Squashilicious

This week our summer squash has finally started coming on in earnest! All of the chef shares will be getting one white scallop squash, and one squash of a different variety, either lemon, tromboncino, or zucchini. The white scallop is a new variety for us, and it is a pattypan-type that is thriving here. This may be because it is a native American heirloom, and was grown by northern native people for hundreds of years, and depicted by Europeans back in 1591. Like all summer squash, it has a thin skin and soft seeds, so you can just cut it up and use it anywhere you would use zucchini. The tromboncino is one of our favorites, if picked young it is like a summer squash, or if you wait and pick it when it is more mature and bigger (3 feet sometimes!) it has a sweeter, dryer flesh and hard skin like winter squash. The tromboncino can also be used anywhere you would use zucchini, we especially like it roasted with oil and salt, which really brings out its rich, slightly sweet and nutty flavor.

This week we have been wild-harvesting daylily buds, and a few of you will be getting them in your share. These are tender and delicious, and can be eaten raw or cooked. If cooked, they just need a light saute or roast, about one minute or less. They are a good source of vitamin A and C, and are good chopped into a salad, or just sauted in butter with a little salt as a side.

We discovered that some of our onions had their tops eaten off by a critter, which means they won't grow anymore. So, now we have quite a few nice golf-ball sized onions, which many of you will be getting this week.

Since our tomatoes aren't quite ready yet, we decided to buy in some delicious organic heirloom tomatoes from a farmer friend to give to everyone, so you can get a taste of summertime tomatoes a little early!

One more reminder that the Slow Food Farm Tour is this Sunday, July 9th. Tickets are on sale until Friday, so if you want to come, get them soon!

Garlic Time!

This week we are starting to harvest our garlic! Last fall we planted over nine different varieties, and now we get to see which types did best in our soil. We got five of these varieties from Slow Food St. Louis; they have a garlic project aimed at getting people to grow a more diverse array of garlic (there are over 600 varieties worldwide). Slow Food provides seed garlic to farmers in the fall, and then the following season the farmers give back some of their harvest to Slow Food. We were excited to be a part of this project, and have so far been quite happy with our yields. Most of you will be getting some of that garlic this week! Like other storage crops, in order for garlic to keep well after it is harvested, it needs to be cured. All this entails is putting it in an airy, warm, open area for a few weeks while the husk dries out and the bulb firms up. We will be curing some of our garlic, but the garlic you are getting this week is fresh, so make sure to use it in the next few weeks.

Our other summer crops like tomatoes and ground cherries are starting to come on, and we are looking forward to harvesting them in a few more weeks

Of Rabbits and Rain

We finally got the rain we needed! With showers last Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights the water really soaked in, and we rejoiced. Since we are no-till we mulch everything pretty thickly, which should keep that moisture in the soil for a while. We are still hand-watering newly seeded/planted areas, but the rain helped a lot! We are continuing the ongoing race to get all of our starts out of the greenhouse and into the field before they get rootbound or start flowering inside. It is too hot during the day to do transplanting, so pretty much every evening is spent getting a few more plants in the ground.

Last year we solved our deer problems, and this year our focus has been on thwarting our rabbit foes. We've tried a few experimental fences, and are now in the midst of what seems to be rabbit-proofing all of our beds. While we are generous in nature, it will be nice to stop feeding the local wildlife.

We are excited to be a part of the St. Louis Slow Food Farm Tour on Sunday, July 9th from 11-3. The tour will be three farms, ours, Flower Hill Farm (our landlords), and Sunflower Savannah Farm which is about 10 minutes away. Visitors will get to see our property and learn about our unique circle beds, as well as seeing the sustainable cut-flower operation of our landlords. Everyone is invited! Click here to learn more. They are also looking for volunteers to help everything run smoothly. If you can't make it, we will have a Farm Share dinner later in the season and you can see our farm then!

Many of you are getting turnips this week. Our favorite way to have them is sliced thinly, tossed with olive oil and salt, and roasted. To make this even better, add the summer squash and garlic scapes too! You can also throw the turnips in with eggs or a stir fry, or grate them into a salad or slaw. This will probably be the last week for garlic scapes and peas. Enjoy!

Starting to feel like summer

With the temperatures soaring into the nineties, it's time to shift into our hot-weather schedule! This means early mornings followed by a tactical retreat to inside chores (like writing this blog) during the brutally hot midday. Even the chickens take an extended siesta in the shade. Luckily, with daylight hours stretching indecently into the evening, all the work manages to get done.  With the advent of summer heat, our spring crops (like peas and lettuce) are making their exit, and summer crops (like squash and beans) are starting to come on. There hasn't been rain for awhile. Luckily we captured about 1100 gallons of those April/May showers and that H2O bank is seeing us through nicely. Still, we wouldn't complain if the predicted rain gave us a break from hand-watering!

Another six healthy chicks hatched this week, bringing our total chicks for the year up to 26. That should be more than plenty for our flock to replenish itself! Going into fall we should have about a dozen new laying hens and a dozen roosters in the freezer.

This week everyone is getting salad mix and peas, as it might be the last for a while. Some of you are also getting kohlrabi, a bulb related to kale and broccoli which you can eat raw or cooked. It goes great in slaw or chicken salad, or you can slice it and roast it, or throw it in a stir fry.

We hope you are enjoying the last few weeks of spring, and managing to keep cool!