Turtle Times

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Vol. 13, No. 14, Aug. 12, ‘08   7260 NW 58th  St., Johnston 50131  278-4522 (577-9208)

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Rain:  8/4, 0.05 “

In the Box . . .

Garlic ‘Inchelium’

Potatoes ‘All Blue’

Tomatoes ‘Dona’, ‘Golden Boy’, ‘Big Beef’, ‘Celebrity’, ‘Sioux’, ‘Garden Peach’, ‘Amish paste’, ‘Arkansas Traveler’

Cucumbers ‘Diva’, ‘Marketmore’, ‘Tokiwa’

Cabbage ‘Super Red’ or ‘Faroa’ or ‘Invento’

Summer squash ‘Zephyr’

Peppers ‘Islander’ (purple ones), ‘Romanian’ (light yellow ones), ‘Orion (green)

Sungold tomatoes, eggplant, raspberries, strawberries and green beans rotating sites

Swiss Chard (to anyone who requests it)

Ala Carte Herbs & Veggies ($1 ea):  Lavender, mint, parsley, tarragon, thyme, lemon, lime, thai, cinnamon and sacred basils, collards ($3)

Free herbs to anyone who requests them: marjoram, sage (and the basil buckets at each site)

Farm Update

This time of year we try really hard to use the customization that you filled out on the registration forms, which right now involves eggplant, hot peppers, and okra.  We will not give you any hot peppers other than an easily recognizable jalapeno unless you asked for more.  You will only get okra if you indicated occasionally or often.  If you are a fan of one of these and are not getting them, perhaps you didn’t fill out this portion of your registration.  You can still let me know by e-mail or phone.  

This is the last week we will pick ‘Sungold’, ‘Be My Baby’ cherry and ‘Juliet’ saladette tomatoes for the CSA.  You are welcome to come out and pick them yourselves after Friday.  We will soon be losing personnel, and the other crops will be requiring more of our time.  We have garlic to clean.  It’s taken a bit longer than usual to dry this year.  It was very wet (mud hung like glue to the roots) when dug, and we have not had that much hot weather for drying.  This will be the last week for cabbages.  If we don’t come up with enough for you to get all three types (green, Savoy, and red), we may substitute “baby cabbages”, sprouts that come up after we have harvested a cabbage.  I like them raw to take in my lunch as they make nice individual servings.

This week we are experimenting with a potato digger—other than the human kind which we have been using so far.  We have borrowed it from the Homestead, another local CSA.  If it works, the farm crew will look much better rested than if it doesn’t.  Sharing among the local CSAs is a great example of cooperation that we all feel strongly about.  And this week we are very thankful.

Farm News of the Weird (Caution—read according to your own fear factor.)

Sometimes we really wonder what happens at the farm when we’re not there.  One day last week, we were taking the red truck up the hill on a job.  Ben, being the tallest among us, noticed something on the roof of the cab of the truck—a snake!  Well, rather half a snake, the very fat garter snake being quite dead.  How does a half snake get on the top of the truck?  Well, our conjecture was that a large bird, maybe a hawk, was taking home dinner, and his eyes were bigger than his beak.  What does one do with a half snake on their truck?  My idea was to leave it there so that perhaps a turkey buzzard would smell it and remove it for their dinner.  So what did we find the next day on the truck?  A feather and what I thought were bird droppings.  “See”, I said, “the turkey buzzard really did come for dinner!”  But Ben, upon closer inspection, said “no, those aren’t bird droppings, those are baby snake embryos.”  We don’t know why the buzzard didn’t eat them, too. But now we know why the snake was so fat, or should I say half snake.  The farm is such an exciting place to work . . .

Recipes

When Cece Arnold picked up boxes this week at the farm, she started describing a dish she had prepared, so I asked her to send it for the newsletter.

Summer Spur-of-the-Moment Soup

One bunch of Swiss chard, cleaned and chopped (leaves and stalks)

Five cloves of garlic, chopped

1 small red onion, diced

Olive oil

1/3 C basil chopped

1 large can diced tomatoes (or equivalent fresh)

1 can black-eyed peas

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

2 T fresh lemon juice

Saute the chard stalks, garlic, and onion in small amount of olive oil. Add chard leaves, basil, tomatoes, black-eyed peas and heat through. Add lemon juice.

This soup created itself from Turtle Farm produce and other ingredients we had on hand. We loved it!