This week’s share includes:

Basil
The quintessential taste of summer.

Green Beans
Beans are beans, right? Nope. This variety is called Jade and it is the best tasting variety we’ve grown.

Beets and Salad Turnips
Early Wonder are the classic red beets. Chioggia are the lighter red, an Italian heirloom which have rings of color when you slice them open. They are a little milder in taste than the Early Wonders. They are pictured below with white salad turnips. Use the greens the way you would spinach or swiss chard.

Broccoli
There were enough sideshoots to provide 1/2 lb for each share. We tried to find all the caterpillars, but may have missed some, so give it a good check.

Carrots
We took the tops off so they will keep better.

Garlic and Red Onions
The garlic has cured so it should keep for a while, although more will be coming over the next few weeks. The onions has not cured yet so use them in the next couple of weeks.

Swiss Chard and Kale
The swiss chard has multicolored stems. Eat both the leaves and the stems.Rainbow Lacinato is the variety of kale we grow. Kale is power packed with nutrition.

Lettuce
There are two varieties this week: a romaine called Paris Island and Anuenue, a variety developed in Hawaii, which looks like iceberg lettuce. We’ve switched to summer lettuces now, which will hopefully hold up in the heat better than the early season varieties.

Summer Squash, Zucchini and Cucumber
This week’s share includes two yellow summer squash, one green zucchini, and a cucumber. The squash and zucchini can be used interchangeably in most recipes. The zucchini and cucumbers are courtesy of Lone Hawk Farm.

It was a big harvest day!

For several weeks now we’ve had pretty high levels of insect pressure.  First it was flea beetles, then it was cabbage worms (they come from all the pretty white moths fluttering around).  The latest insects to dine in the garden seem to be Harlequin bugs.

A type of stink bug, they apparently are finding cabbage and broccoli to their liking.  Being relatively large and slow-moving, we opted to control them by hand-picking rather than using a pesticide.  It’s a perfect job for the kids to do.  Walking down the row, they knock the bugs into a bucket of soapy water.  Ivory dish soap seems to work well.  The bugs drown, and then we dump them out on the ground.  I guess they give back the broccoli they ate in the form of fertilizer!

Drowned Harlequin bugs:

A quantity of drowned Harlequin bugs:

Fertilizer in the form of drowned Harlequin bugs:

This week’s share includes:

Beets
Early Wonder is the variety.  They are a classic red beet.  Use the greens the way you would spinach or swiss chard.

Broccoli
There were enough sideshoots to provide 1/2 lb for each share.  We tried to find all the caterpillars, but may have missed some, so give it a good check.

Carrots
Yea, they’ve finally sized up!

Green Onions
Unlike the scallions, these have started to bulb up a little.

Kale
Rainbow Lacinato is the variety.  Kale is power packed with nutrition.  It’s also very appealing to the same caterpillars that like broccoli.  Just eat around the holes.

Lettuce
Two heads of a romaine called Paris Island.  We’ve switched to summer lettuces now, which will hopefully hold up in the heat better than the early season varieties.

Peas
Either Sugar Snap or Snow, our choice.  With the hot temps , pea production is starting to slow down, but we picked enough for about 1/2 lb per share.

Radishes
The classic red radish called Cherry Belle.  In our sampling, we found them not too zingy, although the heat seemed to come on

Tonight’s share includes:

Beets
These are called Early Wonder.  They’re a classic red beet.  Use the greens the way you would spinach or chard. 

Brocccoli
This is likely the last of the broccoli until fall.

Kale
Power-packed with nutrition.  We grow a variety called Rainbow Lacinato.

Lettuce
Two kinds of head lettuce tonight:

Green Deer Tongue, which is an heirloom looseleaf apparently dating back to the 1740s.  We’ve decided the leaves are excessively delicate.  Careful; they break very easily.

Merlot, which is a frilly red leaf.

Scallions

Peas, either sugar snap or snow
If you can resist eating all of them before you get home, try them in a salad.

Swiss Chard

We plant a multi-colored mix. We try to pick the leaves while they’re still on the small side in order to avoid overly-tough stems. If you haven’t tried chard before, you’re in for a treat. It has a taste similar to spinach, but the stems add a nice crunchy texture. Use it as you would spinach in sauces, or just steamed.

Salad Turnips
They’re the white, radish-looking things. But with less zing and more crunch. Use them like you would radishes.

