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!
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
July 26th already
Jeez, the Summer is flying by. I can't believe next week is already August. Here's what's in this week's share:
Spinach- Spinach is back! The spinach is kind of impossible to grow right around the Summer solstice, as the long days cause it to bolt, or go to seed. This planting got in just late enough to have produced nice sized plants with no bolting. We don't have a ton, so it might be a smaller bunch size.
Snap peas- Real 100% snap peas! I did the final planting of the Spring with last year's seed, which didn't have the snow pea mix up that the new seed had. So we have some nice fat normal snap peas at last! The snap peas go downhill fast in August, so this will probably be the last time for them!
Broccoli- Mid summer broccoli. The heads form a bit differently and don't get quite as big as the early Summer stuff, but it's still delicious. Most of the U.S. is too hot to grow broccoli this time of year, but with our cooler maritime climate the broccoli is happy as a clam.
http://www.marthastewart.com/1011281/broccoli-recipes
Basil- We have had the best season for basil in years...The last few years the basil was succumbing early to some kind of disease...this season I tried to plan for that by doing numerous smaller plantings, but as it turns out our earliest basil planting is still doing great and going strong.
http://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/7-ways-with/recipes-using-fresh-basil
Summer squash- I took a hoe and chopped down some gigantic summer squash plants yesterday, cutting them down in their prime. It felt wrong, but at the same time we are overwhelmed with squash (as we always are this time of year) and it's pointless to spend tons of time picking plants if we don't need them. I try to avoid having way too much, but as you all probably know from gardening experience, it can be easier said than done.
Potatoes- Wow, our potato crop is really looking great. We are all done with the French fingerlings that were in the shares a few weeks ago, and into our main planting of spuds. I think this week we'll be digging Desiree potatoes, a beautiful pink potato with a yellow interior bred in the Netherlands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9sir%C3%A9e_(potato)
Garlic- With the garlic all hung and drying in the barn, all that remains to do is to cut it down once it's fully dried and store it until it sells or is used for seed.
Large shares only:
Leeks- This will be our first harvest of Summer leeks, and they are really looking good and sizing up quickly. These leeks should stand in the field until they are harvested, and hopefully should last through the late Summer and early Fall. Vichyssoise is a famous cold Summer soup of potatoes and leeks, perfect for this farm share:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/13205/vichyssoise/
Cucumbers- Not much to left to say on the cucumbers, they keep on pumping out fruit. Might not be long before I'm forced to take a hoe to a few of these plants as well....
More Potatoes, garlic, and broccoli....
Another warm week on the farm after a cooler weekend, and not a drop of rain in well over a month! The vegetables are thriving with the help of Max, who is in charge of irrigation duty this year. It is a big job to keep everything watered sufficiently in June and July when the weather is driest and the fields are at their fullest. We water almost everything off of a domestic well, with limited water flow and pressure, so the weekly irrigation can really be a puzzle as far as figuring out how to get it all done with only so many hours in the day.
That said, it is already starting to get easier. By August, we are tilling in a lot of our early beds that are finished producing, and while we are continuing to plant a few more things for Fall, that still helps. At the same time, many storage crops like potatoes and onions are being cut off of watering to encourage them to dry down and improve storability. Every week the puzzle gets easier.
Spinach- Spinach is back! The spinach is kind of impossible to grow right around the Summer solstice, as the long days cause it to bolt, or go to seed. This planting got in just late enough to have produced nice sized plants with no bolting. We don't have a ton, so it might be a smaller bunch size.
Snap peas- Real 100% snap peas! I did the final planting of the Spring with last year's seed, which didn't have the snow pea mix up that the new seed had. So we have some nice fat normal snap peas at last! The snap peas go downhill fast in August, so this will probably be the last time for them!
Broccoli- Mid summer broccoli. The heads form a bit differently and don't get quite as big as the early Summer stuff, but it's still delicious. Most of the U.S. is too hot to grow broccoli this time of year, but with our cooler maritime climate the broccoli is happy as a clam.
http://www.marthastewart.com/1011281/broccoli-recipes
Basil- We have had the best season for basil in years...The last few years the basil was succumbing early to some kind of disease...this season I tried to plan for that by doing numerous smaller plantings, but as it turns out our earliest basil planting is still doing great and going strong.
http://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/7-ways-with/recipes-using-fresh-basil
Summer squash- I took a hoe and chopped down some gigantic summer squash plants yesterday, cutting them down in their prime. It felt wrong, but at the same time we are overwhelmed with squash (as we always are this time of year) and it's pointless to spend tons of time picking plants if we don't need them. I try to avoid having way too much, but as you all probably know from gardening experience, it can be easier said than done.
