Sundog Farms

Sundog CSA August 17th, 2026

It has been a dry, rather warm week here on the hill and for most of the area. Only .03 drops of rain fell and I am pretty sure they evaporated almost immediately as the sun seemed to wholeheartedly put energy towards warming up this past of Kansas this week. Water seemed to leak out of every pore as we sat down by our four legged “furnaces” to extract milk. The comfort that snuggling up to a cowhide in the winter is lost during the summer months! Adding to the discomfort was the lack of air movement On Wednesday evening as we sweated through our chores, we put our clock/thermometer just to see if our whining was legitimate and it settled out at 103 degrees – we took a picture at 102 to make sure that we were not imagining those triple digits but did not even bother at 103. So, tonight, Sunday evening, is a pleasure with the cooldown and a hint of breeze and we appreciate it!

We re-tilled ground Monday evening and re-planted several rows in the hopes that we can coax germination as nothing we planted the last round germinated. This time we are faithfully watering which is probably more effective than crossing our fingers and wishing! And wishing is what I did on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings as I lay out on the roof and waited for the comet streaks! I had planned on Wednesday evening and my aunt Gini called me and asked me if I was watching, so I headed out. It was a good thing that I did because there were more comets that night than on Wednesday due to light floating clouds, moving slowly but opening now and then to allow fast flashes of long tailed comets to slide past. They were magical in their “here and gone” appearances.

Izzy took a picture of the moonflower blooming along the chicken fence this week. I had noticed that the one we planted on the tall feed bin has secret blooms tucked in among the leaves, to appear only in the evenings. Orb weavers, the spiders of summer, have appeared, weaving webs that seem to hang in mid-air and have to be carefully traced to find out where they are attached. The big black and white garden spiders or “zig-zag spiders” as Katy and Zach called them, are also orb weavers and I see they are spinning webs everywhere all of a sudden also.

In addition to sky gazing and dirt tilling, we pulled weeds, marveled over the population of worms who were making “lace leaves” out of our pepper plants and plotted revenge on them, fixed and re-fixed electric fences and loaded and hauled our rented bull back to his owner. We are working on some building repairs again – a never-ending project or so it seems. While Katy and Izzy ran some errands late one afternoon, I took a few hours off work and Seth and I went magnet fishing. He “caught” some old metal car parts that had washed down the creek, somebody’s lost fishing hooks and a lure. Seth was as thrilled as if we had caught a ten-pound channel cat. Hope your week was as much fun!

YOUR BAG THIS WEEK

  • So many TOMATOES - assorted colors and sizes
  • Cherry tomatoes – finally!
  • Potatoes
  • Okra
  • Peppers – Large green and a jalapeno
  • Cucumber – this is another crop that is finally producing!
  • Basil and Sage bundles!

RECIPE SHARE

Information and recipes are from “Too Many Tomatoes, Squash, Beans and Other Good Things” by Lois Burrows and Laura Myers

Tomato Information – Tomatoes are not North American native vegetables. They immigrated here from Peru through Mexico, brought north by Mexican Indians. Folklore says that most of our ancestors considered them poisonous and not edible. Thomas Jefferson is recorded as planting and eating tomatoes when this “poisonous” folklore was still prevalent. Tomatoes currently come in all sizes, shapes and colors and are promoted for different uses such as “slicers, paste and canning”.

Spanish Rice 1 ½ cups peeled, seeded, quartered tomatoes 2 teaspoons salt Puree the above in a blender.

2 onions, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced ¼ cup oil Sauté the above until soft in large skillet.

2 cups uncooked rice – Add the rice and sauté. Stir in the tomatoes.

3 cups boiling water – Add and simmer, covered, over low heat 20 – 25 minutes.

CURRIED RICE - -for curried rice, add ½ teaspoon ground ginger and ¼ teaspoon each ground cloves, coriander and pepper to the onions and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes more.

Sometimes the beauty of these tomatoes lies on the inside – this one tastes as good as it looks! And in some of the bags this week is a different looking cucumber, Poona Kheera. This heirloom cucumber is native to India and although looks overripe, is sweet and good textured. We used to grow them years ago and found ourselves excited to have them back in the garden this year. And the last picture is what we found in the garden this morning – so many worms on one pepper! Lucky chickens who received an unexpected breakfast treat!

A praying mantis who definitely graduated at the top of her yoga class tried to ride to the pasture with us this morning, hitching on our traveling pen panels. This tree frog did not graduate as he has mistaken Katy’s shoulder for a tree so he is either a new species, a shoulder frog or is going to have to work on his landing skills. Izzy captured one of the beautiful hummingbird moths using a long “nectar grabber” from our long blooming phlox.

Seth tried out the “bull hauling” trailer while Izzy captured a picture of Woodrow who thought that she was hiding in the trees and the backyard is holding another new baby, Ginger Lee who is hanging out with Opal, Roni, Batty and Pumpkin. So far, we have all remembered that there is an electric fence in the backyard that was never there before! Below: Izzy’s picture of a fragrant moonflower, Saturday evening’s sky show that gave us .02 in the gauge and tonight’s clear sky featuring the faint outline of the entire moon with the sharp crescent showing.

I am sitting here writing the newsletter, thinking about all the days of this week while I am absently mindedly scratching away at the other part of this week’s gifts which was a case of poison ivy. Seth and I managed to avoid a nest of hornets while magnet fishing. I have only had one major tick bite this summer and the biggest hole I have had drilled has been by a sweat bee who probably had a reason since he was squished when I bent my elbow. It has been a few years since I have had a case of poison ivy and I can’t say that I have missed it. I spent way too much time trying to dissect my day yesterday and figure out where I managed to grab one of the “leaves of three” and rub it on my arms – it is a mystery that I will ponder this week as I scratch away - - - - - - -

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