We hope that you have been staying cool. With this heat and humidity, you can almost watch the summer crops grow. Potatoes are flowering. Sweet corn is tasseling. Cherry tomatoes are beginning to blush. Peppers are fruiting. We're cleaning up spring crops, like the peas, and keeping up with the trellising of our tomatoes and cucumbers. Beans are here, and we're digging roots, like carrots, by the bed. This week, we'll be seeding fall roots - like turnips and winter radishes. What a busy, bountiful time of year!
This week, celery is available. It is full of flavor, but less tender than the celery that you find at the grocery store. We love it in chicken salad and potato salad, but I also prioritize freezing celery for use in the fall and winter. I chop and freeze the stalks in storage bags for use in soups and stews. I also freeze the leaves, to flavor broth.
You'll also notice that we have more bulk items available this week - basil, garlic scapes, pickling cucumbers, and zucchini. Preserving season is here! Yesterday, I made my first batch of refrigerator bread and butter pickles - and I think they'll be a staple for the rest of the summer. (I followed this recipe - https://sweetphi.com/bread-butter-pickles-sweet-tangy-addictingly-crunchy/) If you have never made pickles before, refrigerator pickles are a great place to start!
Your Farmers,
Lauren & Craig
