Hello from the Monday morning crew: Amanda, Ethan, Vic, Randy & Peter, Jesse, Adi, Ciocci Lorraine, and Ella!
Before I launch too far into the newsletter, I wanted to tell you to SAVE THE DATE for this Saturday, August 22nd at 6:00 p.m. We're offering a mini harvest time subscription for those of you who are not enrolled in our fall subscription program. It will run for 3 weeks beginning right after the completion of our summer program (October 20th to November 7th: friends who are in the fall program, it'll be exactly the same program and dates, though yours will run for 8 total weeks into mid-December. No need to sign up for this extension.)
This is the perfect mix of late summer favorites like peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and potatoes, in addition to greens, butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squashes, and root crops. We can only accommodate about 60-70 members in our regular fall subscription, which sold out back in the spring. This is a great alternative if you didn't sign up. Based on interest, we are predicting that this will sell out extremely quickly, as we can only include about 30 members for the extension. After this opportunity, we will unfortunately have no other subscription memberships available for the season. The sign up will be posted on the website this Saturday at 6:00.
If you need to double check in advance if you are signed up for the fall subscription, please email me prior to Saturday.
(Sample share below!)
Now, back to summer! This week, you literally get to enjoy the "fruits" of our labor. Cantaloupe will be in all of the shares, and large share recipients will receive a pint of ground cherries, too. Read the description later in the newsletter to find out what in the world ground cherries are.
Members Jenn and Emily offered to donate some surplus produce that we had to some organizations in need. We also had two other volunteers take some boxes to the organizations of their choice. We are so grateful that they volunteered to do this - past arrangements fell through for this year. If anyone else is interested in this, please email me. We'll most likely have many more opportunities to do so, and we would appreciate the help in getting these veggies off the farm.
Roseland Apizza in Derby is now using our tomatoes and zucchini in their dishes! We're so excited about this partnership because they have some of the highest-rated pizza around, so it feels like an honor that they chose us.
For about 2 weeks now it has felt a lot like we're practicing "dryland farming," which is when farmers don't irrigate their crops and instead depend on natural rainfall and the crop life cycle to cultivate. We try to irrigate as little as possible (our water bill has been much higher than we've ever seen it before, leading us to wonder if we might even have a leak somewhere!), but before this past Sunday, it was starting to scare us how dry it was. We have a lot of catching up to do with rainfall. Unfortunately because of the lack of rain, our crops aren't growing as fast as we would like them to. For example, new growth on eggplant plants and pepper plants has been very slow. This week, you're receiving either Asian or Italian eggplant, just because we couldn't guarantee enough supply to make it uniform across the shares.
Some more photos from the week include onions on our drying racks getting ready for fall, my aunt "Ciocci Lorraine" packing shares and doing quality control, Randy and Ethan harvesting carrots, member Kathy's haul of tomatoes and wax beans from her garden starter seedling kit she purchased from us back in the spring, Anne's gorgeous photo of sauce she made with our plum tomatoes, and our son Peter helping daddy harvest carrots in the field.
Spotlight on "Ground Cherries"
Ground cherries, also known as husk cherries, are a relative of the tomato, and they grow on a plant similar to the tomato plant. The husks start out green, and when they ripen, they turn brown and fall off the plant. Thus the name “ground cherries” – you have to harvest them off the ground! Luckily, they are protected by a husk. Just peel back the husk and enjoy the sweet, tart, tomato-like fruit inside. Some say the mysterious flavor is reminiscent of a combination of a grape, pineapple, and tomato.
A Message from Randy:
The Uncrating:
Contents (In approximate order from shortest shelf life to longest):
Small:
1 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes
1 lb. of tomatoes
1 medium cantaloupe
1 lb. of Asian or Italian eggplant
1/4 lb. of hot peppers
1 lb. of squash
Large:
1 pint of grape or cherry tomatoes
1 lb. of tomatoes
1 large cantaloupe
1 lb. of cucumbers
1 lb. of Asian or Italian eggplant
1/4 lb. of hot peppers
1 lb. of squash
1 pint of ground cherries
Caring For Your Share:
Store the cucumbers, squash, peppers, and eggplant in the fridge as is. Wash when ready to use.
Keep the melon, ground cherries, and tomatoes out of the fridge and pour the ground cherries and little tomatoes out into a bowl. Store all out of direct sunlight, like on a counter. Wash before using. Cantaloupe will continue to ripen, so if it looks green, keep it on the counter until it's an orange-y color. If it's orange, it's ready to cut.
