Week 9

Click here to fill out a preferred veggie form, and/or scroll down to see what's in the box this week.

We got to take a mini-vacation this past weekend to go to a music festival in Iowa, so we don’t have a lot of updates about the farm this week (though if you’d like to hear about Indie Americana music and day-drinking with our friends from Omaha, just let us know!)

The summer continues! We keep chipping away (scything away, macheteing away) at the giant ragweeds, with help from Eleanor’s coworker, Lacey. If we don’t get it all down, we’re considering turning the field into a giant ragweed maze the way that some farms have a corn maze (we're mostly joking about this. . . I think).

The chicks are happy in their new chicken tractor and we are very glad that they are outside enjoying the fresh air, sunshine, grass, and bugs. The laying hens are keeping on keeping on, still producing about 5 eggs a day for us. The golden hen was broody for several weeks this summer, which means that she was sitting on eggs all day trying to hatch them—this is a problem not only because the eggs aren’t fertile and will never hatch, but also because it’s not too healthy for the hen to neglect her own needs in favor of the eggs’. Luckily, with the temperatures just a little cooler than before (and Eleanor transferring her to the ground outside the coop every time she saw her up in the nesting box) she seems to have given up her broody ways.

As a reminder, we’ll be holding a work party this coming weekend, Saturday, August 11! Some of the projects we’ll be working on (depending on the interest level and number of participants) include building a new worm bin for our vermicomposting setup, the eternal job of macheteing/scything the ragweed and reseeding the field with rye, weeding the garden beds, chipping branches for mulch, and cleaning out chicken spaces like the current chicken coop and the old room the chicks lived in (AKA our future walk-in cooler). The work day will run from 10 am to 6 pm, tours at 9:30 and 6, and homemade pizza dinner at 6:30. CSA members may also just come for pizza and/or a tour, if you don’t want or can’t make the working portion of the day.

In the Box

TOMATOES!! (hopefully enough of these, salad mix, and beans for everyone, but if not we will start a rotation)

• Tomatoes (?)
• Salad Mix (?)
• Beans (?)
• Kale*
• Basil*
• Cilantro (upon request!)
• Carrots (no tops, but tops available upon request)
• Summer Squash (Costata Romanesco Zucchini, Bennings Green Tint Scallop Squash, or Yellow Crooked Neck Squash, fill out a preferred veggie form if you have a preference between these varieties!)
• Garlic
• Radishes
• Eggs (for some)

*We have lots of this! Want only purple basil? Only Thai basil (if you haven't tried this or noticed, it has a distinctly different flavor...kind of like licorice)? Double the kale? Just let us know on the preferred veggie form!

Recipe

String beans with basil and cherry tomatoes

This one's name is pretty self-explanatory. One of Eleanor's favorite ways to make beans, and even better when it's also tomato and basil season!

Bunch of beans, cut into 2 inch pieces

Handful of cherry tomatoes, cut in half

Several leaves of basil, cut into strips

Butter

Seasonings, to taste

1. Put some butter in a frying pan on low/medium heat, enough to coat the veggies you'll be using.

2. Add basil, cherry tomatoes, and seasonings. The seasonings could just be salt and/or pepper, but you could also add Italian Seasoning or a similar herb blend. Start these all cooking into a sauce, but don't cook them so long the tomatoes get mushy.

3. Add the string beans, stir, and cover. Let this cook until beans are cooked to a desired consistency. Don't be afraid to eat them while they're still a bit raw and crunchy!

Easy peasy! And tasty!

Brad's Food Philosophy Corner

Brad shares his reasons for farming, one per week!

Resiliency

While cliché, it still holds true that “you can’t eat money,” (or, at least, you can’t gain the nutritional sustenance you need from eating it). For me at least, the truth behind this saying has often seemed abstract and distant. I have always lived in a society where, if you had money, you would be able to get food. It is easy, then, to forget that this is a relatively recent phenomena and not currently a luxury experienced by everyone.

While I wouldn’t call myself a “prepper” I do believe that food stability--and the economic and political stability that are currently inextricably tied to it--are more abnormal across the space and time of humanity than normal and are by no means guaranteed. It doesn’t even take something apocalyptic, a large natural disaster, or a largescale crop failure, as shown by possibilities brought about by the current British political context.

While there are certain scenarios where even being a part of the most resilient food system wouldn’t help and I certainly don’t want to live in fear or preach it, it does provide comfort and a bit of security to know I am able to grow my own food and I know others who grow food. If you find yourself in a post-apocalyptic world (and aren’t a zombie yourself), come on over (if we aren’t zombies). We probably won’t have bananas, but we can see how long we can all survive on Kale and Basil!