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Dear Common Thread Members and Friends,
 | | Setting up at Hamilton Market |
July and August have sped past, so we are doing a 2 month farm update this time. We have been enjoying getting to know CSA members and being a part of the Syracuse, Clinton, and Hamilton Farmers Markets.
Fall is approaching! Fall CSA Shares will start the week of September 2. Many thanks to our summer crew: Calvin Lucey-McCabe, Phoebe Rotter, and James Mahan, who are finishing up their work with us this week and heading back to school.
The big story of 2013 will be the rains and floods of June and July that busted out our drainage ditches and filled some areas of our fields with water, drowning some plants and preventing us from planting and cultivating during the heaviest planting weeks of the year.
 | | Fields of Water |
 | | Ditch, after |
 | | Ditch, before |
We didn't get everything planted and things have been very weedy, but we've still had a decent amount of food, thanks in part to the greens and roots that have done great in a year like this. Also, most of the flooding landed in not-yet-planted areas, except for the field where the pick your own crops are (we've unfortunately had little to no beans, cherry tomatoes and basil). Thankfully, the storm pattern broke a few weeks into July and we had parts of our drainage ditches redug, so we hope not to see the fields full of water like that again.
Late July and August have been very cool, often with highs in the low 70s, so tomatoes have been ripening very slowly but the cucumbers and summer squash have been producing like crazy and the green peppers have also been doing well recently. We have a nice crop of potatoes we are almost ready to start digging, the greenhouse is filling up with onions drying down, and the fall greens and roots look very nice. We're hoping for frost to come late this year, but our hoophouse and caterpillar tunnels should protect most of the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants for a few weeks past frost.
 | | Sam with a giant Striped German tomato. Which lucky box share member will get the golden prize tomorrow? |
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CSA Newsletter, Week #12
Most of our currently ripening tomatoes are red varieties but we are growing a number of heirloom tomatoes as well and some of them are starting to come in. Heirlooms are often a bit funny looking with more cracks and odd shapes than the reds, but they tend to have a lot of flavor.
The varieties we are growing this year are:
Striped German: This big yellow, stripy tomato is flavorful and less acidic than red tomatoes.
Green Zebra: This tasty yellow tomato with green stripes has the best name and adds color to tomato salads and salsas.
Indigo Rose: We're trying these for the first time this year and none have ripened yet, but we're curious. They are small and very dark, a purpley-black, and are high in anthocyanins.
Japanese Black: These "black" (actually burgundy) pear shaped tomatoes look a bit funny but I prefer the taste to all the others, except maybe the pink ones. Japanese Black are generally small but don't have as many cracks as some of the other black tomatoes.
Pruden's Purple: This large, pink tomato is similar to Brandywine, one of the classic pink heirlooms. The two varieties often battle it out for top spot in tomato taste tests.
Valencia: This orange tomato is medium sized and less acidic than red tomatoes.
We've been having a bumper cucumber crop. Here is a great recipe for a cucumber dish from Nava Atlas, who is a cookbook author and was in our CSA in Poughkeepsie:
 | | Last transplants of the season, and onions drying in the greenhouse |
Cold Soba and Cucumber Salad
8 ounces soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles)
1 large cucumber
1 Tbsp light olive oil
2 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp mild vinegar (such as rice or white wine)
2 Tbsp natural soy sauce
2 Tbsp sesame seeds, optional
Parsley or Cilantro Sauce, following, optional
Cook the noodles in plenty of steadily boiling water until al dente. Drain and rinse under cold running water until cool, then drain well again. Meanwhile, peel the cucumber and quarter it lengthwise. If the seeds are watery, cut them away. Cut the cucumber into narrow strips,
approximately 2 inches in length. Combine in a mixing bowl with the remaining ingredients and toss together. Serve as is or topped with sauce, following.
Parsley or Cilantro Sauce :
¾ cup parsley or cilantro leaves (or a combination)
2 Tbsp cashew, almond, or natural peanut butter
1 Tbsp lemon juice, rice vinegar, or other mild vinegar
Pinch of salt
Combine all the ingredients in a food processor with ¼ cup water. Process until fairly smooth, but not completely pureed. Transfer to a small bowl and pass around to serve over noodles.
Makes about ¾ cup
4 to 6 servings
Chilled Cucumber Yogurt Soup
from Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook
4 cups peeled, seeded, chopped cucumbers
2 cups water
2 cups yogurt
1 clove garlic
several fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon honey
1 ½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon dill weed
chopped scallions or chives for garnish
Puree everything together in a blender. Save the scallions for garnish. Chill and serve very cold.
We hope you enjoy your veggies this week!
Yours in the field, Wendy and Asher
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