Potatoes- Wow, our potato crop is really looking great. We are all done with the French fingerlings that were in the shares a few weeks ago, and into our main planting of spuds. I think this week we'll be digging Desiree potatoes, a beautiful pink potato with a yellow interior bred in the Netherlands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9sir%C3%A9e_(potato)
Garlic- With the garlic all hung and drying in the barn, all that remains to do is to cut it down once it's fully dried and store it until it sells or is used for seed.
Large shares only:
Leeks- This will be our first harvest of Summer leeks, and they are really looking good and sizing up quickly. These leeks should stand in the field until they are harvested, and hopefully should last through the late Summer and early Fall. Vichyssoise is a famous cold Summer soup of potatoes and leeks, perfect for this farm share:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/13205/vichyssoise/
Cucumbers- Not much to left to say on the cucumbers, they keep on pumping out fruit. Might not be long before I'm forced to take a hoe to a few of these plants as well....
More Potatoes, garlic, and broccoli....
Another warm week on the farm after a cooler weekend, and not a drop of rain in well over a month! The vegetables are thriving with the help of Max, who is in charge of irrigation duty this year. It is a big job to keep everything watered sufficiently in June and July when the weather is driest and the fields are at their fullest. We water almost everything off of a domestic well, with limited water flow and pressure, so the weekly irrigation can really be a puzzle as far as figuring out how to get it all done with only so many hours in the day.
That said, it is already starting to get easier. By August, we are tilling in a lot of our early beds that are finished producing, and while we are continuing to plant a few more things for Fall, that still helps. At the same time, many storage crops like potatoes and onions are being cut off of watering to encourage them to dry down and improve storability. Every week the puzzle gets easier.
New Farm Share
A nice mid Summer share for you all this week, all shares will be getting:
Fresh beans- This will be our first pick on the bean plants this year. We are growing a mix of green, yellow, and purple beans, and if they are all producing we'll put a mix of colors in your shares. Our first bean seeding germinated a little poorly because the soil was still so cool in early May, but the plants are so productive we should still have plenty of fresh beans.
Cauliflower- Our first cauliflower planting is on, and it is a beautiful crop of nice sized heads. Cauliflower takes longer to head up than broccoli, and is much more sensitive to the vagaries of weather and pests in the early Spring, so I tend to plant it out a bit later in order to have it in July. We have quite a few later plantings in for the rest of the Summer and Fall, too, so you should see it a few more times in your shares! I guess this is a vegan blog, but the recipes look great:
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/cauliflower-recipes/
Carrots- We finally finished picking out of our first carrot planting yesterday, which was right up by the farm stand. The carrots continued to get bigger and bigger as weeks went on, so when we cleared the last of them we got some beauties to put in the fridge and pack into your shares tomorrow.
Lettuce- We'll pick a mix of different lettuces to go into shares tomorrow, so it will be a bit of a grab bag with green romaines, mini red romaines, red leafs, and green butters all a possibility in your share...
Cucumber- Lots of cucumbers coming on, and they are at their best right now. The cukes should hopefully continue through the rest of the Summer, but right now in mid July is really their time.
http://www.marthastewart.com/274508/cucumber-recipes
Walla walla onion- These sweet yellow onions keep getting bigger and juicier out in the field....soon they will complete their growth cycle and we will stop watering them so they can begin to dry down and be brought into the barn for storage. These sweet onions don't store nearly as long as storage varieties, but they can still be doing great in storage into the early Fall.
Parsley- A nice fresh bunch of Italian parsley, which is a great herb for livening up the flavor of so many vegetables. It can be chopped in a salad or in blended in a dressing, or sprinkled over almost any vegetable dish.
And in the large shares:
Zucchini- The summer squash plants keep on producing. The plants themselves are starting to reach pretty epic size, probably over three feet tall and four feet wide, and they are still pumping out lots more fruit and flowers.
