This week’s share has the following in it to look forward to:

Beets- A mix of our three varieties, Red Ace, Touchstone Gold and Chioggia.  roast these in the oven in the evening when its cooler and save them in your fridge for cold beet salads with nuts and gorgonzola all week. 

Cabbage

Swiss Chard

Cucumbers-  The yellow picklers are an heirloom variety called the Booth Bee Blond.  This is the most flavorful cucumber we have encountered.  It is so important for growers to preserve these older varieties that are disappearing at an alarming rate.  Once they are gone we can’t get these heritage cultivars back!

Summer Squash- Dust off that zucchini bread recipe!  Also stuffed squash is another wonderful dish if you are scratching your head about what to do with these.

Potatoes-  The Nicola variety this week. This yellow fleshed variety is also high flavor and makes great roasted potato wedges and potato salad. 

Parsley

Kale- Don’t be afraid to juice your kale if you are having trouble eating it all.  (Or, you can find a neighbor to share with perhaps.)

Farm Activities-  

This week our fields saw a touch of rain but not enough.  We have lost some squash, chard and a few direct seeded items to the lack of rain.  We have done a tiny bit of irrigating, but this generally goes against our farms philosophical practices to water during a drought.  We are using our stored water from the greenhouse that gave us warm thermal mass back in early spring so we don’t feel too bad. 

       Some members may recall our total crop failure of leeks last year.  Unfortunately it is looking like this season’s leeks may be suffering the same fate.  We faithfully weeded the leeks last week.  Then the 100 degree days and lack of shade from the weeds ended up killing most of them…oops!   We have a few that survived so keep your eyes peeled for a few of them in your shares this fall. 

        The last of this year’s garlic has been picked.  The greenhouse and barn are both filled to the brim with curing garlic so this will be a share  staple throughout the fall.  For those of you with gardens, don’t forget to save a few heads to plant in your own plot for garlic next season.  These hard neck varieties have all been grown in Worthington for several years now and are well adapted to the climate. 

       We hope you are enjoying the changing flavors of this year’s harvest as much as we are!