Week 22 and the Season is Through

The end of the season is always bittersweet. We love growing food and working with the Earth and we’re also ready for some rest when the nights get longer and the days are colder, or in the case of today’s weather colder and wetter. We also miss the routine and seeing familiar faces every week as we also look forward to spending more time with our families. Before we can rest we still have a lot of Garlic to plant for next season, and a lot of beds to put to sleep to be ready to plant next year as well. The season doesn’t end when the veggies do.

As this is the last week we thought it was time to make an announcement about changes for next year. Farmer Rashel is taking a leave from farming. As some of you know a small child came in to our care just before the growing season started. As a family we’ve all made sacrifices and worked very hard to keep the farm afloat while also raising a baby, we did what needed to be done. Some days and weeks it felt like all we were doing was treading water but we managed to keep the plants alive and delivered every week. It almost feels like a miracle. In no small part due to farmer Andrea, who we are happy to announce, has decided to continue running a CSA from the Tremblay Family Farm in 2017! Please keep an eye out on this blog and/or on Facebook for details about Andrea’s CSA plans for next season. Farmer Rashel will continue to grow food for and with their family, and continue to experiment with sustainable farming techniques and sharing that joy on this blog and on Facebook.

Now on to the final Vegetable list of the season:

We’ve had a bumper crop of Peppers this season and we’re offering Green Peppers for only $4 a pound and as a 2 for 1 deal – 2 lbs of organically-grown Peppers for only $4!

We still have a lot of Scallions ready to go so we’re offering those as a 2 for 1 deal as well!

If the frost holds off we’ll have Hot Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes,  and Heirloom Tomatoes.

There will also be Green Tomatoes (to use for fried green tomatoes or to let sit and ripen, other recipe ideas on Veggies!), Sunchokes, Salad, Kale, Chard, Broccoli, Garlic (for planting or for eating), Celery, a variety of fresh and dried Herbs, Shepard’s Purse tincture, and bee pollen.

A big THANK YOU to all of our loyal and appreciative members – you keep us going when things get difficult and we couldn’t make this happen without YOU!

Only these 4 Pears grew on 16yo Lennon’s baby Tree this year, each 1 the same relative size as each of the 4 farm children ❤

 

 

 

 

 

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Week 21 and We’re Almost Done

Produce anticipated to be available this week at ShopEco in Windsor: Sweet Bell Peppers, Green Peppers, Hot Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes, Green Tomatoes, Scallions + other Onions, Celery, Salad Mix, Kale, Chard (lots and lots of it!), Squash, Garlic, fresh herbs, dried Herbs + Teas, Sundried Tomatoes, Shepard’s Purse Tincture, and small amounts of Broccoli and Eggplant. New this week we’ll have available SUNCHOKES (link to a previous blog post).

These are a short seasonal delight and highly sought-after in France. They are indigenous to our Carolinian zone and can be found in wild areas. You can plant the root for your own supply of these edible tubers, or as perennial Sunflower. Eat them any way you would eat a potato – roasted, fried, in soups, or raw – experiment with them! Recipes can be found on our Veggies! page, our previous blog post on Sunchokes, a blog post where Chef Ben from the Iron Kettle used Sunchokes to make a soup and a bread, or on this link we came across this week.

Photo by Ben Leblanc-Beaudoin

2 new Herbs we have available in small quantities are Mugwort and Motherwort.

Mugwort can be burned as a smudge, sewn into a sleepy dream pillow, or drunk as a tea. More information (including warnings) –http://happyherbcompany.com/mugwort ; http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:mugwort ; http://www.susunweed.com/herbal_ezine/May09/wisdomkeepers.htm

Motherwort can be added in small amounts to tea when you feel like you need a hug from a mother. Information (including warnings) – http://www.susunweed.com/Article_Motherwort.htm ; http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-126-motherwort.aspx?activeingredientid=126&activeingredientname=motherwort

Celery

A shout out to Black Cherry Tomatoes – not only are they always the hands down favourite for flavour but every year they produce the largest amount of tomatoes and they keep on going until a hard frost kills them. These are the best tomatoes ever!

