Crop List: Orange Carrots, Rainbow Carrots, Fingerling Potatoes, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Red Curly Kale, Bok Choy, Leeks, Basil, Spaghetti Squash, Garlic, maybe Broccoli and/or Watermelon Radish, So much news... We had a surprise freeze on Friday morning. We thought we had another couple of days...but it's okay! We had already emotionally hit the point of being ready to let go. The beans, peas, squash and other sensitive things are now memories. We have turned our energies to getting everything out of the garden to finish the CSA. As of now we are planning to wrap it up with week #16, but make sure to check in next week for the full story! The Fall Equinox is on Wednesday this week, the first snow is visible, we have been hearing the elk bugling and those leaves, ahh the gorgeous colors on the hills! On Friday (9/17) we pulled all the winter squash out of the field in a frenzied 90 minute harvest. Then we all went to the brew pub for a beer. Jed and I barely ever do this with the crew. They are finishing work for the day and like to go out, but Jed and I usually keep working (farming or shuttling kids or....). We stopped to join them. I can feel a familiar feeling creeping in with the fall, the desire to kick back a bit and celebrate the season. Taking a moment to pause and notice all that has been done, yet knowing the final work is still in front of us. We need to empty and compost the garden, plant the garlic, spread Biodynamic preps and do 100's of other little tasks, but the season is coming to a close and we have so much to be grateful for. I read this last night..."Breath love into every skill this time demands of us; gather the harvest and delight in the work of the year." (Maeanna Welti) What a beautiful reminder. We send these final 2 shares out to you full of love and delight in all that has been accomplished! We have Breakfast Sausage!! We have been waiting a loooonnnggg time for the butcher to catch up and we are finally restocked with some sausage. The only flavor we have right now is the Breakfast. It is seasoned with white pepper and sage and pairs perfectly with a tiny bit of maple syrup drizzled on it. We have it packaged with 4 patties per package, almost a pound on average. If you know you want me to reserve you some, send me an email and I will put some in the cooler for you with your name on it. I will send as much as I can fit in the coolers. Every site sold out last week, so don't be shy about ordering some! If you have not tried our sausage before, give it a try and you'll taste for yourself why folks are so excited we are finally restocked. We are now taking cash, check and Venmo at the pick up sites. Free Cosmic T-shirt or Hat! We are kicking off our 2022 CSA membership drive! If you sign up for next year's CSA at a pick up location before the season ends, you will receive a free organic cotton t-shirt or hat! Your site host will have sign-up sheets, one is attached to your email or you can get one here: Sign-up sheet Sign up early to get the best prices and to guarantee the pick up location/day you really want...and did I mention the free shirt or hat?! Shirts available in Men's, Women's, Kid's, Toddler and Onesies! Hats are cap style or trucker style. Speaking of Cosmic Merch...I have not mentioned it, BUT we have awesome Organic Hoodies, Mugs and Water bottles too. If you want anything, you can purchase it online and we will happily bring it to your pick up site and refund the shipping cost. (We can't give these out with a share purchase, but they sure are cool!) Link to check out all merch: Merch Here! Lunch this Week: Vichyssoise and Sausage Kale Soup #2
Recipe Ideas: Dale's oven Fries, Colcannon. Oven Roasted Carrots and Kale The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat and Breakfast Sausage! WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (Ends 9/22) The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 (Ends 10/1) Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 (Ends 9/25) Farm to Fork Festival, Saturday 10/2 at The Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com
