Week 13; August 31, 2017
What's in the box?
corn, the best we’ve seen this year. Quote from the field “these are like submarines”
tomatoes
watermelon (red and yellow)
cantaloupe
carrots
green peppers
green beans
bok choy
green butter head lettuce - large
broccoli - large
Notes on the box.
We did a lot of debating for how to deliver these watermelons to you outside of the boxes to leave room for more veggies. In the end because of logistics and limited space in the van, we weren't able to deliver the melons in separate boxes or to move everyone up to a larger box size.
Because of that we had to make some tough decisions about what to put in and leave out of the box. We decided to give more tomatoes and hold onto onions and potatoes for later weeks since the tomatoes are fleeting and don't hold. This box is about living in the moment. Stuff yourself with Summer while it's here! Looks like next week will be pretty much a repeat of this week. Without the bok choy and probably beets instead of carrots.
Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.
2017 Antares is here! This beauty was made in May when the cows were eating lush spring pasture. The golden color and the grassy flavors highlight those pastures. It's nice and tangy when it's young and the finish is less aggressive than in the longer Aged Antares. It also has a bit higher moisture when it's less aged, so it's a better melter.
I also included the flavored quark this week. It's the easiest cheese to eat in one sitting according to Otto and Sadie who go through a container with some crackers at an astonishing clip.
Recipes.
Eat a BLT before there are no more tomatoes!
Raw Choi Slaw—Finely slice the choy, and mix with this Miso dressing:
2 tablespoons miso
1/2 teaspoon powdered mustard (or a bit of whatever mustard you have around)
2 tablespoons brown sugar (or honey)
1/4 cup rice vinegar, or whatever vinegar you have around
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon pure toasted sesame oil (optional)
Salt
Tomato and Corn Pie—from Deb (first name basis!)
Rama’s been enjoying the cantaloupe sprinkled with chili flakes and salt! Delicious. Use more salt than you think you’ll need
On the Farm.
Guest post this week. We’re Andrew and Caroline. We’ve been working here on the vegetable crew since early spring. You may have seen some incriminating photos of us in previous blog posts.
This week we said goodbye to Madeline, who helped out for the month of August. We’ll miss her color palette, field songs, and extreme appetite for carrot weeding.
Otto had his first day of Montessori. No homework to speak of, yet.
Wednesday was Rama’s birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAMA! We are so lucky to be in the everyday presence of such a magician.
Spinach is looking great and buttery. Squash and zucchini are done and out! We enjoyed our cantaloupe harvest as it enabled us to throw melons at each other and up onto the wagon, working out some interpersonal dynamics! Things got cheeky.
It’s been a cool August for everyone, maybe except for Caroline who is from Northern California and actually doesn’t really like direct sunlight that much. Particularly in the context of Hurricane Harvey, climate change is on our minds as a real threat to smallholder farms and resilient communities at large. It is humbling to have been here for a single season, and hear about years of experienced climate and landscape events that farmers have endured and frightening to think about breaking from these acquainted patterns in movement towards further volatility. Houston received about 51 inches of rain from Harvey. Minnesota receives an annual amount of 18-32 inches of rain. Even with the omnipresence of climate change and weather in our daily work, events like Harvey shock us and we feel for the devastating loss in Texas and South Asia.
We’re enjoying our days and conversations on the farm. Thanks for supporting the CSA so that we can continue to do this work! As our student coworkers return to school, we are grateful to be able to continue work through the fall and see the winter squash through fruition.
A and C
Forecast for next week.
corn (last week of corn!)
tomatoes (probably last week of tomatoes)
melons (last week of watermelons if we include them)
peppers
green beans?
green top beets