Sundog CSA June 20th, 2022

20 Jun 2022

We are definitely aware of the temperature and the heat index these days! I am not quite ready to wish for snow but during our latest conversation concerning the weather, Seth brought the subject of “snow ice cream” up and how much he wished he had some. I argued that snow ice cream only comes with snow and I don’t like being hot and I hate driving on ice. Like most debates, neither of us convinced the other and since like most of our serious conversations, it was taking place in the barn and sweat was dripping. I said we could call it a draw and that led to a whole new conversation about using the word draw without crayons and paper. 😊

We checked in with Zach Wednesday evening to see how much rain the skies dropped on him and he said none. Here on the hill the gauge read 1.05 and I am pretty sure that it was over and done with in about 30 minutes or less. We have also checked in with Zach and Jen regularly this week to see whether the rabbits have breached the chicken wire barricade to feast on the new tomato transplants? Score one for the home team and zero for the rabbits. Zach was talking to us this evening and could see a couple of rabbits sitting under his shaded trellis so they have not moved on to easier pickings yet!

The cows are miserable with flies. The rain and warm weather has been perfect for the pesky horseflies and other biting insects. The cattle stand in groups and switch the cow standing next to them while the neighboring cow provides the service for them. The pigs are nestling in smooth depressions that they have shaped with their potter’s snouts and the chickens spend the afternoons under anything that casts a shadow, visiting with each other about the heat and other chicken concerns.

We spent the weekend in the gardens pulling weeds and mowing around the borders to try and eliminate housing for the beetles that are attacking the squash and cucumbers. Although certification rules say that we can’t use that term for the produce that we sell because we have not gone through the process required in order to be an “organic “grower, we choose not to use remedies that contain ingredients that could impact and harm the land or the people who eat what the land produces. Squashing the beetles and their eggs (they are prolific), trying to grow trap crops and trying hard to have healthy plants that can withstand the attack for a time before succumbing are some options to slow the beetles down. On my list of things that could be created/invented would be a “beetle eater”, some kind of vacuum machine that had eyes for beetles only! 😊

For the first time, we did Kohlrabi transplants. We decided to try a small planting and it was successful. We are not sure if it was the variety or the transplanting but we definitely want to try it again. Our direct seeded plantings are struggling with weed pressure and the heat.

YOUR BAG THIS WEEK -

Roots Bundle – first diggings of carrots, a couple of early beets and some radishes
Napa Blues Chinese Cabbage
Onions
Kohlrabi
Kale

PLEASE USE THE GREENS on the roots bundle if possible. We appreciate Lauri’s note about her use of the turnip greens last week and she also had some ideas for turnip uses if you have some leftovers from last week’s bag –

RECIPE SHARE- - Thanks Lauri! “I used a conventional green rice casserole recipe, subbing some lightly sautéed and well chopped turnip greens for the broccoli. So very good!

My favorite turnip preparation is creamed… Peel, cut into chunks, boil and then pour a cream sauce over. Even more decedent is to put an au gratin over the top and bake them a bit.

I also like turnips sliced into sticks and salted, served cold.”

KOHLRABI – Like Lauri with turnips, I love kohlrabi raw. It is a mild vegetable that is interesting to look at and to grow. The part that you eat grows above ground with a long tough taproot feeding it. If you are moon sign planter, kohlrabi is allowed on both root and leaf days. It can be peeled or not. Mollie Katzen describes kohlrabi in her cookbook as a vegetable “having a nice spunky taste – like a cross between a cabbage and a radish”. Her advice is to remove the leavers, peel it and blanch in boiling water for ten minutes and then cool; slice thinly for salads. Nancy O’Conner, author of the “Rolling Prairie Cookbook” said that “the name “kohlrabi” comes from the German kohl, meaning cabbage and rabi or turnip and that kind of sums it up.” Nancy advises that you trim the kohlrabi leaves and store them separately and use them within a couple of days. You can store the bulbs in the frig, unwashed, in a plastic bag for about a week. Uses according to Nancy are peeling and slicing, dicing or grating and adding to salads. Use on a raw vegetable platter, serving with a creamy dip. She also uses grated kohlrabi for slaw saying to lightly salt it first and let it stand for several minutes and then squeezing to remove excess liquid before adding dressing. You can also steam or boil this vegetable but do not peel it first. Boil until tender, peel skin and season with butter, salt and pepper, a cheese sauce or just enjoy plain.

The tiniest of creatures was a find while doing the cow check this week. Cow checking to the kids is really playing in the water that fills the gully cutting through the pasture, and it contains some of those magical places where you can sit on moss covered rocks and let your hands dangle in the trickling water.

There is something to be said for the flowers that grow without any caretaking from us! Beautiful prairies!

Dan spent Saturday cutting down a couple of old trees that were in the calf pen where we are hoping to cut grass. Hank looks on with awe and with a little suspicion as Dan carries a fence post length up from the pen.

Milking cows makes it difficult to accept evening invitations of any kind. Last night was an exception though and I found myself part of a group sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows close to what my grandmother would have called the” past the end of the day” - somewhere around 10:30 or 11:00. It was a time that worked for me as we generally leave the milkhouse somewhere around ten on these hot evenings. Anyway, Seth had his construction equipment out in the driveway and had built a small campfire ring of rocks that was about 3 inches in diameter. He asked me to come and see what he had built and extended the invitation to one and all so we ended up sitting around a campfire that was about one marshmallow wide, toasting in the dark under the lights of one of those star filled summer skies and feeling lucky to have been invited!

Blessings from the hill - Jen, Zach, Katy, Dan, Seth, Izzy, and Teresa