Sundog CSA September 12th, 2022

It feels like summer has left this weekend! Seventies are so different than those ninety-degree temperatures but the weatherman said not to get used to this because it was going to warm up by Tuesday! I am probably not going to win any fans by saying this but I am not ready for summer to be over. I am ready for this drought season to be over though. We were hanging out with Zach Saturday when it started to rain and I guess that it continued to rain in Topeka more than it did here on the hill where the rain gauge topped off at .28. It was slow and with the cool down in temperatures, it did help a little but by noon on Sunday, most of the gardens showed no sign that any water had fallen the night before. We have been hearing from people who are growing and their experience is about the same as ours – lack of rain and the struggle with the high temperatures. We have been lucky with our tomatoes and potatoes and believe it or not, the third planting of squash has the beginnings of blooms on a couple of the plants. Buckets and buckets of water and hopefully missing a bug hatch will give us a few squashes before the season ends – keeping our fingers crossed.

Nickel, our little Jersey cow, gave us quite a scare this week. We could tell that she was not feeling ok as she was not cleaning her feedbox at milking time which is unlike her. She was walking slow and had lost that “Jersey sass”. Putting together some information from our vet and reaching out to our friend Monica, who grew up milking with her mom and dad on a dairy farm, we were able to come up with a plan to treat Nickel for a problem caused by ticks and horseflies working as a team. It has been a terrible year for both of these little pests. Since we rarely have medicine, it took a few calls around the neighborhood to borrow and then Katy and I coaxed Nickel back to the barn and played doctor. I know that she is doing better because she has a little attitude and I am glad to see it! I am not sure that she is as grateful to Monica as we were due to the needle holes in her hide!

And we managed to solve our other little “livestock” problem a little easier. For several days, the egg count has been considerably lower which usually means that we have a snake in residence or one of our dogs has taken up egg eating. Katy happened upon a bucket that had been left sitting in the pen, filled with eggs. I guess the hens just wanted to try out a new nest option. Unfortunately, leaving the empty bucket there has resulted in an empty bucket. Apparently, they decided to find a new place to make deposits.

Introducing Cherokee Green – this is a big beautiful beefsteak tomato easy to identify as a color mutation of the old fashioned tomato, Cherokee Purple. Another offering from Wild Boar Farms.

YOUR BAG THIS WEEK - –

Cherry Tomatoes

Slicing Tomatoes

Okra

Beets

Potatoes

Sweet Peppers - Green and Colors

Small bag of lunch box peppers

RECIPES FROM ONE UNITED HARVEST – Creative Recipes from America’s Community Supported Farms

City Slicker Tomato Soup

Equal parts of tomatoes and milk ½ cup diced onions

¾ cup diced celery ½ - ¾ lb. bacon, chopped 1/8 tsp. soda

The recipe states that 8-10 tomatoes make a good batch.

Scald and skin tomatoes. Dice into soup pot. Simmer. Sauté celery and onions in a small amount of butter or margarine. Fry bacon. Drain grease. Heat an equivalent amount of milk in a separate pan. When tomatoes are tender, add the soda. Pour the cooked tomatoes into the warm milk, slowly, stirring continually. Add remaining ingredients. Add seasonings to taste such as pepper, dill, garlic powder, onion powder or celery flakes.

RECIPE NOTE: A city attorney for Sioux Falls, South Dakota gave us this awesome tomato soup recipe. This soup is a delicious and east way to use tomatoes. Put the simmered tomatoes through a colander if your family minds the tomato seeds.

Harriet Kattenberg, Seedtime and Harvest, Hull, Iowa

Heady fragrance and this complicated unfolding bloom make this newly planted Bee Balm well worth the stopping time to admire and breathe in deeply

Reaching in to pick tomatoes shocked both of us!

Hanging on tightly and keeping a watchful eye on us, this poor frog is going to have to make a decision soon.

Performance Time for this Katydid and then a close by snack?

Dung beetles have been said to be in abundance where the land has been treated with care. Katy rescued this fella from the water tank. He sat up and seemed on his way to recovery –

Seth is making the tough decision to “pick or eat” and I am cloud gazing as usual!

Third try is the charm? Squash blossom on this Monday morning – hoping for a crop!

“Hope springs eternal” is a saying that is credited to Alexander Pope, written within “Essay on Man” in 1733-1734. I looked it up and it spoke seriously about this world and human beings, limits and theories. I realized that to me it had a totally different meaning that was sort of serious but will never be listed as a definition of the saying in Wikipedia. I think of hope and spring when I am dirt digging and I inhale the smells of particles that seem alive with possibilities so even though I spent at least 20 minutes digging a rock laden hole that made music or at least sounds each and every time my shovel touched down, I thought there was hope that the tree that I was thinking about sticking in that hole had a chance. And that to those of us that live on rocks with a little soil sifting or drifting in between is hope springing eternal! 😊

Blessings from the farm – Teresa, Jen, Zach, Izzy, Seth, Dan and Katy