Greetings Country Valley Farm Members,
This is week 11 of the season. We are packing extra produce in the shares this week. We apologize for the inconvenience of skipping last week. Deliveries and pickups will be as normal this Sunday. The farm is super-bountiful right now, and it is our pleasure to share this bounty with each of you! We appreciate your membership and participation in our farm share community. Thank you for choosing to support our small organic family farm, it makes a big difference in our world.
A bit about what is going on the farm:
We have been clipping garlic stalks and roots as part of the drying and curing process. We are about 2/3 of the way done with it. Next week we will move the garlic into the root cellar for long term storage. Garlic bulbs in the shares this week.
The onion harvest is complete. We are almost done clipping the onion greens and the onions will continue to cure for a bit longer and then also be moved into the root cellar for long term storage. The onion crop produced a majority of very small onions – it takes the same amount of work to plant, weed, water, harvest, and cure a small onion as it does a large onion. We are getting better at growing onions and expect we will get bigger onions next year by making a few adjustments in our onion management practices. That said, small onions can be fun and offer unique culinary possibilities, they are in a category of their own. Yellow Spanish onions in the shares this week.
We have planted beans for fall – 5 different types and colors of string beans!
We also planted a few beds of cilantro seed, a bed of dill seed, and a big bed of turnips.
We will begin transplanting lettuces next week. Our plan is to transplant a few hundred lettuce plants each week for 6 weeks or so, in succession so we can have lettuces into the fall as long as possible.
Fall radishes and root veggies will be direct seeded next week or the week after.
The broccoli and fall brassica greens we planted a few weeks ago are doing well. Rabbits ate about 100 of the young plants right after transplant…. We are kinda used to that happening.
The potatoes are ready to being harvest soon. We will start to harvest some this coming week or the week after. Our process is to harvest them weekly as needed and let them stay in ground until needed or until the weather gets cold and they need to be brought in – we have plenty of time at this point.
The tomatoes are really growing fast and loading heavily with fruit. We added some additional supports as the plants have gotten so heavy laden with fruit. We noticed a bit of deer damage already so we added some low hoops and a double layer of fabric row cover to try and protect them. Even though we use sand bags to weigh down the row cover, and attach it to the hoops with heavy duty clips, the winds blew the row covers right off last night in the storm, we will look it replacing it this weekend and have decided to let it be for now as storms are still coming through. Vine ripened tomatoes will be in the shares this week.
The basil plants are loving the warm weather and sunshine, Lemon basil is in the shares this week; we will rotate through other basil varietals in weeks to come (Genovese, basil, thai basil. purple opal basil, tulsi/holy basil). The thing with basil is when it is ready it is ready. In years past we have tried to stretch the basil crop and sometimes lost a lot due to basil being finicky and not happy with erratic weather – we have learned from that to enjoy basil when basil is here and to move on when it is done. Our goal is to extend the basil harvest season as long as possible.
The mini sweet peppers are very plump and some are finally changing colors. We cooked up some of the green ones this week as part of some pasta sauce we made and they were delectable. We have some rows of sweet peppers that we interplanted with dill that will be ready later but we have a big bed that we are beginning harvest now. They will be in the shares this week.
This week’s small shares contain the following items:
- Lemon basil – an extra big bunch from our farm
- Rainbow mini sweet peppers – 1 pint from our farm
- Fresh garlic bulbs– 3 large bulbs from our farm
- Vine ripened tomatoes – 1 pint from our farm
- Yellow Spanish onions – 1 pint from our farm
- Slicing cucumbers – about 2 pounds from Cinzori Farm
- Green beans – 1 quart from Cinzori Farm
- Eggplant – 1 big one from Cinzori Farm
- Medium shares will receive extra cucumbers, extra sweet peppers, and extra onions
- Large shares will packed as 2 small shares.
Some preparation and cooking tips:
- Lemon basil – just like traditional basil but with a profound lemon zest flavor. It goes great in pesto or tomato sauce, also nice in a salad. If you are a tea drinker, give this one a try as a simple tea or hot or cold.
- Rainbow mini sweet peppers – they can be used any way you would use a bell pepper. Great as a stand alone snack, in a salad, stuffed with a soft cheese, breaded and fried, sautéed, in a sauce etc.
- Fresh garlic bulbs – garlic takes a few weeks to dry and then is cured and stored to be eaten throughout the year. This garlic is almost cured but the skins are still fresh and easy to peel. The flavor is a bit less strong when the garlic is fresh, but the garlic also has a nice juiciness to it that can only be found in really fresh garlic.
- Vine ripened tomatoes – we planted 3 varieties of tomatoes, the Mountain Fresh heirlooms seem to be most of what is ripening first, with a few heritage beefsteaks also ripening. The 3rd variety, Celebrity, will be ready a bit later in the season. We also intend to include other tomato varieties from Cinzori Farm as the season progresses.
- Yellow Spanish onions – we are packing our largest onions in the shares this week. We are very proud of these onions. They have a nice flat shape and a beautiful color inside and out.
- Slicing cucumbers – these are not waxed or covered in some kind of oil, nor are they shrink-wrapped in plastic. Good ol’ locally grown organic cucumbers.
- Green beans – hand picked and packed. There is a difference. You can expect a faster cooking time and a more velvety texture than store bought green beans. While we do enjoy including green beans in mixed vegetable recipes, one of our favorite ways to enjoy them is simply to steam them with fresh chopped garlic and a tiny bit of olive oil.
- Eggplant – one of the few veggies that Adam doesn’t really cook or eat much. We know many folks love them, and it is part of the variety of veggies grown by Cinzori Farm, so we like to include some eggplant now and then in the shares.
One of our members gave us a great idea that we would like to put into action. Member recipe sharing! We love to hear about how folks are using the produce from the shares, and we appreciate anyone who takes the time to mention it. We know some folks are producing amazing culinary treasures in their home kitchens. We’d like to encourage some recipe sharing and crowd source some greatness from our community. If you have a recipe that you use or have tried that you feel is worth others trying, please send it to us as an email. Please don’t be shy, have some fun with this and feel free to share! If we include your recipe in a newsletter you will receive a special gift from the farm as a token of thanks for your time and sharing. We will keep names anonymous unless you want us to share your name. As our newsletters get posted to our website (eventually… this task sometimes gets put off and then the newsletters get uploaded later) your recipe will live in perpetuity as part of our farm.
We also love when folks post on Instagram and tag us in the post. We like to repost those on our Instagram story. We seem to get a very favorable response from these posts. It is also a real nice feel good that has a lasting and uplifting impact. We are working to be more active and improve our Instagram page overall. Our intention is for our page to be authentic and represent the spirit of our farm, so it is always a work in progress and something we are continuously improving. If Instagram is not for you, we understand of course. If you are on Instagram, please give our page a follow at CountryValleyFarm.
Check out our website and peruse old newsletters for additional cooking tips and recipe ideas: https://countryvalleyfarm.com/newsletter/
That’s all for now. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon.
Adam Mitchel
Country Valley Farm