From the farmers….
It has been a HOT week here at Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm! Today with temperatures soaring into the 90’s as we picked green and yellow beans, we are hoping your beans won’t taste salty – what with all of our sweating under the searing sun. Yesterday we loaded and spread two fairly large compost piles onto the re-worked areas of our fields as well as side-dressing for the summer squash and cuke rows. Our neighbor, Chick stopped by on his way to baling straw on our back field to ask if we wanted to use his manure spreader. We replied that with the skinny strips to be fertilized, his large spreader – though a lot easier than the shovels and wheelbarrows we were using – would not work, but thanks anyway. Earlier this week, Chick combined (harvested) the oats he had planted for us on our back 5? acres. This morning, Dale picked up the gravity box with the approximately 2000 pounds of harvested oats and drove it to the mill where it was cleaned and banked for us to use in mixing some of our livestock feeds this winter.
On Tuesday evening, our kitchen was full of interns, helpers and harvested veggies as we spent the evening (after the big compost move) making jars and jars of pickles. We made over a dozen quarts of sandwich stacker dill pickles, another dozen or so of short-brine brown sugar dills, and mixed Jardinière pickles with carrots, onions, beans, broccoli, basil, garlic and hot peppers. We also canned a dozen quarts of sauerkraut we made three weeks ago and another dozen or so pints of bread and butter pickles. Our kitchen (which is pretty small) was a choreography of canning kettles, huge bowls of prepped veggies and a little music from Gigi, Emilie and Ellie to keep us all going. We have a great assortment to divide and send home with everyone. And if that were not enough, as Dale continued to load the canning kettles with jars, Cara and Jacq bottled the first batch and mixed up another batch of kombucha (fermented tea). We now have three jars going with new kombucha mothers in each. We are grateful to Cara for introducing this new treat to our household and hope to offer a farm workshop on getting you started with your own kombucha for shareholders and friends this fall. It is so easy – and so refreshing, especially on a hot day. We have plans to try some different flavors soon – how about lime basil and honey? Or maple syrup and chokecherry?
This morning, we moved the pigs – big and smaller – into new bigger – much bigger pens. Both groups seem very happy with a lot more room to run and whirl about, as well as dig and root up. Just before the big pigs got their waterer moved to its new location, a couple of them decided to lay alongside of it – without the stock panel fence helping to hold it in position. They were a bit surprised when the waterer with nearly 50 gallons of water tipped over and made a wonderful slough for them to slide in.
Tonight – after it cools down a bit – we will be hauling the two beef steers to the meat locker. It is always a bit sad to say goodbye and thank you to animals we’ve been taking care of since babyhood – but we try to take good care of them, so they can take good care of us. It is part of that great cycle of life.
Until next week……….
What’s in your share this week…
Sweet Corn - Ambrosia
Beans – Derby, Provider, Eureka
Collards - Vates
Zucchini – Raven, Elite, Lila, Sephyr, Click Pick, Horn of Plenty and Caveli
Cucumbers – Raider, Sweet Slice
Onions – Walla Walla
Dill Bouquet
Basil - Genovese
From Je Mange la Ville
Jacq found this recipe online and treated us with it at lunch yesterday. She substituted maple syrup for the orange juice and cilantro for the parsley. The site is jemangelaville.com and the specific reference page is http://www.jemangelaville.com/2007/07/01/its-hot-out-time-for-zucchini-gazpacho-and-a-dinner-out/
Zucchini Gazpacho
1 big zucchini
2 yellow tomatoes
1/2 green bell pepper
1 small sweet onion, chopped into quarters
2 cloves garlic
2 slices white bread, crusts removed
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Tabasco
salt
pepper
3 tbsp parsley, chopped
juice of 1/2 an orange
extra olive oil for drizzling
Blend the zucchini, tomatoes, onion quarters, bell pepper, olive oil and garlic in a food processor. Get it a bit combined and then add the bread, a bit of Tabasco, parsley and orange juice. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
Serve into individual bowls and drizzle with the olive oil. You’re done. Go eat.
