now!
Large Shares:
Carrots- It is not such a bad thing to have too many carrots, as they hold well in the ground until it's time to dig them up. But boy, we have a lot of carrots in the ground right now! See the recipe above for beets and carrot salad...
Green peppers- The first pick from our pepper plants...these green peppers will eventually turn red if left on the plants, except the plants set so many fruits early in the season that they have trouble ripening them all. By thinning for some green peppers it actually can help the plants a bit, and you get some delicious green peppers to show for it.
Basil- Bobbi made a delicious and simple basil dip this week by just blending up some basil, yogurt, salt and pepper and i think olive oil and garlic in the blender. It was great with raw veggies like carrots, cauliflower, beans and cucumber.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/basil-flatbread-with-roasted-tomatoes-and-basil-oil-5710
Kale- We haven't had as many braising greens as usual in the large shares of late, so I figured some Lacinato kale would be nice.
In the heart of the farming season now, and I think everyone is having a great time. It has been a bit warm and muggy, and of course very smoky at times out in the field lately...but mostly it just makes me grateful to be farming here on Whidbey and not somewhere that experiences real Summer heat. Angela, our farm intern, is from Las Vegas, where it was recently 116 degrees or something crazy like that. I can't imagine. I actually enjoy warm and even humid weather for the most part, but I would not enjoy farming in it, not to mention all the bugs!
It is great to get a few weeks of warmer Summer weather, to help ripen the tomatoes, corn, and peppers and melons, to feel motivated to go jump in Goss Lake as much as possible, and we have been taking longer lunch breaks to be in the shade for a bit. But after being impatient for the Summer to come throughout our cool Spring, I'm usually starting to look forward to the Fall by the time September rolls around.
Ninth Farm Share This Week!
Our first August share, and I'm happy to report I think we will have enough tomatoes to put a little bit in each share. Here's what all you can look forward to:
Arugula- Try as I might, we always seem to hit a little gap in the head lettuce at some point in mid Summer. This year looks like it might be no exception...although we do have quite a bit of our big green leaf lettuce, "Bergam's", we're running thin on red lettuce just for a short time. Fortunately, we have lots of nice bunching sized arugula that makes for a nice, slightly spicy Summer salad.
Carrots- Into a new bed of carrots, but they are just as big and beautiful as our earlier planting. Really nice carrots this year!
Fresh beans- Round two of fresh beans in the share this week...the purple beans aren't producing as much this time around, but we should have plenty of green and yellow beans...
Cilantro- I haven't gotten cilantro in the share yet, because it's hard to time it right before it bolts to seed. But we have a nice little patch of cilantro that is still a bit small, but should be great tasting, and with the first tomatoes in the share this week, maybe it the cilantro was destined for salsa season.
Tomato- The plants are loaded with green fruit, but it has been surprisingly slow to start ripening, in spite of this warm weather. That said, I think we should have enough to put a few slicer tomatoes in the large shares, and a half pint of cherry tomatoes in small shares. We will flip it around for next week, so if you get cherry tomatoes now you'll get some slicers soon and vice versa.
Walla walla onion- Another critical salsa component....the sweet onions keep getting bigger and better. The tops are starting to dry back now, so soon we will be bringing them out of the field to dry down all the way in the greenhouse.
Cucumber- Our first cucumber plants are starting to slow down, but the lemon cukes, which were planted a bit later and take a bit longer to produce, are just getting going, so there may be some more lemon cucumbers in the farm shares this week.
Large Shares only:
Shelling peas!- Unlike the snap peas, these peas need to be removed from their hulls, so it takes a little bit of prep work, but is well worth it for the delicious fresh peas. The hulls are great for adding a pea flavor to vegetable stocks or sauces, too.
Cauliflower- After the huge heads of cauliflower in the large shares a few weeks ago, these ones will be a bit puny in comparison, but still very tasty....and your farm share bag shouldn't weigh 30 lbs, which is nice!
Radishes- A bunch of our Summer "Rudy" radishes, another good addition for salsa or tacos! We've really got a theme this week.
I have finally gotten through the "denial" phase of our strawberry problem this year and reached "acceptance"....there is definitely something wrong with the strawberry plants! We were speculating about maybe pollination being an issue, but there seem to be lots of bees buzzing around and even green fruit that never seems to be reaching ripeness. I don't get it. It's very frustrating. I may have to try to contact WSU or some ag specialist who can help me figure out what's going on....but I'm sorry there haven't been more berries in your shares or in the stand this Summer!
But aside from that downer note, everything on the farm is going great. We planted many of the Fall crops yesterday, like Fall lettuce, endive and radicchio, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and more...
I enlisted the help of the other half of our intern duo, Max, to write something for the blog this week, and here is his brilliant submission:
Every day as I arrive at Ebb Tide I say, “Hello Farm,” and every
day as I leave I say, “Goodbye Farm.” This very well may sound like a load of
new age woo-woo hippiespeak, but it’s something I stand by wholeheartedly. One
of the things that has always attracted me to farming is the fact that, unlike
many other jobs, you are nearly constantly surrounded by a living, breathing
environment. It is not an office, with filtered air and sterilized keyboards.
It is not a restaurant, with grease traps and processed foods. It is not a
construction site, full of smelted metals and sliced up trees. The farm is
alive, and it buzzes with life. As you walk through rows of corn or
strawberries or cucumbers each plant is an entity, constantly changing –
photosynthesizing, vegetating, blooming, fruiting, dying – in response to
outside stimuli. Row after row of living breathing beings (who, I believe, you
can get to know as much or as little as you want) make up the Farm, the super
organism, the Mega Mama, the Forest to our Doug Firs, the Ocean to our Useless
Bay, the Milky Way to our Solar System.
And for such reasons, I feel a simple “Hello” in the morning is
the least I can do.
Of course, as a farmer, there is as much death in any season as
there is life (which gives rise to the ever-looming goodbye). Any seed started
guarantees an inevitable uprooting and destruction. Any harvest guarantees a
clutch of “culls” – fruit and veggies that are deemed unsellable and proceed to
sit in crates, scalding in the sun, wilting in the rain, maybe perhaps getting
taken home by a farmer whose fridge is already stocked with its own batch of
decaying veggies but are more realistically fated to the compost pit, haven of
garden snakes, earthworms, and little bits of “Whidbey Island Grown” twist ties
that always slip through. Even the act of harvest is, in itself, a major part
of the Yang – Shiva the Destroyer sitting down in the carrot patch, saying
“This will be my dinner, and this will be my snack!”
It is amazing to me, when I think about it, how much of a
culmination every weekly blue Ebb Tide CSA bag really is. Not only is it the
culmination of the physical energies of Blake, Jess, Brian, Sequoia, Angela,
and I, but it is also the culmination of all the growth (and sometimes even the
entire life) of whatever vegetables may wander into the share that week. It is
the culmination of all the rain, wind, and solar radiation we’ve had for the
past five months. It is the culmination of the eons of geologic time since
glacier seepage left this bit of sand here, this bit of clay there, this bit of
boulder over yonder. It’s the culmination of however much you want it to be.
A not-so-wise man once told me, “Some can read the whole
Bhagavad Gita and think it was just a nice story, others read the back of a
milk carton and find all of enlightenment.” So who knows what it really is.
Maybe it’s just a sack of veggies – proteins, carbs, and so on. Alls I know is,
it sure was a grand old time grabbin’ it out the field for ya.
Happy August!
Max
Off-Brand Croc Specialist
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