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Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Purple Viking Potatoes, Carrots, Thyme, Bok Choy, Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Leeks, Maybe Sunflowers and/or Tomatoes The garden is still alive and flourishing without a killing frost. The sunflowers have slowed down, just because we plant varieties that bloom before this time of year. Jed mowed the potato vines on Thursday 9/9 so we should have cured spuds by the end of next week. Our fingers are crossed. We are concerned because the greens are not really laying down and dying! They are fighting to keep growing in this mild weather. So in some ways, we are ready for a frost! Speaking of curing, the garlic is almost ready. We have begun sorting and cleaning what was harvested into 2 classes: Seed (the biggest and best) and the "Rest of it". The "rest of it" is what we give out in our CSA and sell at the markets. We save about a third of the crop every year for seed. Garlic should start showing up the end of this week or next. We put the pigs on new pasture yesterday. They are eating our cover crop from a section of garden that is now in the resting phase of our rotation. It was garden for many years and this spring was planted with wheat, winter peas, vetch, rye, oats and barley to rejuvenate the soil and out compete the weeds. We planted a diverse mix of plants so the soil is offed something different from each plant. The pigs will till it in. Next spring it will then be planted to pasture for the cows and chickens to graze for several years. The pasture grass will grow a deep root system to aerate the soil while the cows give it some extra special goodness with their manure. Eventually it will be garden again. If you pick up at the farm, you can see the pig pen directly south of the veggie shed. The pigs will be running around in growth over their heads and creating trails until they have it all munched down. We have Breakfast Sausage!! We have been waiting a loooonnnggg time for the butcher to catch up and we are finally restocked with some sausage. The only flavor we have right now is the Breakfast. It is seasoned with white pepper and sage. It comes in "bulk" (not formed in patties) one pound packages. If you know you want me to reserve you some, send me an email and I will put some in the cooler for you with your name on it. I will send as much as I can fit in the coolers. If you have not tried our sausage before, give it a try and you'll taste for yourself why folks are so excited we are finally restocked. We are now taking cash, check and Venmo at the pick up sites. Lunch this Week: Pad Bai and Tomato, Zucchini Soup with noodles
Recipe Ideas: Potato Leek Soup; Quinoa, Leek, Carrot Patties; Braised Carrot and Fennel The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat and Breakfast Sausage! WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (Ends 9/22) The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 (Ends 10/1) Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 (Ends 9/25) Farm to Fork Festival, Saturday 10/2 at The Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Fingerling Potatoes, Fennel, Holy Basil, Dill, Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Maybe Tomatoes, Sunflowers, Green Beans and/or Sugar Snap Peas We had a very light frost at the farm on Saturday (9/4) morning. The cucumbers look pretty sad, but they may bounce back. The summer squash looks a bit better and also may still produce. Any day in September without a killing frost feels like a gift in the Tetons! The garden is still growing wonderfully and there is no more frost in the forecast as I type this. Once September hits folks start asking: How many more weeks of veggies are there? We don't know, Mother Nature is in charge. Our goal every year is to make it 16 weeks. Some years we go longer. At this point I am confident we will make it at least 16 weeks! (In 25 years there was only one year that went 15 weeks, 24 years of shares have been 16 weeks or more!) It really depends on the weather and how fast we can get the garden cleaned out. If the summer squash keeps going, we will keep harvesting it and put off pulling in the carrots and potatoes until we need to. Once we get a killing frost and loose the summer crops we put all our energy into cleaning out the garden. Right now we are just in a holding pattern. Savoring the summer bounty until it's gone and we lean fully into the fall crops. The cold nights do wonders for the carrots. The longer they stay in the ground, the sweeter they will be when you get them! Cold nights stimulate sugar production in veggies...which is why Cosmic carrots are way better then any you will ever get from California! Keep checking the newsletter and I promise to update you about how long the shares will go. We are starting to dig small samplings of the potatoes. What we are distributing now are "new potatoes". The "new" means that they have not cured for storage. The skins are really tender and peel off easily...your fingernail