Summer Abundance Coming Soon!

A week into July and it feels like we’re in the full swing of summer at last! The flower block is blooming, sunflowers greet Raph and I as we pull into the farm in the mornings; zucchinis are plentiful already and it’s a race to harvest them before they turn into zucchini baseball bats; and the tomato tunnels are popping with bits of red, purple, and orange. Harvest is just around the corner, thanks to all the care and attention our leading tomato lady, Jessie, has been giving them. We love our Tomato Tuesdays in the tunnels, trellising, pruning, and whispering words of encouragement to the plants and their fruit! 

We have an abundance of peas, which is wonderful for all of us (especially Romy the farm dog who enjoys a pea treat or two, at regular intervals) as the season is so short for those guys. Let’s enjoy them while we can! It’s been such a pleasure to harvest them in the quiet mornings, which are only broken up by the sounds of all of us taste testers crunching away. 

Lots of great sun and good rains on the farm these past few weeks, and while the plants are happy, so are the weeds. Managing them has been a challenge, but we dedicatedly put in the hours on hands and knees to tame them (before they come back stronger the next week and we start it all over again). However, we’ve been lucky to have a few wonderful volunteers come and help us hand weed last week- thank you Bethany and Celeste! 

Maintaining weeds with hand and hoe is part of organic farming, we’re proud to put in the work! Another one of these labour of love’s is squashing potato bugs and their eggs- by hand of course! Pesticides? Never heard of ‘em. I’ll never forget my first time crawling through rows of potato plants and crunching bright orange bug eggs between my fingers! Real love is going into these crops, I tell ya! 

So much abundance is coming our way on the farm! Can’t wait to keep bringing new crops to market and to our CSA members. For now, to welcome in the zucchinis, here’s a recipe to spark some inspiration!

Hot Honey Shaved Zucchini Salad: 

Serves 2-4 

4 medium Zucchini, shaved into thin ribbons using a mandolin or vegetable peeler

10 or so leaves of mint 

3 tablespoons of pine nuts 

Freshly grated Parmesan 

Dressing:

1.5 tbs hot honey (or regular honey) 

Juice and zest of one lemon

1 tbs rice vinegar 

1 tsp fish sauce 

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

¼ tsp salt or to taste 

Fresh cracked pepper to taste 

Instructions:

Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl, whisk together to emulsify, set aside.

Make zucchini ribbons, place in large bowl. Pour in dressing, toss, then plate onto serving bowl. Garnish with mint leaves (torn into smaller pieces), pine nuts, and finely grated Parmesan. Enjoy!

Julianna