LGF Cooking Club:
Glazed Beef Kabobs with Easy Asian Eggplant:
Cantaloupe Agua Fresca:
Grilled Summer Squash with Dressing (Lemon, Scallion, Honey, Basil, & Jalapeno): https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/a28196314/grilled-summer-squash-with-lemon-scallion-dressing-recipe/
Spiced Summer Squash Salad with Chickpeas: https://naturallyella.com/spiced-summer-squash-salad/
Taco Stuffed Summer Squash Boats: http://smilesandwich.com/2014/07/22/taco-stuffed-summer-squash-boats/
Eggplant Hasselback (This is my sister's photo of hers, pre-baked... the video tutorial on the website is excellent): https://tasty.co/recipe/eggplant-hasselback
Ground Cherry Margarita: https://cocktaildudes.com/recipe/ground-cherry-margarita/
Cherry Tomato and Ground Cherry Salsa: https://www.afarmgirlsdabbles.com/cherry-tomato-and-ground-cherry-salsa-recipe/
Cooking Tip(s) of the Week:
How to Cut a Cantaloupe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONLWjWdwjhE
Biweekly Catch-Up Time:
What a crazy week it's been! We hope you're all safe and sound after that storm. We had a few trees down on fences - but nothing that caused any damage, just a nuisance. We also lost power for a few days, which made us nervous about running generators through the night so we wouldn't lose product. We are counting our blessings and hope you're doing okay.
The cooler up and running after a few days without power. Phew!
This week we give a fond farewell to Randy's cousin Ryan, whose final days of delivering will be this Tuesday and Wednesday. I'll take over for him for a little while after that. So many of you gave him well wishes, which he really appreciated. Ryan was really good at delivering and somehow never forgot anything, which is more than I can say for myself. We wish him the best at UConn. Maybe he'll be back next summer...
And while we're spotlighting special people, meet Terry, who is a subscription member. We got to know Terry through the Shelton Farmer's Market and she joined our program this year. We love so much when you all come to pick up. Over the weekend I told Randy how much I enjoy being in the store, seeing you all, chatting, and making connections. I know that Dawn and Amanda feel the same way.
Corn has arrived! Randy is feeling very discouraged about his corn crop. Critters have been knocking it down and eating it. The tips haven't been fully pollinated... the list goes on and on. Randy tried to simplify this year and just grow a bicolor variety. He reports that he feels worried about not having enough to put into shares. Hopefully over the next week or two we'll get a better sense of what's going on.
P.S. We see a lot of advertising for non-GMO sweet corn. Sweet corn is RARELY GMO - there's just not great reason to grow genetically modified corn to eat. To be clear, GMO sweet corn does exist, but is not typically the norm. "Field corn" is typically the kind that is GMO, which is grown for animal feed, used to make corn meal and corn chips, and used to make ethanol (fuel) and polymers (like plastic).
While we always encourage you to ask your farmer for clarification about what they're growing, it's worth knowing that sweet corn is not usually GMO, as ours is not.
Are you a fan of autumn?! Personally, I'm all about summer, but I do get excited about harvest time. These are baby mums that we hope are ready in time for your fall planting at home. Katelyn of Rustle Floral Co. took these mum cuttings off of our plants from last year. How cool is that? We are hoping to sell these online by pre-order, which I will keep you updated on as they grow.
Did you know that red, orange, and yellow peppers start out green and turn to those colors? It's actually part of the decomposition process believe it or not. This is why colored peppers cost more - it takes longer to grow them, and many, many are lost along the way with rot spots as farmers wait for them to change color in the field. The green peppers you're receiving were all harvested off of one row in the field. The other 2 rows of bell peppers are left to change colors, and then we have hot peppers in the field as well. I'll do a video about colored peppers as they progress later in the season so you can see better how it goes.
Plum tomatoes are starting to arrive! We have a waiting list for 25 lb. crates that are perfect for canning. Crates are $25 for 25 lbs. As the season progresses, I'm hoping to put them onto the online store, but I'm working my way through the waiting list first so that they don't get snatched up online. If you want to be added to the list, please send us an email at laurelglenfarm@gmail.com so that we can count you in.
How pretty are these "currant tomatoes?" They're like cherry tomatoes, but smaller and somehow even prettier on the vine.