Somebody foliar feed me. As this month winds down, I question how days can pass so quickly and a man feel so tired. Since I last wrote, we have witnessed a series of experiences that convey the warm beauty of birth and cold reality of death and that stuff that exists between - life. We worked up new beds and planted another succession of cucumbers, picked blue berries ad naseum when Sweetwater called and asked that we increase our order by another 250 pounds, stayed up late playing veteranarian to the rabbits after a pack of feral dogs attacked them during farmers market and left little Thomas Sutpen and Candice Compson and Disley with shredded paws, and cleaned the greenhouse for fall seeding. Helping us with our work, Jordan and Christina have been volunteering with us during their time away and enjoying my room in the intern house. Both are awesome, and we enjoy new faces on the farm. Also, thanks so much to The Farmhouse restaurant for a meal that far exceeded my expectations, which were two miles high to begin.

In this weeks share, we match some of your summer favorites with a choice between two edgy newcomers: sweet potato greens and perpetual spinach. No other greens are standing in the field right now because of the heat, and we offer these varieties because a) summer is no reason to NOT have greens b) these grow well even in the hottest summer day and c) farmer Natalie, familiar with sweet potato greens from her time in Mali, smartly suggested we offer them to you. Kudos to you, girl.

To my knowledge, sweet potato greens were first offered to Serenbe Farms CSA members last year. Even though Africans, Asians and Americans grow sweet potatoes for the familiar starchy root, the Southern culinary tradition does not celebrate the green and demonstrates no intentions of doing so. A 2002 study by the LSU Ag Center suggested added natural lutein (healthful, eye-improving compound) derived from sweet potato leaves to processed grits. They might avoid this nutriceutical step and suggest we all eat "Grits & Greens" with sweet potato leaves - especially since access to these leaves is easy for any self-respecting Southern gardener who knows that sweet potatoes make a nice and snazzy ground cover or potted plant. When I lived in Charleston, almost every house grew them in/on the front yard/stoop. To eat sweet potato grits and greens, then, makes one a practicer of "Driveway to Table" eating. What a concept. If you are feeling pan-ethnic, then consider incorporating sweet potato greens in a curried sauce or sauteed alone. The flavor reminds me of stinging nettle, a pretty rad and agressive edible plant popular with adventurous foodies and at least two members of California's S&M crowd (I know this after I eavesdropped on a conversation between a farmer and a young lady, gasp, at a farmers market in San Francisco. She wished to purchase every stinging nettle at the farmstand and even inquired about varieties that might offer an even more vicious itch. We all know that food is sensuous, but the San Franciscans have taken that axiom to a new level entirely).

Perpetual spinach, actually a chard and not a true spinach, is slower to bolt than spinach during the hot days of summer. If harvested carefully throughout the season, it will continue to produce (thus "perpetual") soft, smooth leaves at the end of stalks that taste like mild asparagus. Included in this newsletter, please enjoy a recipe inspired by my memories of cooking from Marcella Hazan's The Essentials of Italian Cooking during college. She uses, I think, actual spinach or chard. Please do not worry that we have included some ersatz green for you, but take comfort in the substitution as a delicious riff. In the middle of the paragraph, incidentally, I went to the kitchen and cooked a bunch in order to compare my mental image of the dish to its actual taste. This is called theory vs. practice, and since I have not found a true way to theoretically cure hunger, enjoy in practice a solid Italian dish.

In closing, thank you everyone for your commitment to our farm. We are working hard to provide you with the highest quality produce, and we know you are working hard to enjoy it in the kitchen.