view from the barn roof

Riddle of the week: what do you get when you cross a gourmet chef with a pirate? Keep reading for the answer!

Sometimes I like to sit on the peak of the barn roof for a few hours in the evening and look out over the farm.  Gives one a different perspective.  Even better is to climb the Tuscarora Mountain just behind the farm (or just in front of it, depending on which way you're facing, I guess), but it's rare that I do that during the peak of the growing season.  The field right in front has okra on the left, then Brussels sprouts (a longshot at best but hope springs eternal) and four rows of newly emerged beans.  To the right is next year's strawberry patch, and to the left under the white blanket is our late planting of eggplant.  The first plantings of beans, eggplant and okra should be ready next week.

For this week, we have a new onion ready which I'm super excited about (see photo):

The office paraphernalia and toothpicks are for a sense of scale.  It is called a "Red Torpedo" onion, because, I suppose, of its shape.  These onions are very flavorful, too strong for raw eating (we still have plenty of pearl drops for that) but amazing cooked.  This is not a storage onion so you will rarely see it for sale in any store, at least outside of Italy.

Also new are rainbow carrots.  Behold.

However, the ones I'm planning on putting in your shares won't have the tops on them, since very few people use them unless they are good friends to a rabbit or horse.   If you really want the greens I suppose you could try your luck at emailing me.

And now the answer to the riddle:  A cross between a gourmet chef and a pirate is a culineer.  Speaking of culineer, are you familiar with the new mobile app "culineer"?  Jade Family Farm CSA member Jodi Frank launched it this spring with the intention, in part, of making it easy for everyone to get the most out of their share.  Here's what she has to say about it: