Abbe Hills Farm CSA

Greetings shareholders,

This week, we'll have the first small white onions, garlic scapes, a small bunch of small radishes, lettuce from the hoophouse, and snap and/or shell peas.  I'd hoped to give you a bag full of stir-fry greens, but they're still too puny to start cutting.  Everything is still pretty puny, but bigger than it was last week, so that's progress.

The potatoes are absolutely gorgeous.  Onions seem like they are fine.  Broccoli, cabbage, kale, and kohlrabi are nice, but still small.  Two crops of sweet corn are coming along; hopefully I'll plant a third this week.  Thousands of peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes are in the ground.  I'm hoping we can get some dry days this week so we can get watermelons, winter squash, more cucumbers, and zukes planted.  They all need to get in the ground very soon in order to be mature by the time frost gets here (only 110 days away!).  We're battling vermin of three different types:  weeds, deer, and Colorado Potato Beetle.  The bad guys are winning two of the three right now, but I expect we'll have the upper hand in at least one more battle by the end of the week.

Garlic scapes are the unopened flower buds of garlic plants.  They are mildly garlicky, lovely raw or for stir fry or roasting.  We'll have them for about three weeks.  They are a very rare treat, something you can't get at the store, only from a garlic patch in the spring.  You'll enjoy them.

There are peas this week.  Not as many as I had hoped, but at least a snack for everybody.  The plants are about 1/3 to 1/2 the height that they should be, so they have that many fewer peas on the short stems.  There are two kinds:  shell peas where the part you eat is the little green balls on the inside, and snap peas where you eat the whole pod after you pull off the "cap" and "string".  I think all peas are best when they are raw, but if you really want to cook them, steam them only for less than a minute to retain the most flavor.

The weather continues to be odd.  The first three days of last week were unbelievably hot; today has been sort of cold.  We were glad to get the rain, but are ready for a few dry and warm days now.  One consequence of very hot weather is that lots of plants use heat as a cue to "bolt".  Heat tells them that it must be August, and that the summer is winding down so it's time to reproduce.  Bolting plants stretch out their stems and make flowers at the tips.  You'll notice that the lettuce, instead of being nicely packed, dense heads, has long stems between each leaf.  It is bolting in the hoophouse and if left uncut, will make flowers, fruits, and seeds within the next two or three weeks.  It's good to enjoy it now before it looks too much more weird!

There are two male kitties who are ready to go to their new homes.  They are about 10 weeks old, well adjusted, and as cute as any vertebrate can be.  Let me know if you want one or two.  There will be four more in a couple of months.

Movie night will be Wednesday, July 6, at the start of Heritage Days.  Please put it on your calendar and plan to come for a farm tour and the viewing of a brand new movie about the Cedar River, with the actual filmmakers present for the showing.  (Walt Disney's attorneys can't touch me this year!)

Tuesday, June 14, 5:00 to 7:00 pm, The Perfect Blend in Mt. Vernon will host a book talk and visit by author Michael Rosmann.  He'll be talking about his new book, "Excellent Joy: Fishing, Farming, Hunting, and Psychology".  Michael is a farmer/psychologist from Harlan who works primarily with rural people.   He has contributed to our "Wapsipinicon Almanac" as well as many other publications.  This book is a series of essays.  The book talk is free.

See you this week,

Laura