Greetings from the Garden! This week's box contains tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, celery, lettuce, cutting lettuce, basil, kohlrabi, broccoli, red onions, radicchio, melons, and parsley.
Field Notes. Wow! The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler. This seems to push the heat loving vegetables to ripen the fruit they have as once temperatures drop below 50 the plants don't set new fruit. So, things are slowing down there, but meanwhile the plants that like cool weather flourish. The broccoli and kohlrabi are prime examples - large and really nice.
Ken also shifts gears as he prepares for frost. He is looking at the garden space for planting fall and next spring's crops. Planting continues. He also is assessing how crops did this season and how to improve next season.
Ken also is moving compost piles to make room for the leaves people will rake up and bring us this fall and next spring. Leaves are one portion of our compost - people are happy to bring us their leaves and we are happy to use them as mulch and part of the compost mix.
The cool nights meant Ken had to carve out time to finish the doors on the large hoop house to maintain as much heat as possible as the nights get cooler. Maintaining heat was not much of an issue earlier and there are always more pressing tasks midsummer.
From the Kitchen. This is some really nice kohlrabi and broccoli. In warm weather broccoli will form small heads. These cooler nights not only mean larger heads, the flavor is sweeter. Many people eat broccoli raw. We tend to cook broccoli - and top with butter, cheese sauce, or add to minestrone and other soups. Finally I often freeze a bit for winter quiche. Blanche, chill, drain and freeze. Ken often makes cream soups of mixed vegetables that include broccoli.
Kohlrabi is another member of the brassica family - a real health food! Cut any greens from the swollen stem and store separately. I use them like cabbage or kale. The bulbous stem is wonderful peeled and salted for a quick pickle. We also add to soups and stir fry; the flavor is like a broccoli stem, so the two will combine nicely.
For radicchio ideas, check former blog entry on May 23rd.
This week's photo is of the tobacco Ken planted as part of biodynamic soil improvement. We are wondering if anyone knows of a market for them?
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