CSA Week Four

News from the field:
Dry. In our five years of veggie farming here, it has never been this dry. The weird part is that it is raining all around us, but our little farm keeps getting passed over by the cloudbursty-like weather we have been having. The results are not disastrous, but they are frustrating. We have spent more time than we would like moving irrigation pipe, and without a real soaking, the plants just aren’t maturing as fast as they normally would. But since this is Vermont, it seems unlikely that it will stay dry forever, and later this week we are supposed to get some relief, so keep your fingers crossed.

Old Shaw Farm is hiring (sort of):
Due to some completely unforseen circumstances, one full time person we hired has not been able to join us for the past few weeks. The result is that we have stayed on top of the harvesting and planting, but the weeds are starting to overtake us. In the past, we have had CSAer’s offer to volunteer to help out on the farm for free, but for the next 3-4 weeks we would like to hire a weeding crew, which would be 4-5 people to come in one morning or afternoon a week for 4-5 hours to hand weed a different part of our field. We would pay $8 per hour. Anyone who is interested should email peter at oldshawfarm.com. To get the job, you would need to be in decent physical shape, have nimble weed seeking fingers, be unafraid of dirt, and be willing to talk while you work because silence seems to make the hand weeding hours creep by.

In the Basket:

Fresh garlic – This garlic is pulled straight from the ground and hasn’t been dried yet, so it needs to be refrigerated instead of living in the cupboard. But if you peel back the layers on the bulb, you will find some of the freshest, best tasting garlic you have ever had. The variety we grow is a “hardneck” -- the tough stem in the middle of the bulb is not for eating.

Shell Peas - Last week we gave you the snap peas that you can eat whole. This week, it is the shell peas where you need to remove the pod and eat the sweet tender peas inside. You can use the shells to make delicious stock. You want to cook the peas super gently, if at all. Risotto recipe on the back.

Pesto Basil – These bunches are for making pesto. These plants have been picked over once or twice, and the basil on them may not be pretty in spots, but it sure is tasty. Pesto recipe on the back.

Salad fixins – Leafy lettuce, napa cabbage, cucumbers, and salad turnips. Salad turnips do not do well in the summer heat, so these are the last salad turnips until it starts to cool down again after Labor Day.

Tomatoes! These are the first tomatoes of the year! A warning: the quality is borderline, but we are so excited to have them, that we decided to distribute all the ones we could find. They are still better than the supermarket, and the quality will only improve from here.

Zucchini - More baby and small zucchini for grilling, steaming, sauteing.