This Week's Vegetable Harvest: Lettuce Kohlrabi Cucumber Arugula Zucchini Sweet Corn* - from Didier Farms, Prairie View, IL "Walla Walla" Sweet Onion Cilantro Broccoli Heirloom and Slicer Tomatoes *The sweet corn is not certified organic but it is local and delicious! This Week's Fruit Harvest: Blueberries "Rising Star" Peaches Donut "Saturn" Peaches

Farm Journal

Good afternoon from the farm!

As you can see from the picture above, last week's dry, sunny weather made for one of our most comfortable and efficient onion harvests on record! The team celebrated with an onion-filled cheer and smiles under their masks.

Yesterday's harvest, however, was warm and we're good at being warm by now! After Monday's harvest was complete, we transitioned to preparing the farm for the large storm system. The team scurried to close up hoophouses and greenhouses, shuffled all loose equipment and materials into buildings, and made sure our animals were well-fed and watered. With the farm closed up tightly and crew safely in their homes, we all hunkered through the severe thunderstorm, tornado, and high wind warnings and sirens.

Despite the wind, the farm structures stayed safely in place! This morning, we reopened everything, and our animals, our team and the crops enjoyed the sunshine and cooler temperatures.

Even the monarch caterpillars were happily munching away on milkweed scattered throughout the fields.

Since the fields were wet, it was time to focus on winter. Abbey and Kim seeded fall and winter spinach in the greenhouse throughout the morning.

Chrissie and Arlet transitioned several hoophouses from summer crops to preparing soils for their next crop. Soon, we'll be planting for the winter growing season to come!

In the meantime, there's still plenty of summer goodies to come, so we hope you'll enjoy this week's bounty! Cheers, Jeff, Jen and the farm crew

Notes from the Farm Kitchen

This week's fruit shares include a variety of donut peaches called Saturn Peaches.  While these peaches are donut-shaped, however, they are much healthier than a donut! The Saturn variety is rosy in color and slightly sweeter than a traditional peach. Our kids love them for their lunches as they are easy to hold and snack on. You can use them wherever you like to use peaches: salsas, pies, jams, cobbler and beyond.

Despite challenges with growing broccoli in last year's wet summer, we had an excellent harvest this week! We learned a lot from our research and experiences last year, and Jeff has transformed how we grow and harvest broccoli, as well as adding new varieties into our planting mix with success. There's so much you can do with broccoli, but I always tend to keep it simple. I peel the stem, chop into larger pieces (stem on) and grill with a brush of olive oil, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Yum!

Seasonal Recipes from the Farm Kitchen Fresh Peach Salsa Zucchini Lasagna Broccoli Salad Kohlrabi Fritters with Garlic and Herb Cashew Cream - try with cilantro!

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