will do the trick. These spuds are meant to be eaten on the quicker side and kept refrigerated until you do so. Getting storage potatoes harvested involves a killing frost! After the above ground green vine part of the potato plant freezes it sends a message to the tubers to "suberize". This process toughens up the skin and is what makes a potato "cured" or storable for the long term. If we don't get a timely frost, we mow the vines to kill them and encourage the beginning of the suberizing process. In non-organic production if the plants do not die naturally from a frost they are desiccated or vine killed with an herbicide. After a field is sprayed the farmer puts up a lovely skull and crossbones sign to keep people from walking in the field. After the vines are sprayed, farmers are instructed to refrain from feeding them to livestock. The earth has been rendered toxic and dangerous...but in 14 days it turns into food for humans! Potatoes are one of the crops on the Dirty Dozen list of the most sprayed fruits and veggies. We put our potato seed in the ground, water and weed them. We treat them with some Biodynamic applications of quartz crystal spray, bison field spray, red tourmaline and horn manure. At some point we may mow them. They are clean real food, and we will never hang a skull and crossbones at the farm...unless we become pirate farmers. Lunch this Week: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese, Farm Curry (Summer Squash Page)
Recipe Ideas: Fennel Potato Gratin, Fall Fennel and Potato Roast, Dill butter Potatoes, Dill Walnut Sauce. The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 (Ends 9/22) The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 (Ends 10/1) Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 (Ends 9/25) Farm to Fork Festival, Saturday 10/2 at The Center for the Arts Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spinach, Cilantro, Sugar Snap Peas, Huckleberry Gold Potatoes, Sunflowers Maybe Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Thai Basil, Lemon Basil and/or Tomatoes This week our long time employee (we consider her family!) volunteered to write the newsletter! Many of you know Emily from our markets, she has done every job on the farm and we are so grateful to work with her. Hello all you lovely Cosmic members! This is Emily, a Cosmic Apple employee for over 10 years. I met Dale at an Earth Fair event in Victor in the spring of 2008 and signed on for a workshare that summer. I was put on a waitlist and luckily scored a Friday shift! I have inserted myself into the farm ever since, starting as a full time employee in 2009. Jed and Dale didn’t know what they were getting into, however, and honestly neither did I. I had found my place, my people, my passion. I latched on to their business, their lifestyle and their growing family with intense adoration, curiosity and loyalty. I watched and participated as the farm evolved and grew, as gardens and pastures rotated, animals gave birth and plants died as the winter came around the corner. I watched many volunteers come and go, some who did multiple seasons and became strong workers. I watched three beautiful children being raised on the farm, all of whom I consider my peers. I watched myself grapple with growing pains and personal development. Winter tea time at the family’s home became such an important part of my relationship with the Cosmic Apple as we finally had time to check in with our friendships, our extended families and our personal growth. When my brother suddenly passed away a few years ago and I was so far from my family, it was Jed and Dale and the Cosmic Apple Gardens themselves who provided a safe place to scream, cry, process all of the emotions and eventually find beauty in death. All in all, when Jed and Dale hired me I had no idea how deep my relationship would be with this amazing business and the folks who created it. There are many obvious benefits of eating local, organic and biodynamic food as far as nutrition and personal wellness go. I have witnessed this first hand for the last 13 years in my own body. What I did not expect but have seen blossom over time is the mental, spiritual and emotional benefits. I learned how to grow my own garden and am so honored that our plant sales in the spring and our passion for teaching others to grow their own food is such a big part of this farm. I watch new life bloom in the spring, bountiful harvests in the summer and the letting go in the fall. I have watched and worked with Jed and Dale, two of the most passionate people I have ever met in my life. And you, the Cosmic members, benefit from all of this because we care so deeply about your health. We put our love, our life into your food. It is so beautiful!!! And now I am bringing a new life into this world. I feel so lucky and grateful that this baby has been with me this season, growing inside of me and being nourished with all the goodness that comes with life at the Cosmic Apple. Thank you for making my life’s passion possible by supporting Jed and Dale and their mission to grow food with the highest life force possible. They are truly amazing. And so are all of you! Lunch this Week: Peruvian Quinoa Stew and Burritos with Idaho Salsa
