Welcome to Week 12!

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day.  Labor Day, the end of meteorological summer.  Say what?  Seems like summer is not quite ready to end around here.  Good weather for the remainder of our summer crops, not so good for our lettuces and cooking greens.  But, as Farmer Don always say, "Mother Nature bats last", so a continuation of summer we will endure.

Speaking of summer crops our tomatillos are still going strong.  We are growing a purple heirloom and a traditional green variety.   The purples are exceptionally sweet!  If you have not tried tomatillos yet, I would encourage you to do so.   They are the main ingredient in salsa verde, are good added to chili, pair well with pork and, believe it or not, are a good addition to scrambled eggs.   I will post a really good bread salad recipe below.  This salad is a favorite summertime lunch here on farm. 

 On farm we are busy getting our fields turned over for fall.  This includes planting fall crops, but also seeding cover crops to improve our soil's fertility.  We are again planning on using low tunnels for extended season production of greens this fall and early spring.  A low tunnel is a mini-greenhouse made of plastic sheeting we place over our rows of plants.  The plastic protects the plants and last year these tunnels allowed us to extend our harvest into December.  We have plans again this year to continue to offer produce for as long as possible into the winter months.  Watch future newsletters for more details on how you can order items once the CSA ends.

We still have some summer crops to mature, so the recent heat should help.  Peppers and eggplant are fruiting nicely.  This week we will offer some fairytale eggplant.  These small eggplant are purple and white and are great for grilling.   We will also be offering some lunchbox peppers from our friend Teri over at Mad Dog Farms.  Teri grows organically and is known for her garlic and peppers.  Other summer crops waiting to mature here on our farm include another planting of summer squash and more green beans and our own sweet peppers.

As our production turns from summer crops into fall, look for more greens to become available.  We have large plantings of kale and swiss chard waiting to mature, as well as more Asian greens and cabbage.  Collards will make an appearance soon and we are waiting patiently to see if the broccoli romanesco will form heads this year.  Lettuce and salad greens should remain available for the duration of the CSA. 

Our winter squash will soon be harvested and put in one of our greenhouses to cure.  Farmer Don had a very unhappy discovery in our winter squash bed last week.  It seems one of our resident groundhogs decided to make a new home in the middle of the blue hubbard bed.  He, and most likely his family, ate most of the hubbard fruit and a few of the butter nuts.  Farmer Don promptly filled his new house in with rocks!  Groundhogs, a never ending battle here.  Sometimes we fill a bit like Bill Murray in Caddyshack!

Time to bring this to an end.  Sorry for the delay this week.  I have a few animals staring me down for breakfast, so I need to start morning chores. 

Don't forget to visit us at market.  Today Farmer Don will be on the Bloomsburg University campus at a Farmers Market  and Saturday he and Farmer Neil will be back at the Back Mountain Memorial Library.  Stop by and say hello!

Be safe, be well and enjoy those veggies!!!

Tomatillo Bread Salad (Sara Jones, Tucson CSA)

3 slices stale bread, cubed
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon ground oregano
1 basket tomatillos, husk removed, cleaned and grilled or roasted
1 medium onions, thinly sliced
1 cup beans, preferably black beans, rinsed
1 tablespoon olive oil
Juice from one lime
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro, optional

Toss bread cubes with herbs and spices and oil. Toast in a 400 degree oven for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally to brown evenly. Roughly chop roasted tomatillos, reserving any juice that they release. Toss together tomatillos, onions, croutons and beans. Drizzle with tomatillo juice and lime juice, season with salt and pepper and serve at room temperature, garnished with cilantro.