Harvest #15 (Week A) should include zucchini, carrots, sweet peppers, fresh onions, tomatoes, lettuce, watermelon, cantaloupe, fresh garlic, hot peppers, scallions, shishito peppers, and herbs. Some items will be a choice. U-pick should include edamame, cherry/grape tomatoes, green/snap/string beans, tomatillos, husk cherries, flowers, and herbs.

Now that we're into week #6 of harvesting tomatoes, have harvested 4-5 tons total, have distributed about 30lbs to full shares over that time (20lbs to medium and 15lbs to half), and the tomatoes do not appear to be slowing down just yet, it feels like it's time to reflect on their success this year. Undoubtedly a new all time tomato harvest record will be set this season. Besides the great yield, what's most pronounced this year is the sustained quality of the fruit and health of the plants. But why?

After a few successive years of disappointing or underwhelming tomato yields, reduced plant vigor and health, and a too short harvest window, we decided to reevaluate and try to improve this most important crop. The main issue with the tomato plant is its susceptibility to multiple diseases, both soil- and air-borne. We practice crop rotation to attempt to thwart soil-borne pressure, which typically kept plants healthy for their first two months in the ground. However, since we choose not to spray anything, organic or obviously otherwise, it's almost impossible to prevent air-borne disease from impacting plants, typically a couple of months after planting. These types of issues can migrate from the south where they have a better chance of overwintering or they could originate in the residue of last year's planting or even wild host plants that are related to tomatoes. Plants grown outside where rainfall hits the plants and the surrounding soil with their leaves remaining wet for long periods of time makes them much more susceptible to disease pressure. The 'easiest' solution for us is to grow tomatoes under cover, in a greenhouse, high tunnel, hoop house, etc, where rain is kept off foliage.

We've been growing heirlooms under cover in our movable high tunnel for a decade and 2nd-succession hybrids in our hoop tunnel for 4 years. The movable tunnel has 3 positions so each plot will see tomatoes once every 3 years. The stationary hoop tunnel, however, has been home to tomatoes for 4 years now. At the end of last season we erected two more tunnels, known loosely as caterpillar type, to provide an indoor home for our first planting of red round slicer hybrids, which we've grown outdoors until this season. These tunnels were placed in an area that had heavy soil, water saturation issues, and overall just poor performance. To ameliorate these factors we created waterways around the tunnels, using the soil from the waterways to elevate the tunnel plots. The tunnel plots then received an abundance of organic matter from incorporated straw and mushroom house substrate as well as calcium and micronutrients from aragonite and an organic fertilizer blend. When the soil was dry we spaded this mixture together, made beds by hand, installed landscape fabric to warm the soil and suppress weeds, planted the tomatoes, irrigated as needed, and voila, the best quality, most prolonged harvest, and best yield we've seen here. The second planting of tomatoes, in the hoop tunnel and high tunnel, are now yielding as well, so that when the caterpillar tunnels begin to slow, those should pick up the slack. Our goal was to have a sustained midlevel yield of say, 3-5lbs per week, but due to the happiness of the tomatoes in the caterpillars, I'm sorry to say that yields will be more in the 6-9lbs/week range. We hope you love tomatoes!

This week's workshift schedule:

Please bring gloves, water, a hat, and sturdy shoes! We meet under the large red maple at the end of the barn by the pick up room.

Workshift Guidelines. Workshift Sign Up Instructions.

Two fellow members sent me recipes this week - thank you! If you try something you want to share with fellow members, please send to me at lindadansbury@comcast.net and please put Anchor Run in the subject line.

Brooke Rose sent me a recipe for Vegan Crockpot Tomatillo Soup. It looks delicious! And, I love her idea of making the tomatillo base and freezing it for later - I do that for another tomatillo recipe and it is so much fun to pull something out of the freezer off season and a favorite part of being part of the CSA. Here is what Brooke wrote to me. "While at the farm I got into discussions with a few people who didn't know what to do with Tomatillos other than Salsa Verde. I want to share this recipe I found that is absolutely delicious! I made it on the stove instead of the slow cooker and it was perfect. I even made the tomatillo base (with cilantro and chiles) and then froze for the fall".

One of our fellow members, Dante Mazzocco, has a cooking blog called diningaldante - check it out - very interesting stories and lots of recipes! Dante shared two specific carrot recipes, which is great, since we receive a lot of carrots: Spicy Carrot Frittata and Carrot Cake with Polenta and Marsala. I have posted the recipes on this site.

Thanks to both Brooke and Dante for taking the time to share with our CSA membership!

Wow, the summer heat and humidity have come back with a vengeance! I think a lot of what we ate recently reflects this. Here are a few items we enjoyed - many of them are things I have posted in the past, but are so delicious for the summer.

Tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic, basil, cilantro, cucumbers, carrots - made my favorite Gazpacho recipe. It is so simple and delicious - rough chop veggies and place in large bowl along with a bit of water, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Cover and let marinade overnight in fridge. I normally don't use the jarred piquilla peppers called for in the recipe. I just use a sweet red pepper and add just a bit more vinegar. The next day, either use immersion blender or blender and blend till smooth. Recipe tops with shrimp, but I typically cut up cherry tomatoes and top with a few of them, the chopped cilantro and a drizzle of delicious olive oil - I have also topped with jumbo lump crabmeat. This recipe makes enough for about 8 appetizer sized portions.

Tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs - made the Simple Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce recipe that member Mindy Bence sent a couple of weeks ago. It is delicious! At the same time I made a large pot of "traditional" sauce. The oven roasted is so simple and delicious and I will make it again - it will be particularly great when used in lasagna. The only drawback for me is that due to space limitations in the oven, I can't use a lot of tomatoes at once. Since I grow my own tomatoes as well, I need to go through a lot of tomatoes, so I will use both methods.

Tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, basil - made the tomato salad I grew up with several times over the past few weeks. The only part of this that is kind of a pain is peeling the tomatoes, but it is so worth it. To make it, peel and chop the tomatoes and place in a bowl. Chop the peppers and onions small and add to bowl. Grate or mince just part of a garlic clove and add, along with some julienned basil. Add salt and pepper and a bit of dried oregano to the bowl. Add red wine vinegar and olive oil and mix well. Enjoy - the best part of this dish is having some crusty bread to dunk the juices at the bottom of the bowl. Yum...