He was Pushed!

The perils of CSA deliveries.

We had seedless sugar baby watermelons last week. I managed to drop only one of them; I opened the back of the van and it escaped. For the delivery I laid all of them out on the grass and let people pick theirs. One shareholder came around with, as he usually does, his five-year-old son. Paul had a good deal of fun rolling them around in the grass, which I did not mind at all. But then he picked one up and hurled it. Without my having to say a word about it the boy’s father scolded him, “We do not throw the watermelons! That one’s ours now.” he said picking up the cracked fruit. I felt relieved; the dad did not ask if there were any extra he could take instead of the damaged one. A small example of a responsible shareholder and parent.

No more sweet potatoes!

Our fruit share is not grown on the farm; Leigh goes out once or twice a week to the orchards and farms in his area and purchases peaches, apples, and such from them. It is still local fruit, and still community supported agriculture and he is upfront about the arrangement when people sign on.

So he and his wife, Wenonah, were out at one of these orchards when Wenonah noticed that the farmer had crates and crates of potatoes. She asked what he was planning on doing with them. “I’ve got so many, I don’t know where I’m going to sell them” he said. It has, I believe, been a banner year for potatoes in Virginia. My sister-in-law’s CSA has given her so many potatoes that she is pretty much sick of them, ‘I’m potatoes everyday. Sometimes twice a day. Potato soup, potato salad….” she went on a while, suffice it to say, she has been getting a LOT of potatoes in her share.

Wenonah decided that these potatoes might be a good addition to the shares this week, so they drove off with a few crates. They’re relatively small, but tasty, sort of like new potatoes, and boil up quite quickly.

They are also a welcome departure from the sweet potatoes which have been a staple of OUR shares the past few weeks!

Tomatoes, Pluots and ... Cookies in the nomming bowl? How did those get there?

It was HOT today, but that didn’t seem to slow things down at the Takoma Park farmers market.  It was one of the biggest crowds I’ve seen all summer.   We (me and Art D.)  didn’t have a shopping list,  so there was nothing on the agenda to find today — other than fill the “nomming” bowl, of course.  And fill it we did.

The Pluots (plum/apricot) from Blackrock Orchard were one of the first things that really our attention today.  They looked yummy and ripe.  I’ve been hearing about pluots in the media lately because of the new book by Chip Brantley: The Perfect Fruit: Good Breeding, Bad Seeds, and the Hunt for the Elusive Pluot.   Yes, there is now a book about the Pluot. Are these going to be the newest “it” food?  Will they become the pomegranate or bacon of 2010?  Only time will tell!

Tomatoes were fantastic again this week too.  It was a veritable “tomato extravaganza!”

Tomato Extravaganza...Sunday! SunDAY! SUNDAY!!

Potomac Vegetable Farm had an amazing selection (photo above), in all colors shapes and sizes.  To be fair, a lot of the vendors did — but PVF had the best sign and they are who we bought from this week.   Plus, they were cutting up lots of yummy samples for me to taste.  One of the employees was even helping promote the tomatoes by chomping down on a HUGE yellow tomato like it was an apple.

We were also happy to see J&L Edleman Homestead Farms back — they were missing a couple of weeks ago.  I picked up a couple of their great “snack size” cantaloupes.  They are always really sweet and the small size makes them less threatening.  Don’t judge me. 

Finally, of course, we get to the cookies.  One of the great things about Takoma Park Farmers Market is the community atmosphere.  Kids were having a bake sale to raise money for two charities, and well — it was chocolate chip cookies!   We bought a half-dozen and into the “nomming” bowl they went!  And then promplty into our stomachs.

Please note the subtle farm humor...

My stop was and is the only one to get fennel. The 25 or so bulbs were the sole survivors of the planting.

What did you get this week?

Don't squeeze me!

Seriously. Excerpt from the newsletter:
Full article and more stories from the farm here:
www.bullrunfarm.com/newsletters.html

“Fresh, picked that morning ,tomatoes are different. They are full of water. Juice. The fruit walls are tender.If they are given a squeeze, they go squish. As in, tomato juice. And if you put them in a box and shipped them half way around the world what would come out at the other end is tomato juice, not tomatoes.

“This lesson took me a number of years to learn.

“Every year I would just put out our tomatoes like I do the rest of the vegetables, and let people pick their own.

“Each day, as I drove home, 20-25% of the tomatoes I had picked in the morning, would be sitting in the back of the truck, all squished up.

“I thought, at the time, this was just the price of doing business. ‘Tomatoes’, I thought. ‘just don’t travel well. You need to pick more to account for the short shelf life.’

“Then, one year, because we were having a poor crop of tomatoes, instead of just putting the tomatoes out for people to pick themselves, I gave the tomatoes out.

“And I learned something.

“Only 1 or 2% of the tomatoes got squished in transit.

“I found out that what was damaging all of those perfectly good tomatoes was people picking them up, giving them a little squeeze, just like they would do to a corporate tomato in the grocery store.

“But, unlike the corporate tomato, ours would go squish.

“Local, homegrown tomatoes, are a completely different creature than those corporate vegetables. They are full of juice. They can’t handle being squeezed.

“Oh well.

“So, to make the story short, when you are picking out your tomatoes, just look at them, only touch the tomatoes you are going to put in your bag. And if, by chance, you don’t particularly like that tomato after picking it up, put it in your bag anyway, and get another one.”

What did you get this week?

The basil is peaking

We’re finally up to All You Can Eat basil at our stop. Many shareholders start making and freezing pesto as soon as or even before we reach this point. We have had up to six quarts of it in our freezer for the Winter. It is an easy enough sauce to make; we use it as is with pasta or with some tomato sauce (or on a pizza instead of tomato sauce).  I usually make it with walnuts instead of the traditional pine nuts and often omit the Parmesan cheese which many recipes call for. It is an easy thing to play around with, particularly if you have access to vast amounts of the primary ingredient.

What did you get from your CSA this week?

Here’s what Bull Run gave out this week:

Potatoes
Kohlrabi
Garlic
Celery
basil
Thai basil
Tomatillos
Peaches
Sorrel

For the first time Leigh tried growing celery. It had been doing fine, but was sucking up too much water, so it had to go as soon as it was big enough to eat. It is really dark, leafy, and has a very strong flavor. Perfect for pairing with this weeks potatoes for a salad or soup.  Thirty-one days and counting without measurable rain (a trace fell on Monday). Even with constant irrigation from the springs, the crops are still suffering.

What did you get this week?

Potted Marigolds by Art D.

Here’s what I delivered for Bull Run Mountain Farm CSA this week:

• Garlic Scapes
• Onions
• Lettuce-Purslane-Tatsoi mix
• Basil
• Oregano
• Kohlrabi
• Marigold plant

What did you get?

Here’s what I delivered for Bull Run Farm CSA this week:

• Chinese Cabbage
• Spring Onions
• Garlic Scapes
• Parsley
• Oregano
• Basil
• Potted Herb

What did you get?