Broccoli- So much nice broccoli right now! It came on very suddenly, and sooner than I expected, which tends to be what happens with the broccoli this time of year. We'll try to get broccoli in all shares next week.
Pea vines- Just a little bit of pea vines, a nice green treat. They are good raw, or very lightly sauteed or stir fried. Something new to try!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/26/pea-shoots_n_1451984.html
And larger amounts of beans, onion, and carrots.
Tomatoes, eggplants and melons are all just a few weeks out! Sweet corn and peppers not too far behind! And boy, I hope we get some more strawberries again soon, the drought continues. As soon as we get a decent amount they'll be back in the share.
Fresh beans- This will be our first pick on the bean plants this year. We are growing a mix of green, yellow, and purple beans, and if they are all producing we'll put a mix of colors in your shares. Our first bean seeding germinated a little poorly because the soil was still so cool in early May, but the plants are so productive we should still have plenty of fresh beans.
Cauliflower- Our first cauliflower planting is on, and it is a beautiful crop of nice sized heads. Cauliflower takes longer to head up than broccoli, and is much more sensitive to the vagaries of weather and pests in the early Spring, so I tend to plant it out a bit later in order to have it in July. We have quite a few later plantings in for the rest of the Summer and Fall, too, so you should see it a few more times in your shares! I guess this is a vegan blog, but the recipes look great:
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/cauliflower-recipes/
Carrots- We finally finished picking out of our first carrot planting yesterday, which was right up by the farm stand. The carrots continued to get bigger and bigger as weeks went on, so when we cleared the last of them we got some beauties to put in the fridge and pack into your shares tomorrow.
Lettuce- We'll pick a mix of different lettuces to go into shares tomorrow, so it will be a bit of a grab bag with green romaines, mini red romaines, red leafs, and green butters all a possibility in your share...
Cucumber- Lots of cucumbers coming on, and they are at their best right now. The cukes should hopefully continue through the rest of the Summer, but right now in mid July is really their time.
http://www.marthastewart.com/274508/cucumber-recipes
Walla walla onion- These sweet yellow onions keep getting bigger and juicier out in the field....soon they will complete their growth cycle and we will stop watering them so they can begin to dry down and be brought into the barn for storage. These sweet onions don't store nearly as long as storage varieties, but they can still be doing great in storage into the early Fall.
Parsley- A nice fresh bunch of Italian parsley, which is a great herb for livening up the flavor of so many vegetables. It can be chopped in a salad or in blended in a dressing, or sprinkled over almost any vegetable dish.
And in the large shares:
Zucchini- The summer squash plants keep on producing. The plants themselves are starting to reach pretty epic size, probably over three feet tall and four feet wide, and they are still pumping out lots more fruit and flowers.
Broccoli- So much nice broccoli right now! It came on very suddenly, and sooner than I expected, which tends to be what happens with the broccoli this time of year. We'll try to get broccoli in all shares next week.
Pea vines- Just a little bit of pea vines, a nice green treat. They are good raw, or very lightly sauteed or stir fried. Something new to try!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/26/pea-shoots_n_1451984.html
And larger amounts of beans, onion, and carrots.
Tomatoes, eggplants and melons are all just a few weeks out! Sweet corn and peppers not too far behind! And boy, I hope we get some more strawberries again soon, the drought continues. As soon as we get a decent amount they'll be back in the share.
It's mid July....
It's mid July and here's what's in this week's share..
All shares are getting:
Carrots- A BIG bunch of carrots in the share this week, as we have so many carrots right now we're drowning in them. Carrots everywhere you look.
Snap peas- We have adjusted the pea pick a bit with our challenging mixed pea seed situation, and it has made the harvest go a tiny bit faster and the quality of the peas improve too. We're just skipping a lot of the non sugar snap peas in the row and going for the really pretty ones. The yield goes way down, but the speed and quality goes up!
Red bunch onions- We have two different fresh red bunching onions this year, and you'll get one or the other in your share...the "Torpedo Red Bottle" are a wine bottle shaped fresh Italian heirloom onion with a super mild flavor. The "Apaches" are a red bunching onion that has a straighter neck, is not quite as big as the torpedoes, and has a sweeter and stronger taste.
