Potatoes and What's in the Box

This is the prettiest photo from this week's CSA box (manna from heaven?).

A mighty fine box, all in all:
Yukina Savoy, Cucumber (or Summer Squash or Zucchini), Sweet Spanish Onions, Italian Garlic, Red or Rainbow Kale, Dill, Red Norland Potatoes, Broccoli or Cauliflower, Carrots, Red or Gold Beets, Green or Sweetheart or Savoy Cabbage. Lots of "ors", since we're still dealing with the ramifications of June's heavy rains. The first plantings of some crops have suffered and we don't always have enough of any one item to go into every CSA box. Soon, my friend, soon. We've replanted and anticipate great big juicy harvests with something of everything for every single one of you.

Plus a lovely fruit share delivery this week with lemons, Flame seedless grapes, Lapin cherries, blueberries, Dapple Dandy pluots, Elegant Lady peaches (from Mas Masumoto - I just started reading his Four Seasons in Five Senses), and Flavortop yellow nectarines.

I'm feeling inspired. More again soon.

Beans

As Anna, our field/harvest coordinator said, this is an awesome bean picking crew. They're not half bad cutting salad either! If only you could meet Nestor (Pollo), José (Chepe), Benji, Jesus, Gerardo, Daniel (Chilango), Miguel, Vicente (Buckethead), René, and Claudio. Good workers, good people, good times!

Glove Nest

This spring I noticed that a house wren had built a nest under the eaves of my little cabin. I didn't mind at all, they have a lovely song and were pretty friendly. Since the nest was right by my front door, I didn't want a bird who would swoop at me and try to scare me away from her eggs or anything.

I have a clothesline strung across my porch for drying my bathtowels in the morning or my socks after a tramp through the creek. Lately, as I've been hanging my towels in the morning, I've been startled by a little birdy flying away from the porch. I've thought to myself "Oh my gosh - am I that sleepy and unobservant that I didn't even notice the little wren on the line?"

Then yesterday I was enjoying a lazy Sunday, finishing "The Milagro Beanfield War" on a chair on the porch, occasionally snoozing in the sun. I was taking a break from all that and enjoying the view of my overgrown garden and maybe watching the goat drama unfold in the pasture on the hill (a couple kids jumped the fence and couldn't figure out how to get back in where everybody else was - what an unholy racket those goats make when separated!), when I finally saw the secret. The wrens had a Glove Nest (get it?) in my gardening gloves, also hung on the line. Obviously, my garden has been a bit neglected if I've given wrens enough time to build a nest in my gloves. There were four eggs in there today!

I did get out to the fields on Saturday, in an effort to tire out the rambunctious, teenage puppy, Captain Jack. Richard was at Market and Andrea was visiting a cabin up north, so it was just me, the dog, and pretty much a full crew at work in the fields. I usually try to stick pretty close to home on Saturdays so I can check on messages from the Madison CSA deliveries. It's been going really well, though! No calls or emails on Saturday about missing boxes or CSA members who can't find the pick up site. Very awesome.

Out in the fields, we found some lovely melons, jalapeño and Italia peppers, and eggplant blooms. We actually got to try some of the melons today, at lunch. Yum.

July - Pictures from the farm

Oh if only there was smell-o-vision!

Even though it's down wind from the newly turned compost piles, the nasturtium flower tunnel smells amazing!


Also quite fragrant are the two, count them two, greenhouse buildings that are quickly filling with freshly harvested garlic. They will dry out in the dry heat for 2-3 weeks, then the Italian hardneck & Porcelain varieties will be cleaned & trimmed for the familiar garlic bulbs, while the Nooksa Rose will be cleaned and then braided.

My most favorite smell today was the fennel field. It smelled like candy - like licorice. And it is so lovely and soft looking!

Now on to more mouthwatering pictures - can't you just taste the chard,

cabbage, kale,

sunchokes,

onions,

tomatillos, watermelon, sweet corn,and celeriac? I can't even believe how much I miss celeriac!