One more week left – weekly vegetables end on Saturday October 22nd for farm members and Wednesday October 26th for ShopEco Windsor members.

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Important Information – Please Read

Week #19 begins with a few updates.

For farm members: Saturday markets will start at 9 am (not 8 am) starting tomorrow, October 1st. Saturday October 8th will be the last market of the season and The Cheese Bar will be present – they helped us open the season and they’ll be there to close the season. Facebook event details. After that we’ll be emailing out a weekly list of the veggies we’ll have available and will be packing up individual orders that can be picked up at the farm. Check your emails for more details and please talk to us about these changes when you see us at the farm in the next 2 weeks.

For ALL members: Before the season began we had hoped to run for 24 weeks – until November – but that is no longer realistic. The CSA will end on Saturday October 22nd for farm members and Wednesday October 26th for ShopEco/Windsor members. If you have a basic, pre-packaged bag, we will be emailing you if your bag is to end sooner than the above dates. Please talk to us at the next few markets if you have any concerns or questions. We are letting folks know in advance because if you’re on the credit system you’ll want to make sure you use up your credits before the last week. There is a small chance we’ll be able to go longer but that will be a bonus rather than part of the core CSA program. The CSA has always been 20 weeks long, this year we were hoping for 24, and we could have started even earlier (we started 2 weeks earlier than ever), but these are all things we learn from each year as farming is always a work in progress.

October Vegetable Share from 2015

We have ordered bulk potatoes, carrots, and beets that will be available on Wednesday October 5th and Saturday October 8th – in time for Thanksgiving! There are other options for using up credits as well – dried herbs and herbal teas, sun-dried tomatoes, tinctures, pickled asparagus, honey, and *fingers crossed* seeds to get you started on next year’s garden, dried beans (eg, kidney and black beans, for cooking), salves, hot pepper sauce, and pesto. Or simply stock up on all the veggies we have available and fill your freezers so you can make nourishing meals all Winter. We’ve found that the Scallion Roots make a very delicious stock! We came across this link for vegan “bone broth” that gives you lots of ideas for using up veggies ~ http://cleanfooddirtycity.com/recipes/healing-soup-with-vegan-bone-broth/

If you haven’t been convinced to start canning than maybe this comprehensive link (download included) will help ~ https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/135558/posts/1172189242

Preparing a Digestive Herbal Tea

We’ve been lucky in many ways with this season so far. It’s been the most productive and the longest tomato season ever! The drought has given incredible bumper crops to every commercial Tomato grower, so much that we, and others, are letting the fruits rot on the vines because the demand isn’t there. I guess folks don’t want Tomatoes as much as we thought they would. We’ve also got more Melons + Squash to harvest, that’s exciting! But, we weren’t able to plant new crops to tide us over for the rest of the season. There is an insect in the soil in all parts of our gardens that eats every root crop, crops that we rely on to extend the vegetable season well into November. Other insects (due to no Winter kill) have decimated every seedling we planted and despite using organic insecticides we could not beat them this year. Every season is different – different highs and different lows – and we must go with the flow and cross our fingers that there will be enough for everyone. CSA’s – community supported agriculture – help farmers remain viable because they value community and take the risks as well as the benefits.

VEGGIE OF THE WEEK IS EGGPLANT + SUMMER SQUASH

We’ve had these 2 vegetables available for many, many weeks now, but never in enough numbers to be an “official” veggie of the week. But as staples of the garden they deserve recognition. Every year since we started being market gardeners we hear that there is too much Eggplant and Zucchini (a type of Summer Squash) and every year we plan to plant less and less of them so that we have a steady supply versus an over-abundance. Eggplant are ready to harvest early in the season and give a steady supply until frost comes. We started growing smaller sized Eggplant a few years ago so that no one is stuck with large amounts of large Eggplant. This website is chock-full of recipes – hundreds of them – for both Eggplant and Summer Squash. We actually planted over 200 Summer Squash (mostly Patty Pans) this year but the seedlings were eaten by Striped Cucumber Beetles, the seedlings that managed to grow couldn’t produce fruit because the Cucumber Beetle ate the flowers. Even growing a large variety of this prolific fruit didn’t help us to have very much of this garden staple.