Recipe Ideas: Honey Roasted Potatoes, Sesame Roasted Snap Peas The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spicy Mix, Arugula, Spinach, Tomatoes, Sugar Snap Peas, Basil, Summer Squash, Cucumbers (Slicer or Picklers), Maybe Sunflowers, Beans and/or Radishes I have toyed over the years with writing this newsletter. I try to keep it positive here...teetering on romantic, but maybe you could hear the exhaustion in my voice last week. So I am going for it. Farming is hard. Really freaking hard. 4 o'clock in the morning trying to save a cow's life hard. Not enough time in the day to play with my kids hard. What are vacations? Type of hard. No one has time to cook dinner with all these amazing veggies hard. Jed works 95 hours a week. Seriously. I just did the math. Not for a week or two, here and there. But sustained for about 6 months. Then he works about half of that in the winter. Outside. I manage to work enough for it to be a full time job, with 3 kids and no childcare...so the kids choose to stay home or join in now that they are older. When they were young they just came with us and it was great...most of the time. We don't do it for the money. The return on farming is a joke. We are lucky enough to live in Teton Valley but can not afford to build a very modest family home at the farm, so we drive back and forth. Our money is not spent on traveling. The last time we were all away from the farm together on "vacation" was for 3 nights in 2019. We have managed to go camping in the summer once for 2 nights and there was that family wedding in August of 2009 when we left for 4 nights. I'm serious, that's it for summer vacations in 20 years. We went on a 2 week family visit in 2013 in February, just so the kids could go to their grandparent's houses. Leaving is darn near impossible with the animals and plants to take care of. If we leave and something gets missed, someone or something can die, which can instantly wipe out years or months of work. Jed and I take turns taking vacations in the winter so we can get some time off, that way one of us can stay to take care of the farm. I think our kids would like us all to be together. For all the love, blood, sweat and literal tears that we put into growing food we still need to make a living. We go to the markets and people complain about the cost of our food. How much do you think we should make an hour? I figure we make about $12.82/hour. Would you work at a job for 25 years if that was your prospect? There are reasons young people are not getting into farming. The ability to make a living is one of them. The weeds. OMG the damn weeds. We need to double our payroll just to take care of them, and that is unaffordable. I am not telling you all this so you send me sweet emails letting me know how much you appreciate what we do. So many of you have already taken the time to do that. We feel the love and gratitude you share, and yes it keeps us going. We want our community to know how hard it is, just like we want to know your hardships, because we are community. We want folks to stop rolling their eyes about the cost of food after they just stood in line at the market talking about the next vacation they are taking or where they just returned from. We know our food costs more. It is not subsidized. We aren't using chemicals to save labor on weeding. We want to pay our employees enough that they can live here. The farming system in this country needs to burn down and be rebuilt. We know this is not your fault. In fact we know you are part of the solution, because you are here. Supporting us. Reading this. Listening. Thank you. So why am I writing this totally depressing newsletter? We just need you to know. We need you to know how hard it is. How messed up it is. How much it needs to change. We need you to set your friends straight when they say food is expensive. Yes, it is. That's what it costs, and it should cost a heck of a