This Week’s Harvest

Globe eggplant OR fairytale eggplant
Green peppers
Swiss chard
Candy onions
Celery
Carrots
Cucumber
Tomato (first of the season, let it fully ripen on the kitchen counter)
Beets with beet greens
Summer squash and/or zucchini

Farm Notes

One of my favorite parts of this job is when I am all alone in the early morning cutting our beautiful flowers. It’s not too hot, the dew and morning sunlight make for a picturesque scene, and I can slowly gear up for the busy day ahead. My only company is the pleasant chirping of song birds like indigo buntings, gold finch and song sparrows, and the occasional sound of the rapid wing flapping hummingbird. We really like operating a diverse farm that includes speciality cut flowers. The flowers provide beauty, a source of nourishment for bees and other pollinators, and attract beneficial insects to help control the populations of not so helpful insects.

Last year it became clear that we needed an additional walk in cooler just for flowers. By August the cooler was stuffed with the hundreds of sunflowers, the weekly vegetable harvest, plus storage crops like onions and potatoes. Well, I am happy to report that the cooler walls and floor are installed! And so, Mile Creek Farm is a couple days away from having a flower cooler! The timing is perfect as the onion harvest has begun– and looks terrific– with the potato harvest right around the corner and the flowers are productive as ever.

In addition to having the CSA flower share, we also sell a hundred plus bouquets at 2nd Street Market on Saturdays and have recently delved into wedding flowers. Earlier this month, I made my first official bridal bouquet, bridal party bouquets, altar arrangements, and boutonnieres.

Recipes
Beet and celery salad (you can use celery leaves in place of parsley and candy onion in place of green onions)

Swiss chard sausage and carrot orecchiette ( use carrots in place of parsnips. Add beet greens to the Swiss chard)

Roasted vegetables ( most veggies in this weeks box are great roasted, and with the cold front it’s a good week to fire up the oven!)