In Your Box:

• Beans
• Carrots
• Celery
• Cucumber
• Head lettuce
• Summer Squash or eggplant
• Sweet onion
• Tomatoes
• Sweet pepper

Farm News

The big news on the farm this week has certainly been the weather. I’m more than ready to be done with humidity, but it looks like it’s going to hold on through most of the week. Monday was one of the most miserable days I’ve worked through as a farmer, but thankfully my work was done by 1pm and I could get out of the heat and enjoy a nap. The storms on Monday evening and night brought us nearly two inches of rain but thankfully no damage from wind or hail.

I know many families have new schedules now that school is starting up. If you would prefer to switch delivery sites, even to a different day, please let me know and we’ll see what we can work out.

Tomatoes continue to ripen faster than I can pick them, and as such I still have a surplus available for freezing and canning. If you are interested in purchasing extras, I offer 10 lb boxes of meaty tomatoes for $30. Just send me an email if you are interested and I’ll let you know as soon as they are available.

This week’s box

This week we begin our harvest of sweet peppers. All of the peppers we grow are sweet, so you don’t have to worry about any spiciness with them. This week’s variety is Carmen, a beautiful red heirloom from Italy. I’ve never had a lot of success with growing bell peppers in this climate, so most of what I grow are elongated heirloom varieties. I’m hoping for about four more weeks of peppers, right up until the average first frost.

Summer squash and cucumbers are rapidly wrapping up their season, unfortunately. I might get another week or two if we’re lucky, but the prime picking is behind us. Some of the zucchini are turning a little warty or speckled–this comes from the disease pressure on the plants but does not affect the quality of the fruits aside from their looks.

Even though the summer squash are nearly done, I’ve been looking ahead to their hard-skinned relatives–winter squash. Our butternuts and acorns look like they’re making up for last year’s dud harvest, so we should wrap up the season with some nice heavy boxes.

This week also brings our first celery of the season. Celery loves water, so this has been a great year for it in the garden! I know celery can take up a lot of room in your fridge, so I try to give it every other week so you can keep up with it. If you can’t use it fast enough, it’s easy to freeze. Just chop up the stems, boil for 1-2 minutes, and cool before bagging and freezing. Frozen celery keeps well for up to a year and tastes great in soups and stews throughout the winter.

Cream of Tomato Soup

From Asparagus to Zucchini, 3rd ed.

Ingredients:

• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 large potato, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 stalk celery, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups water
• 2 lb tomatoes or 1 28 oz. Can
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp dill
• 1 tsp thyme
• ¼ c. fresh basil or 2 tsp dried
• 1 c hot milk, soymilk, almond milk, etc.
  

Directions:

1. Bring the water, onion, potato, celery and garlic to a boil in a soup pot. Cook until potato is tender, about 20-30 minutes.
2. Cut stems off of tomatoes, chop roughly, and run through a blender or food processor. Slowly stir this in with the main soup mix.
3. Add the seasonings and bring to a simmer.
4. Stir in the hot milk and serve. This is great with grilled cheese sandwiches!
   

Serves 6

Coming up

We are expecting kale, beans, basil, head lettuce, carrots, summer squash or cucumbers, sweet onions, tomatoes, and sweet peppers.