Hello from the farm,
This week we dug the last of the potatoes, and said good-bye to the summer squash. Cucumbers are also fading away, but the peppers, eggplants and tomatoes are building up steam. We will have a lot of tomatoes for this harvest--probably over 1,000lbs of them.
These last few weeks of August are a bit of a lull as the fall crops anticipate maturing in September and October, so your bag or basket will probably bit a bit lighter until the fall crops start kicking in.
The Crop Lifter
We were really pleased yesterday with a trial run of a crop lifter or undercutter. Digging root crops and potatoes has been more and more of a challenge each year. We planted 4,800 feet of carrots this year, which along with rows and rows of potatoes and garlic, translates to quite a lot of digging!
Thanks to help from Butch Bixler and Jim Determan, we were able to make our own fairly easily using mostly what was already around. The "four man shovel" glides underneath the crop and loosens it, and then we still have the satisfaction of pulling the crop from the ground. (minus the shoveling)
Expect a lot more carrots next year :-) Thank you Butch and Jim!
The Pick Your Own Field
The pick your own field continues to have some great things in it: don't miss the "sunshine in a fruit" Sungold cherry tomatoes, the zinnias, celosia, and tasty little ground cherries, a fruity-tasting cherry tomato-like fruit in a paper husk and also the hot peppers that are just starting to ripen.
Roasted Eggplant Dip Recipe--Baba Ghanoush
If you tasted the eggplant dip that Kim made last week, you know this is good--serve with veggies and crackers.
Enough small eggplants to equal one pound
2 cloves peeled garlic
salt and olive oil to coat
roast at 350 degrees for 25 minutes
cool, transfer to food processor
Add:
1/2c. toasted pine nuts
1/4c. lemon juice
1/3c. sesame tahini
salt and pepper to taste
Process until well mixed
from: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
Food as Art
Sometimes we stop to marvel at the beauty of the harvest. Kim put this together, and you can see the result:
Hope you are enjoying the harvest and the final weeks of August. Fall crops ahead. Our final harvest of the season isn't until the second week of November, so enjoy the tomatoes in their glory as autumn and cool season crops approach.
Scott
Scott Breneman
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