Q: Where do chickens come from?

A: The Egg-plant.

Huh?

Produce available this week (may vary depending upon location and availability): Salad Mix, Kale + Chard, Scallions, Beans, Sweet + Hot Peppers, Tomatoes (slicing, canning, cherry), Broccoli, Mushrooms, mini-Cucumbers, Savoy Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Eggplant, Summer Squash, Winter Squash, Garlic, and fresh herbs.

Spotted at the farm this week, Several Swallowtails munching on the same Wild Carrot plant, so many that they couldn’t all be photographed at once!

How many Swallowtails can you spot?

 Stay dry everyone!

 

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Squash Squad

The Autumnal Equinox – the balance between the light and the dark, the day and the night.

A perfect time to highlight the Super Squash Squad.

L-R: Acorn, Honeynut, Butternut, Long Pie Pumpkin, Thelma Sanders (Sweet Potato), Heart of Gold

Autumn’s sweetness seems to come with Winter Squash. Check out the Veggies! page for storage tips, recipes, and variety information. Our Heirloom have been the best performers with all the problems plaguing the Squash this year (no Winter kill = more insects to eat all your blossoms + fruit + stems, for example).

“What game do Elephants like to play with mice? SQUASH!”

While the Equinox has come, the weather doesn’t feel like Autumn quite yet and we’ve been blessed with a long season of Summer’s fruits – the longest season we’ve ever had Tomatoes a’plenty (we can still squeeze you in for a last chance at a hamper of tomatoes for canning!!!) … we can still Eat The Rainbow ….

We took the time this week to preserve the bounty and we pickled Beans and Ghost Peppers and Ring of Fire Peppers.

New this week we’ll have available Shepard’s Purse Tincture. We gathered the fresh leaves in April to make a tincture for ourselves but we made so much that we wanted to share! Available in 120 ml glass jars, you only need to take 1 ml (1/5 a teaspoon) per day, and the tincture will keep for 2 years in a cool dark area. Shepard’s Purse is used to reduce bleeding. Take 1 to 2 days before menstruation and up to 3 days during menstruation. Also helps with nosebleeds. To find out more, including safety information, precautions, and dosages,  please check out this article on WebMd and detailed info from Herbalist Richard Whelan.

After filtering out the tincture.

We also have small amounts of Yellow Dock Tincture but only if requested. If you want to know if Yellow Dock would be beneficial to you please read this article.

We’re very excited to be having local company The Cheese Bar at our farm market this Saturday September 24th! 100% Canadian Artisanal Cheeses! They will be at the farm from 10 am to 2 pm tomorrow, don’t miss it!  Facebook event and The Cheese Bar info here. We are still offering Dig Your Own Tree at the farm during market times on Saturday’s 8 am to 2 pm.

This is what Fall looks like to Rashel …. the gorgeous hues of Goldenrod, Purple Aster, White Aster, and the ripening goodness of Rosehips that will be harvested after a frost ….

Tremblay Creek bank, while looking for the Heron.

And just for fun …

A Melon blessed by our local Heron 😉

 

 

 

 

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My Favourite Veg-Tables

Our new favourite farm motto song! (I do love me some Brian Wilson.) Please tell us all about your favourite veg-table!

From around the farm this week ….

Monarchs have hatched out and are hanging around with us while we work, this one is sipping on a cracked Black Cherry Tomato.

And we found another, much larger, Cecropia, this one on an Apple Tree.

We’ve planted the last of the lettuce seeds for the season, where these…..

…can turn into this….

All of these items were sourced from our farm. We only have a small family patch of Strawberries and 1 small nut Tree though, sorry folks!

and you can add some of these….

