This blog comes from my assistant Miriam.
August 2011
One of the things I may miss if I follow my dream to become an urban farmer is all the wildlife around here. Just this afternoon, I looked up from laying out irrigation lines to see a great blue heron, coming in for a landing just beyond the pasture fence. Last week, a hawk swooped in just above our heads on its way to the barn roof (to scope out the chickens, most likely). If I manage to stay up into dusk, I love to see the bats flitting around, doing their part to combat our insect pests. These moments from nature are a good reminder for me to not get too over-focused in what I'm doing. There is a whole world out there beyond the row I'm weeding. Sometimes, the world is even in the row, as when I kept scaring up the same toad while weeding leeks.
I also like to see our insect helpers. There are so many pests out there, eager to take advantage of our hard work. We make it easy for them, providing large areas of tender plants. We do our best to keep the plants strong and healthy so they can protect themselves, but it's also nice to see ladybugs and praying mantises patrolling the fields. There are also wasps and spiders and other creatures that see our pests the same way those pests see our rows of vegetables, as a large amount of tasty morsels. One of the reasons we don't spray insecticides here is because the insecticide can't tell the difference between good and bad bugs. I'd rather let nature help us out as best she can, with ladybugs and wasps and bats. That leaves me to concentrate on caring for the plants.
I got creative for our farm lunch this week. With so many watermelons coming out of the field, I wanted to do something with them, but I was assigned to make a side dish. What to do? Well, make something savory out of the watermelon by adding a salty flavor. I thought white miso would work and it's an unusual flavor for those of you who want to try something new. I chose to use a watermelon that wasn't quite ripe, so there wasn't too much sweetness, but I think it will work even with riper melons (you just may want to add more miso or lime juice for balance). Here's the recipe:
Savory Watermelon Salad
1 watermelon, cubed
½ cup mint, chopped
2 ounces white miso
¼ cup limejuice
Mix the mint and watermelon. Stir the miso into the limejuice to make a smooth liquid. Dribble this liquid into the watermelon while mixing to get an even coating on the watermelon. Serve chilled.
I would just like to send out a big THANK YOU! to all of you who came out and volunteered this week. What a big difference. We have been blessed to temporarily fill the spot of our missing intern. I am taking it day by day and being extremely grateful.
This week's harvest.
Full share: ( you may receive any of these items)
- Red Gold potatoes 2 lb
- Lettuce- 3 - 4 heads or salad mix 1/2 lb bag
- Beets 1.5 lb
- Carrots 1.5 lb
- Melons - you will either receive cantaloupe or watermelon.
- Tomatoes - 2- 3 lb - you may order multiples of tomatoes. And some shares may receive 2 orders.
- Green or Purple sweet peppers 1lb or Eggplant (small purple, green, large purple or orange) 1lb
- Summer Squash 5 fruits
- 3/4 lb of chard, kale or baby pac choi
- Cabbages- 1 head of savoy
- Winter Squash- Giant pumpkins or buttercup squash. Super tasty and nutritious. 1 fruit.
- Any 4 of the above full share items.
- Fresh cut flower bouquets
- Beans - there are very few. 1 lb
- Tomatillos 1 lb
- Cucumbers 6 fruits.
- Husk cherries - 1 pint.
- Mint 1/8 lb
- Anise Hyssop 1/8 lb
- Hot peppers - 6 peppers
- Basil 1/4 lb
Thank you and have a great week,
Erica
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