Turtle Times

_____________________________________________________________________

Vol. 14, No. 10, July 21, ‘09     7260 NW 58th St., Johnston 50131  278-4522 (577-9208)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rain: 7/15, 0.2”

In the Box . . .

Potatoes  ‘Caribe’

Summer squash ‘Raven’, ‘Costata romanesco’, ‘Sunburst’, ‘Dark star’

Onion  ‘Mars’

Cucumbers ‘Marketmore’, ‘Tokiwa’

Tomatoes ‘Sungold’ (some sites)

Peppers ‘Romanian’, ‘Islander’, ‘Sweet Banana’, jalapeno

Basil

Ala carte options: lemon basil, Thai basil, oregano, mint, chocolate mint, rosemary, lavender, parsley, tarragon, thyme ($1 ea.)

Free to anyone requesting it: Swiss chard, marjoram, sage, basil bouquet

Email (info@turtle-farm.com) if you want any of these free or ala carte items

Farm Update (from Ben)

Last week, I found myself looking at the calendar quite often just to verify that, yes indeed, it was the middle of July and there are 50ish degree nights.  Although the cold weather slows down the ripening of many of the hot weather crops, it did not slow down the farm crew in doing a lot of labor intensive jobs.  Starting around this time of the season, harvesting takes up so much of our time that the weeds can really start to flourish but this cool weather really helped to keep us energized.  We also planted carrots, beets, pole beans and green beans this week.  Speaking of carrots, one of the main reasons Turtle Farm has never had much success with growing them is because of the weeds (not to mention growing 30 plus other crops) that emerge before the slow germinating carrots.  This season, I am trying a technique of placing a mini-greenhouse (really a plastic domed lid from a 8x11 baking pan) over part of a row to encourage the carrot seedlings under it to emerge a few days earlier.  Once these seeds have emerged, I am going to flame weed the bed to “burn” off almost all (grasses aren’t affected) weeds before they get settled and before the rest of the carrots have come up.

            Besides the weather, we have had another odd occurrence at the farm.  Last year, was a very bad year for Colorado potato beetle on the potatoes.  As everyone read in last week’s newsletter, there have been very few of them on the potatoes.  “Where did they go?”, you might wonder.  Well, we are finding them on the eggplant.  This may seem odd, but it is not that uncommon because they are in the same family (Solanaceae).  Tomatoes and peppers are also in this family so we will be scouting all these crops as well.  Last Saturday, I sprayed the eggplant with a product called Monterey Garden Spray that is certified for organic production.  I thought I would mention what I was spraying because a person that came out to the farm stand had a lot of questions when he saw me spraying “something” on a certified organic farm.

Basil Bouquets

We think we have enough basil now to fill requests for basil bouquets for when you might want to make pesto.  This of course means we can’t have everyone asking for them the same week, but we will fill your requests as best we can when you see it listed in the newsletter.

Calendar Item

Mark your calendar for the farm potluck Sunday August 16 at 4 pm to welcome our Swedish cousins.

Recipes

With our cucumber bounty, check out recipes on my website for Tzatziki, Cucumber and Avocado Soup, or Thai Cucumber with Peanuts.  Or you might try this recipe sent in by Jude Dickson from the Tassajara Recipe Book.

Pungent Cucumbers

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut in half rounds

½ red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 T. dark sesame oil

1 T. fresh ginger, grated

1 serrano chili, minced

2 T. red wine vinegar

1 T. sugar

2 tsp. soy sauce

¾ tsp. Szechwan peppercorns or black pepper

Mint or cilantro leaves (optional)

Combine cucumber and red bell pepper.  Cover briefly with boiling water—for perhaps half a minute—and drain.  Heat oil with ginger and chili, then remove from the heat, and combine with the vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, and pepper.  Toss with the cucumbers and red peppers.  Serve immediately or let marinate for up to six hours.  Serve at room temperature, garnished with the mint or cilantro leaves, if using them. Serves 4-6.