I just transplanted the last of the lettuce for the year, 1100 of them. Every year I try to plant all my fall lettuce timely, so that they will not go to seed anymore and just grow and sit there until I harvest them as late as late November. I try to plant them not too early (going to seed) and not too late ( won't grow to size) and I think wow, I can sell these for $1.50-$2.50 each and make up for other losses of the year. Often I have been on vacation at the critical week or the ground was not ready prepared and weedy, or they got eaten by deer or porcupines or I don't have water set up and hot weeks come along. But I think this year might be the year. We will see.
One more planting of cilantro and we are done planting until garlic, except for cover crops. The last cilantro planting went in late and did not do well next to the sunchokes which are allelopathic, that means they give off things through their root, so that other crops don't grow. We don't ever have to weed sunchoke since nothing grows with them, but that seems to extend a few feet to the sides as well. So we have to buggy and weed the next planting to come on.
Lettuce are back. They did not grow well in the hot dry with the irrigation glitch. We were eating head lettuce that Kira had grown in her garden the past week. ( She has a few lettuce, carrots, shell peas, tomatoes and a cucumber in her patch that gets mostly weeded by Steve.)
Cucumbers are coming in plentiful now.
Blueberries are coming on strong too for at least two more weeks. They are from a friend in Dekalb organically grown for $5.50/quart. Please reaffirm your order for this Friday and next if you want some.
I got an interesting recipe from a customer at market for summer squash, a summer squash souffle. I tried baking it. I have never before made any souffles and had no clue that you are supposed to separate the egg whites and yolks and beat the whites fluffy. So mine came out rather flat, about an inch high, but tasty. (I had put it in the oven while it was still heating up and not hot yet.) I had expected a puffy, fluffy cake like thing, but we loved it anyways because it was so cheesy. Patreesha who eats dairy and wheat free is bringing Brigid to college in Florida, so we try new recipes with dairy and flour while she is gone. Here it is, let me know how it worked for you.
Summer squash souffle:
1lb of summer squash, boil until tender, drain and mash
3/4 cup of flour
1tsp. baking powder
1cup of milk
8oz of cheddar cheese
2 eggs separate, add egg yolks and whipp egg whites until hard and fold under
salt and pepper to taste
bake at 350F for 45 minutes
Phil who has been working in the gardens since April of 2011 has left to travel by car with my nephew Kevin form Germany to California. He brought in Zack this spring so he could leave. The car was not running for most of the summer and just got done last week. And than it stopped running over 25mph after the battery had been drained. It took the mechanic several days and he could not figure out the problem and Phil and Kevin had just resin to take the bus or hitch hike when Phil' s father came up with the answer how to reset the computer after battery drain and the car is running. They left four days late and very antsy and I already miss them.
These are the news for now, remember to call first thing if you want blueberries this week if we did not talk about it at last pick up.
peace, Dulli