I have to say that I would take the weather we've been having these last four days forever. It feels so good to not be sweaty and gross or soaking wet . . . it's as if anything is possible. We are still recovering from that unbelievable amount of rain in July, but so far, August is looking quite lovely.

We are offering a fruit share! We are partnering with our neighbors, Autumn Hill Orchard, to offer a 5 or 8 week Fruit Share beginning the week of August 23rd. The share will include 4.5-5 pounds of fruit to be picked up with your vegetable share.

The first few weeks will have primarily peaches, plums and grapes with a few apples, and the last weeks will have a wide variety of apples and a few peaches and grapes. Autumn Hill custom picks their best fruit for the CSA option which we will pick up on our way to CSA distribution.

A little from Autumn Hill on their growing practices:

We will send an email out later this week with registration options!

I'd like to take a moment and apologize if any of your potatoes ended up not holding up. I was surprised to find some of the potatoes left from the week not being in good condition in the cooler. After talking to another farmer whose carrots are rotting in the ground in the wet sections of their fields, I'm not sure if there is anything I could have done differently - except not try to save the potatoes. For the rest of the potatoes we will wait to dig them until they have time to either cure or rot, which ever they end up doing, so we don't accidentally send you home with a potato that won't last. I strongly recommend if you haven't eaten your potatoes, do so as soon as possible.

We are excited to be diving into the height of summer. Peppers are ripening (slowly - they would speed up if we got some warmer nights!) and we've got shishito peppers and hot peppers in the choice this week. We're also on the verge of sweet corn and melons! Almost!

The really good news? Our first walk-in cooler is almost complete! That's Morgan and Kevin just before we installed the first air conditioner. We use a Cool-Bot unit, invented by a farmer in upstate New York to override an air conditioners lower temperature limit and convert it to a cooler. Kevin has been working primarily on cooler construction (building a 15'x20' room with 4" of insulation and covered with washable wall and ceiling surfaces) since July 6th (but is pulled away constantly).

Next up? Two more high tunnels for winter greens production! If you haven't signed up for the Fall and Winter CSA Shares, you should soon, because we are almost out of spaces.

Our Fall share is now every week, just like our summer share to prevent overwhelming you with produce. Each week's share will be similar to a summer share in quantity and value. We're hand-weeding the storage carrots this week. 2100 bed feet . . . luckily we were able to flame weed most of the beds (literally wear a back-pack propane tank with an attached torch and fry the weeds that germinated before the carrots). Carrots must be direct seeded and are slow to germinate, so flaming the bed as the first carrots germinates drastically reduces the weed pressure, but, in our case, does not eliminate the hand weed. It will be a multi-week project but it is so worth it because carrots are the sweetest in fall and winter!!

That's a funny picture of the crew finishing harvest yesterday - we all converged in the shishito peppers during the last few minutes.

We had supper with the crew tonight (at least those who live on-farm). 6 Adults, 1 Harvey. We had thai stir-fried eggplant, sauteed bok choy, fried tofu with chopped scallions and rice. It was delicious and actually a much needed venture away from tomatoes. I strongly recommend it! (note, I included the tofu scallions recipe, but really all I did was sauté a block tofu cut into 1/2" cubes on medium high heat with sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce and then rough chopped 3 large scallions, top to bottom, and stirred them in after taking the tofu off the heat. So good!

Also, cucumbers are in the share! We went from famine to feast on this crop last week as our field cucumbers came in strong. There is a great recipe for cucumber salad, or, if you want to be cool like us, just eat them whole, like an apple. Seriously. I eat at least 3 cucumbers a day this way, maybe 5 during cuke season. The small white/yellow cucumbers are called Salt and Pepper. They are actually the sweetest, and very crunchy - and definitely my favorite. You should try them. They also make a great pickle!

1.5 - 2 pounds tomatoes (still from the tunnel - field tomatoes are behind but seriously - so many green tomatoes right now on the verge of ripening!)

Choice (one): 3/4 pound green beans (last chance!), 1 pint cherry tomatoes (very limited still, again, so many green!) 1 pint shishito peppers, 1 pint mini sweet peppers, 1 pint fairy tale eggplant (very limited) 1 cantaloupe

1.5-2pound cucumber Ok everyone, now is the time I need to you make up for all the missed cucumbers earlier in the season! Eat up!!!!

2 pounds Mix: Cucumbers (yes, more if you want them - pickles anyone?), limited amounts of zucchini, squash, eggplant, Red Long di tropea Onions, Ailsa Craig Onions, green/purple peppers

Choose two greens (no repeats): bok choy, cabbage, dill, chard, pea tendrils, arugula, kale, scallions

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/tomato-sandwich-with-basil-mayonnaise-recipe-1945384T

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/charred-cabbage-with-goat-cheese-raita-and-cucumbersI

If you can't make it, please feel free to send someone else to pick up your share, or reach out to us and we can coordinate an alternate pick up plan.

CSA Pick Up Hours:

34 Rogers Rd, Holliston

Tuesday, 1pm-6pm

93 East Main St (but don't use the main entrance. At the light in front of the Nursery, turn uphill on Legacy Farm road and make your first right. It's a back entrance and you'll see the box truck!)

Thursday, 12pm-5pm

65 Brookline St, Pepperell (but really it's more like 60 Brookline st, just east of where the GPS will take you. There's a big sign and a parking lot.)

Thursday 4pm-7pm

Remember to change the water for your flowers daily, if possible, trim the stems after 3-4 days. Keep the bouquet out of the sun and in a cooler part of the house for longer vase life.