CSA Newsletter

CSA Newsletter and Recipes (year)6-(week)16

August 9th, 2011

Farm Update + Newsletter From Justin

The 'Dog Days' of summer have been upon us for a few weeks now but will be ending in only three days. What do the dog days of summer mean?

The term "Dog Days" was used by the Greeks, as well as the ancient Romans after Sirius (the "Dog Star"), the brightest star in the heavens besides the Sun, not satellite radio.

The Dog Days are the days when Sirius, the Dog Star, rises just before or at the same time as sunrise, owing to precession of the equinoxes. Ancient Greeks and Romans referred the days of drought and heat as "Dog Days". At the beginning of the Dog Days, the ancients sacrificed a brown dog to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that the star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather, adding to the heat of the sun.

Dog Days were popularly believed to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies".

The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the traditional timing of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. As we know, these are the days of the year when rainfall is at its lowest levels and the heat starts setting in.

We are excited about the ending of these days and hopefully a relief in the heat as well as some additional rainfall.

Irrigation -- getting water to our plants

The four things essential to begin plant life are sun, seeds, soil, and water. I feel like we have given some good explanation in the last few weeks on seeds and soil, now on to water.

Water is vital to all life on the earth. The exact cycle in which water moves from one state to the next is not extremely complicated. The water cycle involves evaporation, precipitation[what we imitate for plants], and runoff. Wikipedia tells us that approximately 70% of all water handled by humans is consumed by agriculture and that by 2035 water supply will only meet about 50% of the demand. Better start stocking up.

Water Cycle

We share the duty of supply our plants with water each week by assigning one of us to be the irrigation person. This involves ensuring that no plant begins to show signs of water stress by supplying water using either drip tape or overhead irrigation. It usually takes one of us about 1 hour each morning to setup what needs to be ran for that time period. Most things run for 3 - 4 hours, unless it's extremely hot then we up it to 5 - 6 hours. At lunch we usually switch on the next set of plants that need irrigation love and then it's turned off as we leave the farm at night. It's a bit like tetris to build out these irrigation systems and make them functional. It could be said it's almost an engineer's dream or an intern's nightmare on the weekends.

The main method we use for irrigation is drip tape. We irrigate 95% of our crops with drip tape. This drip tape is equivalent to a soaker hose that you could buy at any hardware store, but a little more complicated in the fact that it has pre-spaced holes. Why is drip tape the best way to irrigate?

Drip Tape

Top three reasons why drip tape is awesome:

1. Reduces overall water consumption - By watering only the plant's root zone we can supply exactly how much the plant needs to stay healthy.

2. Reduction in weeds and diseases - Most diseases have to have water to multiply. By using drip tape not overhead you aren't supplying this water to foliar diseases. And by not watering weeds you aren't having to pull weeds as much.

3. Drip tape allows for fertigation - Fertigation is a fancy word for pushing fertilizer through the drip tape to increase plant health and build resistance to heat stress, bugs, and diseases. With the ability to constantly boost the plant's food we can provide it with some defenses against the bad things and increase it's productivity. Also, by using fertigation it allows us to supply a steady stream of nutrients throughout it's entire life instead of using granular and having to work it into the soil by hand. Being certified organic, we use things that smell great (ha) like fish and seaweed fertilizers through our drip.

The other way in which we irrigate is overhead irrigation. For us we typically use micro-emitters [not the massive 'big guns' you see on industrial farms]. The only reason we have to use overhead is for seed germination. When we first plant any crop we have to give it a moist environment to germinate. Drip tape waters too quickly too deeply and may not give the best water contact to the seed. You have to think that hitting a tiny seed in the ground with water using this type of soaker hose is hard because it literally has to be right on top of it. This could be easy for a home gardener but when you have 200 foot long beds uniformly covering the bed with overhead irrigation water acheives more uniform germination and less irritation for us.

Micro emitter

Okra -- precious pods

Okra

This green ridgid prickly pod will either tear you up with excitement if you are an okra lover or will find its way to the back of the produce drawer just waiting for you to accept that you really do want to love it!

Originating in Africa okra then moved west and the earliest account recorded was in 1216 when a Spanish moor visited Egypt and consumed it with friends he meet there. By 1658 okra had made its way into the

Americas.

In many countries it is a staple with rice, sweet potatoes, and sweet potato greens. It can be the base of gumbos, stews, or just an addition to any summer dish. You are probably most familiar with fried okra.

Storage: It can be stored in plastic or paper in the fridge for a few days. Try to use before it becomes brown in appearance.

Preparation: Slice off the stem end. Use acidic things like vinegar or tomatoes when cooking to reduce slime. Use cornmeal for breading if frying.

Serving Suggestions: My favorite way to prepare okra is with stewed tomatoes. I take about 8 nice sized tomatoes core and cut them up set aside. Next chop up onion or garlic and sweet pepper if desired. Brown onion and pepper in butter. Toss in tomatoes, turn on low heat. Simmer until cooked. Use immersion blender to create desired consistency. Add chopped okra. Cook until okra is done. Season to desired taste [sugar, salt, pepper]. Serve over rice with sweet potato or mustard greens. Add ham or bacon chunks if your a pork lover!

Best,

Justin

This week's share
(this list is subject to change):

Tons of Tomatoes!! -- try a tomato pie...delish

Eggplant-- NY Times article/recipes about these purple beauties

Sweet Pepper(s)

Garlic

Onions

Okra

Melon

Herbs

Return of the greens! -- mustards or sweet potato greens -- read about the sweet potato greens here

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