Greetings from the Garden! This week's box has tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, Walla Walla sweet onions, Beets, Chinese cabbage, Brussels sprouts, corn, parsley, thyme, and crab apples.
Field Notes. We are in the bounty of summer - corn, apples, tomatoes. Today we finish the first crop of corn, and there will be another in a week or two. The peppers have finished their first flush, but the plants have small peppers coming.
Ken is balancing necessary field work with getting the area ready for the mobile high tunnel. Areas that were weed free in mid-July before the rains started have weed pressure now. Most of the crops are well ahead of the weeds, but Ken is working one crop at a time to catch up. The photo is of buckwheat growing under the asparagus plants.
Progress on the mobile tunnel continues at a good clip. Sunday we had wonderful help from the Merton family and their exchange student "O" from Thailand. They helped move all the brush to the chipper we have borrowed. We filled two loads of chips and they are now out in the field for future use as mulch or a compost component.
From the Kitchen. Each year when I cook with Walla Walla sweet onions Ken asks me if I have added sugar to the dish. These sweet juicy onions are wonderful in salad or cooked dishes. The germination was low this year, so enjoy the few we have!
Once the nights cool in August the Brussels sprouts really size up. I love Brussels boiled or steamed and topped with butter, salt and pepper. We also like them in a basic white sauce or a cheese sauce. We have a friend who pickles Brussels sprouts. I also add to soups near the end of cooking time. This week you could make a borscht variation with the beets and Brussels sprouts.
The crab apples in today's box are wonderful quartered cored and poached in a bit of apple juice with some cinnamon or mace. Ken quarters, cores and uses them for pies as well. We don't peel them - just rinse them off. If you have a juicer they are great combined with beets or carrots.
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