Arugula- I'm not sure we've put arugula in the shares yet this year, partly because we've had so much nice spinach and head lettuce. It's nice to get some arugula in the shares, though. It has a nice lemony, peppery flavor that is great in a summer salad. If it's a bit too spicy for you raw, if you saute it for just a few seconds, or even just toss it with other veggies that are hot (like sauteed zucchini and onion) it mellows out almost immediately and loses most of the zing.
http://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/arugula-salad-with-shaved-parmesan-lemon-olive-oil.html
Summer squash- We are entering peak summer squash season now, when it is a challenge to keep up with the loads of fruit. We pick our plants three times a week and try not to let any grow to gigantic sizes.
Cucumber- Not quite at peak cuke season yet, but on our way there. Last season we trellised our cucumber, which is a bit of a pain in the neck to accomplish in the Spring but does make the harvest quite a bit easier come Summer. This year I didn't really make up my mind whether it was worth it so I ended up just letting the vines run wild on the ground...it'll be a bit of a treasure hunt finding them all, as the plants are starting to get so big and crazy.
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/cucumber-recipes
Cabbage- Small shares will get a cute little head of green or purple cabbage. Large shares will get a bigger head of Napa, or Chinese cabbage. Either one is nice for a cabbage salad, or can be roasted, sauteed, stir fried or steamed. Or even grilled! I've never done this, but want to try it now:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/157836/summer-grilled-cabbage/
Enjoy!
Large shares only:
Celery bunch- I take a silly amount of pride in the celery we grow, because it is a bit challenging to grow (needing lots of water and fertility) and I think homegrown celery is so much better than the grocery store stuff. I have never been more proud, as this year's celery is earlier and nicer than any I think we've ever had on the farm! Beautiful stuff...you can halve this recipe...
http://www.marthastewart.com/1133552/braised-celery
Garlic- This will be a larger head of our early California White garlic, a softneck variety that is widely grown commercially. I am so happy we have managed to harvest and hang all of our garlic for the year! We just finished the last varieties yesterday afternoon, and thus finished up one of the bigger and sometimes more stressful early Summer projects. Garlic is fairly labor intensive, as it needs to be lifted out of the ground, cleaned, brought into the barn, tied into bundles and hung to dry so that it will last into the Fall. Happy to have the 2017 harvest in the books, and to see that it is looking like a beautiful crop this year!
Basil- You know it's mid Summer when the basil is growing like a weed and hard to keep up with. The tomatoes are beginning to color up, so hopefully we'll have some in your share soon to go with the basil.
plus some extra squash and cukes!
I enlisted the help of our interns to provide a different perspective to the blog write up, so the following was written by Ms. Angela Brittain, half of our two person intern team:
All shares are getting:
Carrots- A BIG bunch of carrots in the share this week, as we have so many carrots right now we're drowning in them. Carrots everywhere you look.
Snap peas- We have adjusted the pea pick a bit with our challenging mixed pea seed situation, and it has made the harvest go a tiny bit faster and the quality of the peas improve too. We're just skipping a lot of the non sugar snap peas in the row and going for the really pretty ones. The yield goes way down, but the speed and quality goes up!
Red bunch onions- We have two different fresh red bunching onions this year, and you'll get one or the other in your share...the "Torpedo Red Bottle" are a wine bottle shaped fresh Italian heirloom onion with a super mild flavor. The "Apaches" are a red bunching onion that has a straighter neck, is not quite as big as the torpedoes, and has a sweeter and stronger taste.
Arugula- I'm not sure we've put arugula in the shares yet this year, partly because we've had so much nice spinach and head lettuce. It's nice to get some arugula in the shares, though. It has a nice lemony, peppery flavor that is great in a summer salad. If it's a bit too spicy for you raw, if you saute it for just a few seconds, or even just toss it with other veggies that are hot (like sauteed zucchini and onion) it mellows out almost immediately and loses most of the zing.
http://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/arugula-salad-with-shaved-parmesan-lemon-olive-oil.html
Summer squash- We are entering peak summer squash season now, when it is a challenge to keep up with the loads of fruit. We pick our plants three times a week and try not to let any grow to gigantic sizes.
