Here is your 10th and final basket!

Doro and I have been honored that you have trusted us to help fill your bellies, these past three months. Here is what the ground grew you (together with our help, of course):

Okra, tomatoes, mild Hungarian peppers, butternut squash, cantaloupe or mini-melon, corn (rescued from the potential future ruining by both raccoons and the swelling of Hominy, by Doro), carrots, beets, mixed greens (collards, swiss chard, kale), and basil. Not too shabby, for a couple of wannabe farmers without their kids around to help of late =P

Please RSVP on Evite (check your spam folder) for the share picnic next Saturday, Aug. 28th. It will be lovely to celebrate with you all one last time... and, to show you a good time on our front and back yards to boot!!!

PS -- Doro rocked out this year, y'all don't even know how much she helped with everything. Heck, she was bossing ME around half the time. Maybe she should run the share, next year... =)

Basket #9

Folks, here's what is in your second to last basket:

Little butternut squash, garlic, small cabbage potatoes, cucumber, corn, okra, peppers, carrots, tomatoes, eggplant, baby melon, and, a specially delivered (from Golden Acres farm in GA) plastic jar of ghost and Carolina dealers reapers LOL.

If you're adventurous don't throw away the carrot tops... there are recipes (pesto, others) that make use of their unique flavor :)

Basket #7... documented!

Sorry for the delay here; I'll include a pic and synopsis as has been standard... but the main thing is, I also wanted you to have a recipe for using the staghorn sumac seedheads to make a tasty sour beverage similar to lemonade. Anyhow, first things first:

Here's watcha got: one regular zucchini and one pattipan squash; sweet Hungarian peppers, purple and green basil, okra, cucumber, arugula (bagged), tomato mix (containered), spearmint

And now, a simple recipe for sumac-ade:

1) Clip ripe staghorn sumac seedheads (you know they're good if they are coated with white, or if you kick them and get a sour kick!)

2) Stuff the seedheads as densely as you can, into whatever jar you have. Keep the stemside up.

3) Fill water up to but not exceeding the cut stem-ends of the seedheads

4) Cap jar if you have a cap (ideal), and let sit for 24-48 hours (later = better sour twang). Shake for 30 seconds straight on multiple occasions within the day or so, to improve flavor!

5) Pour through filter/sieve to catch bits (tea leaves strainer works well) into another jar, add sugar to taste and shake to help dissolve the sugar

6) Chill and serve on ice

I will bring more next week, let me know how it goes!!!

Our sixth basket... having fun yet?

Love you all for sponsoring our caring for these plants, against all the odds! Hope you enjoy what's in this week's basket):

And a loose tomato, not pictured...

This week every basket got:

1) One GIANT zucchini (or, a large and small one = two in total)

2) One loose 'sandwich' tomato (ripe)

3) A container with a pittance of golden cherry tomatoes as well as both a mature and a 'needs to table-ripen' slicer tomato

4) not-hot banana peppers (loose) as well as hot cousins of them (in ziplock bag)

5) Lots o' cucumbers... here's a fun recipe (named 'Mizzeria' in Polish):

    - shave cucumbers into very thin coins, peeling first if desired

    - stir in sugar (only a sprinkling), salt & pepper, a splash of white wine vinegar and either high-fat yogurt or sour cream (preference)

    - serve as salad

6) Kale

7) Eggplant

8) Beets

9) Green beans

10 (not pictured) Collard greens -- batched in bundles of 8, these can be prepared pretty much any way cabbage can -- cooked or raw. Just don't expect the same 'snappy' texture =)

As I said, it means a lot to us that you join with us in this endeavor!!! Until next week...

Last week's share basket (#5) was our heaviest, largest-volume one yet...

 ...and yet, because of the crunch for time in putting it together, we didn't get to snap any photos of it. =( In any case, I just wanted to make this post to bookmark that last Wednesday's 20lb-baskets DID INDEED HAPPEN (and were not a figment of my imagination, etc.) LOL

Out of 30-ish broccoli heads grown so far, only this ONE has looked 'normal' / like a supermarket one... LOL

We figured that because you all would be able to recognize / already have recipe ideas for everything both in the basket and in the side bags, that not getting a separate basket picture this time would be sufferable. Anyhow, for the record, there was lots within (and without) the basket last week:

Potatoes, cabbage, zucchini, cucumbers (out the wazoo, officially), green beans, hungarian 'hot' (they're actually quite mild) as well as bell peppers, basil, and then lettuce and broccoli by choice (and in a separate grocery bag).