lot more, but we don't want our food to be completely inaccessible so we try to find a balanced point. But most folks spend more on their phones per year they they do supporting local farmers. We know lots of you are struggling to make ends meet and to keep your housing. Thanks for making us part of your tight budget. We also know so many folks are in much harder situations then us. But like I said, we just need people to know the reality of what we are doing. We just want you to know. We work more then most, for way less money then most, with more passion and commitment then most. We are dedicated and will keep going and there is still nothing else we would rather do. Thank you for listening and supporting us. Lunch this Week: Summer Saute' and Farm Curry (both on the summer Squash page)
Recipe Ideas: Idaho Salsa (cucumber page), Dale's Basil Vinaigrette, The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spicy Mix, Spinach, Sugar Snap Peas, Kale, Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Tomatoes and Maybe Radish, Sunflowers, Romaine Lettuce, and/or Bok Choy We may have had a record summer squash harvest. They were heavy and there are a lot of them! Helpful hint...summer squash is the easiest veggie to freeze for the winter. Just grate it in your food processor and then freeze in bags in proportioned sizes. Shredded frozen squash makes great zucchini cakes in the middle of winter. You can also make zucchini bread and easily freeze that! If you need some Reggae inspiration (don't we all!) and a great song about Cucumbers, please check this out! https://youtu.be/lL42O2p1nx8 We are in the "dog days of summer". As farmers we just keep our heads down and keep going. It is exhausting. I never want to wish summer away, but it always easy to see how working at this pace is not sustainable. We have our organic inspection on Wednesday of this week. There is so much going on I am keeping the newsletter short! Lunch this Week: Summer Squash Tomato Stew over Quinoa, Curried Zucchini Soup over Rice
Recipe Ideas: Kale Tomato Brown Rice Bowls, Kale with Bacon The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Arugula, Spinach, Basil, Summer Squash, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Bok Choy, maybe Fennel, Sunflowers, Green Beans, Shell Peas, Sugar Snaps and/or Head Lettuce (Red or Green Curly Leaf) One of the principles of Biodynamic farming is that our fertility is created on farm. This lessens our dependency on outside sources and creates a more closed loop farm system. Our compost is created by our animals. Even though we are all in it for the veggies our critters are an integral part of our farm plan. So here is a who's who of our livestock right now... We currently have a bull who has done his duty. He is the proud father of 3 calves with 4 more on the way. It is time for him to head to the butcher or within a month he will be able to impregnate his daughters...and we all know that is a no-no! The Mama cows are Annie, Ms. Moo Moo Face, Bertha, Solstice (a.k.a. Soley) and Red Rosie. The calves on farm right now are Frankie, Star and Penguin. We believe Annie will calve sometime this month and another round of hopefully 3 calves will be born in February. We have a lot of pigs right now, after an unplanned hiatus because the breeding stock was doing anything but breeding! We have a batch of teenagers who were purchased from other farms at a really young age. There are 6 of them. They are about 5-6 months old and will be processed around 8 months of age. Our new sow, Shorty, had a litter of 8 piglets . Proud Papa Luther is also new to the farm and will be around for a while. We hope Shorty and Luther enjoy each other's company! They were only able to hang out for a couple months together before Shorty had to be separated for birthing. She arrived pregnant...So Luther is currently playing step-Dad. This newsletter was inspired by our new laying flock. We have 80 chicks who are about a week old. They will start laying in early December...just in time for our winter markets. We still have 23 chickens from last summer's flock who are out on pasture. They scratch up an area and are then moved. They create the most amazing green grass where ever they have been. Even though they do absolutely nothing for the farm's fertile soils we have 2 excellent mousers, Zedd and Dumbledore. And of course I need to mention the official greeter of the farm, Cosmo! Lunch this Week: Polenta with sautéed summer squash on a bed of arugula with tomato balsamic reduction. Pita pockets with Tajiki, Cosmic Mix and toasted walnuts.
