If you'd love to meet us and tour our organic farm, we are having an open house on Saturday, August 22nd, from 1:00-4:00. They'll be tours, snacks, recipes, fresh produce, Belted Galloway cattle, Katahdin Sheep and our "teenage" pigs! We're only a quarter mile from a Torch Lake beach or a minute's drive from Barnes park at
Lake Michigan if you want to swim afterwards!

It's just the beginning of bean season... Canners and freezers are welcome to purchase in bulk!

Week 7's CSA Bounty?
Beans! Our special porcelain hard neck Garlic, Basil, Orange Carrots, New Potatoes, Beautiful Beets, Slicing Cucumbers, Squash, Zucchini, Broccoli & Lovely Lettuce Mix!

CSA members can order frozen filets of char and whitefish, and Cooks Family Farm's pastured chicken for pick-up and delivery all season.

The public is welcome to come to the farm 4:30-6:00 PM on Tuesdays and Fridays to for produce, frozen filets of whitefish, lake Char & chicken.

Maia cleaning garlic for market. I told Jacob and Maia that they could earn 5 cents a head and they made $40.00! All of our kids work on the farm and get paid for it. Household chores, on the other hand, are for room and board! ;-). And they can't skip chores to go to work.

Isaiah hanging garlic. It has to cure for about 6 weeks.

I'm holding it to give you a sense of its size. A porcelain hard neck, w/ 5-6 cloves around the stem.... Fresh garlic is wet and sticky compared to cured garlic, but well worth wrestling the paper off! I use a paring knife to pick the cloves out and then press on a clove with a jar to pop the skin off. Ryan and I have been saving the biggest cloves for over 10 years. I hope you find it as amazing as we do. :-D

CSA member, Katy, made a fantastic appetizer for our CSA on Friday. She used turnip greens to make "nori" rolls! We had Brownwood Farms "Famous Kream Mustard" and soy sauce to drizzle on our appetizer. Thanks Katy! We loved it so much, I made it the next night for our family. Instead of pre-wrapping, I made a salad of white rice, chopped sugar snap peas, turnips, cucumber, and carrots, then drizzled white-rice vinegar over it and mixed thoroughly. Then gave every one a plate with fresh turnip leaves, soy sauce and mustard. We happily made our own loose version of nori rolls.

Growing and eating this food is holy. So much beauty passes through our hands...rich colors, ENERGY! Life. All charged with the power to nourish and heal.

Look at this color! I picked these few 1st Sungolds yesterday for fresh eating with my favorite pesto recipe:

Greek Pesto
2 cups packed basil 1/2 cup feta
3 cloves garlic. 1/3 cup green olives
Juice of half a lemon. Sea salt to taste

Mince all together in food processor, tasting to see if you have enough salt or lemon juice to your taste.

Thanks again to all who share in our farm in some way...you give US life!

Have a peaceful week full of warmth and friendship,

Andrea

Our dog, Blue, holding court with the pigs. And our Belty mama, Georgia, with calf.