Cucumber- Not quite at peak cuke season yet, but on our way there. Last season we trellised our cucumber, which is a bit of a pain in the neck to accomplish in the Spring but does make the harvest quite a bit easier come Summer. This year I didn't really make up my mind whether it was worth it so I ended up just letting the vines run wild on the ground...it'll be a bit of a treasure hunt finding them all, as the plants are starting to get so big and crazy.
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/cucumber-recipes
Cabbage- Small shares will get a cute little head of green or purple cabbage. Large shares will get a bigger head of Napa, or Chinese cabbage. Either one is nice for a cabbage salad, or can be roasted, sauteed, stir fried or steamed. Or even grilled! I've never done this, but want to try it now:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/157836/summer-grilled-cabbage/
Enjoy!
Large shares only:
Celery bunch- I take a silly amount of pride in the celery we grow, because it is a bit challenging to grow (needing lots of water and fertility) and I think homegrown celery is so much better than the grocery store stuff. I have never been more proud, as this year's celery is earlier and nicer than any I think we've ever had on the farm! Beautiful stuff...you can halve this recipe...
http://www.marthastewart.com/1133552/braised-celery
Garlic- This will be a larger head of our early California White garlic, a softneck variety that is widely grown commercially. I am so happy we have managed to harvest and hang all of our garlic for the year! We just finished the last varieties yesterday afternoon, and thus finished up one of the bigger and sometimes more stressful early Summer projects. Garlic is fairly labor intensive, as it needs to be lifted out of the ground, cleaned, brought into the barn, tied into bundles and hung to dry so that it will last into the Fall. Happy to have the 2017 harvest in the books, and to see that it is looking like a beautiful crop this year!
Basil- You know it's mid Summer when the basil is growing like a weed and hard to keep up with. The tomatoes are beginning to color up, so hopefully we'll have some in your share soon to go with the basil.
plus some extra squash and cukes!
I enlisted the help of our interns to provide a different perspective to the blog write up, so the following was written by Ms. Angela Brittain, half of our two person intern team:
When I came to Whidbey Island they told me that summer began on July 5th. Seemingly, accurate. This week has been the hottest of the season, and we at Ebb Tide are all getting deep into summer mode. For some, visions of said summer mode might involve sipping on something cool while allowing the mind and body to relax into the warmth of the weather. The reality for farmers is much different:
You’re out in the field and your snot has turned into crystalized bugs from all the dirt you’re breathing; the everlasting question of is that a shoulder rip or am I just growing a muscle? The sun is bright and you have to acutely maneuver your hands to get these tiny little ties around bunches of wily root vegetables. You anxiously pick through the salad to make sure it’s all gorgeous and weed-free. You watch the barn swallows go from soundless, flightless babies to squawking aviators. There are so many beets, like, so many beets that all are just begging to be prepared, appreciated, given a digestive process to aid. Yes, you want to take home all the misfit beets but you can only eat so many! You pull carrots out of the ground that have grown so thickly intertwined that only the most villainous of knives could part them. You learn quickly the value of stretching to ease awkward weeding positions, which are usually somewhere between an asana and one of those dances the kids are all doing. Every week you watch plants crop up and get tilled in, and before you know it the summer is gone.
I’ve been interning at Ebb Tide for just about a month now, and this is my first season working on a farm. When I left Los Angeles in May, I was maintaining the sort of routine that could easily launch a person into conniption. I wanted to come to Whidbey to get a different sense of what life is in other parts of the country, to have a summer where I could step out of my bubble and try something totally new to me. When the opportunity at Ebb Tide manifested, I felt good about it immediately, went through with it, and here I am.
I can hardly believe a place as idyllic as South Whidbey exists, and I find it amazing that even in our gigantic, foolhardy world we can still run a farm stand on the honor system and perpetuate a chain of positive reactions from the moment the food is seeded, planted, harvested, and given to our customers, who will go on to make something delicious from our veggies. I hope that whoever shops at Ebb Tide realizes what a special operation they’re supporting, for other parts of the country simply don't have the local mentality and sense of community that South Whidbiers are inherently prone to based on the geographic nature of the island. Keep supporting your community and know that your produce is coming from a team who loves you!
Peace + Blessings,
Angela
Appointed Salad Queen
Post for Week 5.
Wow, so many things in the field right now it's hard to decide what to put in the share this week. This is what I think I've settled on...
