In the share this week:
1 head napa cabbage
1 bunch beets
1 kohlrabi bulb
1 lb yellow onions
1 lb roma beans
Mix of specialty peppers
1 bag sugar snap peas
Thoughts from Farmer Anna:
Share 20 always feels like a big milestone of the season. After this week, we just have six shares left for our 2021 season! Our work on the farm at this time consists of keeping up with weeds, starting to plant for late fall and winter in the hoophouses, and getting winter cover crops sown in field beds. After the rain early last week, we were blessed with the most perfect day on Friday and were able to get a lot of tarps moved around and cover crops seeded before the gentle rain Saturday morning. Our winter cover crop mix consists of a grain like winter rye or wheat, plus legumes, including hairy vetch, clover, and winter peas. This mix will serve many functions - weed suppression, erosion control, nitrogen fixation, and improved soil tilth. The more we use cover crops here on the farm, the more we want to use them as much as possible. During our open house, a few folks were asking about using animal manure and compost on our beds. While we have definitely used horse manure in the past, we have found that there are so many potential problems with using manure. If not properly composted, it can bring in weed seeds and contain persistent herbicides. Not to mention the labor involved with carting it around to your beds. Cover crops on the other hand, can be seeded with minimal labor, grow an incredible amount of biomass, and can be easily mowed and tarped before the bed needs to be used for crops. The downside of cover crops is that you ideally need a farm that is twice as big as what you need for veggie crops so half of your area can be in cover each year. In our case, we are doing as much cover cropping as we can fit it, while fertilizing with a blend of trusted composted manures and other organic sources of fertility (Ohio Earth Food's ReVita Pro blend). This seems like a good compromise for our small farm.
I'm very excited about the napa cabbage in your shares this week. The size and quality of the heads are the best we've ever grown. In fact, they are so big you may find it a little intimidating to use. Fear not my dear members, napa cabbage cooks down beautifully in soups and stir fries (ooh with your sugar snaps!), or can be eaten fresh in salads. Or can even be fermented into kimchi for the more adventurous! I'm looking forward to making a soup with some napa this week. Something like this sounds delicious:
If you'd rather have your napa raw in a salad, it would pair well with some roasted beets in something like this recipe:
https://waterpennyfarm.com/beet-and-chinese-cabbage-salad-with-goat-cheese/
The summer crops are slowly coming to a close, with the last of our beans going out to you this week. We'll probably still have tomatoes and peppers another time or two, but we'll be clearing out one of our tomato beds this week to make room for fall and winter crops. In fact, you may be getting some green tomatoes in your shares next week :) Hope you all have a wonderful week!