CSA Week 13 8/20

This Week’s HarvestIMG_3175

Purple Potatoes

Kale

Red Bell Peppers

Salad Mix

Wax Beans

Zephyr Squash

Sweet Onions

Watermelon

Cucumbers (regular and Salt and Pepper)

Tomatoes (Beefsteak and Heirlooms)

Okra (Tuesday only. Thursday got it 8/2 and 8/9)

Farm News

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The state of the farm these days is mostly good! Most crops are growing really well and the team is working really hard. We’ve seeded fall carrots, herbs, beets, turnips, and radishes. We’ve planted all 3 rounds of fall brassicas as well as greens. We weeded and side dressed these crops with fertilizer. We’ve harvested 9 bulk bins of winter squash! Fields from the spring have been disced under and seeded to cover crop. Beautiful stands of cover crop pepper the farm and roadways and field edges have been mowed. It’s in really good shape!

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All the thriving crops make the bad news from the farm a little easier to take. Disease is starting to creep up on the farm from the hot, humid and wet conditions we’ve had recently. The saddest thing to report is that our basil is done! Downy mildew has hit the farm–a disease that has afflicted basil growers for a couple years now, including us. But this year it has come so early! I intended to pick a brand new never-been-touched planting for the box this week but the mildew just over took it all this weekend. This, despite planting a supposed Downing Mildew resistant variety. Moreover, we didn’t even plant our last round of basil because the disease was already on the tiny seedlings. I really haven’t had my fill of caprese or panzanella salad yet!! Oh well, we’ll just have to get full on everything else the farm is producing!

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Recipes

Cucumber and Kale Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing

Potato, Pepper, and Onion Hash

Green Bean, Cucumber, and Tomato Salad with Walnut Fresh Herb Dressing (use sweet onion in place of red onion and wax beans in place of green beans)

Coming Up Next Week (Our Best Guess….) Delicata Squash, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Carrots, Potatoes, Dill, Dragon Tongue Beans, Red Onions