Week #13 Tuesday, Sept. 4th -Saturday, Sept. 8th , 2007 Downloadable Word .doc for printing

In your bag
Melon, Cucumbers
Yellow Onions, Garlic
Romaine Lettuce (adolescent style)
Broccoli or Summer Squash
(The broccoli is strong – you’ll want to steam it rather than have it raw.)
Peppers – Sweet Red, Purple or Green, Anaheim, Jalapeno
Potatoes, Carrots
Tomatoes (includes red and/or green zebras)
Romas (LaRossa romas and Black Plums)
Basil, Thyme

This Week's Recipes
Hot Day Cucumber Soup
Andalusian Gazpacho Recipe
I’d love for you to send us some of your favorite ways to cook Spring Hill veggies so that I can share them with other members.

Next Week’s Bag
We are still waiting on those purple beans – dare I say, they’ll be in the bag next week? It’s time to think about sending some winter squash. It looks like we’ve got a good crop of Delicatas, Sunshine, Butternut and Festival squash.

Help for Farmers Affected by Flooding
For those of you wanting to make financial donations to assist sustainable farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin affected by August floods, one option is to donate to IATP’s Sow the Seeds Fund.

The original mission of the Sow the Seeds Fund was to promote a Midwestern local food system. The recent flooding, however, has focused the Fund on providing flood relief to sustainable and organic farmers who've been severely affected by water damage.
Checks can be made payable to IATP/Sow the Seeds Fund and mailed to:

IATP/Sow the Seeds Fund
c/o Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
2105 First Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55404

Eggplant
I am feeling the need to apologize for so much eggplant – though for some of you it may be a treat.
We had considered not sending it this week. The fact of the matter is though, it’s ready and if we left it on the plant and waited a week or two, it would no longer be good. Try roasting it with other vegetables or give Eggplant Parmesan, Baba Ghanoush, or the yummy soup recipe from Sara Christensen on the back.

Farm News
I have good news and bad news. The bad news is we have had to abandon some of the fall vegetables we had hoped to plant and transplant. It remained too wet for too long and now that it’s finally drying out, it’s too late to plant the spinach and arugula. I know I look forward to those fresh fall greens and I suspect many of you do as well. Unfortunately, that crazy spell of weather we had will mean no spinach or arugula until next spring. We also had to toss the bok choy, broccoli and kohlrabi transplants we had started. They had become too stressed in their seedling flats while waiting for the ground to dry. Again, the ground has just been too wet to get the tractor in there to work it up for transplanting. We’ve also had some broccoli rot due to wet conditions. While we were excited about the increased diversity we had hoped to have in the fall bags, the good news is that (at least at this point) what is out there is doing well. The squash harvest looks plentiful. We think the potatoes look good too and we do have a variety of greens already in the ground. These include Toscano Kale, Swiss chard, and more Romaine lettuce. We also have fall cabbage and leeks and, as long as get some warm days, a good batch of carrots and fall beets as well. Of course, we’ll continue to send tomatoes and peppers as long as we’re able.
While the weather has changed some things on the farm – as it does every year – we are well aware that others are experiencing real disaster.
In many cases, losses are worse than initially thought as the rains continued to hit the places that were already flooded. Once again, we are thankful to have you – our community of supporters- with us on this journey called farming. It makes all the difference.

Next Week’s Harvesters
Tuesday, September 11th – Kathy Steinberger, Helen Torrens, Jill Meyer, NEED ONE!
Saturday, September 15th – Karin Goff & Reed McEwan, Claudine Arndt & Mike McCloskey, Chris & Carol North, Caron Moore, Maloney Family