Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Snap Pea, Shell Pea, Napa Cabbage, Baby Carrots, Red Sails Head Lettuce, Tomatoes, Spinach, Maybe Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Snow Pea, and Sunflowers

Carrots are coming! We have heard they are the best carrots. I don't know if that is true or not. I do know all the parents need a warning...If you give your children these carrots, they may refuse to eat other carrots. It has happened. I wish you the best.
We have been sending out some specialty tomatoes along with our favorite variety of reds. Have you noticed? There have been some green zebras along with some saladette. We ask that everyone be extra specially gentle when you weigh and pick through the tomato bin. We all love tomatoes...especially when they are bruise free!
Thursday is Lammas, the day halfway between Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox. The days are getting shorter, but the pace at the farm has not slowed down a bit. Summer is at its height!
We have big plans this weekend to harvest all of the garlic. Most of our crops stay in the field until we are ready to distribute them. Garlic is a bit different.  I have written about garlic and its lifecycle before. Since our minds are turning to garlic, I'm going to share all I know about it with you!
From a 2011 Newsletter...
​Garlic how we love you!
Cosmic’s garlic has received rave reviews from members over the years. We have been growing this same strain of Romanian Red garlic for 10 years now! Saving our own seed and watching the plant become more and more specialized to our climate. I fell in love with garlic at Killarney Farm in Northern Idaho where I apprenticed. These folks had been saving there own seed for so long the plant evolved into its own variety now known as Killarney Red. It was originally Romanian Red. Garlic was the most important crop at Killarney. Paul, our smiling farmer, would always laugh at that fact because it was the most labor intensive crop they grew. Garlic thrives in Teton Valley. We plant garlic in the fall, as soon as the CSA is done. It starts growing roots immediately. Garlic spends its winter in the soil while the garden is resting poised and ready for spring warmth. It loves cold winters. Think about the power of garlic. It has the ability to cure us of colds and infections. It is antiviral. It needs winters like ours to learn resistance to cold and disease. Energetically garlic gives us what we need to boost our immune system, because it gathers the ability and strength to survive in harsh elements. It makes me chuckle to see the “Garlic Capital of The World” is Gilroy, California. I have also grown garlic in California. It was awful. Little weak bulbs, no robust flavor, we had to baby it so it would not rot as it was drying. It never had a cold winter to learn the lessons it needed to be strong. We could not even save seed in CA. They had to order new seed every year! Here, in the spring,  garlic is the first sprout to pop out of the ground. Little green shoots surrounded by dark brown soil, blue skies and white mountains, it is always a welcome sight. By the end of June we can usually give out baby garlic. These treats are tender and look like little leeks. Mid-July yields garlic curls. We have to get these attempted seed heads off the plant so the energy goes to forming the bulb instead of the “seeds”. By August it is usually time to get the garlic out of the field and into the shed to dry. We stack it so air can circulate and the leaves die. As the leaves die, all the plant’s remaining energy is drawn down into the bulb. When the tops are completely dried, we can cut the top off without fear of disease or fungus crawling in thru the stem. The workshares also rub off any large chunks of soil before we deliver it. This is what makes storage garlic. When we are done with the CSA this fall we will sit in front of the shed, (or in the greenhouse if the weather is unpleasant) on buckets with coffee cups nearby chatting as the bulbs are broken into individual cloves. As we do this we grade the garlic. We look for the largest cloves to save, for the largest crop next year. We also look for any cloves with not enough paper, or bruises. These “imperfect” cloves are planted in the culled section. The smaller ones and culls are the ones dug as baby garlic. The best ones are saved for storage garlic and seed. About a third of our crop is saved every year to be replanted. We joyfully get to ride the transplanter to get the garlic in the ground. We used to plant it on our hands and knees in cold and wet fall soil, the transplanter has been a welcome improvement! In ten months it will be ready for harvest! Garlic takes a lot more handling than most crops we grow, but considering the results, I’d say it is well worth it. If you start feeling worn down this winter, try mincing some garlic and spreading it on toast with honey. Your body will thank you!

