In spite of some time-consuming cucumber and zucchini harvests, we accomplished a lot last week! We cultivated just about the entire farm with our tractors. We put down landscape fabric in between tomato, celery, watermelon, kale and sweet potato beds. We trellised most of our field tomatoes. We pruned plants and released beneficial insects in our cucumber high tunnel. We also finally were able to put up a deer fence around the pick-your-own field to the east of the farm stand. This field has our PYO green beans in it, which the deer delight in picking their own (or rather chomping off the tops of the plants). We had covered our beans with netting for over a month to protect them until we could get a fence up, but we needed to uncover the plants for the pollinators and so the plants didn’t get crushed and deformed. I don’t want to jinx ourselves, but the fence seems to be holding up for now. The bean plants have not yet been nibbled since we took the cover off, and I saw a buck walking along the outside perimeter of the fence last night seemingly not attempting to get in. Last season was such a struggle with the deer, so we are keeping a close eye looking for signs of deer incursion!
On another note, the farm stand will be closed Thursday, July 4th for the holiday. We’ll be open our regular hours for the rest of the week, so stop by for your Fourth of July grilling and salad supplies! The CSA schedule remains the same as usual (Wednesday/Saturday pick-ups).
In the CSA this week:
Mini Cabbage - We are growing 3 types of green cabbage this spring - a regular round head, a cone shaped variety, and a savoy leaf variety.
Pickling Cucumbers
Thin-skinned seedless cucumbers
Slicing cucumbers
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Carrots
Beets
Garlic Scapes
Kale
Lettuce
Salanova lettuce mix - This cut leaf mix is a little crisper than a mesclun mix and therefore keeps well for longer!
Arugula
Mustard greens - This planting we have a mix of 3 different types of mustard together
CSA Pick-Your-Own:
Sunflowers - Our first sunflowers just started blooming! We’ll have multiple successions over the course of the summer.
Herbs: dill, parsley, mint, oregano and sage
In the farm store:
In addition to the items listed in the CSA, we will have:
Scallions
Seedlings
Flowers
Mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm - Certified organic
Double B Honey - From hives on the property! Not certified organic
Baer’s Best Beans - Black Turtle variety is organic, the other varieties are not.
Eggs from Codman Farm - Not organic.
Cabbage Cucumber Salad
from theyummybowl.com
INGREDIENTS
1 lb young green cabbage, shredded
2-3 small (pickling) cucumber or ¾ of english cucumber, peeled, cut into half moon
½ cup fresh dill
1 ½ tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
¼ black cracked pepper
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 6% or white cider vinegar 5%
PREPARATION
Slice the cabbage thinly, preferably with a large and sharp knife. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Using your hands stir and massage the cabbage to soften it and to make sure that all the seasoning is incorporated.
Cut the cucumbers into half moon circles. Prepare dill and add to the bowl with sliced cabbage.
Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar. Mix well and serve immediately or leave in the fridge for 15-30 minutes to chill and flavors to combine even more.