[Sorry, this is a back-post.  It's been a busy week.]

Tonight’s share includes:

Bok Choy
Sorry, no photo.  The flea beetle damage has diminished, and the heads are starting to size up.  Try them on the grill!

Brocccoli
No photo again, but you probably know what it looks like.  The heads didn’t get as large as we would have liked, but with the recent hot temps, they were looking like they might flower, so we cut them.  We included some side shoots, which should be just as tasty as the main head.

Lettuce

Three kinds of head lettuce tonight:

Buttercrunch, which is a butterhead.

Green Deer Tongue, which is an heirloom looseleaf apparently dating back to the 1740s.

Merlot, which is a small red leaf.

Scallions

Sugar Snap Peas
No photo, but yea, they’re finally ready!  If you can resist eating all of them before you get home, try them in a salad.

Spinach
Sorry, no photo.  But we’re probably near the end of our spinach.  It doesn’t like the heat much.

Swiss Chard

We plant a multi-colored mix.  We try to pick the leaves while they’re still on the small side in order to avoid overly-tough stems.  If you haven’t tried chard before, you’re in for a treat.  It has a taste similar to spinach, but the stems add a nice crunchy texture.  Use it as you would spinach in sauces, or just steamed.

Salad Turnips
Oops, no photo of these, either.  Sorry.  They’re the white, radish-looking things.  But with less zing and more crunch.  Use them like you would radishes.

Our kids love working at the farm.  They get to help us transplant, weed, water, and harvest.  There’s lots of toads to be caught.  And sometimes they can spy on a nest of baby birds in the barn.  And they’re always happy to help.

Well okay, that last part’s not always true.

Sometimes they get bored:

Sometimes they get tired:

And sometimes they decide there are ways other than farming to get closer to nature:

But sometimes, the cool things they get to do make up for all those bored, tired, risqué times.

Tonight’s share includes:

Brocccoli
Sorry, no photo.  The heads didn’t get as large as we would have liked, but with the recent hot temps, they were looking like they might flower, so we cut them.  Hopefully the plants will produce side shoots, which should be just as tasty as the main head.

Garlic Scapes

These are the seed stalks from hard neck garlic.  They make a cool curly-cue.  We pull them so the plant will direct all its energy toward making bigger bulbs.  They just happen to also be very tasty.  Use them like you would scallions or green onions/garlic.  Here’s what they look like still on the plant:

Kohlrabi

While it sort of looks like an alien creature, Kohlrabi is related to broccoli.  The part we typically eat is the swollen stem, not the root.  It tastes almost exactly like broccoli stems.  Peel the outer skin, which can get tough.  Eat it raw, steamed, or cooked.

Lettuce
Three kinds of head lettuce tonight:

Buttercrunch, which is a butterhead.

Green Deer Tongue, which is an heirloom looseleaf apparently dating back to the 1740s.

Merlot, which is a small red leaf.

Scallions

Spinach
Sorry, no photo.  But we’re probably near the end of our spinach.  It doesn’t like the heat much.

Swiss Chard

We plant a multi-colored mix.  We try to pick the leaves while they’re still on the small side in order to avoid overly-tough stems.  If you haven’t tried chard before, you’re in for a treat.  It has a taste similar to spinach, but the stems add a nice crunchy texture.  Use it as you would spinach in sauces, or just steamed.

Salad Turnips
Oops, no photo of these, either.  Sorry.  They’re the white, radish-looking things.  But with less zing and more crunch.  Use them like you would radishes.

Finally, here’s a peak at the “Blue Bubble,” our washing shed that we covered with a blue tarp to keep the sun away.

Here’s a great project that you might not have heard about.  It’s an effort to start a combo greenhouse/fish farm right here in Longmont on water department land.  Their plan is to use methane from the water treatment process to heat the greenhouse.  Pretty cool.  Check our their website:

http://www.growyourownmeal.org

We had a visit from the preschoolers at Bloom! Montessori in Longmont yesterday.  Of the many exciting things the kids did, watching the horses from the fence was a highlight.  At least until they got to climb the hay bales.  And sit on the tractor.  And ride in the wagon.  And pull turnips.  And…

Read the details at Bloom’s blog:

http://bloommontessori.blogspot.com/2010/06/field-trip-to-family-table-farm.html

Here’s a nifty movie I found on a fellow Colorado farmer’s website (www.mountainviewmeadowsfarm.com):