August 16th, 2014 - Share # 8

 

WHAT'S IN THE BOX:

• Potatoes                         
• Asian Greens - New!
• Summer Squash / Zucchini    
• Curly Kale
• Onion
• Sweet Basil
• Garlic                            
• Tomatoes
• Green Beans                  
• Corn
• Celery

One of the many beneficial frogs at Frog Holler

STORAGE SUGGESTIONS:

 

Potatoes, onion, garlic and tomatoes can be stored out of the fridge, unless you're going for long term storage. Everything else rinse, drain, and store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.

 

SERVING SUGGESTIONS:

 

Asian Greens go well in any veggie stir-fry. We interns often make stir-fry with just about any veggies we can get our hands on (aka "seconds"). Seconds are veggies not good enough to sell or for CSA members but not bad enough to considered chicken feed or compost. Yesterday's main course for lunch was a thick and hardy vegetable soup cooked by Paul Burger consisting of garlic, onions, potatoes, curly kale, carrots, daikon and celery. Roasting veggies is also popular here. For the sides of the same lunch, we had roasted potatoes, onions, egg plant, zucchini, zephyr, patty pan, and carrots seasoned simply with olive oil, salt, and ground black pepper. After this lunch, Cathy exclaimed, "I feel like I've just eaten a garden. Thank you guys! :)." I (Nhin Luu) was the other guy she's talking about.

 

BENEFICIAL CREATURES:

 

When people speak of beneficial creatures, the bee is king. They say that, "when the bees die off, we will surely follow." But I doubt that is entirely true. Yes, I understand that bees are responsible for the pollination of many plants, but there are other pollinators out there that most people don't know about. One for instance, are ants. Yes, ants are also attracted to the sweet nectar of flowers, especially the low lying ones found on zucchini and squash plants. Mosquitoes are also pollinators. These pesky insects known for spreading blood born illnesses are actually beneficial for plants. Normally mosquitoes feed on flower nectar and sweet juices, but the females require the iron content in blood to produce eggs. Males can be distinguished from females by their furry antennas.



Imprint of a mosquito (clearly a female)

And now we begin the photo gallery section of beneficial creatures.



 Frogs are known for eating flies but they also eat many other insects.



A green tree frog found while harvesting beans



The grasshopper: even though they are known for
crop devastation, they are beneficial because they
eat weeds like sagebrush and snakeweed.

Dragon flies are considered the hawks of the insect world
because of their great speed and eye sight.




The praying mantis is widely known as a glutton
as they have been observed gorging themselves
until their bellies burst.

Even though birds are bad for berries and fruit, they are
great for insect control especially cut worms.

 

 

I could go on about other creatures and how they benefit horticultural society but I am running out of time and this post is getting long. So I leave you with this.

 

Cats are great for rodent control if they are of the brave outdoor type.
This is Gus striking a thriller pose while sleeping.

 

This concludes picture time for this evening. All the photos were taken by me. I hope you enjoyed it. I will be writing next week's newsletter so stay tuned. Sorry for posting so late and thank you for bringing back your boxes.

- Nhin Luu