Scallions

and some of this…

Broccoli

and some of this…

What we’re calling Broccoflower because it’s part Broccoli-part Cauliflower.

and shred up some of these….

Beets and Turnips

Purple Top Turnip beauties

And if you’re adventurous you can add Kale….

Kale or Palm Trees?

Collards are also bouncing back.

Or you can add Tomatillos (learn more about these delights from last year’s post), Cherry Tomatoes (get ’em while you can!), Sweet Snacking Peppers (the best!), or Dragon Beans! And how would everyone like if we started carrying those delicious Portabello Mushrooms again? Yum! The Pears and Apples were a hit and a nice surprise, let’s hope we can find more little-known sources of unsprayed fruit in the future!

With the Kale making a comeback I wanted to share a recipe a member shared with us – easy and simple – 3 Cups of Kale, 3 Garlic Cloves, mix with oil and salt in a food processor and you’ve got delicious Pesto. The last of the Basil will also be available if you want to make a more traditional Pesto. If you didn’t get your Garlic yet now is the time as we’re almost sold out for the season!

The Parsley is looking lovely right now so why not try this beautiful gluten-free and vegan Tabbouleh? The recipe can be found at http://mayihavethatrecipe.com/2015/03/18/not-just-for-passover-recipes-quinoa-tabbouleh/ Or you can google any variation on the Tabbouleh recipe – it’s a farm favourite and we make a huge batch that lasts days! The lemony flavour gets better as it sits and flavours the rest of the dish so it’s meal that tastes better as a leftover.

Our market table setups from this week….

ShopEco on Tuesday at our new indoor location. From their Facebook page.

At our on-farm Wednesday market.

Until next time!

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On the twelfth week of the season…..

….we have planted the last of the seeds for the season – carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, winter radishes, lettuce, and kohlrabi. Sadly, despite all of our efforts, the brassicas and bok choy seedlings were devoured so there won’t be late season cabbage, broccoli, or cauliflower.

It’s also the end of field cucumbers for the season though they didn’t perform very well this year, and the end of tomatoes is sadly coming closer then we’d like it to.

I had a bit too much fun photographing these gorgeous heirloom ‘Copia’ tomatoes.

There is only a little bit of fennel left but there is more coming later. If you haven’t tried it yet then you have time to try this recipe that a member shared with us.

Fennel Fronds Pesto

by Wendy Rose

Ingredients:

2 cups fennel fronds, stemmed removed and packed

1/2 cup almond flour or slivered almonds

2 tbsp hemp hearts

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 – 1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients into a high powered blender and blend until smooth.

There will be small amounts of rainbow kale and rainbow chard again, perfect time to try this recipe from chef Dan at the Beacon Alehouse –

Caprese salad on a bed of kale and chard, with heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil, bocconcini cheese, and a balsamic reduction.

Also available this week: delicious salad mixes, broccoli, parsley, beans, salad turnips, sweet snacking peppers, eggplant, slicing and sauce tomatoes, very limited amounts of cherry tomatoes (for the rest of the season), limited amount of onions as our stock has almost run out (this was a trial year for growing onions so we didn’t grow very many but they performed very well so they will get more space in the gardens next season!), limited amounts of scallions, a variety of squash (if I find the time this week I will post a full list of what varieties you might find throughout the rest of the season), herbs such as rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, and basil – this is a great time to order extra basil for making large batches of pesto that you can freeze for the winter just send us an email and we’ll make sure to bring you extra. No picture but we found big and beautiful purple top turnips as well this week! And of course we’ll have garlic. In case you’re not convinced of the power of locally-grown garlic here’s an article we shared on facebook this week about garlic grown in China….http://www.realfarmacy.com/bleached-chemical-garlic-china-how-to-spot/

And as a follow up from last week’s talk of the health benefits of colourful vegetables – Surprising Health Benefits of Purple Carrots.

Last week’s market displays.

Coming soon….

