Fresh enthusiasm
Seasonal farming in the midwest here around the fortieth parallel, providing for such a large group for such a long season, from the last frost of May to the first frost of October, requires a unique nonlinear endurance- one that admittedly demands from us further training, discipline, and dedication. Like all undertakings, endeavors, or projects, it requires operational organization, resource management, and raw, deliberate motivation. As the summer transitions to autumn and we observe our land’s ebbing abundance, we not only seek to find fresh and ripe winter squash hiding beneath unattended weeds, with tired vines trailing them. We not only hunt for fresh wild mushrooms spored and fruited by cool nights, damp leaf mold, and spontaneous evening showers. We are seeking to uncover fresh enthusiasm for farming itself- enthusiasm that the farm’s inevitable variability offers herself, but regardless needs attended to, with stewardship, husbandry, and humility. Always in prospect and retrospect, we approach the final month of this year’s production here at Morckel Meadows, still grateful for, and appreciative of, our shareholders- the providers and beneficiaries of such elusive endurance and enthusiasm.
This week you should expect the following in your box:
Okra
It’s a miracle crop, it just is. Ornamental and productive, incredibly fast-growing, it does so much work for us in the field that it is only fair that we do a little work to honor its fruit, slimy as it may be and as much as it requires a taste many of us must actively acquire. We often treat and prepare it like frying fish- dipped in an egg, honey, and/or butter wash and rolled in something crunchy.
Beans
Velour purple filet beans. This is the first harvest from a second, fall succession of bush beans. Our first planting with these “extra-fine,” tender and elegant purple legumes seemed to attract critters, likely groundhogs, who methodically topped the plants, setting us back quite a bit in early summer. This row of beans is closer to the house and theoretically safer from such encroachment, far away from the critters’ entry points like the wood lines and the edges of our meadow overgrowth.
Tomatoes
Our tomato supply is regrettably diminishing quickly. All good things must come to an end, we suppose and for us, It was an unquestionably good and successful tomato-growing season. The 2021 harvest, our first at any significant scale, was laced with failure. But this season, we were grateful not only for our increased success and production, but for the lessons and clarity we’ve developed about how we should grow next spring.
Cherry Tomatoes
Our cherry tomato harvests are smaller and less consistent, but nevertheless sweet. We’ll harvest every berry available before the autumn frost.
Bell/Carmen Peppers
We sampled raw, fresh-pulled red ripe Carmen peppers in the field the other day. These are clearly the best sweet peppers we’ve ever had. We were reminded of sprinkling salt on melon slices as kids. These peppers taste so fruity and sweet that it’s hard to believe there isn’t some trick being employed- like a hidden hand had already seasoned the pepper with a complimentary pinch. Our pepper patch has shown improvements this season. The fruits are longer, more uniform, and better-ripened. To see, smell, and ultimately taste the progress is quite a reward.
Hot Peppers
Hot Jalapenos and Anaheims. This week, the green peppers are reliably hot. An Anaheim pepper is supposed to sit somewhere between Bells/Long Sweets and Jalapenos, making an ideal for our pepper lineup. It’s supposed to approach as a mildly spicy bell pepper. We put together a stir fry this week, chopping up some of these less-intimidating hot peppers only to realized that they seem to demand more respect this year. They are indeed hot peppers and seem much closer to a jalapeno than a bell pepper this harvest.
Arugula
Some of these leaves are prettier and more tender than others, but they do the trick. Nutritious, nutty, and spicy like a good green ought to be. We’ve been incorporating these into mixed greens salads, blending them up as ingredients for pestos, and topping dishes and sandwiches with the flavorful foliage.
Swiss Chard
More rainbow chard in the mix.
Herbs
In the next couple weeks, we’ll likely be potting up and/or transplanting many of the herb plants that we have dispersed and interplanted as companions to our summer vegetable rows. This week, we’ll be harvesting cilantro, thyme, and rosemary as is available and practical for shareholders.
Flowers
Eggs
Included this week is another beautiful collection of fresh eggs, sometimes laid the morning of deliveries and pickups. We were relieved to have full dozens distributed to our farm pickup folks last week. When we feel like our production will allow it, we will accumulate full dozens again for our home delivery shareholders.
Thank you and have a great week,
Erin & David