Squash is in! Also we are beginning to pick a few cucumbers and a little corn 🙂
Some of you are asking about coming to the farm. Here’s the recap: You are welcome most anytime. Please email me in advance, if you can. I will try to leave a farm map out for you – that way you can navigate to the crops of your choice. Otherwise, you can roam freely and happen upon what you like 😉 As I said last week, you can pick anything you like and only ask you to please be fair if you would like any quantity of anything.
You MAY have these things: Summer squash of some variety or color, lettuce, corn, I hope, choice of beans or cucumbers, chard or beets, possibly a tomato…
If you can’t keep up with the greens, and there’s no reason for that, you’ll smile to yourself later if you prepare the whole lot and freeze them. A quick blanching of 2 minutes, cool off and pack in freezer bags. Easy. I use a lot of mine for calzones in the winter. If you get hooked on kale smoothies, freeze kale J
For you big people who can’t get your little people to eat their kale. Try making broth. Simply cover your washed kale with water and simmer for a half hour or longer. Strain off the liquid and keep in fridge or try freezing as cubes. Add this liquid or ice cubes to juice, use it as the water you add to Ramen noodles or whatever favorite foods they have, and make their foods better 😉 Kale is very high in K, A, C, and actually has a significant amount of potassium and calcium too. OR, try kale smoothies with the whole kale leaf!
Kale smoothie: from Smoothie-Handbook.com
Purple Kale Smoothie
If you have a hard time drinking green kale recipes, try a smoothie recipe with beets. You only need a little bit, but it can disguise your green smoothie!
- 1 large ripe banana, peeled
- 3-4 large kale leaves
- 1/4 medium beet (To turn the smoothie purple)
- 1 cup blueberries, frozen
- 1 packet of stevia (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups pure water
5 ice cubes
Pour the water and toss the banana, kale, and beet into the blender. Blend. Then add the blueberries, stevia, and ice cubes. Blend again until smooth. Enjoy! 1-2 servings
(I made a smoothie tonight, 92 degrees outside) with my Russian kale, remaining berries from the freezer, a squirt of stevia liquid, a banana, and water – nice 🙂
Also, check out last year’s post Kale Pizza and other thoughts
About Summer Squash
We grow A LOT of squash. (I am hoping by now, you are smiling, because we grow a lot of everything ;))
Summer squashes: zucchini, golden zucchini, yellow summer squash, Cousa, a light green, Mediterranean summer squash, Romanesco Costata, long, striped and ridged green, and patty pan. There are never too many of the patty pan or scallopini types, but should you get some, they
are squatty, round, kind-of UFO shaped pale green or bright yellow, and very
sweet. I can never be sure which will appear in your box over the season, so now you know. Summer squashes are any of the soft skinned beauties harvested in these months and you may use them interchangeably. We will have many weeks of great squash harvest, and laugh if you must, you will miss it when we stop putting it in your box.
Farm Dirt
Well, the good news is we started picking corn on the 2nd of July, the bad news is the bears started picking it on the 5th. How do we know it is bears you ask? They are pilling the entire stalk out of the ground…not something a coon or squirrel is capable of 😉 What’s our plan you want to know? Today’s plan is to harvest all the corn at once and sell it and CSA it. I am sure there will be enough left in the field to occupy the bear while we wait for the next batch of corn to get ready. I hope. It would be really cool to at least get a picture of him/her in action, eating the corn. Meanwhile, we spent the week plowing under the first peas and lettuce and prepping the land for something new. The ongoing wetness (which didn’t need to be solved by a heat wave, by the way) has forced us to be even more vigilant in our careful land use. It is not unusual to get three croppings on certain fields, but we are really utilizing every niche.
Last thought: I asked Glenn when he thought the bear would be eating the corn. He responded, “Anytime he wants.”
Eat well,
Geneviève Stillman
