Fourth week of June

Happy Summer! On June 20th, we officially started the trip back to the darker side of the earth. Each day will now be a little shorter than the last (don't worry we won't notice too much for a while), but the onions do! On the summer solstice, the onions start to bulb and fatten, they are done focusing on growing up and start to grow out. It looks like we will have a nice crop of them, perhaps not our best crop ever, but definately better than last years puny things!

This time of year we are noticing the shift of the seasons out there in the fields. We are seeing summer insects. We notice dragon and damsel flies every day, there are insects that prey on summer crops such as potato bugs, squash bugs, and cucumber beetles around. We are seeing warm season weeds growing and spring weeds starting to flower or to set seed. We have noticed by looking at our greenhouse, too, that the season has shifted. It is almost empty of flats waiting to go outside! We started with four full rows of benchs inside and another bench or two outside to catch the over flow, and now there are just a few flats waiting for a spot in the field. Since we have finished up the bulk of our planting (not only is the greenhouse almost empty, but there are only about five empty beds right now to be found in our field), we are now starting to transition to the time of year when we are mostly caring for the vegetables. We weed, we water, we harvest, we weed, we cultivate, we mow, we empty beds and refill them. Several of our beds are on their second or even third crop of the year, either because the first planting failed - due to poor germination, weeds, or insect pressure- or was finished being harvested and is ready to be replanted with something new.

At this time of year, we are hilling potatoes, watching little tomatoes forming, and watching the honey, bumble, and other bees move from blossom to blossom. The tree swallows that hatched in one of our nest boxes seem to be about ready to take to the air, and the second batch of baby robins seem to be fledging right now. The turtles are not seen nearly as often sunning on logs outside of the water, and instead are only briefly glimpsed swimming under the surface occasionally.

The local cherry trees are starting to look like they are ready to pick and strawberry season is still in full swing. It is an excellent time to eat from right here in the finger lakes.

We had a very nice time on sunday thanks so much to Pat, Rusty, Zach, David and Mary for coming up and helping us with the WHEEDing! We had a great potluck and the help was very much appreciated. In the end we didn't do the scavenger hunt, so its on the shelf, and good to go for another time when the opportunity arises.

Perhaps that opportunity will be at our next CSA day...which will be held on Saturday July 19th time and details to be announced, but please do put it on your calendars now.

Today we learned that perhaps we are getting a reputation! We went down to our lovely little hector post office to mail out some booklets that let people know where to find local farm products (pick one up with your share this week) and had a lot of envelopes going out, so were holding up the person behind us in line for a while. Then he says to us, "you live on Dugue road?" and it turns out that he owned a house up the hill that he recently sold. Then the person who just came in and got in the line, says, "oh, are you muddy fingers?" and it turns out that he is another neighbor down the road whom we hadn't met yet. I'm not sure what the chances of the only three patrons in the post office at the time all being from our road is, but it was amusing to me! And it was nice to meet two more neighbors.

This week's share:

Broccoli

new potatoes

garlic scapes

lettuce

summer squash

kale

For those who haven't eaten kale before, it is a very healthy dark green leaf veggie that is high in iron, and sooo good for you, but it is a mildly bitter green, and if not cooked well enough can be tough to chew. Here are two simple suggestions for preparing it....

Kale with raisins and toasted pine nuts:
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (325o for 5 min in oven, or in a pan on the stove top)
bunch Kale washed and torn into bite size pieces
2 cups water
2 Tsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup raisins (golden recommended)
Salt to taste
Bring water to a boil, cover and cook Kale until tender about 5 min. Remove and drain
In warm pan saute garlic for 15 seconds, add raisins, cook for 30 sec to 1 min. until raisins turn glossy and plump. Add greens and season with salt to taste. Serve hot garnished with toasted pine nuts. From Greens Glorious Greens!

Simple Kale and Summer Squash:
This is a lovely and simple dish. Just Kale cut in bite sized pieces and yellow summer squash sliced cooked together in a little olive oil and drizzled with soy sauce. Delicious!

New potatoes are just dug babies right out of the ground, they are so tender they don't need to cook long, and won't store for a very long time as the skin has not been toughened up yet to allow them to store. Eat them now! simple preparations are the best for new potatoes, just boil, top with butter or olive oil, salt, pepper, and an herb of your choice (dill, thyme, rosemary, oregano, or even basil would be good.)

If you still have scapes kicking around from last week, worry not, they keep for weeks in the fridge and freeze well for longer storage, just chop with a little oil and freeze, or make the scape pesto and freeze that. The season for scapes is pretty short, normally about three weeks, so don't think that you'll never stop getting scapes in your share. Eat them up now or a little later, but in a few weeks, they will be out of the field and a distant memory until next year.

Here is a trivia question for you...what vegetable is pictured below? Hints: the part you eat is not yet formed, it is related to Chicory, the plant with the lovely light purple flowers that you see on the side of the road at this time of year.