Can we make Halloween cool in September? We’ll see….we will see….

As an experiment we are going to try cooking up some rainbow chard root – if you’ll remember it’s the same plant as beet but with an “ugly” root – stay tuned for those results because if it’s yummy….you’ll be seeing this new root soon enough!

As a final note, some folks are getting concerned that they may not be able to use up their credits before the end of the season. Please feel free to ask me or whomever is at the market tables what you can buy in larger quantities and easily preserve for the winter. There are always pickles and honey, too. But also, please let us know if there is something you want to see us bring in larger quantities that you can buy in bulk or just some veggies you’d like to see more of. Some examples are potatoes, sweet potatoes, storage onions, portabello’s. We will see what we can source locally that is ecologically-grown and what other growers may have in abundance. Let us know what you’d like to see and we will do our best to bring it in!

Dried herbs ready to be jarred and used for winter cooking.

ps. I had the twelve days of Christmas song in my head as a title but nothing clever to go with it, sorry folks!

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Betwixt and Between

We are at Week 10 – the halfway point, the middle – we are betwixt and between. To celebrate we’ve added up everyone’s total credit used so far this season, feel free to check in to see where you’re at. 🙂

An important note for members who pick up at ShopEco! Pickup will be at their NEW location this Tuesday August 18th – located at 1645 Wyandotte St E (with Envy Boutique). To reach the parking lot, just turn down Windermere, and then make a right at the little alleyway. The parking spaces for Envy and ShopEco are the first five spaces right outside the shop. ShopEco will NOT be open this Tuesday as they are moving but will re-open on Wednesday August 19th.

Our Kale has been hit hard by little green caterpillars who somehow got under the insect netting and hatched out by the hundreds and have decimated the crop. We’re giving the Kale a break but will have more next week along with some delicious new recipes to try.

There are some caterpillars we don’t mind seeing…..We shared pics of Swallowtail caterpillars in with the Dill but now we are finding them in with the Fennel….Love these creatures!

New this week is Fennel!

Some recipes for Fennel….

From chef Dan at the Beacon Alehouse in Amherstburg: Apple Fennel Slaw, it’s great with pork dishes or a salad. I got a sample of this and it was awesome!

3 apples, shredded or mandolined

1 Fennel bulb, shredded

1/2 tbsp fresh cracked pepper

1 Garlic clover, minced

1/3 cup of oil

3 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (or malt vinegar)

Mix all ingredients together

We’ll have more chef recipes for Fennel next week but keep an eye on our Facebook page for more yummy ways to eat this unique veggie!

Other recipe ideas can be found on allrecipes.com, Canadian Living, Fennel Zucchini Tomato Soup, and if you’re adventurous on Martha Stewart’s website.

In limited quantities this week we have…..

Inter-varietal Carrot Love

On the pick list this week (will vary from location to location):

Rainbow Carrots

Heirloom Tomatoes

Wild Rainbow Salad Mix

Pea Shoots + Parsley

a variety of Herbs – Basil, Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary, Sage

Fennel

Garlic and Onions

Field Cucumbers

Sweet Peppers, Hot Peppers, Okra, Eggplant

Cabbage – Red, Chinese.

Delicata Squash

We may even see some early Cauliflower! We never know what surprises lurk…..

Kohlrabi

Cool Kohlrabi

We had to pick most of our Squash and Pumpkins this week due to the Squash Vine Borer and it’s now curing for later use. More on that next week but at least the chickens got some good treats! Speaking of chickens…..some new chicks came this week and we discovered something sweet and cute with our broody mom and her wee ones ….

Broody mama has 4 chicks and they sleep like this every night – 2 under her wings, 1 underneath her, and 1 on top.

Time to sign off and get some rest in preparation for the Belle River Farmers Market tomorrow and another busy farm week ahead – can’t wait to hear what you’ve all been cooking up this week!

