Jen and Derek's Farm Fresh Veggies: 11th CSA Week

Another CSA harvest day has arrived and with it much cooler temperatures than last week. The extreme heat last week was a bit much for this cool weather gal and I'm much happier with the current forecast even though its going to be a bit damp for the rest of the week. The CSA large shares are full again this week with farm fresh veggies including: lettuce mix, carrots, beets, cilantro, purple or green cabbage, a pint of cherry tomatoes, a quart of mixed medium tomatoes, onions, garlic, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow beans and a purple pepper.

Purple Pepper for Tuesday's large shares

Lots of cherry tomatoes this week

The grab box had a few fennel, parsley, basil and more of the mentioned above veggies. You may have noticed the carrot bunches are a bit on the small side and indeed they are. We have started to ration the carrots to ensure we will have some for the remainder of the 7 weeks left in the CSA program. I planted lots of carrots but between flaming for weed control, possible bad seed, and who knows why else the carrot crop this year is much smaller than last. I have more carrots planted but they are still very small so until they get bigger the weeks carrot supply might be on the small side.

We have a new planting of beans just coming on now which is good because the last planting that I was picking got away from me and the beans got too big and its just not worth picking that patch any more due to the amount of big ones that are no-longer at the ideal eating stage. I'm hoping that by next week more beans will be ready, today's shares got beans, 1lb for the large shares and 1/2lb for the small but Thursday's boxes might be bean less unless the next planting ripens a lot in the next two days.

There is no formal recipe this week but I just wanted to share something that we have been doing for most of the summer. Twice/week we steam up a big batch of veggies, whatever we had kicking around in the fridge including carrots, beans, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, potatoes, etc. I would then fry up a big onion in the frying pan and add my steamed veggies. I would then beat up 8-12 eggs and pour that over top and cook on medium-low heat for about 10-15 minutes. When it looks like it has started to set I would then place it under the broiler until it finished cooking. I almost forgot the cheese, grate up a bunch of cheese and spread over the top before going under the broiler!! Our boys love this and its a great way to get the veggies into them. It should slice very easily into wedges.
We also started grating up large zucchini's and putting into spaghetti sauce or casseroles. The boys will never know : ) **A great tip from Carolyn, thanks**

What's new on the farm these days?
-Well, we are still waiting on the trusses for the new barn as well as the steel. We have yet to actually order the steel as we can't agree on a color, I want red walls with a grey roof, Derek is afraid the red will fade to pink but I think it will be fine.
-The broccoli and cauliflower are all finished now which makes me sad, it was a great growing season for both vegetables. I did have more seedlings started that should have been transplanted in the field in late June but unfortunately it just did not happen with all of the other work that was going on. I'm sure kicking myself now for not getting it done!!!
-The late greens plantings are all growing well but slowly!! The peas have germinated quite nicely and I'm expecting to harvest pea shoots in the next 2-3 weeks for the CSA baskets. The fall spinach has been a bit disappointing so far, germination has been poor for both plantings and it looks like I'll have to do yet another one to try for success.
-The yellow storage onions have all been pulled and are stacked in crates in the shed for a few weeks to dry. The red onions and the shallots will be pulled as soon as the rain stops and the ground has had a chance to dry up a bit

I was able to participate in Nigwek this past Sunday on Victoria Row in Charlottetown. It was an organic festival featuring lots of local Island musicians and some Island organic producers. The music was great and I saw so many people that I had not seen in ages. The wind was a bit crazy during the event but all in all it was a great day.