No Experience Necessary!

Coming Soon: Sweet Potatoes

It’s September, so where are the sweet potatoes?  The sweet potato patch has looked better than ever this year.  Somehow it has stayed relatively weed free with just one quick hand weeding earlier this summer.  My dad planted them when he visited in June.  Maybe he’s got some sweet potato magic.  Now that we are getting some real hot weather in September I decided to leave the sweet potatoes in the ground to hopefully size up a little more.  Sweet potatoes are a tropical plant.  They like it hot.  And this has been a cooler-than-average summer… until now!  We don’t want to wait too long, however, because we need to get them all out before the wet weather sets in.  It is miserable to harvest sweet potatoes when the ground is wet, and it’s not good for the tubers, either.

Can you dig it?

If you have been thinking that you’d like to get out to the farm and help with a big project, now is the time, and sweet potato harvest is that project!  If the plants have done as well I am hoping, we will have about 3,600 pounds of sweet potatoes to harvest.  We use the tractor to loosen and help lift them from the soil, but then we have to collect them up by hand.  It’s a fun, dirty job, suitable for children and adults.  No experience necessary!  We are having a DIG DAY this Saturday, September 21st from 9 am to 1 pm.  If you want to come help with sweet potato harvest but can’t make it Saturday, please contact Randy to schedule something.

Ready for 2020

With the dry weather last week, Patrick and Randy turned up the hustle and cranked out thirty-six 180 foot beds for spring planting.  We make all our spring garden beds in late summer.  In the spring it is always too wet to prepare the soil in time to plant all the onions, potatoes, leafy greens and root vegetables that thrive in cooler weather.  It is a relief to have that done.  I know it feels like it will be hot and dry forever, but at some point it is going to get wet and cool and the soil will stay wet until spring.

What’s on the farm table

I finally made Baba Ganoush!  It is one of my favorite eggplant dishes.  I think the white eggplants are perfect for this because they are sweet, non-bitter, and have a really creamy texture.  Of course you can make it with other varieties of eggplant as well.  For the Japanese-style eggplant I particularly this Sichuan Eggplant because the spongy texture of the eggplant really soaks up the yummy sauce.  The recipe calls for pork but I just left it out and it was delicious.

The arugula is packing a punch this week, hot weather really brings out the peppery flavor.  That means it’s a good time to try arugula pesto.  I used this recipe with sunflower seeds.

And, I learned how to fry tofu this week!  The secret is to sprinkle the cut tofu with a little corn starch so that it forms a crispy skin when fried.  Green beans with tofu is one my favorite things, so I made it with long beans.  I have a lot of favorite things.  I really like food!  I hope you enjoy eating like a farmer this week.

Small Shares

• Green Wave Mustard Greens
• Curly Kale
• Arugula
• Radishes, extra spicy!
• Eggplant
• Long Beans

Full Shares

• Green Wave Mustard Greens
• Curly Kale
• Arugula
• Lettuce Mix
• Radishes, extra spicy!
• Eggplant
• Long Beans
• Butternut Squash