Fava Knows Best!
No veggie & a movie this week, but how about a 50's TV show - Fava Knows Best? It may be a week late for Father's Day, but the fava beans this year are ready earlier than in years past. They usually are delivered the first week of July, but were ready to harvest so harvest we did. This year's fava have a better yield and also are in better shape in that they didn't get the black spots which is often seen on the outer pod. It actually took about 2 1/2 days to harvest the fava beans. Not only are they labor intensive to harvest, you need to take additional time to prepare them yourself (see special fava bean tips in the Harvest Identifier & Recipe pages)
PS - don't forget you can have your fava beans with a nice chianti!!!
The pond is down about 6-7" due to lack of rain, which is in total contrast to last year when we were complaining of it being too wet. Saturday went from being dry to being VERY dry. We are irrigating all fields and some of the beds are being hand watered as well. While we were hand watering we notice how the soil dried out immediately as we watered. As the plants get bigger we are mulching with hay or straw and that helps immensely to keep the moisture in. We actually will be using the fava plants that we just harvested as mulch for the cucumber plants. We normally will chop them and plow them into the soil for the next rotation of crops which may include turnips, dicon radishes and mustards. Since we are almost out of hay until the next delivery, we'll use the plants to shade the soil, increase moisture retention and even add some nutrients such as nitrogen to the soil as they break down and we plow them in during the crop rotations.
The garlic harvest has started, and some garlic is small due to lack of water and some weeding up in certain areas that we never got the plastic laid down. Once all the garlic is harvested, these beds will be rolled over to our fall crops.
The Franklin greenhouse has almost been totally rolled over with new plantings as outlined below in our Crop report. Tonight's carrot harvest actually came from the Franklin greenhouse. We also have Rosemary again as the rosemary crop went ballistic! We reduced the bed by half and it will be replaced by sage & thyme (sorry no parsley in this bed - ha-ha!). Renee who lives close to Franklin is really managing that greenhouse well. She has been transplanting, weeding, watering and helping with the harvest. In the meantime our on-farm personnel, Hannah, Lisa and Nancy, are starting super early in the am to get most of the work done prior to the heat of the mid-day sun. They are all hard workers and we are fortunate to have such a great crew.
Crop Report
planted this week:
|
cherry tomatoes sage |
parsley anise hysoop |
celery thyme |
What's up & growing:
The tomato plants are performing well - much better than last year. The eggplant & peppers are cruising along as well and the Brussels sprouts have doubled in size since last week. We have an intruder (see Animal report below) whom seems to be enjoying the Brussels sprouts & Kohlrabi. We haven't had good luck in the past with Brussels sprouts so this rabbit may be a long-time resident who is enjoying trying a new crop instead of the same-ole-same-ole.
We are trying to get zucchini into all the delivery sites over the past few weeks, as there just were never enough to deliver all at once. Hopefully their production will increase and we can deliver more.
The winter squash and next planting of zucchini are both up and should be planted in the field during the week. The next planting of lettuce and kale will be undertaken this week as well. Also planned are seeding turnips. Hokuri & golden ball are the two varieties of turnips that we plan on seeding.
Weather Report: Only about 1/8" of rain fell during the week - but we have been through this before in the last 15 years. Even though it rained a little bit the writing is on the wall that we are either in or close to drought conditions. I have even noticed in my driving down Route 23 where I pass 2 reservoirs that their levels are getting quite low. We usually report drought conditions about 1 month ahead of the government!!! This is all subject to change, but if it doesn't rain a decent amount soon, drought conditions will definitely be here. The rains when they come seem to get less and less, even though it may seem we are getting a decent rain we actually are not.
Animal report: Our intruder (probably a rabbit) has been enjoying the Brussels Sprouts and Kohlrabi or should I say KohlRabbit. Looking back at past newsletters, we had a similar intruder enjoying the kohlrabi a few years back. Usually the ground hogs aren't are selective in their munching, they just eat everything in their path so we are quite sure it is a rabbit.
CSA Member offers Bicycle Delivery Service for CSA shares in Hoboken & Jersey City
A fellow CSA member in Hoboken, Jorge Szymanski, is offering to deliver your CSA shares to your home via his bicycle delivery service. Please click here for more information.
Fava Beans:
To use the fava beans you'll have to shell and skin them first. The easiest way to skin them is to blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes, then slit the skin with a knife or your thumb nail, and squeeze gently to slip the bean out.
Refer to our previous blogs for more info:
http://catalparidge-recipes.blogspot.com/2008/07/recipes-of-week-july-7th.html
http://catalparidge-recipes.blogspot.com/2006/07/recipes-week-of-july-3rd.html
Week of June 28th - Pick of the Week: click on the links below or to the right to bring you to the delivery specific to your pick-up location. Deliveries will be of similar variety & poundage, but may contain different items at anytime during the season. Occasionally, some crops are ready to harvest but not enough to deliver to all our drop-off locations. What we do is start to filter them in each week to a different drop-off until there is enough to delivery to everyone.
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