Week 8 Newsletter

In Your Box:

• Basil
• Beets
• Corn
• Cucumbers
• Endive frisee
• Garlic
• Red onion
• Sweet onion
• Sweet pepper
• Tomato or beans or broccoli or cabbage
• Zucchini or eggplant

After weeks or bitterly partisan debate, farmers at Fox and Fawn Farm agreed to a controversial move that would lift the so-called Cucumber Ceiling.  This move clears the way for unprecedented cucumber harvests without restrictions or common sense that usually govern harvesting cucumbers.  With 120 cucumber plants in the field and the capacity to bear multiple fruit at once, cucumber harvests can easily soar into triple figures.

Senator Jeremy “Naptime” Benson led the call against raising the Cucumber Ceiling.  Benson, an intern at the farm and leader of the TEA party caucus (Tomatoes? Eaten Already).  “The American people sent a clear message in last year’s election: give us more cabbage, less cucumbers.  By lifting restrictions on cucumbers, we are saddling tomorrow’s generation with a heavy box that our children won’t be able to lift.”

Speaking in support of the bill, expert cucumber picker Nina Kirkman praised the  action as a move on behalf of civil liberties.  “The American consumer does not want Big Brother telling our farmers how many cucumbers he or she can harvest.  These silly things are mostly water, anyway.  The time has come to do away with this silly ceiling and allow for cucumbers to begin flowing freely throughout the farm and into surrounding communities.”

Experts note that Nina often relies on undocumented workers like Sen. Naptime to move the wheelbarrow full of cucumbers from the field into the packing shed.  Nina would not comment on this.

For his part, President Red would not take sides on the issue.  “This cucumber ceiling drama has been trumped up by the media to hide what all Americans know: We don’t have a problem with too many cukes, we have a problem with lacking zucchini and beans.  Until every CSA member has beans on his or her plate and zucchini taking up a lot of space in the fridge, I see this Cucumber Ceiling issue as a passel of smoke and mirrors.

Stock markets went wild following the decision to raise the limit on Cucumbers.  Bean harvests continued at embarrassingly low levels, while zucchini futures sunk to their lowest rate since July 15th.  As expected, the harvest of cucumbers soared 38% in the past week.

New this week:

Endive Frisee keeps the color green alive in the box.  Also known as chicory or simply endive, this green is a member of the daisy family, closely related to dandelions and radicchio.  The taste is quite similar to dandelion greens, although endive does not readily produce seeds that blow all over your yard for all of May.  Keep endive in the fridge for up to a week or two.  It can be eaten raw, in a salad, or lightly steamed to lessen the sharp taste.

We’ve added some Cinnamon Basil to our basil bunch this week.  It can be used in all of the same ways as regular green basil.

It’s hard to let this week go–after such extreme weather all summer, we’ve greatly enjoyed a quiet week of comfortable temperatures.  With such low humidity and dew points, we feel like God is once again ok with us going outside.  The fall crops are all progressing nicely, aided by adequate rains and consistent sunshine.  With a little luck, our fall harvests might make up for the slow spring!

Thanks to Andrea Kruse, from our St. Paul site, for helping out at the farm on Monday the 8th.  It was great to have you here!  Thanks also to Dave and Nancy Healy, hosts of our St. Paul delivery site, for hosting a 2nd annual member potluck a couple weeks back.  It was great to meet some members and enjoy some delicious food.