Week #5 Sat., July 11th –Tues., July 14th, 2009 Downloadable Word .doc for printing

In your bag
Lettuce
Scallions, Turnips
Purple Kohlrabi
Broccoli (Saturday only)
Sugar Snap Peas (Tuesday only)
Red Russian & Lacinato Kale
Cucumbers
Zucchini/Summer squash
Garlic Scapes
Cilantro & Basil

Coming Soon
It looks like we’ll have cabbage next week, maybe carrots and some new potatoes. The cucumbers and zucchini/summer squash will continue on. I think our next batch of sugar snaps will be ready and maybe even some green beans.

Greens
We’ve fallen in love with cooked greens this year. Beet greens with cooked beets on top - a beautiful, tasty dish. We’ve been topping it off with a little balsamic vinegar and kosher salt. Yum!. Mike’s been sautéing the garlic scapes in olive oil, tossing in the chopped greens (kale or chard) and maybe a little fish sauce or vinegar and perhaps some red pepper flakes to spice it up.

This is really good and very easy! Let us know what you’re doing with all the greens. We’ll give it a try and pass the recipe along.

Farm Events
Our Annual Fall Work Day at the farm is scheduled for Sunday, October 4th this year and our Harvest Dinner will be Saturday evening, November 7th in Minneapolis. Mark your calendar and plan on joining us!

Farm News
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a good rain. Today’s strong wind is really drying things out further. We’re irrigating once again and hoping for an all day soaker. The National Weather Service has us in a moderate to severe drought and we can see that. There’s just not much moisture in the soil. Thus far it’s been a cool, dry summer and we’re moving into the time when the summer crops like peppers, eggplant and melons would like some moisture and some heat. The mulching we do really helps as does the ability to irrigate. Things are holding their own. We’d like to see them thriving. Rain dance time!

Our work crew is thinning out this week. Roy is spending the month of July in Germany. Amber headed north to the Winnepeg Folk Festival. David’s going the other direction to Nashville with his Parliamentary Procedure team and Sarah’s off to the lake with her family for the week. Thankfully it looks like most of this fun is happening before bean picking and garlic harvest will begin.

The pesky bear has made its way back into the bee yard again this week. We’re not quite sure how to deter him or her. It’s rather discouraging since we love have the bees around for pollination not to mention the honey. As for the deer, they’re doing their annual garden dining. A neighbor gave us a “birdhouse” with a bar of Irish Spring in it last year that we placed in our strawberry patch. It very effectively kept the deer away so Mike is off purchasing bars of Irish Spring in Menomonie and we will place them around the garden. We’ll see if we can trick those deer with a bit of Irish charm!

Next Week’s Harvesters
Saturday, July 18th – Toma Alecci & Val Barankovich, Curt McNamara, Tina Meckel & Jeff Benson, Martha & Greg Pomerantz, Jane & Greg Laco
Tuesday, July 21st – Kleven Family, Devore Family, Janice Kovala, Bill Karns & Beth Gohdes, Carolyn Shrewsbury