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The Tantalizing Tomatoes of Tilbury Town Take Two

If you’re interested in canning whole tomatoes, making tomato sauce, making fresh salsa or salsa for canning, or in making sun-dried tomatoes now is the time to let us know that you want tomatoes in bulk. We can sell bushel baskets (approximately 20 pounds) of our heirloom and organically-grown field tomatoes for $25 but you must let us know in advance.

Zapotec Pleated, Forme de Coeur, and Striped Roman varieties; on the day we welcomed a new baby to the family we picked this fertility Goddess / baby belly Tomato; sometimes Tomatoes have noses and appendages; our display at the Belle River Farmers Market.

Our Candy Tomatoes are perfect for making sun-dried Tomatoes in a dehydrator.

With Tomatoes (and Peppers, and Eggplant) comes…Tomato Hornworms….

The pick list is the same this week and please keep in mind that not all items are available at all locations. This week you’ll see lots of Tomatoes, Basil, Sweet and Hot Peppers, Okra, Chinese Eggplant, Rainbow Kale + Chard, Salad, Red Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Garlic, Onions, Field Cucumbers, Parsley, and perhaps some surprises!

We’ve been enjoying lots of variations of Tabouleh lately – Parsley, Garlic, Onions, Cucumbers, and Tomatoes from the farm tossed with lemon juice, salt, and olive oil and served with a variety of grains like couscous, quinoa, or wild rice.

Armenian Cucumbers will be ready soon…..not quite big enough yet….

From around the farm this week….the baby chicks already have their feathers and Oddy (our 8yo farm child) found “The World’s Smallest Chicken Egg” and wanted to share with everyone.

What you missed on Facebook this week….

Our produce found it’s way into the kitchen of Chef Ben from The Iron Kettle who created lovely dishes for a local wedding.

A purple cabbage and cucumber slaw done 2 ways – one mixed and the other decomposed – the vinaigrette was made with the purple basil. Swiss chard mixed with green beans and bean sprouts to mix textures and balance bitterness. And lastly more chard wilted in a pan with mushrooms and caramelized onions.

Marie W shared some ways she’s been enjoying our produce….

Marie said, “Packing fresh pickling cucumbers from Locally Germinated: a farmer’s cooperative into a 5 litre Fido jar. In about 4 days, I hope to have crunchy, fermented dill pickles!”; Cooked, chopped leaves and julienned bulb of Kohlrabi topping a Zucchini Mushroom Egg dish.

A nice little post about crops to plant for an Autumnal Garden (we are still planting, planting, planting and will be until the end of August). We are growing the Hakurei Turnips and they will be ready in the next 2 weeks! Still deciding on planting more Kohlrabi…..does anyone want to see more Kohlrabi?  http://savvygardening.com/three-crops-to-plant-now/

And a farm pic to end things…..as always a big thank you to Andrea Nickerson for providing most of the photographs for the blog!

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The Tantalizing Tomatoes Of Tilbury Town

You will soon find out why we call them Candy Tomatoes!

We put a lot of time and effort in to perfecting our Candy Tomato mixes by choosing just the right varieties to please the palate and the eye. This year we are growing Black Cherry, 42 Days, Fargo Yellow Pear, Bing, Sweetie, Peacevine, Isis Candy, Blush, Pink Tiger, Green Tiger, as well as Sunrise, Pink and Purple Bumblebee.

Our slicing, beefsteak, and sauce Tomatoes are coming on as well – thank you heat! – heirlooms like Japanese Trifele, Moonglow, Druzba, Black Krim, Eva Purple Ball, Bison, Djena Lee’s Golden Girl, Zapotec Pleated, Forme De Coeur, Rose De Berne, Cherokee Purple, Copia, Striped Roman, Purple Russian, Bellstar, Gilbertie, Black Plum and more.

We are full swing in to harvesting season so we’ll let pictures tell the story of life around the farm this past week as well as what fresh vegetables to expect in the coming week.

Red Cabbage. Can you see the face in the picture on the left?

