CSA Harvest - Week 6

I had the best of intentions to send out a weekly blog with new recipes and news from the garden. However, the weather and the bugs have kept me so busy keeping things tended and cared for that I just have not had the time.  Making sure that everything is watered well in this heat has been of the utmost importance.  It also helps to keep the grasshoppers at bay.  I am not saying that they are not in the gardens; but at least there has not been too much feasting going on. This has been the worst year for bugs that I have seen in my gardening experience here in Montana in the last 10 years.  The drought is attractive to many insects, especially the flea beetles and the grasshoppers.

Never the less, there is such bounty and beauty out there!  Mother Earth never ceases to amaze me with her resilience.  Even though it has been challenging, I awake each morning with an inner knowing that I will be rewarded with wondrous new insights and gifts when I go to the garden!

Your food basket this week will contain long, skinny, French Haricot Vert Green Beans, Yellow & Red Beets, those cute little round carrots, summer squash (zucchini, yellow and patty pan), cucumbers (Suyo Long Japanese & slicers), leaf lettuce, small first harvests of a selection of heirloom tomatoes, scallions, basil and dill.

There are still some subscribers who are showing up late, or not showing up at all.  Please let me know if you are going to be late.  I can then put your share out in front of the gate for you to pick up. If it’s really hot out, the greens will suffer, but you will at least have your weekly share. If you are not going to pick up, let me know as soon as possible.  I can then donate your share to one of my neighbors or my garden helper, so that it doesn’t go to waste.  Your share can be picked up between 2 and 6 PM.

I hope you are all enjoying your organic veggies and herbs.  I know you are all pretty busy, but you are certainly welcome to spend more time here walking through the gardens, and taking in the visual beauty and fragrance of real food being grown…just for you!  Harvest days are really busy, so if you would like to come and help, Barb and I will welcome you with open arms!

News from Kate's Garden - Week Four

Out of the fry pan…into the fire!  Can you believe this weather?  Staying out in this heat to tend the gardens has certainly proved challenging.  By 2 o’clock in the afternoon Barbara and I have had all that we can take.  We try to perform the most labor intensive projects in the early morning and resort to hands and knees weeding during the late morning and afternoon.  Of course harvesting is always done in the early mornings, especially the lettuce and greens, as they are so tender and wilt very quickly once cut.

Everything in the garden is really coming on strong now with the heat.  I am planting new crops of lettuce, radish, beets and carrots every couple of weeks in the hopes that we will have continual harvests of these crops through fall.  It is always a little challenging with the greens, as they don’t like the heat, but I have been planting them on the shady side of the trellised crops and make sure they are kept cool with frequent watering.  So far…so good.

The flea beetles have really been a problem this year.  I had them a few years back, but then didn’t have them for several seasons.  They go for the Oriental veggies, radish tops, mustard greens, and are devouring some of my flowers.  They are usually gone by the hot summer months, but I guess no one told them, because they are still here!  I have tried soap and garlic/cayenne sprays, but to no avail!  I ordered some beneficial nematodes today so will apply to the soil this weekend. They are supposed to work on all soft bodied soil born insects.  We will put it to the test!  Organic farming is much more labor intensive and the botanical pesticides that we use tend to be more expensive, too.  At least you know when you see a few holes in you veggies that your grower has not used any nasty, toxic chemicals on their farm.

Your share this week will include lettuce mix, radish, beets, sugar snap peas, broccoli, summer squash, basil, dill and raspberries.  If you would be so kind as to return the clam shells that your peas were packaged in last week, I can re-use them again.  If you have other containers that would work for packaging bring them along. 

Please don’t forget to come and pick up your share between 2 & 6 PM on Thursdays.  Some of you have been late and others have not shown up at all! We work really hard on harvest day…from 6 AM until 6 PM.  It is a really long day and I do not have allot of refrigerator space to hold extra produce, and it is physically impossible for me to be available any later than 6 PM. I usually have morning appointments scheduled for Fridays.  Please call me to let me know if you are unable to pick up your share.  

I haven’t heard from any of you as to whether you are enjoying the blog. I welcome your comments and suggestions.  I am hoping that the blog is an easy format for you to receive updates and communications from Kate’s Garden.  If it works for you, great!  If not, please let me know.  Be sure and send me your favorite recipes to include in the blog.  

Enjoy this weeks harvest!  And...lets all pray for rain and a cool down in the temps. Bodie and I are getting a little grouchy!