3rd week of August

garlic drying in the green barn tall tomatoes in our new cages
sarah and margot in one of the "tomato tunnels"

good bye cucumbers...

Today was one of those days where we were outside harvesting until 9:00. That was even with Sarah offering her help. It was nice to have a dry afternoon to pick beans and tomatoes, since it was too wet to pick them on friday and too busy throughout much of the weekend (we try avoid picking those plants when the leaves are wet since diseases spread much more quickly on wet leaf surfaces). Since we had missed a harvest on our beans, there were LOTS to pick and it made it tough to get it all of the harvesting done. We got some tomatoes for the shares but with this cool, rainy weather most of the tomatoes really just seem like they would rather stay green. This weather has been so strange, what a cool, wet august! I seem to remember having warmer day back in March than we have had this month.

Any way not totally related to the weather, but the cucumbers are dying and dying fast. I have included a photo and the damage is somewhat evident, but they are going to be all dead much sooner than i would have imagined.

That's not to say that there are no crops that love all the rain we have been getting. One thing that we grow that really enjoyed all the rain is our garlic. All of it has now been harvested and is hanging now. They grew much bigger than we've gotten them to before - especially the German Red.

One product of all this rain is plenty of mushrooms. We have been enjoying taking a couple walks through the woods with Margot and inspecting (though not touching!) all the wild mushrooms that are popping up. They come in pretty much every color: purple, yellow, orange, red, white, black, brown. We took a walk through the Finger Lakes National Forest and saw mushrooms practically every step of the way. If you get to take a walk through some nice hardwoods, make sure you look down occasionally to avoid walking past or on top of these beautiful specimens.

Speaking of the Finger Lakes National Forest, if you are coming up to the farm for the next CSA event, an overnight on Saturday the 16th, stop by the national forest for an all day acoustic music celebration of New York State's only national forest's 25th anniversary.

This weeks Vegetables:

Sweet Onions- great raw fine or cooked, too

Beets

Summer Squash

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Basil

Parsley

Peppers

Cucumbers

PYO Beans

PYO Cherry Tomatoes

Next Week's (Expected) Vegetables:

Potatoes

Carrots

Summer Squash

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Celery

Garlic

PYO Beans

PYO Cherry Tomatoes

Green Goddess Dressing:

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup cottage cheese

1/4 cup buttermilk (you can sour milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice per cup of milk)

1/2 cup canola oil

2 T. fresh lemon juice

3 T chopped scallions (sweet onions would work)

2 T water

1/2 t salt

1 t chopped garlic

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 cup fresh parsley

pinch of ground cardamom

Blend all ingredients together, shake and enjoy on salads, cucumbers, or sandwiches.

Oh NO, Not more Beets!:
1 T butter

2 beets, grated

1 carrot, grated

3 cloves of garlic

175ml orange juice (2 T?)

seasoning of your choice

Sauté the garlic in the melted butter for a few minutes.Add the rest of the ingredients and cook stirring over a medium heat for 5-8 minutes. Serve Immediately
From Riverford organic vegetables website

We wanted to welcome our newest CSA member who arrived just this week, Phoebe was born on 8-8-08, congrats Sarah, Harris, and Theo!

Have a great week! Liz and matthew