Newsletter #8 - July 31, 2021

 

Potato digging time! Cale on the digging fork while Edwin and Morgan retrieve these red beauties.

As we move through mid-summer and beyond, it seems like there is always something new to harvest. Some harvests continue throughout the season and some crops need to be harvested all at once. When it's time to harvest potatoes, you best be at it, as they will deteriorate if they stay in the fields. And in our case, we will have to share more and more of the tasty spuds with whatever little critters are taking nibbles. Potatoes are a humble and familiar vegetable, but there is definitely a process to get them from the ground to your table!

Potatoes grow underground, with several spuds spreading out from the mother plant, just beneath the soil's surface. We loosen the soil with digging forks, and then it's basically a treasure hunt. We can't see the potatoes, so it's a matter of combing through the soil by hand until we can feel the lumps that signal a find. After we think we have located every spud from that plant, we move on down the row, digging, searching and sifting until our tubs are full. But that's not all!

As you see, potatoes come from the ground and are covered with dirt. The next step is to wash each spud. You can see Kenny King at our newly improvised washing station.

Kali oversees as Billy and Donya wash.

To farm on a small-scale is to improvise. This year, in a grand improvement, Billy hooked up this multiple spigot sprayer, with the ladder providing overhead hose support. Bungees always come in handy.

Closeup of the nifty setup

After the potatoes are washed, that's still not all! In order to store without refrigeration, the potatoes must be dried.

Potatoes on our improvised drying racks: ladders with legs added and screen stretched across. Also, if you look closely at this photo, you will see something that is more couch potato than spud!

When the potatoes are thoroughly dry, they are boxed up and stored, ready for market and your shares. Thanks to all the diggers, washers and dryers - and supervisor Kali - who helped to bring in this harvest!

So do you think you have POTATOES IN YOUR SHARE this week? Yes, you do! Red or white and freshly dug! This week we roasted, boiled and fried potatoes to see which we liked better: all good!

Also, our faithful friend, CURLY KALE.

Another faithful friend for a while: ZUCCHINI AND/OR SUMMER SQUASH.

And CUCUMBERS - in great numbers! Cukes do store well if you still have some in your fridge from last week. Just keep them in a plastic bag or veggie keeper bag. Or you can make this recipe for Tzakziki, recommended by crew members, Ashleh and Cale. A refreshing cucumber-based sauce for dipping and spreading on just about anything.

OR you can do what we did a lot this week: make hummus (here's an easy hummus recipe), slice cucumber spears and carrot sticks, dip and munch away!

Because you do have CARROTS in your share!

Carrots arriving under all those greens

Along with GREEN OR YELLOW BEANS.

PAC CHOI returns for an easy stir-fry, quick-cooking green. 

And finally, GARLIC - it is still drying but may be cured enough to store out of the fridge. Refrigerate if you aren't sure. Or cook it up!

And finally, The Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Journal ran a nice feature on the King Family and Frog Holler Farm. It has been in print since April but they also just added a digital option. If you check it out, be sure to click on the musical collaboration with Frog Holler farmer, Billy King, and featured musician, Emily Slomovits on p. 3. Their cover of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now will warm your heart!

Here's the link: https://crazywisdomjournal.squarespace.com/weekly-62

A peck of Kali

Have a great week everyone!