What's new 09/22/09
by Joanne Frazer
What a fantastic weekend, huh?! The garden is really starting to look different now. All the sunflowers in the row along the south fence are blooming now. They bring a smile to your face the minute you step in back! John (and friends) has been busy at work harvesting the rest of the beet bed, cutting the old bean plants to give to the sheep and digging up the finished lettuce bed. He then tilled and put compost down in order so that he could transplant the winter broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. The plan is to get everything cleaned up and either planted in food crops or cover crops over this winter season.
Friday, I took Scott and Julie down to UC Santa Cruz. I'm happy that they're both going to the same school but sad because, once again, I'm an empty-nester. Scott was excited to be 'home' again (I guess it's good that he thinks of school that way). Julie had mixed emotions as we got there but by the time I left (only 2 hours later) she had met her roommates and was off and running. I just wish I could go to school with them; but, they vetoed the idea of being roomies! I can't imagine why?!
Then Saturday, a bunch of us went up to Wages Creek to start the potato harvesting. Sakina, Mary Ellen, Tom and Les hand dug a row in order to make room for the tractor to go down it without harming the potatoes. Mike, who conveniently lives next door, brought his tractor with a potato digger attachment over and started down the row. But, the thistle and mint kept jamming it up. So, he rode it home and tried different versions. It wound up that John went alongside it and would clear the jams with a hoe. The good thing was that it gave the rest of us time to move the potatoes out of their way. Then we sorted and bagged them. We worked until dark. In fact, we were weighing the bags by car headlights! That day, we harvested over ONE TON of potatoes! We have some reds and some absolutely HUGH Yukon Golds! That ground up there is great for growing spuds, I'll tell ya! So, we do have our 'Harvest Special' available now. That's 25 pounds of potatoes for $35.00. That's only available here at the farm. They'll keep a long time if you have a dry, cool, dark place for them (like a garage or shed).
medium box : $10.00
1 bunch of carrots
kale or chard
onions
potatoes
large box : $15.00
1 bunch of carrots
kale or chard
onions
potatoes
tomatoes
peppers
basil
garlic
extras include:
basil $2.00/bunch
beets 2.50/bunch
carrots 2.50/bunch
dino kale 2.50/bunch
Egg 6.00/dozen
garlic 1.00/bulb
gold onions 2.00/pound
Portuguese kale 2.50/bunch
Potatoes 2.00/pound
potatoes 35.00/25lb
red onions 2.00/pound
red russian kale 2.50/bunch
summer squash 2.00/pound
sweet peppers 3.00/pound
tomatoes 3.00/pound
Some of our family of friends have asked for ideas on how to use the vegetables in the boxes. So, I'm going to give you some info each week. But, remember there is a spot on the website that lists recipes and I encourage you to email me any that you want to share with the rest of us.
This week's box has sweet peppers in them. You can eat them raw with a dip or in a salad. We have been cooking them with eggplant, onion, garlic, squash, tomatoes, basil, and oregano to make a nice sauce that goes over polenta! You can use them in soups, too!
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