Recipe Ideas: Bok Choy, Spinach, Ginger Soup; Summer Squash Ribbons; Sautéed Summer Squash and Feta The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Lifeline Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spicy Mix, Summer Squash, Tomato, Basil, Fresh Garlic, Collards, Bok Choy, Arugula and Maybe Sunflowers Monday was Lammas, a holiday marking the beginning of the harvest season. It is the mid-point between Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox. It is a time to pause and evaluate how we are doing with the things we have sown for the year. What still needs to be tended to, what can we celebrate as a success, what have we already let go of and what work is ahead to prepare for the return of fall? On the seasonal wheel, we are closer to fall then the other seasons. Luckily we still have so many more "summer" crops to enjoy! We started the garlic harvest on this special day this year! The whole crop will be brought out of the field and into a shed to dry and cure so it will store well for the winter. About a third of it will be saved for seed for next year's crop. We started pulling it and piling it. Then the downpour came. We will continue Tuesday afternoon until it is done. This is the time of year we dream about when we are ordering seeds mid-winter. The garden is beginning to burst with all we imagined. The squash is still going strong and the sunflowers are beginning to bloom. A share with tomato, basil, fresh garlic and summer squash is the height of summer for me! The garlic going out today has not cured yet...or dried down. Notice when you open it the "paper" is still moist. The layer closest to the clove is still more vegetable and less paper. Savor the juiciness of the garlic! It is at it's peak of freshness, flavor and potency. We received the gift of rain this past week. The garden feels moist and lovely. We have been told by our irrigation company that we are now "on turns for water". As of now we are able to water for 3 days and then take 1 day off. While this rotation is not ideal, we will be able to manage just fine, especially with the recent precipitation. Lunch this Week: Gazpacho Soup with roasted summer Squash, Polenta with a tomato, balsamic reduction and sautéed summer squash
Recipe Ideas: Bruschetta, Garlicky Tomato Dressing, Collard Wraps, Tomato, Zucchini, Basil Boats The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Tri-Tip Roast, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spicy Mix, Arugula, Tomatoes, Summer Squash and Winter Savory Taking a break with the greens was the right call last week. They look big and plentiful this week. Monday was a record arugula harvest. Setting harvest records is always fun. It puts it in perspective when you think there is a lot of something as you are picking it, but when Jed looks at the records and can confirm it was "the most ever!", all that work feels a little extra special. I am grateful the harvest crew got to see how satisfying cutting greens can be. The summer squash is on. The plants will keep cranking out fruits almost as quickly as we can find and harvest them. We plan on having these beauties every week until it freezes, or the plants slow down. Sometimes they get stressed from smoke or cold and slow down a bit...but by then we are almost ready for a tiny break! And then they come back! Please note that all summer squash can be used interchangeably. Yes, you can use the round yellow patty pan for zucchini bread or the oblong green Magda for a recipe calling for patty pan. The flavors are so subtly different it is fine to trade them out in any recipe. Sometimes I just pick mine based on what color I feel like adding to a dish. Add two types of summer squash to a dish and perform a taste test! Winter Savory! Okay...it is new to me also. I don't have a recipe page for it yet. But my quick search and tastings of it let me know it is great for all bean dishes, it tastes a little bit like thyme and is quite peppery. It would be wonderful with chicken or in chicken soup. Like all herbs in this climate it will dry perfectly for winter use if you are not going through it quickly. (herb drying tips on the oregano page) Lunch this Week: Chili Mint stir fry with Tempeh or Round Steak. Over a bed of arugula and tomatoes.
Recipe Ideas: Summer Veggie Tian (sub savory for thyme, under the summer squash page), Summer Squash Boats (also sub savory for oregano), Italian Arugula Salad, Farmer Breakfast: Egg fried in lard/butter on a bed of arugula with diced fermented jalapenos and rice vinegar. Truck Driver needed! We still need a delivery driver. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Or Tuesday or Thursday! 