We are well into our first full month of CSA harvests and the results have been mixed. Sometimes, despite the best of plans, you find that certain things have been left out. When you look down the rows of maturing vegetables you suddenly realize that you didn’t even come close to planting enough of certain things, like cauliflower. Last night I harvested about a third of what I had planted and ate the entire basket full myself for dinner. It was delicious, but now I have none to share because I simply didn’t leave enough space or plant enough seeds or get large enough heads or a combination of all three. Arugula, on the other hand, is coming up in quantities that would likely solve the demands of a popular restaurant and leave plenty to spare. I pretty much eat it with every meal and although I never thought it would come to this, I’m getting burned out on it. Same with kale. You simply cannot cut enough of it to make a dent in the new growth that continually replaces it and some of the customers have begun to hint that they aren’t really kale people.
Note to self: Next year, more cauliflower, less kale.
In other areas our production seems to be going along just fine. The waste water from the tilapia tanks has been used to water the gardens, particularly the conveniently located tomato beds and the results are nothing short of astounding. Large, dark green and lush vines that seem to grow faster than I can keep up with, each one filled with yellow blossoms and small, underdeveloped fruits that promise a bumper crop if we can safely make it past the residual effects of last year’s late blight infestation. The potato patch is equally impressive although for the last two days we’ve spent considerable time and effort in hand picking the Colorado potato beetles off the leaves. They aren’t the kind of infestation that can wipe out a crop if you stay on top of it, but there really isn’t much you can do to prevent one once it hits, you just have to pick them off one at a time and keep doing every day for the two to three weeks of their maturing phase. After that the potatoes underground aren’t affected by the leaf growth above ground and once the flowering takes place, it’s only a matter of time until the harvest.
We’re down to the last scapes and although the usable portions are getting smaller and slightly woody, they’re still delicious stir fried in hot sesame oil and sea salt. From this point forward the hardneck garlic can focus all of it’s attention on building a bigger bulb and soon, maybe in another couple of weeks, we’ll be pulling, washing and drying the garlic heads for this year.
We’re also making our way through the first flock of meat birds. We’ve put a lot of effort into making sure that the chickens and ducks and geese have a decent life here, free within certain confines to range about and feed on grasses and insects rather than to remain cooped up in wire cages feeding on GMO grains, but the fact remains that we raise them for human consumption and thus slaughter. Whatever people might think of this, chicken do not simply fall apart into little plastic trays for sale at the grocery store. Somewhere, someone must take the time and put in the effort that converts a living, breathing animal into meat. I thought about trying to do all of the birds on a specific day in order to deliver them to all of our customers at the same time in order to be fair, but after a dozen or so birds it dawned on me that there wasn’t much sense in raising animals that weren’t stressed only to find myself feeling that way. Slaughtering chickens isn’t the same thing as putting down a family pet, but it’s got it’s own set of stresses on the psyche, so now I do as many birds as I feel comfortable preparing in a day and leave it at that. One of the main reasons we embarked on this journey in our lives was because we loved food so much we wanted to be a part of it every step of the way, from raising it to the final enjoyment at the table and I don’t want to find myself- as some folks I know in farming do- saying that they simply cannot eat certain things because of the associated memories of large scale slaughters in their past. So we make the process as pastoral as the husbandry phase of their raising was. We set up in the woods out behind the sugar house where the breezes cool the air and we process the birds, after slaughter, in the full and cleansing Sun out on the dock in front of it. By the time the birds are done and wrapped in freezer bags cooling in the refrigerator, there’s not much left to clean up, the waste is already being composted and you’re on to the next chore for the day without feeling like you’ve done something awful. So far it’s working like a charm and let me tell you, the birds taste fantastic.
So into July we head, the greens for the most part will taper off as the ripening fruits of Summer take center stage. I can already taste the fresh salsas, the crisp fresh pickles, the grilled eggplant with basil. Summer is on and it’s worth every minute of the wait.
July 18th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
.Hi All!
Hope to see you soon. I left a message earlier this week on phone. So I thought I’ld try this way. I have yhe yhree H’s here ” Hazy, Hot & Humid, Not Heather Holly & HayHay. Did Mathew sign up for Football, and earn a bow and arrow? Keep cool down in your trout pool.
Fondly Jeff
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:57 pm
just getting a chance to read your work . Keep up the hard work , I know you will , u r that kind of person .Don’t eat to much kale. Long story why I did not call u ,but i will tell u about that soon …..say hi to the fam for me
July 18th, 2011 at 1:58 am
You can certainly see your expertise in the paintings you write. The sector hopes for more passionate writers like you who aren’t afraid to mention how they believe. Always go after your heart.
August 8th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing!