First of all I want to welcome all students joining in to the CSA.
it is local foods weekend and we are on the tours for Sunday this weekend 1-3pm. If you would like to come out and see the farm please do. See the flyer below.
We are also in full harvest mode. The tomatoes are cranking , so is the basil and a new planting of beans are ready for picking and pickling or freezing. Let me know if you want any for wholesale prices. (tomatoes $20/box, Basil$14/1/2lb, $20 1/lb; beans $15/5lb, $ 20/10lb). We can supply pesto or dilly bean recipe.
With all the crop plantings being done we are down to weeding, lots of harvesting and preparing beds for cover cropping. We put in a lot of white clover into the beans, carrots and many aisles. It will overwinter and make the aisles better for walking. I observed clover aisles next to pepper beds made bigger plants and we did not have to weed the aisle much as the weeds purpose is to cover the open ground. We are making good progress of pushing back the quack grass which will make bed preparation next year so much easier I hope.
I want to thank our seasonal crew for a wonderful hardworking summer. Sydney is in Kenya with the SLU semester, Kira went back to Skidmore college, Lupe starts welding school in Ohio next month and Bob is willing to be on standby for markets if needed. It has been a lot of hard work and fun ending with a pizza and ice cream party for everyone. Lauren and I are managing the rest of the season with the help of the Greenhouse student and SLU community based learning classes.
The most recent boxes have been bountiful with so many crops coming in at once. I hope you are not overwhelmed and can make good use of it. Tomato season is so short. If you want more than 3lbs a week let me know. I thought that might be the limit for a couple or single person. We are canning and freezing and making sauce every weekend and mid week too. A good way to save the goodies. Today I will be making dilly beans and and pesto.
Also would like feedback on the herbs. Are three kinds of herbs too much? Cilantro, parsley and basil or good? We put the parsley in the blender with our homemade salad dressings, call it "Green Goddess Dressing"
I hope you are having a good summer in your gardens and elsewhere. I am looking forward to going camping and spending more time at the farmers market.
Peace,
Dulli