Blue Gate Farm News – Volume VII, Number 6 – July 8, 2008

In this week’s box:

Beans: Carson (yellow) or Empress (green)

Onions: young, Ailsa Craig (sweet, white) and Mercury (red)

Broccoli: Pac Man florets

Calendula Bouquet

Cucumber: Lemon (round, yellow)

Peas: Sugar Snap (round pod) or Snow (flat pod)

Zucchini: Eight Ball (green, round) or Sebring (yellow)

For those with the Egg option: one dozen free-range eggs (assorted colors)

For those with the Herb option: Basil (Lemon), Garlic Chives, Mountain Mint

Featured Recipe(s) (see below): Zippy Sesame Beans

Rain this week: 5.35” (from 7/1 - 7/7)

What’s up on the farm?

Tuesday 7:00am - I had finished the newsletter last night, with a pretty good feeling for what was going into today’s boxes, not overflowing with produce but a nice amount. The clouds were rolling in and the winds had picked up as I went to bed. It was quite a storm, but just a storm, nothing serious. Then when I got up this morning, ready to harvest, I looked at the rain gauge…4.5”. That is a huge amount of rain on ground that has been inundated with water this year. A walk around the gardens confirmed my fears. The last of the lettuce crop is ruined, flattened and bruised with the force of the rain. The immature Chinese cabbage is bolting due to the water stress. The Diva and Suyo Long cucumbers continue to succumb to moisture-induced wilt, though the Lemon cukes seem to be holding their own. The patty pan squash are in standing water. The wind pulled the row cover off the broccoli and beat them with it, we will get broccoli to as many people as possible, but it’s not looking good. The peas are still trying to make a go of it. Hopefully we will get them out to everyone before they give up. The mid-summer crops are still looking ok, the tomatoes are setting nicely and thinking about coloring, the peppers are putting on fruit - even though they are only 10” tall and the beans look fabulous. Not everything is failing, but I’m afraid the boxes will continue to look a little lean for a couple of weeks.

We hope you all had a wonderful 4^th of July holiday last week. As our house is on the top of a hill, we are able to watch fireworks displays nearly 360 degrees around. It’s a pretty good show as long as the skies are somewhat clear.

This past week we finally got the remainder of the tomatoes trellised. This is always a big job, and somehow we always manage to find a good, hot day to start the process. So now the tomatoes are all up off the ground and it looks more like a vineyard (with really off-looking grapes) than a vegetable garden. In addition to the tomato project, most of the week was dedicated to weeding. We feel like we are winning the battle in many areas of the gardens, but there are still a few crops that need rescuing.

We had a number of visitors to the farm this week, which is rather unusual. Jill was interviewed by a Grinnell grad student for a research project on Monday. On Thursday, our friend and CSA member Debbie came back to help out for the day, which was a big treat! On Saturday, Jill’s sister and her family (including two young nephews) came for the weekend, plus another member family came out for a little country air. Then on Sunday, some old customers from the farmers market who had moved out of state, came back for a visit and had a tour of the farm. What fun to see so many friendly faces come down our lane all in one week!

For those of you receiving flowers this week, calendulas are considered one of the important flowers in nature’s medicine cabinet. They are an edible flower that we use in our salad mixes, baked goods, desserts and jellies. They can be used to color herb vinegars (just sprinkle the petals into the vinegar and allow to infuse for a few days. They can also be allowed to dry for a couple of days and then covered with warm olive oil overnight for a soothing treatment for skin irritations. Or you can just put them in a vase and enjoy their cheery dispositions.

Best from the farm (soggy though it is),

Jill & Sean

Zippy Sesame Beans

1 lb fresh green beans (whole)

2 tbs olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp sea salt

fresh ground pepper, to taste

2 tbs seasoned rice vinegar

¼ c. sesame seeds, toasted

Place beans in a large pot of boiling water for 3-5 minutes. You don’t want to cook them, they should still crunch, just blanch until bright green. Drain and allow to cool to room temperature or slightly warm. While beans are cooking, mix garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl, and allow to sit at room temperature until beans are cooled. Place beans in a large bowl and toss with garlic/olive oil mixture. Add vinegar and half of sesame seeds, toss again. Place beans in serving dish and sprinkle with remaining sesame seeds. We like this dish served at room temperature as a salad or as a somewhat messy appetizer, but it is also good served warm or chilled. This is a great party or potluck dish. If you have leftovers, you might want to add another splash of rice vinegar before serving them again, just to liven up the flavor a bit.

Recipe Source: Blue Gate Farm