Doorstep Harvest Newsletter 6-29-13
As always, try new foods with caution, and in small amounts. Also, please note that some herbs-foods may interact with pharmaceuticals so, if you use meds, please go to http://www.drugs.com/ to check them out.
News from the garden: I am back from camp. The salad is too bitter to give this week. The salad I planted several weeks ago should be ready within the next two weeks, so don’t give up on the salad just yet – but Mom says even it tastes bitter! Pole beans are up, but wilt everyday in the heat. The same applies to the bush beans. The okra is growing happily. The summer squash has set fruit, and the squash bugs have found the winter squash. We were going to try a barrier method but when we went out to cover them, we found squash bugs there already! The squash at my grandparents’ house will be sprayed with “sevin”, but in town I am ordering an organic spray to try. The blackberries are getting bigger and need a lot of water. The wind keeps knocking off the mulberries, and their season is nearly over. Potatoes are not ready yet after all. Some of the chard is bolting, but most of it is still hanging on. I planted some sunflowers two weeks ago, and some of them are up now, they should make inch long seeds! The cabbage butterfly is out now, and most of our brassicas will begin to be unusable until fall, when the caterpillars are done. Tomatoes are blooming and setting fruit. Gooseberries and crandle currents are over, bushes were transplanted last year to new location so Mom says it seems their energy went to root development rather than berries. Next year should be better. Sweet potato plants are growing fast now in the heat. Crensha melons are loving the heat. Cucumber is finally blooming. This time of year the production slows down for a week or two until tomato, potato, squash, okra, and cucumber start producing so hang in there if it seems light this week. The windstorm knocked out our internet, so no wikifacts this week. You may want to make a summer soup with a little of this and a little of that mixed with chicken broth or boiled ground beef.
This week you will find in you delivery:
Braising mix: cook separate or together in stir-fry (Chard & Mustard greens)
Beets: remember to eat the tops too. These beets are finally getting large enough to really be beets.
Carrot: just one to nibble on! The rest are still too small to harvest.
Peas: Pea season is closing. There are small amounts of Sugarsnap & shell.
Mulberry: Mom says Mulberries are one of the neglected “super foods” of America. They are so incredibly nutritious that they are included as a yin and blood tonic in the official Chinese Medicine Materia Medica. I eat them fresh, the Chinese dry them and then cook into tea, some people cook them into tarts or into jams.
Onions: there are small bulb onions (the first of the season) and
Garlic: first of the season. It can be left out to dry or use right away.
Herbs: Herbs are not washed. Please wash prior to using.
Lavender flowers: leaves and flowers can be used. Leaves can be used like you’d use rosemary in stew or for flavoring meats. See enclosed recipe for flower icecream!
Oregano: If you don’t plan to use it this weekend, transfer to paper bag and let dry on counter for future use.
Sage: can be dried on counter in paper bag for winter use.
Comfrey: 13 grams.
Bee balm: see recipe enclosed for fish, ice cream, and pastries…