Greetings from the Garden! This week's box has tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, garlic, beets, summer squash, green peppers, cabbage, bok choy, kohlrabi, parsley, basil, apples, and the first corn.
Field Notes. Last Monday we unloaded the mobile high tunnel. This week we received a call from a friend; he was cleaning the llama barn - did we want any manure and bedding? You bet! Ken moved the wagon of high tunnel parts, so the dump truck could maneuver. We have gotten several loads of llama manure and bedding for the price of hauling. Soon we will be mixing it with leaves people bring us for next year's (and maybe more years) compost. Finding good manure is pretty exciting here. All manure is NOT created equal. Healthy animals eating their natural diet without chemicals provide good manure. Here is a photo of last year's leaves and corn and purple coneflowers.
The dry weather has been a relief to crops that were showing stress from too much rain. The next crop of celery and fall celery root had some rust - a first for us here. The chard had been a sorry sight, but is perking up now.
As the days shorten the plants are pushing to set and ripen fruit. We are experiencing a tsunami of cukes - anyone wanting to buy cukes for pickles, please call or email us.
From the Kitchen. We invited people to dinner on Sunday, and had several foods from the garden. Ken grilled green onions, summer squash, and meat. I made a tomato salad with sliced green onions, minced garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper and tomato wedges. We also had a cucumber salad with a cream, vinegar, honey, salt, pepper, and parsley dressing.
We had our first tomato sandwiches this week. One of the few times we eat white bread! Toast, homemade mayonnaise and tomato slices. It can be a juicy mess, but so delicious - it tastes like summer!
For people who don't eat butter: try steaming or roasting corn and top with umeboshi paste - a pickled plum from Japan. It is sweet, salty, and slightly sour. We buy it at the co-op or natural food store. It is also great on green beans or other vegetables as a change of pace. It gets more expensive each year, but a little goes a long way.
These apples are an early sweet soft variety - Ken eats them raw, but I usually cook them. Great for applesauce, pie, cakes. Eat them soon - these early varieties do not keep long.
No comments:
Post a Comment