2024 CSA Newsletter #9
Well, we survived Hurricane Debby mostly unscathed. I was a little nervous when I saw the predicted forecast of 4 inches of rain. That is a lot of rain to deal with in a short amount of time. Thankfully, it ended up being significantly less. The biggest issue we had to deal with was a shredded row cover that had already been damaged by hail earlier this season. Working with row covers can be a pain, especially solo, but I managed to recover the beds with minimum hiccups. I was worried about the humidity and disease after the rain, but the temperatures have dipped enough to alleviate those worries. I even had my first dream (nightmare?) about the first fall frost last night! I am not ready for that. I joke with my students that they have reached full-farmer status when they start dreaming about crops and the weather.
With the students done with their summer semester and me beginning to prep for fall classes, it's a bit of a chaotic dance on the farm. Besides vegetable harvesting, not much else got done last week. In addition to harvesting for the CSA, we are starting to bring vegetables down to Coltivare. As they prepare for their reopening, Chef Scott and his team are open for "happy hour" on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 5-7 pm. If you find yourself in downtown Ithaca, stop in and see what they have going on.
The CSA share this week is the beginning of "tomato time", which will only get bigger in the weeks to come. Fingers crossed, but there should be tomatoes in the CSA share for the rest of the season. This week there will be boxes of cherry tomatoes. The boxes will be a rainbow of different sizes and shapes. If you come across any green ones, they are ripe. There will also be larger tomatoes to choose from. Mostly different heirlooms, but there will be beefsteaks mixed in. Frying and bell peppers, hot peppers, garlic (still the Chesnok Red), basil, kale, and cucumbers will also be part of the choice this week. I made a batch of bread-and-butter refrigerator pickles over the weekend, and they were a hit with the family. Most of the cucumbers this week are the larger slicing cucumbers. They can be used for refrigerator pickles, too. The key is to chill them with ice for a few hours after slicing them. There will also be bunched herbs in the share. It will most likely be a choice of rosemary, sage, thyme, chocolate mint, and winter savory. I'll be harvesting those in the morning. Lastly, there will be jalapeno salt available. If you are new to our CSA, I end up processing a lot of our surplus hot peppers, making different powders and salts. The jalapeno salt is a great finishing salt that can be added to popcorn, cocktails, rubs, and more.
Have a great week!
-Farmer Todd