All Shares:
New Fingerling Potatoes! We hand dug our first new potatoes this week, and they are some real beauties. These new potatoes haven't developed thick skins yet, so they are delicate and a more perishable, but much more delicious. I like to just steam or boil them whole for ten minutes or so, and then toss them in a bit of salt, butter or olive oil, and herbs. So tasty!
Cucumbers! I'll try to give everyone at least one green slicer cuke (either Marketmore, a standard slicer, or Picolino, which has a thinner and smoother green skin) and at least one Boothby's blond, which you may not even recognize as a cucumber at first glance. They are pale yellow and oblong, kind of like an elongated lemon cucumber. The blonds are a really nice cuke with thin skin and firm flesh, great in a cucumber salad.
Kale- With so many Summer crops coming on, have to fit kale into the share one more time before it's too late.
Head lettuce- No surprise here....the small shares had a week off from head lettuce last week, while the large shares got a gigantic head of red crisp, so I may give the larger shares some smaller heads of Pomegranate crunch to avoid overwhelming you with lettuce!
Dill- This is just kind of an extra, I decided to throw it in because we have some nice fresh dill, and with cukes and potatoes in the share, the two things fresh dill goes best with (other than fish!) I couldn't resist.
http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/kitchen-assistant/dill-recipes/dill-recipes_5
http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/kitchen-assistant/dill-recipes/view-all
Scallions- Our scallions are doing so great this year. We transplanted these ones out this Spring (planted them out from starts we had grown from seed in the greenhouse), but I also "direct sewed" (meaning put the seed straight into the ground rather than transplanting) some more scallions, bunching onions and leeks for later Summer and they are looking great! I am excited about this, as if it works out I will definitely do it again in future years...it saves a lot of work not having to start them in the greenhouse and plant them out by hand in the field!
Beets- I think we will do a mix of topped beets in the share this week without the greens....these guys take up less space in the bag, and are easy to clean up and steam or roast for a nice Summer side dish or salad.
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beet_hummus/
Large shares only:
Peas- It's easy to get rid of these peas, they are great for snacking on. My daughter Nico loves them, and can put away a pint in no time. If you're wondering why the peas look a little different than in years past, read my description of this year's seed mishap a few paragraphs below...
Broccoli- Some nice broccoli coming out of the field right now, and more on the way for the rest of July.
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/broccoli-recipes
Hakurei turnips- Might be the last time I get the hakurei turnips in the shares for a bit, so enjoy these ones! Really nice sliced thin in a lettuce salad. Don't forget, you can stir fry the greens if you're looking for more braising green materials!
This season, which got off to such a lousy start, has turned into a pretty awesome growing season so far (knock wood). Our early Summer crops like squash, cukes, carrots, beets and sweet onions are doing great and coming out of the field looking beautiful. All of the late Summer crops are looking great too...starting to see the first blush of color on some tomatoes, the green beans are flowering, the corn is growing like a weed and the first planting is well above knee high for the fourth of July. The melon vines are going crazy, and the peppers and eggplant are looking great. No complaints!
Actually, just one. I got a letter from Osborne seed in Mount Vernon (my favorite seed company where I get most of the farm's seed each year) explaining that the Sugar snap pea seed was mixed with off types...some kind of mess up. So while our peas this year are all still delicious, they aren't the consistent, fat sugar snap beauties we normally have. This might also explain why they were later than usual to come on this year. It makes picking peas a lot more cumbersome, and I'm a bit disappointed at not having the consistently beautiful pods...but at least they still taste good and can all be used as you would the normal sugar snap peas.
We are really humming along now, and with the Orchard Kitchen reopening this weekend we definitely have some busy pick days ahead. Fortunately, with the big irrigation projects and weeding now finished, we can spend our time picking and washing the produce, stocking the stand and packing your shares and I won't feel stressed about not getting to other projects!
I got some news that made me very happy, too. Sadly, our wonderful interns Max and Angela will be leaving in August so Angela can get back in time to finish her last quarter of college. Luckily for me, Jack, my long time manager on the farm, just happens to have a few free weeks before he will start his student teaching in late September, so he will be back to help me get through the last crazy push of harvest season at the end of Summer. It really couldn't have lined up any better.
Hope everyone is having a happy 4th! See you tomorrow!