Now we just all need to wait until the garlic cures and is ready to be delivered later in the season. Until then let's enjoy the tasty treats of August!!

Workshare Lunch this week: Pad Bai with tomatoes, basil and summer squash
Farm family dinner (or breakfast, or lunch!): BLT's!

The coolers at your site are stocked with a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me or tell your site host 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, New York Steak, Sirloin Steak, Sirloin Tip Roast, Bottom Round Roast, Liver, Ground Beef, Patties and Heart
​Pork Available: Bacon, Pork Chops, Shoulder Roast, Shank, Spare Ribs, Breakfast Sausage, Chorizo, Breakfast Sausage, Grandpa Restuccia's Sausage, Neck Bones, Fat and Heads

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 Saturday Market: Saturdays 8-12
Questions? Comments? recipes to share? [email protected]

Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Snow Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, Turnips, Tomatoes,  Basil, Sage, maybe Summer Squash and Sunflowers
The garden turned the corner on summer this week! Summer squash, cucumbers and tomatoes are the pinnacle of summer eating for me. The cukes need a bit more time, but they are growing. We have some more weeding to accomplish, but we are entering the time of year when the garden likes to see how fast and how much we can harvest, eat and put-up. Yum.
My kids turned a bit of a corner on me too. Somehow they are all old enough that I can wake up early (after actually sleeping all night!) and get out of the house to do some farm work. I return when they are ready for breakfast. I've missed the early mornings at the farm and the quiet of showing up solo. I have also missed the canyon breezes. 
We get lots of wind at the farm. The wind tries my patience and stamina. It tests our ability to lay row cover. It once blew over a refrigerator full of about 550 #'s of carrots shattering the glass and making the carrots unusable. It is so consistent,  Jed put it in our wedding vows. He assured me his love would be as sure as the spring winds. The wind is also one of reasons the snow melts faster in Victor then in Wilson and Jackson. It is also the reason our soil is so deep, much of it has been wind deposited. Eastern Idaho may not have been the best place to land for a lover of gentle breezes. The prevailing winds come out of the Southwest, and sometimes the North...on those special days.
But the canyon breezes. These are magical. They happen as the mountains cool and heat. In the morning as the sun creeps across the valley, the warming air stirs the mountain air and we get a cool mountain breeze that comes across the farm from the Southeast. This gift keeps the farm from frosting on some early fall nights when elsewhere in the valley all is still. We live a mile from the farm. The air at the house will be still, but once I hit the farm road on my bike I remember the canyon breeze. 
In the evening after the sun sets the mountains drain of the warm air and we get these tropical breezes coming out of the canyon again. Right about the time you reach for an extra layer, the warm breezes pick up. Being close to the foothills for these breezes was one of the reasons the farmland we are on was so appealing. The microclimate of the farm is nothing short of miraculous. A large part of that is the air currents. 
I've been noticing air more, making myself pay attention to it. The element of it. I've noticed how when we are close to the summer solstice I feel light, airy, fast and energized. The veggies are light, and don't last long.  A million things are happening, I'm in my head, skipping from to-do item to to-do item, getting the farm going. I've rarely taken time to notice air before, because I've been too busy thinking, doing and moving through it. (The feeling of winter solstice, I get...I have time to think about it, feel it.)
​We've crossed the threshold of deep summer. A surprising number of people have been telling me they are tired. We are all trying to get the most summer we can. But it does not take much to re-energize this time of year. A cold swim, an afternoon nap, a hike or a big salad and we are back at it. Soaking summer up, feeling the warm breezes.
Biodynamics links the air element to the flowering part of the plant. At this time of year most of our crops have flowered (turned the corner) and we are harvesting the fruits or they are still growing for a fall harvest. The fruit/seed time of the year is the fall, which is linked to fire.
We are moving away from the lightest time of year, the veggies are getting heavier but don't taste anything like fall yet! I've said this before...this is the time of year I dream about in the middle of winter when I am looking at seed catalogs. It is a good time of year to be an eater! I like that we have passed the solstice. The eating is good and the canyon breezes are amazing.

