foxlinecityfarm

Another fast week of abundant daily harvests. We are thrilled with the sweet onions that came out of the ground on a perfect morning. 2 long sections of wonderful. We are making our way through the cleaning of them and they will appear in the shares for many weeks to come. Next week the storage onions and shallots will come out.

AND! best news ever we started digging potatoes!!! A favorite activity and we have been savoring these gems every night at dinner. We hand fork them out of the ground and then carefully lift with our hands as the skins are so tender. It seems like we just planted and I looked back on the calendar and it was 8 weeks to the day that we put the seed potatoes in. Crazy!

Daily harvest with the summer squash and cucumbers and great lettuce in the hoop house keeps us busy. We transplanted over 500 lettuce starts into hoop 1 and started the Fall Spinach too. We planted a “Hail Mary” last green bean rotation. We had the space and thought “why not”….all depends on the weather. 3 rotations of beans are out there now and why not shoot for a late 4th as a treat to finish the season. Next up for beans are purple and maybe even next week.

Scott got all the garlic sorted and crated to cure in the shed. It is a good garlic year for sure….

Peppers are finally sizing up and hopefully slice tomatoes in the shares next week. It’s always fun to see the changes in the garden.

Perfect rain fell of almost 3 inches in 2 days easing the pressure of constant irrigation. We sure are enjoying ourselves these days and look forward to another happy week.

CSA #7

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE-Head lettuce, cucumbers, arugula, new red potatoes, sweet onions, zucchini, kohlrabi, basil, broccoli side shoots (full only), and cherry tomatoes (snack only)

Head Lettuce-We harvested several varieties this week-delicious lettuce for your salads.

Cucumbers-The vines have hit full production. We pick them smaller in size so there is a smaller seed cavity and we think the flavor is better and skins tender and less bitter.

Arugula-Snappy! A great peppery flavor. A nice bite added to fresh salads or wilted is delicious with a dash of soy sauce.

New Baby Red Potatoes-finally fresh potatoes. I am not a fan at all of “old potatoes”. The flavor of just dug potatoes is a treat! Steam, boil or roast.

Sweet Onions-Raw or saute they are wonderful. A great harvest and many more will appear in the shares. Best stored in the fridge.

Zucchini-Daily and sometimes twice daily trips to the patches ensure perfectly sized summer squash. AND the baseball bats we sometimes miss are on the extra table for those that wish to make zucchini bread or fritters.

Kohlrabi- 1 in every share for salad crunching.

Basil-Fresh cut this morning….Genovese. Do not put in the refrigerator. Best kept on counter in a glass of water. Snip as needed.

Broccoli side shoots-(Full Only)-The broccoli plants are in full side shoot mode.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-ROMAINE LETTUCE, BEETS, TOMATOES, POTATOES, ZUCCHINI, ONIONS, FENNEL, CHINESE CABBAGE, CUCUMBERS AND MORE….

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A fast week of abundant harvests and happy days. Daily visits continue to the summer squash patch and cucumber trellises. We crawl down the bean rows every day to pick the perfect green beans. Irragation is our focus now and it is running all day somewhere in the garden. The 1st cherry tomatoes are ripening and slicers sizing up. The big deal harvest here was all the garlic came out on a perfect breezy overcast morning. Scott estimates 1400 head came out and now drying in the shed. Looks to be a best ever!! harvest for us. A huge thanks to our friends Brad and Jeannie who planted all this garlic last Fall when Scott was so ill. We are grateful and the coolest thing is Jeannie was here to help us with the harvest.

WHAT IS IN YOUR SHARE

head lettuce, garlic, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, cabbage, cherry tomatoes (full only), eggplant (full only)

head lettuce-a beautiful head of fluffy red lettuce. It’s delicious! We love growing assorted varieties to explore different textures and flavors. Enjoy.

Garlic-Just harvested yesterday! When it is just dug it is referred to as “green garlic” not cured. Flavor is amazing….more to come.

Cucumbers!-And the big harvests begins….Vines look great.

We are using the heart and star molds again this season. So maybe a member will get a surprise beauty in the share. Fun on a fresh salad.

Summer Squash-We harvest every morning 6 varieties out there and we pick them small.

Green Beans-Another great harvest week. A bounty. Our bean weigher has returned from camp.

Mini Cabbage-the last of these little gems. We LOVE them sliced thick-a little salt and olive oil and grilled. “cabbage steaks”. Makes a fantastic side slaw or adds some crunch to a fresh veggie salad.

Cherry Tomatoes (full only)-The tomato season has begun! Just enough for full share this week. TONS! more to come….

Eggplant (full Share only)-We harvested 2 varieties this week-Italian (egg shape) and Asian (long skinny). A treat. We love adding to stir fry. Or roasted is a treat.

