Farm Stand Now Open Thursdays and Saturdays
The Daily Blessings Farm stand is officially open to the public on both Thursdays (3pm – 7 pm) and Saturdays (10 am – 2 pm) now, however the shopping experience will be different this year. I will post everything available on the chalk board at the farm entrance. This list is updated every Thursday after your boxes are packed. An order slip is then provided to shoppers as they stop by. They simply check off what they want and I fill a shopping basket for them. The best produce is packed in your boxes first, but if you forget something, additional produce/eggs can be purchased when you pick up your box. I accept cash, debit/credit card and Venmo. This process protects the integrity of the produce keeping it fresh and minimizes handling. Send your neighbors! I’m feeding squash, lettuce, and cucumbers to the deer already. Special thanks to The Meriweathers for playing music at the farm stand last week. It was such a treat.
This Week in Your Box …..
Basil: A bigger bunch this week of large leaf, sweet Italian basil.
Broccoli: Big beautiful heads of green broccoli. We won’t have any more whole heads until fall again, but we may have some small shoots keep producing. I also have sprouting purple broccoli growing. Broccoli is offered in a large (2-3 lbs) and medium (1-2 lbs) head option this week so feel free to swap sizes depending on your preference.
Summer Squash: Choose from four kinds: 8 ball zucchini, Desert zucchini, yellow crookneck and Y-star yellow scallop squash
Spinach: The second succession of spinach is now ready. Enjoy the flavor of fresh spinach like you’ve never experienced before.
Cherry Tomatoes: Both the red Jasper and gold Nugget cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen this week. They are offered separately in pints since a couple of our farm share members are allergic to red tomatoes.
Cucumbers: Both traditional green and lemon cucumbers are available this week.
Lettuce: I harvested as much lettuce as possible before the triple digits hit on Sunday. There is still lots of gourmet salad mix, hearts of romaine and a few heads of red Salanova oakleaf heads that have been growing under the leaves of the cauliflower plants.
Radishes: Bagged and without tops this week.
Red Beets: 1 to 1.5 lbs bunches with tops this week.
Orange Beets: Just a few bunches of Touchstone Gold beets left.
Swiss Chard: The Rainbow Swiss Chard continues to produce well despite the heat.
Kale: Kale is a powerhouse of nutrients. The bunches this week are a mixture of White and Red Russian ruffled leaf, and Toscano and Lacinato flat leaf kales.
Carrots: Both the long Napoli and short Parisienne carrots are available this week.
Strawberries by the pint. Limited supply!
Extras:
- EGGS! Egg prices are increasing August 1st due to increase of carton and certified organic feed costs.
- Flat of 30 medium - $9
- Dozen Lg - $4.50
- Dozen XL/Jumbo - $5
- Limited Supply of Homemade Garlic Scape Pesto. This is an 8 oz container of pesto made with garlic scapes, basil and cashews. You are going to love it! I forgot to list it in last week's delivery but in the meantime, my super helper, Jane, made another batch. These are frozen to preserve freshness so you can either keep it frozen or thaw to use it immediately.
- Fresh Organic Lavender Bouquets wrapped in white tissue paper and tied with a silk purple bow from Brambleberry Hollow (our honey provider) and owner of our on-farm bees. This is organic, culinary lavender so you can eat it or craft with it.
- Baking Zucchinni. All 1.25 to 2 lbs in size. Perfect for baking, shredding or stuffing.
- Organic Soothing Hand Salve. Perfect for those irritated, chapped skin from hand washing.
- Organic Dried Basil made from our own Sweet Italian Basil.
- Organic Dried pepper flakes made from our own mixture of poblano, red and green bell, padrone and paprika peppers
Farm Share Notes
Swapping Items in your box: I’ve had some questions about swapping items.
- There is no charge to swap items during the customization period; however, if you swap for an item of greater value, you will be charged the difference in price. If you choose an item of lesser value, you can add more items up to the value of the box without any charge.
- You can swap/add items to your box during the customization period which is Sunday 8pm to Tuesday at 8 pm.
- The availability of produce changes continuously during the customization period. As members delete an item, it becomes available to someone else.
Preferences: Setting your preferences is what the Harvie software uses to sort the week’s harvest into your boxes. If you don’t set your preferences, you will be delightfully surprised with a random assortment of items. There is a trick to setting preferences however . . .
- Setting all your preferences to “3” has the same effect as setting them all to “5”, so be sure to vary your answers from 1 (I don’t eat it) to 5 (I love it). This will more accurately allocate items that you prefer into your box.
Billing: Generally, all charges and credits occur when I finalize the delivery which is usually Thursday morning, but occasionally Wednesday evening. This is when you should see transactions occur with your preferred payment method.
Harvie is working hard to make the program more user friendly. Hopefully you will notice it become easier as the summer passes. Thanks for your patience while we learn how this system works together. I am learning right along with you.
WIC Vouchers/Farm Direct Nutrition Program Checks
The State of Oregon released the Farm Direct Nutrition Program checks to families who qualify. If you are a recipient, I can accept them for produce purchases including applying it to your farm share subscription.
Our Family Farm Gratitude Gift Cards
These cards were distributed to front line employees working at hospitals and clinics by a non-profit organization called Our Family Farms. If you have one, I can also apply the balance to your farm share box to purchase extras.
What’s Happening On The Farm?
The change in weather has launched our summer crops into full production. The cherry tomatoes are ripening, the peppers are all blooming and the melons are doubling in size about every week. We will have cantaloupes very soon if this keeps up. I caught Luna picking up a cantaloupe in her mouth but she dropped it when I asked. This tells me they are smelling sweet!
Luna is such a good friend in the garden. Just when I can’t stand the heat any more, she’ll come give me a big wet kiss. Mostly she spends her day napping in the shade with an occasional walk around the perimeter to look for predators. Her morning starts around 8 pm when she comes alive with energy. As I hit the hay, she works all night protecting the hens and I from predators. We have black bear, coyote, mountain lion, raccoon, skunk, foxes and more! The only thing that really scares her is helicopters.
I often get questions about blossom rot on tomatoes. This is caused by a lack of calcium in the soil. If you are noticing a brown, rotten looking bottom on your tomatoes, there is no hope of reversing it at that point. The only thing you can do is pick off all the fruit and water in some calcium. This kicks the plant into flowering again and making more fruit. The next wave of fruit will hopefully not have rotten bottoms. There are lots of really expensive calcium soil amendments you can buy but all you really need is gypsum. A 40 lb bag is $10 at the Grange Coop. Be sure not to leave the rotting fruit on the ground under the tomato plants. This can create an environment that can introduce other diseases and pests.
So far, the chickens are enduring the heat well. They cool themselves by wading in their cool pools. Chickens cool themselves with their feet. It’s a little funny watching them run from one shady spot to another during the heat of the day.
I checked on our prune plums yesterday and they are still too firm to pick, so I’ll check them again in a week.
The strawberries are getting bigger and bigger, so take advantage of these beauties while they are still producing.
The potato plants are starting to die back. This is the normal sign that they are ready to dig up. If your kids like treasure hunts, let me know. This is an all hands on deck job to dig up and harvest all the potatoes.
Stay well. Stay Cool and drink lots of water this week.
Blessings to you all,
Carrie
