Peaches, pluots, and plums, oh my! Your baskets will be a little heavier on fruit this week. Some of our plums and our two little pluot trees are ready this week and also many of our peach trees! We aren't sure on our peach varieties but I'll taste test to find the sweetest tree for your peaches this week:) They are all free stone but if you order a half-bushel to can or freeze and want the easiest ones to separate from the pit - let me know. This week through next weekend will be the best time to get a larger quantity of peaches. Think peach pie this winter or homeade peach brandy for a unique Christmas gift... Our half-bushel price is probably a little more expensive than a large conventional farm as we have spent a lot more this year on organic products for our fruit trees, especially since we don't buy these in bulk for our little orchard. $18/half, $32/bushel and $12/half for seconds. I may be able to deliver with your basket this week.
Our tomatoes aren't ripening as fast as I hoped but hopefully everyone will get a couple... We have another week or so before we will have a bunch more salad greens ready. Lettuces like cooler weather so the last couple weeks pushed our greens to seed a little faster also caused tip burn on some greens which make it taste a little rough.
Whats in the Box?PEACHES!!! Likely 2 Quarts
Mix of plums and a few pluots (eat when they are a touch soft for sweetest flavor)
Blueberries - Brigittas still this week!
Pickles/cucumberBeansGreen PepperHot Peppers or banana peppers - (If you get jalapenos with your peppers they are all hot but if you just receive yellow/greenish peppers then they are
sweet banana peppers)
OnionsFingerling PotatoesCilantro and or Basil - Try the cilantro butter/oil recipe! Store cilantro vase-style in a jar with a couple inches of water with a loose plastic bag over the top. Will last a good 5 days!
Sweet Corn - I will sort so husks will look a little disheveled
Swiss Chard or Young Kale - See recipe ideas & both freeze excellent for later use in soup. Use swiss chard like you would cooking spinach; It is much higher in nutrients!
Beets with Greens- The pretty pink ones are the Choigga heirloom variety with pink and white rings when you slice. Super tasty!!! Steam, let cool a little, and the skins will peel right off.
Carrots - Dragon carrots this week which are purple on the outside! Seem to taste best cooked.
Tomatoes? Hopefully! Not many turning color when I checked all our rows on Friday night and it's much cooler out. Tomatoes like it HOT!
Zucchini and Yellow Squash?Another veggie I am probably forgetting...Coming Soon-Eggplant
Tomatoes
Strawberries??? Starting to see big berries form from our field planted everbearing berries.
Acorn Squash - Just saw a few getting close already
A note on kale: I hear this veggie takes a little more effort if you are new to cooking greens, though I enjoyed it right away. I suggest trying it in a soup or stew recipe for the first time. Cut out any tough stems and chop in food processor if possible. Cook a little longer to soften it up a bit. The bread soup recipe from Rachel Ray is excellent (posted on website).
Thanks goes out to the Mitchell and Salik family for helping us out a little last minute! They weeded the monster section of our everbearing strawberries that were getting out of hand. Sure was a perfect day for it!
A few summer favorites are on the horizon and will likely be found in your baskets this week if enough is ready to go! Our first two rows of sweet corn snuck up on us. Last night we tried a few ears of along with a chicken, bok choy, and carrot stir fry. The kernels were a little small. Our first variety is peaches and cream and it's always the best early on in that we don't have to worry as much about corn bores :)
We will probably load you up with cucumber and summer squash now and then when we have a lot as we as our plants are being taken down quickly by cucumber beetles. Though Russ keeps planting more. The little menaces spread disease and eat leaves causing bacterial wilt that quickly kills the plant. There aren't any organic cures we have found to be real effective and pests seem to be extra plentiful this season... FYI: A conventional farm would first treat the soil to kill grubs before planting and would spray a contact killer through the field on mature plants to take down the beetle and any other living thing... If ever curious about a pesticide, even an ingredient in bug spray or a lawn care product, you can easily research it at pesticideinfo.org. You can do a product search and learn about it's toxicity, etc. On a conventional farm the soil treatment used in the field would likely be Lorsban and one common conventional pesticide used to kill the beetle in Michigan is Sevin 80S.
