Sundog CSA September 8th, 2025

This week’s newsletter is short because the weather was so beautiful that it seemed a crime to be inside! After picking the vegetables for this week’s bag, we went out and spent a little time working on the building repair project. Dan is working on cutting down a dead tree in the front of the house. Our “bee mentor”, Shawn, came over and there was checking of the hives today as she again leads us through honey retrieval. The ending of the visit was Katy sitting in the truck with all the windows rolled up as one lone bee seemed to have her on his radar. Katy, Izzy and Seth worked with Shawn while I picked peppers. The sun feels so good after a week of mostly clouds. We are appreciating the calmness of today after Wednesday evening’s hail storm. We happened to be in the barn milking when the wind slammed against the north side of the building, carrying a load of hail that beat a staccato rap song on the tin barn roof. Mimi was in the stanchion eating the last of her grain ration and like us, had not seen or felt this coming. It scared her and she turned in circles inside the barn, not knowing what to do with herself because she did not want to walk out the north door straight into the hail storm but she did not want to be inside a room where we were all yelling to be heard above the sound of falling ice balls. Mimi finally ran for cover out the door and we ran/walked in the opposite direction for the house in pouring rain and hail. Katy and I both ended up with cuts on our heads and the imprint of the storm in our memory bank! There are multiple holes in the porch roof and the windblown ice shredded a lot of the garden, breaking plants and stripping leaves from trees etc. The nicks and bruises you see on some of the produce is from ice hitting it – not from bugs! We won’t forget that day for a while!

The storm hit west of us with much greater fierceness so we were lucky! Holes in the roof, peppers showing some direct hits and then an innocent sky with the moon sliding in and out of sight.

The rest of our week was fairly quiet – normal chores and normal challenges. Best part of this week was spending part of Saturday with Zach and Jen! The conversations are loud and crazy with all of us talking at once and everyone having so much to share about what has been happening since we saw each other.

YOUR BAG THIS WEEK

• Tomatoes
• Squash/ Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Sweet and HOT peppers
• Okra (not sure if the okra will recover as the hail left it without bloom or leaves)
• Onions
• Grapes – the hail split the Concords – sending you a taste of them!

RECIPE SHARE –

From Necessities and Temptations

Ripe Tomato Pie

9-inch pie crust, baked Salt and pepper to taste

large tomatoes, peeled & sliced ¼ teaspoon basil

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion 1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup grated Cheddar cheese ¼ cup mayonnaise

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Layer tomatoes in pie crust. Sprinkle with onion and spices. Sprinkle sugar over spices.

Mix together cheese and mayonnaise. Spread over top of tomatoes.

Bake 20 minutes.

Stewed Tomatoes from “Dining on a Dime”

3 large tomatoes, ripe or 1 (28 oz.) can peeled tomatoes

2 slices bread, toasted and cut into ½ inch cubes

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 Tbsp. green bell pepper, finely chopped

½ tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1 Tbsp. sugar

Dip tomatoes into boiling water for one minute. Peel; the skin should slip off easily. Cut the tomatoes into small pieces. Mix all ingredients except bread in 2 ½ quart saucepan. Cover and heat to boiling. Reduce heat. Simmer about 10 minutes (until tomatoes are soft). Stir in bread cubes. Serve warm.

Fresh Tomato Cake from Too Many Tomatoes, Squash, Beans, and other Good Things: A Cookbook for when your Garden Explodes.

1 cup dark brown sugar ½ cup shortening

2 eggs ½ cup chopped nuts

½ cup chopped dates ½ cup raisins

2 cups peeled, cubed tomatoes 3 cups sifted flour

2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon nutmeg ½ teaspoon salt

FROSTING:

8 ounces cream cheese 1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar

3 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs, nuts, dates, raisins and tomatoes. Sift dry ingredients into tomato mixture. Pour into greased and floured 9 by 13-inch pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Beat frosting ingredients with mixer until smooth. Frost cooled cake.

FINDS OF THE WEEK

Izzy found this praying mantis hanging upside down from one leg on the wire fencing early this morning so brought him in to show us. They are interesting insects and they can bite! After examining him thoroughly, we let him loose to take pictures and he/she promptly flew away to spend the morning on the side of the milkhouse. Seth found this frog which we think is a Plains Leopard Frog. He is beautiful and wanting to be free just like the mantis. The third picture is of a shrew that Izzzy found out by the barn.

A peaceful sunset from Katy and this gorgeous closeup of the inside of a nasturium.

Something new at the house this week is the tinkling sound of bells that seems to go on forever at times. I was talking about always having a cowbell on my cow and Seth decided that we would put some bells on his goats. We put big bells on his goats, Lucy and Lacey, one day - within two or three days, the bells were gone. We tried another bell that we found and that was also gone in record time. This week, Seth helped Katy install personal alarm systems for each goat with a collar. Katy had purchased small jingle bells. When they change pastures, morning and night, there is a tinkling waterfall type sound that wanes and rises as they climb in and out of the gullies. It is like living in the land of Heidi . . . . . . .

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