Week 10; August 28, 2014
What's in the box?
little melons (musk, cantaloupe, or watermelon)
tomatoes (heirloom and slicers)
peppers (bell and sweet)
onions
green top carrots
head lettuce
potatoes
sweet corn
arugula
basil
little melon
head lettuce
tomatoes (heirloom and slicers)
peppers (bell and sweet)
onions
sweet corn
arugula
Notes on the box...
Surprise! Arugula! Arugula is a tender and mildly spicy green that is a nice addition to salads, sandwiches, or anywhere you might use lettuce or baby spinach. It makes a wonderful pesto, too. It's a crop that we debated growing since we think for some people it might be an unusual vegetable, but we've also had several requests for it in the past, so we thought it was time. We think you guys can handle it! We washed it, but I found it to still have a bit of sand on it when I went to cook with it, so please rinse it. Arugula should be stored in a plastic bag in your fridge. Taste it raw to see how you like the flavor. If you find it too spicy, pesto tends to dilute the flavor some. You can add basil or another herb to further mellow it. We like a straight arugula pesto around here, though. The melons are woefully small, we know. We've had several great melon years, so this one pains us. The melons were hastily planted between rains in a low spot on the farm and when the endless rains kept coming, their feet stayed too wet and they didn't size up very well. Super big bummer since melons are a favorite around here and one that we love growing. We've had a bad year for cucurbits, I guess. But remember how we had little to no lettuce last season? The lettuce is doing great (even though we lost a planting to some deer that out-smarted the fence). Hope you are enjoying all the salads! Recipes...
[yumprint-recipe id='45']Gnocci, Sweet Corn, and Arugula in Cream Sauce Sausage, Goat Cheese, and Arugula Stuffed PeppersHoneydew and Arugula SaladOn the farm... Sorry for the typo last week. The Harvest Party will be on September 20 at the farm. We really hope that you can make it out. We forgot to announce this on last weeks blog. We are officially Certified Organic! I think we forgot to announce it because, well.... not much has changed besides the amount of paperwork that we have to do! We've always followed Organic growing practices (Josh even trained to be an Organic Inspector) but we've never really had a reason to go through certification since we have marketed our produce directly and invite our CSA members to be our inspectors. But since moving and forming the Hungry Turtle Farmers Cooperative, we've been motivated to become Certified. The kind folks who we lease the farm from have required it of us to ensure that the land is well cared for. We are aware that the Organic Label carries some heavy implications and that many people feel it is not adequate in actually protecting our food and our environment. Sadly, it has become adulterated in some ways by BIG Organic that wishes to make more money by stamping the label on their products, but pushes for more and more lenience and less meaning behind the label. We stand behind the Cornucopia Institute in their efforts to maintain integrity in Organics. Our main motivation for what we do and how we grow stems from our core values and the belief that the land does not belong to us, that we belong to the land. We will continue to do our best to build the soil and make this a better piece of land than when we started. We hope to become MORE than the Organic Certification entails. We want to be truly sustainable with far less inputs coming from off the farm. We want to provide our own fertility and incorporate biodynamic growing practices. We thank our members so much for trusting us all these years and for allowing us to be your farmers!
What happened to August??! Looks like more broccoli is on the way soon. Enjoy the warm weather crops while they are here. The season is fleeting!
Don't forget to sign up for the extended season (aka Winter Share). 4 additional weeks after the last delivery. Storage crops and sweet leafy greens delivered till the week before Thanksgiving. We have a limited amount of shares available, so sign up soon! Let us know if you have any questions.