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-HEAD LETTUCE, BEETS, POTATOES, ZUCCHINI, CUCUMBERS, TOMATOES, FENNEL AND MORE….

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We are rolling along at a fast pace of bountiful harvests! Early morning cucumber crawl and dancing in the zucchini patches. Patch #2 started to kick in which was a surprise….we thought it would be 2 more weeks before we harvested out of there. The long bean rows are visited daily and we pulled 2 rows of carrots in hoop 2. Scott quickly seeded in more carrots the same day and we transplanted 1000 beets that we seeded in cells in the greenhouse to give them a jump start as we were temporarily out of ground space to direct seed into the ground. Fussy!!! job but we got those itty bitty guys in and watered. The irrigation runs all day somewhere in the garden…it is DRY. We did a bit of maintenance in the potato patch and spot checked the early reds. A few weeks yet-but soon! And the best news……. we see color on the cherry tomatoes.

CSA SHARE #5

Romaine Lettuce-Great flavor and the perfect summer lettuce. We have 1 CSA member that loves it grilled. We tried it and love it too!

Carrots-A bounty from Hoop 2.

Green Beans-We are harvesting daily of plants that were seeded in early May. We pick daily to harvest beans on the smaller size as we think the flavor and texture the best this way. And we don’t like to chew on “Woody Pencils”-Maeve’s description of big beans when she was small.

Cucumbers-I’m surprised at the bounty here….we picked the 1st cucumber last Friday and huge harvests every day since.

Onions-These are the 1st onions of the season. Little cocktail onions. Stronger flavor but can be enjoyed raw. We love them with cucumbers for a quick salad.

Broccoli!-WOW! Best broccoli harvest ever…and we see side shoots forming too. A great 1st broccoli harvest.

Zucchini-Here we go! The bounty is starting….

BEST GUESS FOR NEXT WEEK-Head lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, zucchini, fresh garlic and more…..

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It’s fun to say we had another great week in the gardens. Everything looks strong and robust and we are keeping up. The 1st bean pick is always fun…that sure says summer to me. Nothing tastes better than a fresh green bean.

Baby peppers and eggplant are forming. I think we may pick the 1st cucumber tomorrow and the vines have reached my height on the trellises. The tomato plants are loving this heat and loaded with tomatoes. Scott spends many hours securing them to the supports. Cantaloupe is flowering and the miles of brussels sprouts are looking fantastic with big thick stalks. And early potato harvest is around the corner….I personally cannot wait as a just dug potato is amazing and we miss the taste. We had the best broccoli harvest I think we have every pulled from the garden. We planted another rotation of beans and chinese cabbage was transplanted out in the row where we harvested the regular cabbage crop. A perfect rain too this week-1 3/4 inch fell overnight and I laughed out loud when I walked into the zucchini patch-the plants doubled in size. Hard to believe that next week we will be transplanting Fall broccoli out and hard to believe it is July. Life is good here-a bit of mud and pants that can almost stand on their own with a thick coating of dirt after we crawl the long rows but we are happy and grateful for it all….

CSA #4

A bounty! Leaf Lettuce Salad Mix, Broccoli, Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Garlic Scapes, Shelling Peas, Green Beans (full only).

Leaf Lettuce Salad Mix-2 different mixes that we harvested and then mixed together. Delicious, sweet and tender leaves. We harvest just at 1st light to ensure great flavor and quality.

Broccoli-A ton of broccoli!! Enjoy the harvest. We are thrilled and more to come next week too.

Mini Cabbage Head-The perfect size. We make cabbage “steaks”. Thick slabs drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and grill! Char the edges a bit. Great flavor. And these mini heads are perfect for a side slaw. The leaves are tender.

Kohlrabi-A pretty variety. Lite lime colored. Long storage life in the fridge.

Garlic Scapes-Last of the Scapes…we move on to green garlic next.

Shelling Peas-Split the pod and eat the peas-raw or steamed………We harvested the whole crop and pulling the vines. Our pea harvest is wimpy this year. “Environmental Factors”…..we planted late due to the cold wet Spring. Then that oddball heat blast in the 90’s early May and the vines started flowering VERY short….and now this 3rd round of hot days when the peas are usually done is taking it’s toll on the plants that do not like extreme heat! The vines are yellowing. We decided to pick what we can and move on as this is probably as good as it gets. That Fall broccoli will take it’s place once the trellises are down. We are grateful for what we had this ends the pea season for us. Both sugar snap and shelling.

Green Beans-The 1st pick and just enough for Full Share this week. The plants are loaded and we will spend many hours in the rows this week.

Zucchini-Get ready….here they come! And patch #2 just started flowering…

Best Guess for next week….broccoli, zucchini, cocktail onions, green beans, romaine lettuce and more…

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