Won't be able to beat this week's basket for the rest of the season, I imagine... although we certainly will keep getting all that's good in the garden, out to you all every week. Looking forward to tomorrow already! =)

Week 4... a heavy one

 Folks,

This week brings some peculiar sorts of productivity... early potatoes for you, and homemade duck-egg mayonnaise... read on:

Green beans, salad cucumbers, onions, early potatoes, cabbage, garlic, hungarian hot peppers, basil, rosemary, squash (large pattipan, large zuch or two smaller of either), and duck-egg mayonnaise.

There's extra lettuce and also chard for whomever wants it, I told you I'd hook you up with extra this week. More greens than you can shake a 10ft pole at lol...

Here's what's in this week's basket... (#3)

Hey-yo... long day, gotta get this info out to you all though, so you know what you're working with + have a tip or two... so here goes:

Don't forget, you can click on it to enlarge it... if that helps! =)

Lettuce greens -- one thing we've actually gotten good at growing the past couple of years... the amount of slug pressure about two months ago was just WHOA, though... glad we managed to hand-evict all thousand-or-so of those troublemakers!

Radichetta -- basically a low-bitterness commercial cultivar related to dandelion. We did not forage these, but rather grew them from seed packets we ordered. Try mixing it in with other soft greens in a salad, or lightly wilt and season like you would cooked greens

Kohlrabi -- grate it into a small portion and season with vinegar or mayonnaise like slaw, or slice thin and raw and season lightly (or, dip in luxurious real-cream ranch dressing, like I do to this and broccoli =P)

Cucumbers -- hooray for new stuff!

Sunburst pattipan squash -- sorry not enough yet on the plants to include multiples, good flavor... the key, as with all squash, is to get some caramelization going (see https://www.thekitchn.com/pattypan-squash-recipe-23058706, for example, for more info)

Kale -- just a splash of it, honestly. Many uses for this stuff

'Green' garlic -- you can either use the cloves over the next week or two and enjoy the uniquely sharp taste of truly fresh-from-the-ground garlic, OR... leave off the ground in a cool, dry place (basement?) for the next two weeks, and then enjoy chipping away at it long-term. NB: It will NOT have a long shelf-life, if you don't take this important drying-out / skin-hardening step!

Basil -- Some purple, some the more common deep green. An old friend for most

Milkweed florets -- Doro and I have been cultivating for the past few years a special perennial patch of milkweed taken from the prairies surrounding Chicago that framed our earliest days living together here in the states... and it is doing well enough now, that we can share a little of this special foraging treat with you. Just stir-fry briefly (a few minutes) with butter and a bit of salt... tastes like a mix of broccoli, asparagus, and a faint hint of caper.

Daylily flowers (not pictured) -- also foraged; eat fresh, either diced up and adding fun color to a salad or arguably more-boldy whole, as a salad topper or sandwich topping.

And last and definitely also a bit LEAST: French breakfast radish. I have to apologize, as normally I get to sample a crop before deciding it goes in the share basket. These appeared and felt not at all overly ripe, but are also (very atypically) our first root crop after the bad-for-root-crops hot and dry spring we've had this year. Doro and I noticed that one we tried to cut up this evening was a little tough on the outside. CAVEAT EATOR... but hopefully only very few are like this!

Also, one share member let me know that he had a hard time using the stalk of the walking onion from a week or two ago, that it was fibrous. Now, I did pick and cut up and eat raw as well as test-fry one of these at the time, and it was not fibrous at all... and I also went for a consistent snapping-off when harvesting the stems and aerial bulbils. In any case, I'm sorry if you got unlucky there/then, as well. I will aim to make it up to you, with something extra in the next basket.

In the meantime, email me any fun recipes you find... and, may the rains and sunshine be appropriate in the coming weeks -- and the pests discovered (and remedied) early!