Fourth week of July

cleaning scallions
picking raspberries
sarah and margot at the blueberry farm
matthew filling his bucket.

Its been a busy and full week here in Hector. By far the most formative event of the week has been the arrival of Matthew’s sister, Sarah, and her daughter- our niece, Margot, who is three. We are extremely thrilled to have them visiting us for several weeks from North Carolina! It has been refreshing (and tiring) to see the world of a vegetable farm through the eyes of a child. We’ve been able to find lots of fun things to do including going to the Hector fair, harvesting raspberries, beans, potatoes, and tomatoes, going sailing, and picking blueberries at Glen Haven farm winery in Trumansburg and from our neighbors bushes right across the street. Which reminds me to say that you-pick blueberry season is upon us, be sure not to miss it! There is a u-pick place in Big Flats on Route 352, the one in Trumansburg where we went, and a place in Pennyan as well.

The other big event this week was to get our refrigerated truck back from the shop, it is repaired, inspected, and ready to roll to market when we need the room. It is so nice to have it back since in its absence, we were keeping produce cool to the best of our ability in a cool room in our house, which meant a lot of carrying bins of produce into the house and out depending on if it was cooler inside or outside or if we were going to market that day. We managed that way, but it is surely nice to be back in our routine of not schlepping produce into our house. (It is nice to have a little bit of separation between work and home life, even if its only a 20 foot difference.)

Share holders are often asking us, "so how's it going?" and to be honest, its going pretty darn well right now. We have been having plenty of rain (though right on the edge of too much), and a decent amount of sun. Our tomato plants are the tallest we've ever grown and so far are showing no major signs of tomato diseases(which some years they have been by now). Our squashes are pumping them out right now, and the cucumbers have just started up in earnest. We've been digging the nicest potatoes we've ever grown and except for a few flops, things are looking nice, a little weedy, but nice.

Every year, we have had a few duds, and it turns out that for some reason, our kale and collard greens beds were a total bust this year and it was a satisfying job to mow them down to nothing this week and be done with looking at plants that weren’t doing anything, beyond being devoured by flea beetles. Besides mowing down unsuccessful plants, at this time of year we spend a certain amount of time mowing the grassy paths between our growing beds, pulling weeds, lots and lots of time harvesting, and just a little time planting succession plantings of different things. We will begin harvest of one of our favorite crops this week on Wednesday. So if you have the garlic itch, give a shout and come yank some out with us!

ITS TOMATO TIME! We have been eating our first few tomatoes this week and we believe we’ll get enough this week to send at least one home to you! There will be more when we have more, don’t worry. We enjoyed a delicious meal the other night of a locally baked seedy batard, a bread with a delicious mix of seeds on the outside, topped with fresh mozzarella cheese, tomato slices, and basil, yum! Doesn’t get much easier than that to make a meal!

Pick your own items at the farm. There are green, yellow, and speckled beans for picking as well as cherry tomatoes (just starting, come later in the week for better picking). There are also flowers in the flower garden as well as lots of dill. Come on up and pick a few quarts. Please let us know before the first time so we can show where to pick, then come anytime during the day/week, with one caveat- please don't pick beans when their leaves are wet as it can spread disease.

We're always trying to think of how the CSA is going and how we can improve it and we think we may have come upon a way to do so. We'd love your feedback on the idea for next year. Rather than giving a set share, we see that some other CSAs give a choice out of several things. For example, for shares that pick up at the market, rather than we dictating the share, we could have a sign that says, pick eight items and then a list of what we have, some items we would still save off the table for the CSA and people would have more input into what they get in their bag. I'm not sure quite how this would manifest in Elmira, since for that pickup, we just harvest what we need and bring it. If you have a feeling either way about this idea, we'd love to hear from you. Comment through the comment button, email, or mention it us in person when we see you at the pickup.

This week's share

Lettuce mix

scallions

beets

squash

cucumbers

tomatoes!

basil

PYO green beans

PYO cherry tomatoes

next week's expected share....

potatoes, tomatoes, chard, cabbage, tomatillos, eggplant(?)

Seasonal Recipes:

Fettuccine With Squash Ribbons: from npr.org follow the link for more recipes http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92739541&sc=emaf

Use a sharp vegetable peeler to make thin squash ribbons, about a half-inch wide. Peel, then rotate the squash so strips are about the same width. Stop when you hit the rough seeds. The hot fettuccine and sauteed grape tomatoes will heat and slightly soften the squash.

Makes 4 servings
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
12 ounces whole-wheat or regular fettuccine
Cooking spray
3 fully cooked chicken sausages, preferably spinach and feta or sun-dried tomato flavor
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 to 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved crosswise
3 medium zucchini, trimmed, skin removed and peeled into thin ribbons
3 medium yellow crookneck squash, trimmed, skin removed and peeled into thin ribbons
1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil
Parmigiano-Reggiano for serving

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt generously and add fettuccine. Cook according to package directions. Reserve about 1 cup of pasta-cooking water and drain.
Meanwhile, coat a nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat to medium. Add chicken sausage and cook, turning often, until golden brown on each side. Transfer to a cutting board. Allow sausage to rest for a few minutes, then thinly slice on the diagonal.
Add olive oil to skillet and turn heat to medium-low. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes and cook 3 minutes, or until skin is no longer taut. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Deglaze skillet with about 1/4 cup of reserved pasta-cooking water, loosening any bits from the bottom of the skillet. Remove from heat.
Off the stove, add the zucchini ribbons to the empty pasta pot, followed by the tomato mixture, the drained pasta, the sliced sausage and about three-quarters of the basil. Toss well to combine. If pasta appears dry, add enough of the reserved cooking water to coat the pasta so it looks moist, but not wet.
Divide among 4 bowls and use a vegetable peeler to shave thin pieces of Parmigiano-Reggiano over pasta. Sprinkle with remaining basil and serve immediately.