Workshare Lunch this week: Burritos with zucchini and Kale, topped with Idaho salsa (Tomato, cilantro, garlic and cucumber)
Farm family dinner: Tomato, Garlic and Summer Squash (recipe on Tomato page) and Cosmic Burgers with a pile of Cosmic Mix on top.
Salad Dressing of the Week: Sage Tahini

The coolers at your site are stocked with a selection of the beef and pork listed below. If you know you want something, please email me or tell your site host 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, New York Steak, Rib Eye Steak, Sirloin Steak, Sirloin Tip Roast, Pastrami, Bottom Round Roast, Liver, Ground Beef, Patties and Heart
​Pork Available: Bacon, Pork Chops, Shoulder Roast, Shank, Spare Ribs, Chorizo, Breakfast Sausage, Grandpa Restuccia's Sausage, Neck Bones, Fat and Heads

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 Saturday Market: Saturdays 8-12
Questions? Comments? recipes to share? [email protected]

Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Sugar Snap Peas, Snow Peas, Kale or Collards, Sandy Head Lettuce, Baby Garlic, Dill, Cilantro and maybe Tomatoes

The tomatoes are making their way around to the sites. They come on slow and steady. We keep careful records of who gets them, and make sure a different site gets them the following week. If all goes well we should soon have enough for all the sites at once! Go tomatoes go!!!
The pea picking has been going well. Also slow and steady! We are opening the patch up if you want to come pick your own peas. The seed we got this year was a bit...eclectic. You may have noticed last week's sugar snap peas also had some snow and shell peas mixed in. This was from our seed supplier and when harvesters are picking it is hard to sort them all out, so we just kept them together. It is a pre-made pea salad!
Pea Picking hours: Tue, Thur, Fri: 8-8; Sat: 8-12
How to find the peas: Farm address is 397 E 8500 S., in Victor (Please leave your dog at home!!). Park in the main parking area. Walk towards the building with the sun mosaic on it (the sunny john, in case you need a bathroom). The peas are 3rd and 4th row in the garden closest to the sunny john. A tiny bit South West, and about 20 feet away. Please bring a bucket or other vessel to pick into. If you bring children, keep them off of the plants and keep them close. There are other plants in the same section we need to harvest later! There are 2 rows, you may pick from either of them.
Baby garlic this week, yum! We have now had garlic curls and baby garlic in the shares. If you are curious about the life cycle of garlic, you can check out its full story on the garlic scape recipe page. These babies are super juicey with thick paper that needs to be pulled off. Also, keep them in your fridge as they have not yet been cured like the garlic we will give out in the fall.  

Workshare Lunch this week: Quinoa with pesto, kale, bok choy and Lifeline Montzarella
Farm family dinner: Pasta primavera with Granpa sausage, kale, peas, tomatoes and basil
Salad Dressing of the Week: Dale’s Basil Sesame Vinaigrette (Substitute cilantro for the basil!)

Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Spicy Mix, Arugula, Mint, Sugar Snap Peas, Bok Choy, Maybe Non Organic Tomatoes, Non Organic Basil or Non Organic Specialty Basil

