Sundog CSA August 28th, 2023
NO BAG NEXT MONDAY - it is hard to believe that next Monday will be Labor Day!
What a week it has been weather-wise! We have spent Saturday and Sunday celebrating being under 100 degrees. It has been wonderful to be in the 80s and the only thing that would make it better would be a full rain gauge! Our reading Saturday morning was .08 which as Katy says “is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick”, but barely better. It was gone within a couple of hours at most and the eight-day forecast is not showing much hope of moisture. Most of the little crops that we had planted burnt up, even with the daily watering. It was just too much heat so we are starting over one more time and hoping that we can push them fast enough to get a harvest. Both striped and blister beetles are a big problem on foliage crops right now. Sun and heat cooked/ broiled or whatever cooking term you want to use, our tomatoes and peppers, even though we had all the family bedding out in the patches! Sheets were hanging everywhere except on the clothes lines! I think that it did help some of the tomatoes and the peppers were also doing well with their shade covering until one of the resident cats jumped in the middle of the shade cover and crashed it down, not so gently, breaking pepper branches in his fall.
We spent the weekend pulling weeds around the high tunnels, fertilizing and watering and feeding the chickens cooked vegetables courtesy of the sun’s heat this past week. Even though the poultry crew has been receiving all these extra “treats”, they are also grateful for the cooler weather.
Another challenge this past week was rural water was under a “boil water advisory” and we found out just how much water we use as we boiled and or bought that precious liquid. The other thing is the awkwardness as you adjust to not turning on a faucet – sort of like flipping the light switches even when the electricity is out due to storms. Thursday afternoon was our “return to faucet use” day.
I have had Concord grapes for a long time but had not really done much with them, other than eat them. Last year, our friend Sally gave us some advice on how to make grape jam and it turned out some really special spreads although they do not compare with her “wild grape” jam. In your bags this week, we sent some of our grapes. We netted them this year because of the birds not respecting the “No trespassing” sign on the grape trellis. The tiny bunches do not ripen all at once but even those “green turning purple shades” taste so good and the smell is something you wish that you could bottle. We also picked a few of our small sugar pears even though they are not quite ripe yet. The dry weather is causing them to fall and even though we have a sticky trap and our molasses concoction bottle hanging in the tree, the insects/bugs are causing damage to the small fruits.
YOUR BAG THIS WEEK – grown in an organic manner
- Potatoes
- Tomatoes – all sizes and kinds
- Sweet Peppers
- Chard
- Concord Grapes
- Pear Sample
RECIPE SHARE - These recipes are from One United Harvest: Creative Recipes from America’s Community Supported Farms - collected by Julie Sochacki
Heirloom Tomato Salad
6 vine ripened heirloom tomatoes 1 garlic clove, chopped
½ tsp. salt 1 T. tarragon or white wine vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper 1 T. fresh lemon juice
Flake sea salt ¼ cup olive oil
1 tsp. Dijon mustard 3 T. finely chopped fresh chives
Core the tomatoes and slice them from tip to stem into ½ inch slices. Lay the slices on a large plate, sprinkle with ½ tsp. salt and let sit for 15 minutes. Drain any juice that has accumulated on the plate and arrange the slices on a serving platter. Give a few turns of the pepper grinder over the tomatoes and sprinkle with sea salt. Combine the mustard and garlic in a small bowl and stir in the vinegar and lemon juice. Slowly beat in the oil. Spoon the vinaigrette over the tomatoes and sprinkle with chives.
Recipe shared by Ted McCormack and Wendy Crofts, Willow Pond Community Farm, New Hampshire
CHUNKY MEDITERRANEAN HERBED TOMATO SAUCE
2 medium onions, diced small 1 ½ T. minced fresh oregano
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 ½ T. minced fresh thyme
¼ cup olive oil 1 ½ minced fresh sage
3 lbs. tomatoes, peeled, seeded & coarsely chopped dash of dried pepper flakes
3 T. finely chopped fresh basil salt and pepper to taste
3 T. finely chopped fresh parsley
In a large sauce pan, cook onions and garlic in olive oil over moderately high heat for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes, herbs and red pepper flakes and cook 15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately or refrigerate in a tightly sealed container for up to four days. Sauce also freezes well. Makes four cups of sauce. Recipe shared by Karen Vollmecke, Vollmecke Orchards CSA, Pennsylvania
Kansas summers are not complete without wild sunflowers – in our garden among the other weeds! 😊
Top left is a tomato called “Big Pink” and the one on the left is Ananas Noire, just beginning to ripen with its subtle pink lines of color. Bottom left is Purple Boy and bottom left is another favorite, Wild Boar Sweet Carnernos Pink. These are some of the varieties growing this year.
Top left was the promise that did not materialize Friday night. Top right is “Bert” short for Albert. Bottom left is night time milking with all in attendance, even those who do not milk. And the bottom right picture is the owl who keeps skimming Katy’s head during evening goat milking. If you look closely, you can see his little horns!
Milking and chore time in our old converted chicken house barn. And the last tomato for this week is Orange Jazz which when fully ripe, is colored gold. This one is just beginning to turn. They taste wonderful but do not keep well.
REMEMBER: Wednesday, August 31st is the BLUE MOON. So “once in a blue moon” is Wednesday. August is going to be remembered for its string of 100-degree days and also for two full moons in one month.
I was prompted to remember childhood the other day when Seth demanded that I watch something he could do since he is now almost seven years old. What he can do is attempt a hand stand. It took me back to the patch of blue grass in my grandma’s front yard, soft and thick and just the right size for attempting the same kind of hand stands that Seth was showing me that he could almost do. I would spend hours of my free time on that patch of grass, trying to do everything except stand on my feet. And what about those times when I could actually pick my hands up and move them, keeping my feet in the air? Of course, those were the times when I did not have an audience! Perhaps the most exciting thing of all was that my dad could and would do it too. And he was a grown-up! He would bend over, placing his hands on the ground with us kids watching and in a split second, he was in the air, all six feet of him, with things falling out of his shirt pockets, his glasses sliding precariously and us kids clapping and yelling as we watched him “walk”! So, I have not shown Seth how to do a hand stand yet, but I am thinking seriously about practicing! 😊
Blessings from the farm along with gratitude for the weather change!
Izzy, Seth, Katy, Dan, Jen, Zach and Teresa