Harvest #10 (Week B) should include carrots, celery, cabbage, beets, Italian dandelion, fennel, hakurei turnips, head lettuce, cilantro, dill, basil, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, fresh bulb garlic, and scallions. Some items may be a choice. U-pick* should include herbs, snap/string/green beans, cherry tomatoes, and flowers.

Well, the fancy weather forecasting computers misinterpreted the rain gods' vibrations (data) and we could probably have hosted The Great Garlic Harvest this morning. Sometimes it's all a guessing game for us, a gambling game, picking the probabilities and possibilities. Wouldn't it be super nice to be sitting here knowing that 15,000 garlic bulbs are hanging in the barn, curing? Unfortunately we have to wait one more week to harvest and hang those goodies, but they should bide their time in the soil just fine. Also, it did give me the opportunity to disappear from the farm with the kiddos and spend some quality time playing in the ocean for half the day.

There's also another two beds of carrots to retrieve, approximately 500 feet, from the fields. Last week, with the help of many members, we cleared four beds of direct seeded, mostly straight, carrots, and one bed of transplanted, mostly interwoven and oddly shaped, carrots. Overall the yield, size, and quality of spring sown summer carrots looks great and we'll all be a little orange in a month or so.

Additional traditional summer crops are starting to grace us with their soon-to-be-plentiful presence. Cherry tomatoes are ripening, eggplant are fattening, and basil plants are bushing. Cucumbers and zucchini seem to be peaking (at least I hope anyway, so much weight...a big thanks to Farmers Gabby, Connor, and Adeline...they hauled in over a ton last week). Peppers should be picked soon and even tunnel slicing tomatoes are turning red. Heavy hauls from the pick up room indeed.

Bring gloves, water, a hat, sturdy shoes, and a pad for kneeling (if necessary for you)!

We meet under the large red maple at the end of the barn by the pick up room.

Workshift Guidelines - Workshift Sign Up Instructions

Wow! The variety is amazing, with every week now bringing a new surprise or two in the pick up room - this past week we were surprised with eggplant and celery.

Celery - hopefully you don't need a long term storage plan for celery, since farm grown celery is so delicious! Most sources say to wrap it tightly in aluminum foil, but I don't really like that approach. I typically wrap it in a paper towel and then in a tightly sealed plastic bag - that seems to work well. After it is cut, it is best stored submerged in water. Celery is a veggie that everyone is familiar with as part of the start of a stew or soup when combined with carrots and onion, or as a snack eaten with a dip or stuffed with peanut butter. There are other delicious ways to enjoy it, including a few recipes on this site. A couple of my favorites are Italian Celery and Mushroom Salad and Braised Celery.

Eggplant - this veggie offers some great health benefits: eggplant contains antioxidants like vitamins A and C, which help protect your cells against damage. It's also high in natural plant chemicals called polyphenols, which may help cells do a better job of processing sugar if you have diabetes. Eggplant does not store for long periods of time. The best temp to store eggplant is about 50 degrees - cooler than your home but warmer than the fridge. The best way we can store it is to wrap in a paper towel and place in a bag with the top left open. Place in fridge in crisper if it fits. Use within a few days. Eggplant can be enjoyed in many ways, from Eggplant Parmagiana (check out the lighter version on this site - no breading and frying) to Eggplant and Green Beans in a Spicy Garlic Sauce, to Eggplant Spread and so many more! I love grilling eggplant - the smokiness you get is so nice.

Grilling season can make dinners easier with some planning. Grill more than what you need for one meal and you can do countless things with the leftovers - that goes with both veggies and meats. I didn't make a lot of different things this past week, but the rainy day today provides a good opportunity to be creative with all the veggies! Please share how you enjoy your harvest by emailing me at lindadansbury@comcast.net and please include Anchor Run in the Subject line so that I can find your email. Here are a couple of things we enjoyed this week.

Zucchini, eggplant, scallions, fresh herbs - grilled them up until nice and charred and cooked through (the scallions take only a couple of minutes). When finished, drizzled with some good olive oil, salt and pepper and some chopped fresh herbs.

Zucchini, eggplant, garlic scapes, a few peas I still had left - used the leftover grilled veggies and uncooked peas and cooked up some pasta. I had pesto in the freezer so I made a delicious pasta salad which was one night's side dish and a couple of lunches after that.

Lettuce, cucumber, scallion, kohlrabi - made a nice hardy salad and served it with leftover grilled chicken cut up and placed on top.

Beets - made a delicious beet salad - I like to use a basic Dijon vinaigrette with some chopped up tarragon. Serve with a bed of greens, a bit of goat or feta cheese and some chopped nuts, and it is delicious!