Sundog Farms

Sundog CSA June 23, 2020

Officially we are in the season of summer! We were grateful for the .20 hundredths of rain that we received on the last day of spring and envious of those who had more than that in their gauges. It is also nice to see the temperatures forecasted in the 80s and not the 90s and we are hopeful that they are correct in their prediction of lower humidity. Since I am writing this early Sunday morning there is still hope that we will have rain before the weekend is over and the last weather forecast had warnings of possible hail and straight winds. We will definitely take a “pass” if possible on both of those! MONDAY EVENING UPDATE: No extra rain drops yet and it is past ten as I sit down to write this newsletter. We spent too long mulching tonight and the cows were putting in multiple complaints by the time that we sat down on the milking stools.

We continue to move dry dirt as we shift weeds from one place to another. I am constantly surprised at the differences in the crops that we try to grow for food and the weeds sitting next to them in their rows, in their ability to survive. The huge weed that we call “pigweed”, which is probably a member of the amaranth family, has deep roots and if I just hoe them down without entirely pulling that root from the soil, it re-roots and is standing tall when I next come down that row. A lot of the smaller weeds and definitely the grasses, even when laid down, somehow manage to shrink up their resources and wait for an opportunity to reach back into the dirt. My vegetables crops don’t seem to have that level of survival skill as sometimes even a slight nudge will result in a lost plant.

We spent time planting seeds this past week in the hopes that some moisture would pull them out of the ground and we finished our last round of transplants.

We were lucky enough to have Mr. Grady Bean rebuild the retaining wall on the side of the house last fall so have a huge dirt pile from that project that Dan has been moving - wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow – to the garden where it is becoming a terrace to slow down fast moving rainwater, just in case we ever get any! J. We started that project with old tires that have accumulated around the farm – stacking them three high and filling them with waste weeds and rocks that would hopefully compost down so we could plant in these creative containers.

YOUR BAG THIS WEEK –

  • POTATOES
  • ONIONS
  • CHINESE CABBAGE
  • GARLIC SCAPES – check our Nikol’s recipe!
  • SWISS CHARD
  • MYSTERY BAG - whatever we could find – a surprise to us and to you! 😊
  • CHIVES

A recipe share from Nikol. Joe Sasto’s Pici al Pesto

Watch the video lesson here: https://youtu.be/6vc79FBpdFY

Cold Garlic Scape Potato Soup (Vichyssoise) https://www.justalittlebitofbacon.com/cold-potato-garlic-scape-soup-vichyssoise/

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Magic is a funny word when you try to define it – it becomes a little slippery! To Seth, lightning bugs are magic creatures that he wishes he could imitate both in flying and in lighting up! And so the other night as we were walking from the chicken pen back to the barn in the near twilight and we saw a low flying piece of magic underneath the pear tree, blinking and suspended, we stopped in our tracks. And then suddenly, there I was, chasing magic and capturing it in the palm of my hand, feeling it crawl up and down and out the cracks by my thumbs where my hands don’t fit together well and lighting up intermittently through my hand and on the outside of it as he crawled and Seth shrieked with excitement. Finally I felt safe enough to have Seth run to the barn and get a jar to put his magic into so he could show Izzy. And I let the magic go. I wasn’t sure what the fate of this bug would be as Seth ran to find his sister. And then to find out that the fate was the most magic of all – they let it go so they could watch it fly away, lighting up our part of the world.

Blessings to you from the farm - Seth, Izzy, Katy, Dan, Zach, Jen and Teresa

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And from Pasture Queens Tubiggs and Georgia!