This week my niece, Emily turned five. For her birthday celebration, there was a barbeque picnic in the mountains. All of the family members invited brought something to the picnic and my sister, Emily’s mom, had three tomatoes from her garden and wanted to know if I had one more. Wellllll…..just barely. We harvested twenty pints of Sungold Cherry tomatoes over a few days this week, and my mom went out and picked the first red ripe tomato from the whole Kirsop Farm.

In my experience, the tomato harvest goes on in an exponential fashion. This week, twenty pints and three red ones, next week 40 pints and 6 red tomatoes, and so on, so that it will likely be two more weeks before I have enough to share around to the 150 CSA shares. Cucumbers are beginning to ripen, and the bell pepper plants are loaded with green bells, glossy and heavy.

We planted two kinds of celery, and celeriac for you all as well, and they are coming along nicely. You have many more delicious treats to look forward to in your CSA shares.

If you pick up your share at the farm, you may have noticed how special and fancy it’s been getting around here. Let me assure you, it is through no doing of my own that the place looks so nice. Our friend Paul Siemer has been making compost and garden art here for years, sometimes as an exchange for CSA, sometimes as a pleasure of pleasant work. Paul does this sort of thing for pay and he can do it for you if you so desire. He has 25 years of experience making loveliness happen to the land around you and he loves to do it. All this experience and enjoyment is revealed in the results. If you are thinking of hiring someone to help with your yard or garden in any way, I highly recommend Paul. If you want to talk to me about Paul, feel free to call the farm, or if you want to cut to the chase and call him directly, here is his number: 480-3139.

Fennel’s history is as rich as its flavor. For centuries fennel has been utilized as a food, medicine, herb and even insect repellant. In ancient Greece, fennel played a significant role in celebrations of the Gods and Goddesses. It was planted in the temple gardens in their honor and worshippers wore crowns of the feathery leaves. In greek mythology knowledge sometimes came to humans from Mt. Olympus in the form of a fiery coal contained in a fennel stalk. Use the feathery leaves as a fresh herb for seasning. Try using in place of dill. Excellent on baked or broiled fish with butter and lemon. You can substitute fennel for celery in most recipes. The licorice like flavor fades with cooking. Italians use fennel as part of an antipasto platter or for dessert along with a soft goat cheese.

Basil comes to you this week in the cutest little containers ever. We are well aware of the weirdness of being organic farmers who use a bunch of nasty plastic bags for our produce. We just haven’t come up with better ideas yet, but we do keep thinking about it. We hope that the adorableness of these little take out tubs will increase their chances of being reused a lot.

I know you need more ideas for using up the summer squash. Check the website for recipes posted there. Check a website called epicurious, or your own favorite recipe source. I am planning to experiment with making zucchini chips. I want to slice them thin, toss with oil and salt, maybe even pesto and then dehydrate them into a crispy snack. It sounds great to me, but the first three cookbooks I tried make no mention of such a thing. It could be a totally original idea, or maybe a bad idea that has been tried before and rejected. I’ll let you know how it goes in next week’s news.

Double Chocolate (or carob) zucchini cake-Scotch Hill Farm
Heat oven to 350. grease a 9x13 inch pan. Mix all ingredients and bake 30-35 minutes. 3/4 cup oil, 1 1/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 cups grated zucchini, 1/2 cup sour milk, or buttermilk, 3 Tbsp. Cocoa or carob powder, 1/2 tsp. Baking powder, 1 tsp. Baking soda, 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. Cloves, 2 1/2 cups flour, small bag of carob or chocolate chips.