another week zoomed by. Emilie and Matt, our wonderful summer workers left for college and Katie is part time, attending her last year of nursing school. At least Katie is not building a house on top of that like last year. I don't know how she did it all.
The crops are doing well. We finally have three spinach plantings coming on strong, the fall beets are looking really good, fall carrots are slower to grow, so we are slowing down on carrots for a while.
I had planted 1000 heads of lettuce to have for the fall. They don't grow after the end of September and just sit there until harvest. But some little or big bugger(I suspect porcupine) found them and ate about 600 of them while they were small transplants. We replanted and hope they have enough time to make full heads. We covered them with row covers so they could not be eaten. The cover blew off in the wind storm, but I was so determent and put it back on. I want those lettuce!
When I came down to start harvest at 7pm on Thursday I found the power line to the barn on the ground and no power in the barn, that means no water for the farm and no cooler running. Steve called NYMO and I put a big sign on the cooler not to open it much to keep it cold and Phil shuttled water from the school to wash greens for an early order. We changed harvest around and picked cukes an zukes and tomatoes first until the power came back on at 10 am and than followed the routine of greens...it was a challenging day.
In the afternoon we had 9 SLU students help us harvest beans and onions and they weeded all the Mixed Greens. I was worried that that would not happen with so much help gone.
the LOCAVORE CHALLENGE starts again in September. You can sign up and commit to an all local meal or day or week or month. See the flier. I hope you can participate. The idea is that you vote with your dollar and support local food. Well by joining our CSA you do and I thank you for that!! Anyways the challange makes you aware of all the things you still eat that are not local, like German chocolate or Nutella.
Here are some more recopies for you:
Stuffed Summer Squash
· 2 summer squash halved
· 1/4 cup milk
· 1/4 cup bread crumbs
· 1/3 cup goat cheese (or a cheese of your choice)
· 2 tbsp olive oil
· Salt and pepper
· 1/2 cup onion
· 3-5 leaves, chopped basil
· 1/2 cup chopped spinach
· 1 clove garlic
1. Boil whole squash for a few minutes until tender. Remove and slice each in half lengthwise
2. Scoop out the center of the squash and put in another bowl. Add all the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix well.
3. Bake in the oven (350 degrees) until the center is warm, browned, and the cheese is melted.
I hope all is good with you and if you want to come out to help or bring your kids, Wednesday afternoons and Friday till 3pm is good.
Dulli