Saturday night we had seventeen people at our extended dinner table, family and friends from California, Virginia, and Florida. Today it’s just the two of us. Grandma and Grandpa took all the kids back to California for some summer fun, the other friends traveled on to the next stops and I went for a walk of field two to see what was ready for the CSA this week. As I walked east along the fence line I saw a Northern Flicker, a Goldfinch, two sparrows, several robins and swallows, and some crows up high. I saw a brown bunny dash away at the sound of my steps and I saw deer tracks in the squash field but no actual deer. Lucky for you, or sad for you, depending on how you look at it, there are not enough zucchini type things to go in the shares just yet. I counted sixty-three squashes of reasonable size, including what I like to call “family size”, but since there are about 152 of you all, it won’t be this week that you find them in your boxes.
A very odd thing happened out there in the squash field. All of the Costata Romanesco Zucchini that I planted are bearing squashes that look a lot like pumpkins, but otherwise taste like the true romanescos. We sold a few as “Romanesco Round” at the farmers market this weekend and that went well. But it sure is strange. I plan to contact my seed source and see what they have to say about it. Then I’ll tell you what they said. Very odd, very strange, looks like a big problem, but tastes great.
On my walk back west across the field I saw how very sturdy our chili pepper plants and eggplants are looking. Both are semi tropical plants that only grudgingly grow in the northwest usually, but this year, they have nice fat stems like little tree trunks. The trunks look like the kind that can hold a heavy load of peppers, a good omen. Some of the Spring Treat Corn is tasseling already, and the tomato vines at the home field are loaded with green orbs of promise. Summer veggies are just around the corner, friends, any minute now. Any minute.

Shelling Peas are the sweet round ones inside the pods, which are not really edible. Getting the peas out of the pod is at least half the fun, and we usually eat them all out of hand, but it you are so inclined, you can prepare them by blanching or steaming for 2-4 minutes. Then add them to fresh vegetable salads, rice dishes, pasta salads, or fried rice.

New potatoes is a way of saying very young very fresh potatoes, so young that they have not yet matured to the stage where the skins are fully developed. The skins rub off easily, and are delicious to eat, so eat them if they linger, or wash them away if you prefer. I have seen many small round red potatoes in grocery stores labeled “new potato”, but I sort of doubt it, as the true mark of the new is these fragile skins that don’t hold up well “on the rack”. Any type of potato can be “New”, last week’s yukons were new, this week’s red golds are new. It will likely be a few more weeks before any of the potatoes reach skin setting maturity. The potato has a different texture at this stage as well, very creamy and light. These potatoes steamed and tossed with butter and parsley, perhaps peas, will be a special treat.

The garlic in the shares this week is Silverskin softneck. We plan to have the summer crew from Garden Raised Bounty out to help with our main crop garlic harvest next week. You are welcome to join us on Thursday, July 23, at 10 AM here at the home field to start with a little tour, then on to field three for the pulling of the bulbs. We’ll stop for lunch in the shade and then finish up by 2 PM. Bring a lunch, water bottle, sun hat, and anything else you need to have a nice day outside