Heat wave coming at you! It feels like summer. The garden loves it! I love it! I always need to get warm to the bones after a Teton winter. The garden is going to double in size this week with the warmth of summer fully upon it. As will the weeds. Things will start browning up where we have not watered, and the biting flies are upon us. The evenings are lovely. Tonight's low is 60 degrees!! It may be one of the only nights of the year I won't need a wool hat in reach if I go out! We got a mild frost on the morning of the 4th. We were not expecting it, but the plants are all fine.  The wildflowers are amazing right now! Yay Summer!!!
Currently we are spending a lot of time pea picking. Sugar Snaps! YUM! Something crunchy from the garden! Sugar snaps are one of those crops that we can't pick enough of. People always want more than we can provide because we simply don't have enough labor. Nor did the farmers of Teton Valley in the 1970's! Peas were a huge crop here for a long time. The Teton Valley magazine wrote a great article on the history of pea farming. I had no idea of the history of the crop until I read the article when it was first published, but the history of our valley stuck with me. Here is the link: ​http://tetonvalleymagazine.com/history-stories/pick-of-the-past/  if you want to read all about it!
This is the last week of Non-organic basil and tomatoes out of our one greenhouse (the other one is certified organic). All the same plants will be up to certification standards on July 18th. For more info, please check out the newsletter from share #2.

Workshare Lunch this week: Fried Tempeh, bok choy, kale, turnips and basil over rice
Farm family treat: Mint basil yogurt pops
Salad Dressing of the Week: Farmer John's Lemon Mint

Crop List: Cosmic Mix, Dill, Radish, Garlic Curls, Kale and Sugar Snap Peas

Greenhouse number 5 is up and growing! We planted tomatoes in it last week. The number one most requested item at the farm is always tomatoes. The plants went in the soil a bit later then they, and we would have liked. Being a bit late is the nature of any construction project I have ever been part of! We think we will get a nice late season flush from the plants. The exciting part (for us and you) will be next year when we get to see how many tomatoes we can really grow with 3 greenhouses dedicated to them. Each space is 20' X 100'. We still have 2 smaller spaces for early season seedlings. Jed swore years ago he would never build another greenhouse, but how could we resist more tomatoes?! We are happy this new structure is up and look forward to the years of of produce it will provide.
We have one volunteer who dedicates all her time to the tomatoes alone. She puts in about 10 hours each week. Trellising, pruning, weeding and (soon to be) harvesting. Repeat. Keep repeating until the end of September when we clean the greenhouses out. The fifth greenhouse is serious job security! We are incredibly grateful for Deb and the excitement she exudes for the tomatoes!

In last year's end of season survey, I was looking for feedback on the newsletters and how to make them work better for you!
45 of the 77 comments we received told us to keep them as they are. YAY!! It always feels good to be doing something right! More recipes received 6 votes. Sharing what we were eating for the week on the farm, or a highlighted recipe each week got 3 votes each. I can do that!
The newsletter used to go out in a 2 page format with farm info and recipes. I used to spend hours finding, cutting, pasting and forcing recipes into my allocated space. Microsoft word and I argued a lot about what would fit and what wouldn't. Sometimes I could not get all the recipes I wanted in, sometimes I felt like I was using the same recipes as the previous years...but I do make that spinach dip every year, and it is what I get excited about when the first crop of spinach comes in! With the new format, I have all the recipes in one place and can add to them as I discover new things. There are 18 spinach recipes in one place now, instead of me trying to fit one or two in the newsletter. I love getting new recipes sent to me and am happy to add them to the recipe bank! 
I will start sharing what we are eating with the volunteers each week as well as what I am excited to cook for my family. These recipes are highlighted and noted in the recipe bank. Sometimes what I cook for the volunteers does not match up with your share. I use leftovers from the CSA and markets, so sometimes I have to wait until the demand for a crop lessens so I can get my hands on it! I cook for about 60 people a week, so making sure I have enough before I commit to a recipe is top priority. You can find Jed and I every Sunday night talking about the week's upcoming workshare menu and harvesting plans! We still enjoy talking about food!

​Weekly Recipe Ideas:
Workshare Lunch this week: Dale's Mint Quinoa with veggies (Share veggies to use: garlic curls, radish, kale and sugar snap peas)
Farm family dinner: Salmon baked in cream and lots of dill, served over rice
Salad Dressing of the Week: Yogurt dill dressing