Dig It

Eight weeks down, nine left to go. It’s hard to believe that the farm has come this far! The tomato plants are still reeling from this month’s rain damage (some of them have just this week developed brown and withered leaves, which I’m hoping is a simple-to-solve case of not having enough nutrients), the squash plants have been knocked out by cucumber beetles and stink bugs, and I’ve found what looks like crow damage on some of the almost-ripe watermelons. Nevertheless, the boxes keep getting better!

The contents of this week’s box: zucchini or summer squash (harvests are down, but replacement plants are in the ground), Yukon Gold potatoes (only about four or five per box, thanks to lower-than-expected yields), one bunch Chantenay carrots, eggplant, two pints cherry tomatoes, one pint garden peach tomatoes, one quart heirloom tomatoes, one bag basil and okra for some of those who requested it.

I also harvested a few other things this week. First, the entirety of the spaghetti squash bed, as the plants were near death after a bad squash vine borer infestation (I even found a few borers in the fruits). I baked one (damaged, of course) for an incredible dinner a few nights ago and decided that I will definitely be growing these again. Second, seed. There are a few plants (the mustard greens, in particular) whose seed I’d like to save for next season, and a few herbs (coriander, dill), whose seed will be a great addition to our kitchen’s spice cabinet. Several bundles of dried plants, seed pods attached, are waiting on towels in the greenhouse, and should be processed next week.

After the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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I’ve skipped out on updating this site these past couple of weeks, but not because things at the farm have been slow. Instead, the subscriber boxes have been getting heavier and heavier, and produce has started to fill up our fridge and pile over the dining room table.

The contents of last week’s box: zucchini, summer squash, one bunch carrots, one pint cherry tomatoes, one yellow onion, basil, an herb blend and okra for some of those who requested it. Tons of rain (almost five inches in one weekend, plus a couple more inches in the following days) caused most of the ripening cherries to split, particularly the oblong ones. So, pints were dominated by the black cherry, a darker fruit that comes close to an heirloom in flavor.

The contents of this week’s box: zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, the last fennel of the season (as the bulbs were beginning to bolt), three pints cherry tomatoes, one quart heirloom tomatoes, basil and again, okra for some of those who requested it. I spent the week being bombarded with two things: tomatoes (which the chickens appreciated) and bugs.

To add to the list of pests I’ve waged war upon this season: squash vine borers, squash bugs and the colorado potato beetle. I often wonder where all these bugs come from, if they’ve followed me from Southern Maryland and brought along all of their friends. But I handle them one day at a time and have developed a knack for noticing even the smallest evidence of their presence–a cluster of eggs here, a missing leaf there. Earlier this week we spotted the deep purple chrysalis of a tobacco hornworm, half-buried in the dirt, one end wriggling about. SO disgusting.

After the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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In April, I planted a small bed of Early Italian garlic bulbs, ordered from Burpee’s. Last week, I noticed that the stalks had gone from green to brown, so on Thursday I harvested the bulbs. I lost a few to bugs (onion maggots, I think), but ended up with 30 bunches in all, just enough to include two in each box. The “seconds” (those bulbs whose stalks were torn off or which were sliced with a shovel) I saved for myself. The bunches are now drying in the shed at Tilghman, and should be ready to send out in two or three weeks.

This week was a hot one. I arrived at the farm earlier than usual on Wednesday to finish the morning’s harvest fast, but was forced to stay later than expected when I realized that a horde of harlequin bugs had started chomping up my tomatillos. I spotted the stinkbug relative and ladybug look-a-like earlier in the week, crawling up and down the winter greens, but left them alone since I no longer need those plants. But once they began to migrate and mate, I sprayed with pyrethrin, the same biological insecticide that rid me of flea beetles in the spring.