The tasty mini-cabbage that I eat like an apple. Mmmmcrunch! Don’t be afraid to try Kohlrabi, even if it sometimes looks like a monster face… because only the farmers eat the monsters <wink>

Purple Peppers, Chinese Eggplant, Summer Squash, Okra, and Field Cucumbers (picklers, green slicers, silver slicers, poona kheera – yellow – and Armenian) as well as a super Cucumber picker + taste-tester farm child.

Add flavour to your dishes with our fresh Onions – red, white, spanish – and our Purple + Green Basil.

The Garlic harvest over, we recently sold 24 heads of Garlic to be enjoyed at a wedding that features all local food. Our veggies will be gracing dishes such as – Creamy garlic dressing, Green goddess, Shallot vinaigrette, Avocado corn soup, Rub for the prime rib, and Anti pasta grilled veggies.

Dried mint with pestle and mortar; Quiche with Kale

Helpers around the farm….Everyone has a job and we all have fun!

Baby Mourning Doves; Caterpillar Larvae of the Cecropia Moth

We are looking for harvesting help this coming holiday Monday and would love to show you around the farm. We’ll be working from 9 am until 4 pm, come if you can and see where your food is grown.

Happy Long Summer Weekend everyone!

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Week #9

Welcome to the bounty our county has to offer! It’s only 3 weeks behind but better late than never! After a decade of drought conditions in our area we’ve had to contend with cold, rainy weather this season when most of our crops want hot, hot heat! But we are rolling in local produce now! Harvesting all the bounty takes an extra couple of hours a week now but it’s worth it to have such variety coming out of the gardens.

Some Notes:

* If you get a small green tomato basket in your bag please return it the following week as we reuse these and need them for harvesting.

* We decided not to wash any of the salad mix, or greens, or any produce this week. The morning was cool enough that we didn’t need to get the “heat” off the veggies. And since we don’t have any commercial washers or spinners the salad mix has been getting too wet, too bruised, and not keeping as long as it should. Please wash all your produce before eating.

* If you didn’t get a Watermelon this week don’t worry! We only had a few early varieties ready and everyone will get a Watermelon eventually! If you get a Watermelon that wasn’t ripe (don’t judge it by the colour but by the taste) please let us know so we can get you another one. We taste test to make sure we are picking ripe ones but you really don’t know until you crack it open.

* Every location is a bit different as to contents but we make sure everyone gets the goodies eventually.

Photo taken by: Expert 9 year old Faenin- Armenian Cucumber Necklace

Pick list:

‘Candy’ Tomatoes – This year we are growing Peacevine, Bing, Yellow Pear, Brown Berry, Black Cherry, Gold Nugget

Field Cucumber, Heirloom + Pickling – This year we are growing Armenian Cucumbers, Boothby’s Blonde, Lemon Cucumber, Green Finger. The Cucumbers are supposed to be various colours and they can be enjoyed with or without peeling first.

Thin-skinned Slicers

Yes, these are Cucumbers! ‘Boothby’s Blonde’

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dragon Beans

Rainbow Leafies

Salad mix with Nasturtium flowers

Summer Squash and Eggplant

Purple Peppers – our Red, Yellow, and Orange Pepper plants are positively LOADED with fruits, we are just waiting for them to ripen!

Watermelon -What is ready now are some Sugar Babies and what we are calling Faenin’s Hybrid (a mix of Little Baby Flower and Baby Doll Watermelon seeds saved from personal melons over 3 years and cross-pollinated) – these are white or yellow inside. Larger Watermelons are coming in the next few weeks. All of our Watermelon seeds come from (or in the case of Faenin’s Hybrid, came from) High Mowing.

Moon and Stars: a long-season heirloom variety; Faenin’s Hybrid in the background

 

Pictured: ‘Boothby’s Blonde’ Cucumbers, ‘Dragon’ Beans, Salad with Nasturtium Flowers, Rainbow Leafies, ‘Candy’ Tomatoes, Eggplant, Purple Pepper. Not pictured: Watermelon, Parsley, Hot Peppers, Okra, Summer Squash.

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