Share #7 -- including a special tea!

Well shucks, I spread out a share's contents and thought I had taken a photo (to annotate) -- but right now I can't find such a photo on my phone at all. Anyhow, I do have a few fun photos from our day today -- the roughly four hours that lead up to us driving off to the Wedge and looking for your lovely faces =)

Josie, after these two super-helpful kids dutifully spent two hours down at the garden with me!

Josie's main job is to keep all of our chickens used to being handled by people :) Here's Blacky and Baseball, who aren't laying yet (but damn well better be in the next month or so!!!)

Here's a funny outdoor, 'alternate' coop I made for the birds, for if/when they are feeling that their hen-house is a bit too stuffy. I first thought the ducks actually climbed in those boxes -- until Josie admitted this evening that she placed them in there :(

Everybody's share, and some optional bread, all packed up and ready to go!

Also, here are a few things worth noting about Week #7's box:

OKRA -- Gosh darn it, I thought I gave all the ones Josie picked a good 'wiggle' test, and ended up keeping out eight otherwise gorgeous pieces total for being too stiff... however, I found one in the surplus box (that we did not re-home today) to be too tough. Please be wary!

SLICING TOMATOES -- I tried to give everyone a mix of ready-to-slice and needs-to-sit-on-the-counter, smalls and larges. It did seem to be heavier on the side of unripe ones, unfortunately; that is just me trying to save them from the sunburning, slugs, cracking (due to heavy rains) and ultimately spot-rotting that has been claiming a lot of the fruit. SPECIAL TRICK: Put unripes in a brown paper bag with some overripe bananas or apples for a couple of days, and the naturally occurring ethylene gas that you are intentionally concentrating will quickly ripen the tomatoes

'GREENS BAG" -- There were three things in here: 1) lots lettuce-leaf basil (at the bottom); 2) some lettuce greens, many of which had started to bolt (=an extra bitterness that some find offensive; feel free to toss if no bueno for you); and 3) some tender lamb's quarters tops

SUMAC TEA -- A refreshing beverage that many Native American tribes traditionally made, from the sour 'berries' of the staghorn sumac bush. While the beverage can be made VERY sour, I aimed only to make a subtle version here... kind of like a half-sweetened tea, it comes out. Nice over some ice, or in the morning warmed up in the microwave / on the stove to a near-boil (ie, as a hot tea)

Share #6... sorry no picture of the contents this time!

Howdy,

Well I didn't get a picture before the shares were brought to distro, and this week everyone picked up their share. SO... I don't have a pretty picture to annotate for you al! Luckily, there were mostly things you should recognize; for example, everyone got at least two (depending on size) heirloom pinks and two heirloom red slicing tomatoes -- one ripe now, the other needing a couple of days. One or two of you got some fun yellow slicing tomatoes (the 'Kellog's Breakfast' variety). There also was a return of the lamb's quarters fresh greens (recall that the leaves are a perfect spinach substitute... we tried it on two pizzas one evening, and roasted it was FABULOUS).

Also, there was a mixture of white 'Kennebec' potatoes and red 'Pontiac' potatoes bagged up.

The only think unusual was the zip-lock with dried nettle leaves/stems; this is a HIGHLY nutritious plant that we foraged in the spring, that can substitute for spinach in many recipes. I dried it in a hotbox vs. directly exposed to the sun, so it should have retained most of its nutritious vitamins and minerals. My wife makes a special soup from it, and also a quiche. The only tip you need to know is to reconstitute the leaves in hot (ie, just boiled) water for at least two minutes, prior to incorporating. This ensures that the tiny spines that give 'stinging' nettle its name are totally inactivated. You can also make a pretty damn tasty tea from it!

Here are a couple of pictures from harvest today, as always, email me if any questions come up.

best,
Matt

Didn't have to leave out of the share as many tomatoes this time! (only about half, left in the blue bins, had bad spots in them)

About a 20-ft stretch of potatoes (white), plus what I dug up in reds the other day, for our potatoes!

PS -- Special thanks again to Golden Acres Farms, for helping us out with the cucumber count this week :) Sad about the vegetables that didn't do well, but glad that we've found you (and a couple other farms) to help out with maintaining some variety!

Box #5 + greens cooking tips (if helpful!) + latest pics

Your box #5, unveiled!

1) Howdy! So, in your 1/2 share basket (which was kinda plump this week, I'm pleased to say) you should have:

Eggs
Heirloom tomatoes (one person got a yellow-ripening one, some got one just-barely-unripe that need to table-ripen)
Potatoes (I think the variety is Pontiac; tried to be generous here, while also leaving some in the ground for later in the season)
Cucumbers
Carrots (unbelievably sweet, IMO)
Breakfast radishes (are these guys officially the 'usual suspects' yet?)
One random root veggie (one person got a salsify; others got turnips)
Japanese eggplant... the one pictured here is fat (Eurpoean) instead of skinny (Japanese) lol
Banana peppers
Matt-pickles (cucumbers courtesy of -- as is the aforementioned eggplant -- our partner Golden Acres Farm... if you don't end up liking them, please bring them back to me, as these are a family favorite!)

2) Here is my personal, generic-but-golden 'greens' recipe that you might use, if you haven't already, to start making something of those turnip, radish, and other root greens (instead of throwing them away):
http://veggies37g.wikispaces.com/Matt%27s+world-famous+greens+recipe

3) Here are some pictures from harvest today / yesterday, in case you are curious:

Monarchs on our milkweeds!

Josie helping me harvest a section of our potato plot

Cleaning up the turnips

Situating the few heirloom tomatoes we have that didn't have any soft spots (damn it, where do they come from?)

Same-day-harvested potatoes

Radishes, needing a light cleaning and partitioning

All of the lovely tomatoes that we COULDN'T given, due to having spots. WTF

Dividing up the carrots that Josie so dutifully separated from the ground yesterday evening

All eight shares, raring to go on our dinner table! :)

Special Delivery today -- share #4

Hey there! Just a special note that today your shares will be delivered by two of our really good friends, Laura and Danny! So don't be surprised if you see two not-yet-familiar faces sitting in my usual 'spot' at the Wedge today... they'll be there from 2 to 4, as usual. I have a tentative list of what should end up in the basket, but these two lovely people should be able to tell you if any last-minute changes were necessary:

sunflower sprouts
arugula flowers?
manila lettuce
mountain mint
cucumbers
tomatoes
radishes
spring onion
dried porcini mushrooms (locally harvested and prepared last fall)
eggs

Don't forget to bring baskets, plastic bags, jars, and egg cartons from previous shares (as they become available) by today, I'll be picking it all up from Danny and Laura later today or tomorrow. And, here are some fun pictures from the past few days:

Peppers looking good, should be reliably in the share in a few weeks' time

Cucumber plants about to break through, too!

Grrr... even after hand-removing probably close to three thousand of these 'fleures des heures,' I found a few gone to seed already late last week =(

Okra will also be on the menu, probably in early August =) One of my favorites

Success with foraging down by new my folks place in northern Georgia, on the fourth of July. I'm hopeful we'll find several staple delicacies near Asheville soon, too... the repeated rain is a very key ingredient!

I wish I had photos of the harmful critters we've caught in the past week, too: there was another woodchuck (which hopefully means we saved some of our fall squash plants, as well as some of our fall cabbages) and also there was a raccoon (not good for chickens). Both got exported down the road a good bit, and hopefully won't be back anytime soon!

Will be great to see you all again next week...