foxlinecityfarm

It is nice to be able to repeat each week….”another great week in the garden”.  We were weeding and thinning maniacs in all our Fall crop beds.  Scott kept  the drip lines running on the tiny seedlings and with the heat we watched them double in size.  I spent hours thinning the carrots and turnips.  We should start picking our next round of green beans by the end of the week.  The best news is Malachi and Scott have finished the potato harvest.  Malachi arrived at 7:30 on Sunday and by lunch time the last 650+ pounds were out of the ground!  Yippee!  This is a long, labor intensive job and a relief to us that it is done.  We are thrilled with the yield and quality and Hugely thrilled with the fingerling harvest.  Abundant and beautiful.  Malachi said 30+ potatoes were hanging off 1 plant!

Malachi and Scott with the fingerling potatoes.

Malachi hauling a load of potatoes up to the house.

WHAT IS IN YOUR BOX

A super fun and FULL box this week.  Lots of interesting treats.   We had lots to choose from in the garden and so hard to decide.  AND!  A huge surprise delivery of CORN again this morning from Scott’s Reedsburg relative.   Not expected but it is so darn good this year we said “what the heck, lets put it in.  we decided with the watermelon harvest and the surprise corn delivery we would hold the pears in cold storage until next weeks box.  Enjoy the bounty this week.  Average weight (without the watermelon) is 15.70 pounds for a whopping 644 pounds.

Corn-The last week for sure!  For REAL.  Think about cornbread muffins, creamed corn, corn soup, freeze the corn for future use, corn relish.  Tons of options.

Lettuce-A smaller butter crunch that we wanted to harvest before the predicted high heat this week.

Cucumbers-This is the monster crop that will not stop  this year.  I thought they were slowing down and then another power house week.  A bag of assorted snackers and several long Asian and European.

Zucchini-The usual delicious mix of skinny guys and cute patty pans.

Onion-This is the end of our summer non-storage onion harvest.

Garlic-A nice sized bulb in each box.  We grow 2 varieties.  Music and German Red.

Peppers-A huge harvest this week.  Several assorted sweet peppers packed loose in each box and then a BAG of mildly hot Ancho and Hungarian Hot Wax.

Cherry Tomatoes-A pint of colorful assorted heirlooms.

Paste Tomatoes-A quart of assorted colored beauties to make a delicious sauce this week.

Slice Tomatoes- Take what you wish from the extra/trade area.

Sunflower Sprouts-A tasty, nutty treat to add to sandwiches, soups as a garnish or sandwiches.  We love these!  Place in a low bowl or plate on a bright window sill watering when needed.  Snip the shoots for meals or treats.

Watermelon-The first harvest!  More to come too!  The crop looks great.  We have 4 varieties in the patch all just starting to ripen.  Choose the one that catches your eye at pick up.

Cinnamon Basil Plant-We grow these to offer with the watermelon harvest.  The pairing makes a great salad with a bit of feta, sea salt and olive oil.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-radishes, leeks, potatoes, celery, lettuce, watermelon, zucchini, cucumbers, pears.

Maeve keeping us well entertained again this week. She said she was a Mr. Potato Head clown. “HELLO Auntie Howdy!”

Today is a pretty big deal in our house…..Maeve started PreK at St Joe’s here in Baraboo this morning.  3 mornings a week with a wonderful teacher.  We are excited for her.

First Day of School….a little nervous.

My Very good friend sent me this recipe to share.  It is her “go to”  summer zucchini dish.

ZUCCHINI SOUFFLE

BY Pam Bell

3 cups grated zucchini – green or yellow

1/4 cup chopped onions

¼ cup parsley or cilantro

1 cup commercial biscuit mix

¼ cup canola oil or veg oil

½ t. salt

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

4  eggs , slightly beaten.

Mix the first seven ingredients together. Add eggs

Pour into a 8X8 glass baking dish.    Bake 30 minutes in 350 oven.

You can add chopped ham, or browned turkey sausage.

You can bake in glass pie plate and cut into wedges.

You can serve with salsa as a topping or chopped fresh fruit  or chopped tomatoes.

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We had much needed rain the last 2 days. Lots of little seedlings have been started the last few weeks and we have had the drip line running or hand watering daily to ensure strong germination and healthy growth.   A welcomed rain and everything looks nice and perky this morning.

A big surprise for us this week too!  Our first big fruiting of Shiitake Mushrooms.  We inoculated the logs 2 years ago and hopefully they will produce for years to come.  Maeve and I  harvested almost 5 pounds and we included them in the “extra” box  at both pick up sites for any member who wishes to take a few for dinner.

This week’s big push is to get potatoes out of the ground.  Looks to be a wonderful harvest.  We are excited to see the purple beauties and the fingerlings should not be too far behind.  The plants are naturally dying back and it will be nice to get that area cleaned up.  Our early Brussels Sprouts are heading up and the leeks growing thick.  It is starting to feel like Autumn even though we wait for the watermelons and tomatoes to ripen…..The watermelons are just about there and seem to be 3 weeks behind from the cooler temperatures this year compared to last year’s scorcher.  We are starting to finally see a bit of color on the slicing and paste tomatoes and have a few for this week’s “extra” box.  The cherry tomatoes are in full swing and look to be a wonderfully abundant crop.

WHAT IS IN YOU BOX

A pretty snazzy assortment again this week!  Enjoy and eat well.   Average box weight is 15.95 pounds and 654 pounds went out the door today.

Head lettuce-A beautiful juicy butter crunch.  A nice contrast to last weeks crispy Tropicana head. So many different varieties.  Our lettuce crop is strong this summer with the cool nights, ample spacing and lots of regular watering.