2 days a week or just one! 3-9 ish. If you know anyone, please send them our way! Details here: http://www.cosmicapple.com/employment-opportunities.html The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Tri-Tip Roast, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com Crop List: Sugar Snap Peas, Summer Squash, Head Lettuce, Kale, Basil, Bok Choy, Maybe Tomatoes or Shelling Peas Let's get the bad news out of the way. We have no Cosmic Mix this week. Our first 2 crops did not fare so well. The 3rd crop of it is looking good! We could have harvested it for this week, but then we would have had another mediocre harvest. We decided to hold off until next week and use our time more efficiently. We think next week it will be big and bountiful! Pea picking is on! The crew is spending so much time harvesting peas right now. Shell peas and sugar snaps. We know you love them. We love them too. We will never be able to harvest enough to satiate the CSA. They take a lot of time to get off the vines and are one of our more labor intensive crops. We know many peas don't even make it home and are enjoyed on the drive from the pick up. We even had a farm dog years ago who would find the ripe ones and eat them off the vines. How can that crunch be resisted! Speaking of crunch...have you noticed the shift in the shares. We are past just leafy greens. The veggies are starting to have more texture, snap and weight. Water. Everyone is asking us about water right now. We love your concern. As of now, we have water! A "call" was made by the folks out below who have older irrigation rights and get to take the water when they deem it time. The call was "futile" because the water in the creek is not flowing enough to make it to the main artery and then out of the valley. Some years we have to shut off to determine if it will make it out of the valley. But this year with such low levels we did not have to take that break. Our irrigation company, Trail Creek, has stated we may need to take turns using the water because the pressure in the pipes is so low, but we have yet to hear. While this is not ideal and will result in less water, we will manage. Water, Sun, Air and Soil. These are the elements we survive by. Each is so precious for growing food. I think about each of them in turn. Water is at the forefront right now. The water that comes to the farm is amazing. It is Teton snowmelt. We are so close to the source and the water is so pure because of it. We know it makes a difference in the flavor of the veggies. Often when I think of water my mind goes back to the film "What the Bleep" from 2004. It touches on Dr. Masaru Emoto's studies of how our emotions affect water. He has found that the structure of H2O molecules can change when certain intentions are directed at it. Love, compassion, hatred, anger all change the molecular structure in different ways. I find it fascinating, and completely empowering. Okay...I'm going to get out there. Quit reading now if you need to. I like to think about our collective Teton Mindset. If we are walking around saying things like..."It's so dry", "we need rain", "what a crappy snow year, there's no Pow", "I'm sick of snow, when is spring going to get here?" the water around us absorbs that energy. The water takes it on and moves through our space and out into the world. If the water is receiving the energy of "it's so dry" maybe it receives that message of dryness and keeps it dry. This is where the empowerment comes in. Our language affects the energy we put out. So in my far out Cosmic thinking, I believe if we change our thinking (energy) to "rain is welcome", "snow is welcome" "spring is welcome" it moves water through our space and sends it out into the world feeling loved by the People of the Tetons. I think the rest of the world could use that love too. If studies have proven that water absorbs our emotions, I believe we should be conscious enough to give it emotions we want to share with the world. I believe if we make an effort to choose emotions and thought patterns to make water feel welcome we can collectively change the weather patterns. And guess what...Even if I am completely wrong, the only thing that changes is you spent some moments thinking about how you address water in our ecosystem. Which seems to me like a win anyway. So call the water in. Welcome it. Picture rain falling. Smell it in the air. Feel it on your skin. Hear it dancing on the puddles. Take a moment to taste it in your veggies and send it some gratitude. Lunch this Week: Stir Fry! Starring Sugar Snap Peas, Summer Squash, Kale, Over rice.
Recipe Ideas: Simple, Perfect Peas with Butter and Salt, Creamy Zuchinni Cumin Dip for the Sugar Snaps, Grilled Summer Squash Truck Driver needed! We still need a delivery driver. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Or Tuesday or Thursday! 2 days a week or just one! 3-9 ish. If you know anyone, please send them our way! Details here: http://www.cosmicapple.com/employment-opportunities.html The coolers at your site are stocked with Lifeline cheese and a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me and I will make sure it is in the cooler, reserved for you. I don't send every cut every week, they simply won't all fit! Beef Available: Tenderloin, Ribeye, New York, Sirloin Steak, Eye of the Round, Brisket, Ground Beef, Patties, Tri-Tip Roast, Sirloin Tip Roast, Tongue, Marrow Bones, Heart, Stew, and Kabobs Pork Available: Fat WASH YOUR VEGGIES!! Bring Bags to pick-ups! If you can't make it to pick up your veggies, send a friend! Missed shares are forfeited for the week. Members get 20% off at the Farmer's Markets! The People's Market: Wednesdays 4-7 The Driggs Market: Fridays 9-1 Jackson Hole Farmer's Market: Saturdays 8-1 Questions? Comments? Recipes to share? dale@cosmicapple.com |
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