Greetings Country Valley Farm Members,
This is week 12 of the season. Here we are in mid-August, and it is serious tomato time now – the tomato plants are producing amazingly! We are thankful for the cool nights we are getting now. There is something about a contrast in day to night temperatures that seems to help most of the veggies progress in a good way.
A bit about what is going on the farm:
The bean seeds have germinated well and we have a good stand of baby bean plants in all beds.
The turnip seed also germinated well.
We are waiting for the cilantro and dill plants to emerge.
We will be transplanting 256 lettuce plants this weekend. 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 this coming week.
The broccoli and fall brassica greens we planted a few weeks ago are doing well.
We harvested a few potatoes from each variety. The huckleberry gold variety is the most ready and will be in the shares this week. We will rotate through other varieties as they finish up. 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 in their peak. We will include a lot of tomatoes in the shares this week.
The basil plants are still thriving. We will include Tulsi/Sacred Basil in the shares this week.
The dill beds are also producing exceptionally well. Dill is in the shares this week.
This week’s small shares contain the following items:
- Tulsi/Sacred Basil– an extra big bunch from our farm
- Dill with flowers – an extra big bunch from our farm
- Huckleberry Gold potatoes – 1 heaping quart from our farm
- Vine ripened tomatoes – a big bag of em’ from our farm
- Slicing cucumbers and baby cukes – 1 mixed quart from Cinzori Farm
- Zephyr and Cousa summer squash – 1 mixed quart from Cinzori Farm
- Shishito peppers – 1 pint from Cinzori Farm
- Medium shares will receive extra summer squash, extra tomatoes, and extra potatoes
- Large shares will packed as 2 small shares.
Some preparation and cooking tips:
- Tulsi/Sacred basil – just like traditional basil but with a unique floral flavor. Excellent chopped up and eaten in a salad, goes well with veggies as well as fruit. It also pairs well with curry. If you are a tea drinker, give this one a try as a simple tea or hot or cold.
- Dill with flowers – the entire herb is edible. Excellent for homemade pickles, or a simple cucumber and tomato salad. It also can be chopped and added to rice for a delectable and simple dish.
- Huckleberry gold potatoes – purple on the outside and golden on the inside. They make a nice potato salad, mashed potatoes, also excellent as bakers.
- Vine ripened tomatoes – we are harvesting quite a bit of tomatoes all of a sudden and will be packing extra large amounts in the shares this week.
- Slicing cucumbers and baby cukes mixed – good ol’ locally grown organic cucumbers.
- Zephyr and Cousa squash mix – two tender and unique summer squash. Great on the grill, roasted in the oven, sauteed, they can even be shredded and eaten raw.
- Shishito peppers – they seem to be most well known as a simple side dish, just blister them with a bit of olive oil and salt and serve with almost anything. The entire pepper is edible including the seeds. They are not spicy and are considered to be very mild. Occasionally there will be one with a little warmth, but officially they are not hot peppers.
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.
Here is a recipe one of our members shared – we have eaten these pickles and can attest that this recipe is great and the finished product is super yummy. Thank you Stef!
Stef’s Dill Pickles
Scant 1/3 cup coarse kosher salt
About 4 cups cucumbers–sliced as spears and/or chips
Bunch of fresh dill
2-4 cloves garlic
1 cup white vinegar
Put salt in large ceramic bowl.
Pour 1 cup boiling water over salt. Stir to help dissolve salt. (It won’t fully dissolve at this point.) Let sit while preparing vegetables.
Add a handful of ice to cool down water.
Add rest of ingredients.
Mix well with hands.
Fill bowl to brim with cold water.
Place a plate on top of liquid to weigh down cukes.
Sit bowl out on counter for up to 48 hours.
Try pickles to see when they are pickled to your liking.
Put in jars with liquid.
Refrigerate. Keep refrigerated and eat within a week or so.
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