All Shares:
New Fingerling Potatoes! We hand dug our first new potatoes this week, and they are some real beauties. These new potatoes haven't developed thick skins yet, so they are delicate and a more perishable, but much more delicious. I like to just steam or boil them whole for ten minutes or so, and then toss them in a bit of salt, butter or olive oil, and herbs. So tasty!
Cucumbers! I'll try to give everyone at least one green slicer cuke (either Marketmore, a standard slicer, or Picolino, which has a thinner and smoother green skin) and at least one Boothby's blond, which you may not even recognize as a cucumber at first glance. They are pale yellow and oblong, kind of like an elongated lemon cucumber. The blonds are a really nice cuke with thin skin and firm flesh, great in a cucumber salad.
Kale- With so many Summer crops coming on, have to fit kale into the share one more time before it's too late.
Head lettuce- No surprise here....the small shares had a week off from head lettuce last week, while the large shares got a gigantic head of red crisp, so I may give the larger shares some smaller heads of Pomegranate crunch to avoid overwhelming you with lettuce!
Dill- This is just kind of an extra, I decided to throw it in because we have some nice fresh dill, and with cukes and potatoes in the share, the two things fresh dill goes best with (other than fish!) I couldn't resist.
http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/kitchen-assistant/dill-recipes/dill-recipes_5
http://www.sunset.com/food-wine/kitchen-assistant/dill-recipes/view-all
Scallions- Our scallions are doing so great this year. We transplanted these ones out this Spring (planted them out from starts we had grown from seed in the greenhouse), but I also "direct sewed" (meaning put the seed straight into the ground rather than transplanting) some more scallions, bunching onions and leeks for later Summer and they are looking great! I am excited about this, as if it works out I will definitely do it again in future years...it saves a lot of work not having to start them in the greenhouse and plant them out by hand in the field!
Beets- I think we will do a mix of topped beets in the share this week without the greens....these guys take up less space in the bag, and are easy to clean up and steam or roast for a nice Summer side dish or salad.
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beet_hummus/
Large shares only:
Peas- It's easy to get rid of these peas, they are great for snacking on. My daughter Nico loves them, and can put away a pint in no time. If you're wondering why the peas look a little different than in years past, read my description of this year's seed mishap a few paragraphs below...
Broccoli- Some nice broccoli coming out of the field right now, and more on the way for the rest of July.
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/broccoli-recipes
Hakurei turnips- Might be the last time I get the hakurei turnips in the shares for a bit, so enjoy these ones! Really nice sliced thin in a lettuce salad. Don't forget, you can stir fry the greens if you're looking for more braising green materials!
This season, which got off to such a lousy start, has turned into a pretty awesome growing season so far (knock wood). Our early Summer crops like squash, cukes, carrots, beets and sweet onions are doing great and coming out of the field looking beautiful. All of the late Summer crops are looking great too...starting to see the first blush of color on some tomatoes, the green beans are flowering, the corn is growing like a weed and the first planting is well above knee high for the fourth of July. The melon vines are going crazy, and the peppers and eggplant are looking great. No complaints!
Actually, just one. I got a letter from Osborne seed in Mount Vernon (my favorite seed company where I get most of the farm's seed each year) explaining that the Sugar snap pea seed was mixed with off types...some kind of mess up. So while our peas this year are all still delicious, they aren't the consistent, fat sugar snap beauties we normally have. This might also explain why they were later than usual to come on this year. It makes picking peas a lot more cumbersome, and I'm a bit disappointed at not having the consistently beautiful pods...but at least they still taste good and can all be used as you would the normal sugar snap peas.
We are really humming along now, and with the Orchard Kitchen reopening this weekend we definitely have some busy pick days ahead. Fortunately, with the big irrigation projects and weeding now finished, we can spend our time picking and washing the produce, stocking the stand and packing your shares and I won't feel stressed about not getting to other projects!
I got some news that made me very happy, too. Sadly, our wonderful interns Max and Angela will be leaving in August so Angela can get back in time to finish her last quarter of college. Luckily for me, Jack, my long time manager on the farm, just happens to have a few free weeks before he will start his student teaching in late September, so he will be back to help me get through the last crazy push of harvest season at the end of Summer. It really couldn't have lined up any better.
Hope everyone is having a happy 4th! See you tomorrow!
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