All washed and ready to go in the cooler.

Savoy Cabbage-A nicely sized drumhead variety.

Diakon Radish-A shorter variety that grows well in our climate and our clay soil.  Nice flavor and not too bold.

Corn- Again, this is conventionally grown corn from Scott’s relatives in Reedsburg.  It is delicious and he said this morning at least 1 more week!

Zucchini-Our usual mix.  We started harvesting out of the second planting this week.  We plant 2 rotations each summer to ensure a strong, steady supply.

Peppers-A collection of hot/medium hot that are bagged all together.  Ancho, Jalapeño, and Hungarian Hot Wax.  The sweet peppers are loose in the box.  The long bulls horn yellow banana is a power house crop this year….and then an assortment of red and green bells and pretty Sweet Carmen.

Garlic-We grow 2 varieties Music and German Red.

Onion-More of those mild tasty fresh onions.

Dill-A bunch for refrigerator or bread and butter pickles this week.

Cucumbers-Long Skinny Asian and European and a quart of assorted pickling/snacking sized.  We provided everything needed to make a nice batch of quick refrigerator pickles. Onion, garlic, pepper, dill-it really is fun and quick.

Carrots-Another wonderful harvest.  A snappy pound for everyone.

Cherry Tomatoes-A colorful pint.  I am always amazed at the different flavors in all the varieties.

Eggplant-An assortment this week in every box.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-Celeriac, potatoes, tomatoes, watermelon???, peppers, kale, leaf lettuce, corn

Maeve kept us well entertained while we sorted the produce.  She and Santa got married and they are posing with their son Chimney.

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Another busy week in the garden.  We are transitioning to Autumn and many  short season Fall crops went in the ground.  2 rotations of Spinach, lots of colorful radishes, tasty turnips, carrots, beets, chinese cabbage and lettuce transplants.   We pulled all the storage onions and they are drying on the tables in the greenhouse.   Our fresh and storage onion crops are  fantastic.  We changed our planting routine this year and planted in plastic mulch for the first time.  The crops grew almost weed free with plenty of elbow room.

We are digging potatoes and pleased with what we are finding.  Beautiful potatoes and what a bounty!  We conducted a little experiment with the potatoes this year and planted part of the crop in reflective plastic mulch after much reading and research over the winter on the topic.  The potatoes loved it!  The soil temperature stays much cooler under the “tinfoil” surface.

Scott pulling the drip line and reflective plastic mulch off the potato beds as we prepare to dig.

Potatoes coming out of the ground.

The bounty!

We are enjoying the cooler temperatures while we work but I feel we spend hours of our days just staring at the tomatoes and wondering if they will ever ripen!  The plants are loaded with beautiful green tomatoes……. and we wait.  We are harvesting Cherry tomatoes and hopefully the larger slicers and paste tomatoes are not too far behind.

WHAT IS IN YOUR BOX

Fun facts that I keep forgetting to post….Average Weight of the box this week is 17.51 pounds and  and 718.00 pounds of fresh produce went out the door today.

We are halfway through the season with Box 10 this week……AND it is an amazingly JUMBO box with another first time offering that we are pretty excited about.

Blueberries!!- This is the first year we have had a big enough harvest to offer in the boxes.  A half pint for everyone even with Maeve stuffing them in as fast as she could pick them.  There are 3 varieties of high bush blueberries in the mix.  The bushes have been in the ground for 7 years and we are excited to have the harvest for all to enjoy. Scott has them well protected from birds and raccoons…..Delicious.

Beautiful blueberries…..

Maeve and Jennifer picking blueberries in the blueberry “cage”.

Leaf Lettuce and Head Lettuce-We planted the seed for the leaf lettuce many weeks ago anticipating heat and limited head lettuce yield.  Well, little did we know that the season would be so cool and we would grow out biggest heads of lettuce ever this week-gigantic tasty heads called Tropicana and the leaf lettuce is beautiful and ready to be cut.

leaf lettuce triple rinsed and ready to be bagged.

Kohlrabi-This was one of Grandpa Lang’s favorite summer treats.  I remember eating tons of salty kohlrabi from a scratchy pastel tupperware bowl at my grandparent’s house.

Cucumbers-Long skinny Asian and European beauties and a quart of bagged assorted snackers.

Zucchini-Several perfectly sized beauties.  Try making oven fries this week.  A nice quick side to any meal.

Peppers-More of the sweet purple bell called Islander.

Potatoes-Adarondick Red. 3 pounds for everyone…. I love this beautiful variety. Pretty pink flesh.  Wonderful fried and roasted.  Can be mashed and baked too.

Cherry Tomatoes-1/2 pint box of little gems.

Corn!!!!!-We DO NOT grow the corn.  It is conventionally grown by Scott’s relatives in Reedsburg.  We do not have enough space to grow enough corn  to supply the CSA.  When we polled past CSA members if they would like corn if we offered “conventionally”  grown corn in the boxes the response was an enthusiastic “yes”.  We have been offering corn this way for 4 years.  We will have corn next week too…Enjoy.

Onions-A few of the fresh non storage onions. A bumper crop.  Keep in the refrigerator.

Eggplant-The eggplants are really not appreciating the cool days and nights of this season.  The plants are 1/2 the size of last year.  However, they are doing their best and we have an assorted offering this week.  We split up the harvest and some boxes received a full sized Galine bell shaped variety, some boxes received long skinny Asian varieties, and some boxes received a mix of mini Hansel and Fairytale cuties.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK.

savoy cabbage, corn , cherry tomatoes, radish, celeriac, cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, carrot.

Scott taking the empty crates back to the garden after we packed the boxes.

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