Sheila’s got our box-opening video up here at her website for Optimal Body Balance, along with tons of wonderful recipes for the box ingredients. Cucumber-Sorrel Smoothie, Zucchini Chickpea Fritters with Feta, Baby Bok Pizza – she really is a Party in an Apron!
If you got more snap beans than you think you can eat this week, check out this easy no-can Dilly Bean recipe.
Bon Appetit!
What a treat it is to get a break from the heat! We’ve moved 6 am harvests back to 7 am, pulled the shade cloth off the baby bok choy, and this morning I’m celebrating by baking (in the oven!) the fabulous Basil Chocolate Cake shared below. Summer on the farm is like labor with a child – you can do it as long as you get some rest in between the really hard pushes. And the payoff is tons of amazing food… continued »
Wow. What can be said about this weather? Truth is, I barely have enough energy after a day in the heat to think, let alone write. Certainly, the past few sweltering weeks haven’t been my favorite as a farmer! But I do feel immensely grateful. I’m grateful for the hard work of my young crew members, who’ve come out at 6 am each day this week to get the harvest in before the heat index became dangerous, and for the volunteers and work share members who came out this weekend to pick beans, do some much-needed weeding, run some much-appreciated electrical wiring, and share in the season’s first pesto meal. I’m grateful for our new drip-tape irrigation system, which we installed just in time this June. And I’m grateful for our almost-finished Cool Room – which will hold our tomato harvest at the just the right temperature (between 50 and 60 degrees). That project is wrapping up just in time, as well, as we are just now picking our first ripe tomatoes. Maybe we’ll sleep in the Cool Room tonight! continued »
Sheila has our third box-opening video up here, and you can link to all the recipes at her website .
Don’t forget, Thursday Sheila is also teaching a veggie cooking class at The Natural Path Health Center in Fitchburg. A guest chef is also coming to teach us knife skills! Call Ann at Ann 274.7044 to register. Only $5!
We feel that we’ve been through the wringer in the past few weeks. (We literally could have used one of those old clothes wringers to squeeze the sweat from our clothes a few times a day!) With the constant pressure of the heat combined with the lack of rain, we feel we’ve done nothing but run from one side of the farm to the other keeping things alive – applying water here, shadecloth there and prayer everywhere! We have rarely been so thankful for a small farm! Then Monday morning the dry spell ended in a burst of violent rain and wind – pounding the crops with 2 inches of water in a half hour, and laying many of them flat on the ground. And yet the earth produces and we have food. It is truly amazing. continued »
You might not have noticed yet, if you don’t have a farm or a garden to keep alive, but we haven’t had rain in quite a while and we don’t have much in the forecast, either. Oh, sure, there are some rainy cloud icons sprinkled throughout the forecast for next week, but if you read the fine print you’ll see the percentage chances for rain are between 10 and 40 percent. Which is NOT ENOUGH of a chance for my crops. This weather makes for some great days for beach-goers (enjoy while you can!) but tough times for plants and their people. We are all very stressed out here. But in farming, as in life, stress often brings on the best sort of needed-to-be-made changes. continued »
Flowers, flowers, flowers! This box jam-packed with flowers! Both to eat and to enjoy from outside your mouth. continued »