The contents of this week’s box: zucchini, summer squash, fennel, one Mars (red) and one Aisla Craig Exhibition (yellow) onion, basil, dill and a handful of cherry tomatoes. Just one of the larger tomato varieties has borne ripe fruit so far: garden peach, a pale yellow fruit that’s covered with fuzz. But the rows of heirloom plants are heavy with green tomatoes, so I hope that in another week or so I’ll be able to send them out as well. I’ve also begun to harvest okra, and on Friday noticed the first few eggplants of the season.

After the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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Just a few:

I was fortunate enough to have a bunch of help with this week’s harvest, so filling the boxes was a breeze. The contents: lettuce heads, zucchini, summer squash, one bunch Sierra Blanca onions, one bunch rainbow chard, one bag basil and one bag herb blend, which included sage, oregano and thyme.

I still don’t have enough tomatoes to share (I counted. Each subscriber would end up with about four cherries), but there are tons of green fruit that I’m looking forward to picking. I spent much of the week staving off tobacco hornworms, hand-picking the pests and dusting with a biological insecticide (BTK) to rid us of those we might have missed. I hunted for them this morning, but it seems that for now, we’ve caught the problem. Or at least caught up with it.

After the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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Low harvests led me to take last week off, but CSA deliveries were back to normal on Wednesday. The contents of this week’s box: fennel, zucchini, flat-leaf parsley, basil, arugula flowers and heads of lettuce. I thought the salad was dunzo when the weather turned hot and the plants began to bolt, but I was glad to find that the Summer Crisp Nevada was holding out on me.

I still want the boxes to be bigger, but I’m finding new evidence of growth all the time: small summer squash, beautiful blooms in the okra bed and even a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes. Indeed, when I’m not harvesting produce or pulling weeds, I’m fencing up the fast-growing tomato plants. I’m not sure when I’ll have enough to share with the subscribers (the first “harvest” was this afternoon. The yield? About a pint), but it looks like the crookneck, patty pan and zucchini will at least give their boxes some much-needed heft in the coming weeks. After the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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I found a tobacco hornworm earlier this week, hidden in the foliage of a tomato plant.

I’m used to seeing these caterpillars with small white eggs emerging from their backs (the eggs of the braconid wasp), but this dude was parasite-free and eager to eat. Hornworms, so named for the sharp spike on their backs, are frustrating pests, because they can eat so much so fast. Indeed, it’s often easier to spot their destruction and droppings than it is to find the hornworms themselves. I wouldn’t have spotted this one (the first I’ve seen on the farm) had I not been pruning the plant that he was on. Click images to enlarge.

Another week, another round of deliveries! The contents: one sandwich-sized bag arugula, one sandwich-sized bag mixed mustard greens and kale, one snack-sized bag sugar snap peas, one bunch flat-leaf parsley, one bunch basil, one bunch spring onions and one bag edible mustard and arugula flowers.

While I wish the boxes could be bigger, I’m pleased with what I do have. It’s all so flavorful, and since these were some of the first crops that I planted, these are also some of the crops about which I was most skeptical. But I’ve been given something to look forward to, in spotting the first small fruits (or veggies, as the case may be) of some high summer crops. Included in the gallery below are some shots of the first summer squash of the season. And after the jump, the recipes that I sent out. Click images to enlarge.

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The basil has been coming along quite well, and I’ve been itching to cook with it. Wanting to attempt something a little more exciting than the usual basil-and-tomatoes or pesto fare, I decided to tackle a recipe for basil beer bread, found on realsimple.com.

Dark opal basil, growing in the garden.

This was, I think, the third or fourth loaf of bread I’ve ever made (aside from banana), and it was super simple and super fast. The recipe (which can be found here or after the jump) calls for a bottle of ale, and I used what I had on hand: Dogfish Head Aprihop, a summer brew that I have been obsessing over for weeks now. It added a distinct apricot flavor to the bread, but because the loaf was eaten up so fast I can only imagine how delicious it would have been to toast a slice and spread it with some apricot jam.

The batter and the bottle of beer.

Bread!

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