Hello everyone! It is nice to be writing to you again. Wow, no rain still, and who decided it was August instead of May? We have been having record high temps for the whole year so far, and I am wondering what the summer actually holds if it is this hot now!!??? Hmmmm. Well, this week we harvested all of the garlic, and have taken advantage of the shade to clean it and hang it to dry cure during the really hot hours of the afternoon. So much advantage that we don't have much more to go and that is our only shade job so we are drinking lots of water to prepare ourselves or the sun work once again ;-) We pulled up 1,400 heads of garlic, and they look beautiful. Now, they need a dry area to cure, which dries the outer wrapping paper and preserves the bulb for months. You will be receiving them in your shares on and off now for the remainder of the season until we run out. I mean, who cooks WITHOUT garlic? We have also been irrigating, weeding, and needing to plant more as well for the late summer. Much to do, much to enjoy.
The carrots and beets are starting to get bigger, and I hope you are enjoying the beautiful colors they provide. This will be your last allotment of sugar snap peas so enjoy them while you can, they are so good and fun. The heat has done a number on the crop, made them come on hard and fast, meaning we had a LOT this week and now they are petering out. As you can see the onions are really starting to bulb up now. Please enjoy eating the onion tops as green onions as well, this is my favorite stage for onions as you get both the bulb and greens to enjoy. When the tops start to die down, we harvest the bulbs and dry them like the garlic, to cure them for storage for the rest of the summers shares.
We will have more broccoli and cauliflower soon enough, as we have just been harvesting off of the first planting, and not yet the second. The first planting was half eaten down by the pigs one day when they escaped their pen this spring, thus the lack of quantity. Luckily, the heads were nice and big to make up for it. We do have a lot more in the second planting as far as quantity, and no more loose pigs to eat some of those plants!!! As a side note, there is a common pest that likes to try to eat the broccoli and cauliflower, a small caterpillar. You should check the stalk area of your broccoli and cauliflower for these guys and wash them off after you cut it up. It is hard for us to do since we can't break up the heads before we give them to you and all. The caterpillar hasn't done any harm to the crop yet, but you probably don't want to eat them unless you want to of course ;-)
Well, that is all for now. I hope you all have a great week, and please send me emails to let me know how you are doing and how you have been cooking and enjoying the veggies. I love recipes! Elise.
| Crop | Amount | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Total | $30.00 | |
| Sugar Snap Peas | 1 ¼ lb. | $5.00 |
| Cabbage | one head | $2.50 |
| Beets | one bunch | $3.00 |
| Carrots | one larger | $3.00 |
| Garlic | two heads | $2.00 |
| Onions | one red one white | $2.00 |
| Leeks | two stalks | $3.00 |
| Joi Choi | one head | $2.50 |
| Lettuce | two heads | $4.00 |
| Kale | one larger | $3.00 |
| Crop | Amount | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Total | $18.50 | |
| Sugar Snap Peas | ¾ lb. | $3.00 |
| Brocolli / Cauliflower | 1-2 lb. | $3.00 |
| Carrots | one bunch | $2.00 |
| Garlic | one head | $1.00 |
| Onions | one red | $1.00 |
| Joi Choi | one head | $2.50 |
| Kohlrabi | one bunch | $2.00 |
| Lettuce | one head | $2.00 |
| Kale | one bunch | $2.00 |
Peel and grate kohlrabi, place in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 30 minutes to drain. Heat butter over medium heat, add onions and saute them for a few minutes. Stir in kohlrabi, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Increase heat to medium and cook for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and serve with fresh herbs!!!