Harvest #12 (Week B) should include carrots, celery, beets, Italian dandelion, fennel, head lettuce, cilantro, dill, basil, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, fresh bulb garlic, tomatoes, sweet peppers, and scallions. Some items may be a choice. U-pick should include herbs, snap/string/green beans, cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, blackberries, and flowers.

Finally, the 2023 garlic is out of the ground and safely hanging in the barn! Last November we planted almost 16,000 cloves which turned into bulbs for this year's harvest. We didn't harvest that many today; we distributed approximately 3,500 as green garlic in the spring and another 1,000 or so as fresh garlic the past couple of weeks. Still, it's quite an endeavor tackled by 60 folks working together. We even finished up an hour early and moved on to the onions, which are almost all out of the ground. Next big harvest task will be potatoes, probably sometime in early August. Their above ground growth dies back and their skins thicken, telling us when they're ready and storable.

The soil on the farm did not dry out enough last week so we weren't able to get any plants in the ground. We did spend a lot of time on tomato trellising (of course), harvesting crops, mowing and weed-trimming, seeding. This coming week we'll play some catch up with transplanting and ground prep, hopefully planting lettuce, cilantro, dill, celery, fennel, kale, rutabaga, chard, beets, basil, and dandelion. We also need to break out the wheel-hoes and clean up the massive broccoli/cauliflower/cabbage planting. That's all on top of the weekly seeding, harvesting, and tomato maintenance work. We've got a great crew so there's no doubt in my mind that it won't be a productive and satisfying week.

This week's workshift schedule:

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

The veggies are so delicious! Hope everyone is enjoying the harvest as much as I am - please share by emailing me at lindadansbury@comcast.net and please put Anchor Run in the subject line.

At this time of the year I grill and make salads out of a lot of the harvest. I find that having pasta on hand is great because it pairs so well with grilled veggies - add a vinaigrette, pesto, or olive oil, lemon juice and a bunch of fresh chopped herbs - all work great. Grilling extra while the grill is hot helps make meal prep easier the next day or two. The same hold true with salads - veggie salads hold up well and even may taste better the next day. Here are a few things I enjoyed this past week.

Cucumber, cilantro, scallion, garlic, mint, hot pepper (out of my freezer from last year) - enjoyed the Vietnamese Cucumber Salad - I came upon this recipe a couple of years ago and it has become a summer staple. If there is any leftover, it is delicious the next day.

Tomatillos, cilantro, garlic, hot pepper (from freezer) - made the Chicken Stew with Tomatillo Sauce. This is another go-to meal for enjoying tomatillos. I typically make a large batch of the sauce - tomatillos hold well in the fridge, so you can save a couple weeks worth of them and then make the sauce and freeze it in 2 cup containers for enjoying the stew at a later time. The sauce is also a good salsa. Instead of stewing the dish, I put it all in the pressure cooker - it is delicious! Serve it with rice as the recipe indicates or with fresh tortillas.

Eggplant, tomatoes, scallions - made the Eggplant Spread from this site. As much as I love Baba Ganoush, this is simpler to make and delicious.

Zucchini, garlic, basil - tried the Zucchini Ribbons with Pesto and White Beans that Farmer Dana sent me last week - Yum!

Green beans, cherry tomatoes, basil - found something slightly different to try called Summer Vegetable Pasta. This isn't a salad, but rather a warm dish with a bit of butter. It was simple to make and adaptable for whatever veggies you have on hand. I switched out the peas for green beans - can't wait to make this again!

Derek's email to me last week after I had finished working on the newsletter was that Dana found a nice surprise - the tomatillos were ready to harvest. If you aren't familiar with them, here is a bit of info:

Tomatillos are in the same family as tomatoes, eggplant and peppers and in fact look like a small green tomato with a funny husk on them. They are a great source of dietary fiber and are low in fat content. They’re also a good source of vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, niacin, potassium, manganese, and magnesium. Ripe tomatillos keep refrigerated for about two weeks. They keep longer with the husks removed and the fruit refrigerated in sealed plastic bags. They may also be frozen whole or sliced. Tomatillos can be eaten raw or cooked. They can be chopped and added to salads and are best known raw or cooked in salsa verde. This site has a lot of recipes to try: Salsa Verde, Charred Okra and Tomatoes (or Tomatillos), Chicken Stew with Tomatillo Sauce, Slow Cooker Chicken or Pork Chile Verde and more!

Okra is another lesser known and under used veggie. It is traditionally used in Gumbo and in African cuisine. Okra is a good source of fiber, vitamins and minerals and is delicious pan fried or sauteed and stewed. It does not store for more than a week in the fridge so use it up quickly. A few delicious ways to use it that are found on this site are Easy Indian-style Stewed Okra, Okra and Green Beans and Louisiana Shrimp Gumbo (which also uses celery).

Some things to look forward to on the farm.

Join Amanda Crooke of Locust Light Farm for a medicinal tour of our herb garden. Amanda will walk you through the herbs, demonstrate how to harvest them, describe their medicinal qualities, and give you tips for storing and using them. You'll leave feeling inspired to visit the herb garden at every pickup. Amanda is an engaging speaker, host to an incredible wealth of knowledge of all things herbal. We are fortunate to have her share her wisdom and hope you'll join us for this fun and enriching event!

Members: $10 - sign up here
Non-members: $15 - sign up here

Kiddo-Day at the Farm, Saturday 8/5, 11-1 pm, Hosted by CSA member Melanie Swain

We're having a Kiddo Day Brown Bag Lunch at Anchor Run! Please join us Saturday, August 5, from 11-1 pm.

Bring a brown bag lunch to our Kiddo Day at the Farm. There is plentiful picnic table seating under the pavilion, but feel free to bring a blanket or chairs if you want to spread out around the lawn.

We will provide a kid friendly activity while we all get to socialize and watch our kiddos play around the pavilion and sand box. Don't forget to bring your own drinks, sunscreen, and bug spray.

Hope to see you there!

- Melanie, Maylyn and Travers

Feel free to contact me with questions at: melswain23@gmail.com or call 609-774-3368. If you are a grownup who would like to help with an activity, let me know!

Join us for a relaxed evening on the farm, munching shared dishes and catching the beginning of a firefly light show. Bring a dish to share, your own place settings and beverages. Hope to see you there! (shared dishes do not have to incorporate farm produce)