Week Ten, our Mid-Way Point

Yes, it is already week ten. I had typed in week nine and then had to think to myself, no Alice, this is the half-way point. It's just gone by so fast it's hard to fathom being here already! We hope everyone is enjoying being with us and trying out all of the variety of produce and flowers we grow. Every year we learn so many things and see more clearly how we can improve our production, so we trust you all to have patience with our farming skills and we of course thank you for that patience. You all have so far been a delightful CSA, so we'd like to thank you for that as well.
This past weekend for the 4th of July we were able to go on a little mini-vacation up to Oxford and Annapolis, Maryland where Stuart spent his childhood. We had an awesome time and stayed on his parent's boat, sightseeing and enjoying being on the water, being away from the farm. We were blessed with a whole inch of rain while we were away, a perfect amount to water everything and keep it healthy. We are now able to get into the soil and till this week, a crucial step as we try to get in summer cover crops to keep the soil healthy. We are excited to say that while we were gone a summer crop of salad mix has germinated and, if everything goes well, you should all be seeing that in your boxes in a few weeks.
We have had quite a few inquiries as to what the pale yellow/white orbs have been in the boxes.....these are called lemon cucumbers and we hope you like them. We have some customers at the market who are crazy about them and we can never seem to have enough for everyone. They don't really taste like a lemon, but they do kind of look like lemons. You eat them as you would a regular cucumber....with a little salt, or a splash of vinegar, or cut up in rounds on a sandwich, in a salad, etc.
We are very sad to say that our melon crop has not been so great this year. We weeded them right before a 97 degree day and we think that made a lot of the vines on the plants wither up and die. We do have some melons, but are not of our usual size or quantity. Due to this fact we're going to have to give Falconbridge members melons this week and give Foster's members melons next week. Sorry about that! We also don't have enough of any one melon variety to give everyone the same type, so you will either get sunjewels (as pictured~kind of tastes like a honeydew), cantaloupe, or watermelon. They are all on the small side, so they'll be comparable prices. Again, we apologize for this but there is usually some crop that fails each year....atleast we have some small fries to give you all!!
In your boxes this week
Foster's
2 lb green beans (green and possibly yellow wax beans, eaten just like regular beans)
1 pint of cherry tomatoes
close to 2 lbs of heirloom tomatoes (possible varieties in you boxes are cherokee purple, pineapple, german johnson, valencia, green zebra, brandywine and big beef)
1 pint of padron peppers

Falconbridge
same as Foster's but instead of padrons you will get a small melon and some basil

Large Shares
we're not 100% sure yet what we'll have extra, but we're thinking:
a lb of cucumbers
extra pint of padrons
extra pint of cherry tomatoes

RECIPES
Smitten Kitchen does an incredible food blog, and here is a simple recipe for green bean cherry tomato salad.
Epicurious's Heirloom tomato salad with blue cheese
If you feel like getting fancy....epicurious's heirloom tomato tart recipe
Martha Stewart's Heirloom tomato salad with Garlic oil
Martha's Spicy Pickled Green and Wax Beans

These all look so good.....I think it's time to go make some dinner! Have fun with all your veggies everyone.

FLOWER SHARES
This week we have some AWESOME gladiolas for everyone, we think we'll put them with some love grass and a sunflower as a mixed bouquet.

Thanks everyone~ have a great week and we'll talk to you soon!!