In your box:
–Baby beets
–Cucumber
–Head lettuce
–Kale (Winterbor)
–Summer squash
–Sweet Peppers
–Something else: Raspberries, beans, broccoli, or ground cherries, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, or an extra cucumber
As we turn the calendar to August, we allow our thoughts to begin thinking—just a little bit—about kids returning to school, trees turning color, and snow falling (ok, maybe no one’s actually thinking about snow yet). Around the farm, we pronounce the month “Ahhhh-gust.” As in, the weeds are finally under control, nearly all of the crops are in, and from here on the vast majority of our work is simply harvesting all the crops we’ve worked to plant, weed, and water all season. Not that I’m spending any time at all in a hammock yet—but the month of August brings a welcome diversity after months of endless weed-pulling with an occasional break for mosquito-swatting.
When I mention that the weeds are finally under control, I can’t emphasize enough what a group effort this has been. When Jeremy, our intern for the past two years, came back this year we thought that he would balance my workload and that together we could run the farm. However, when he left for year-round work in California in the last week of June I was quite distressed about how I could keep the farm in order, remain sane, and be at least a civil husband and father. Sleeping from time to time was a goal, too. We have been blown away by the support we have received from our family, CSA members, and our community. My parents have been out two days a week to get bossed around by their son, Nina’s mom has joined us two days a week to pull weeds until the mosquitoes carry her away, and we have received help from aunts, uncles, and siblings. We’ve had a dozen CSA members out to help, and this past week we had a group from Discovery United Methodist Church in Chanhassen out to help us pull weeds and to lift our spirits. To all of you, we are extremely thankful. And if you’d still like to make it out this summer to see your farm—especially now that you can see the crops without all the weeds in the way–or to lend a hand picking berries or beans, we would love to have you out any time.
Due to the cool weather the past couple weeks, many fruiting crops have been slow to ripen. As a result, we have a few each of numerous crops coming your way. Raspberries are hitting a temporary pause as the spring berries finish and our fall berries come into production. We have a few eggplant, a precious few cherry tomatoes, mixed-color green beans, some late coming broccoli, and a few ground cherries. We’ll include a little introduction in your box when you receive ground cherries (and later for tomatillos), as this old favorite isn’t commonly available. I’ll talk more about eggplant as we get more in, but for now you can find ideas from our website: https://foxandfawnfarm.com/2011/08/05/eggplant-ideas/
Our Sweet Peppers are in no hurry to ripen with cool weather like this, but we’ll include some green peppers this week to begin their season. Some of the “green” peppers are actually purple—they begin that way but ripen to red like common bell peppers. We also have my favorite crop to grow– “Carmen” Italian peppers. These have the same taste and utility as any bell pepper, but with a unique elongated end.
Also, we are offering a different kind of Kale this week: “Winterbor.” This is the more common variety of kale in grocery stores, with the poor distinction of being used as a decoration far too often. If your fridge is becoming a hiding place for kale, we’re expecting to give it some time off when the corn starts filling up the boxes in a couple weeks.
Fox & Fawn Farm 