Yay for the cooler days

Monday, for the first time in weeks, I had to put a sweater on when we started working at 7am. We are all grateful for the cooler mornings (and days). How pleasant the work is when you’re not exhausted and sluggish from the heat! That being said, that relief also comes from a bit of melancholy that summer is already starting to wind down. Isn’t it always like this?

As we are past mist-August, Jessie is about to start school again and before the end of the month, she will move into her new house that has been built on the farm and will be getting married. Busy time! In order to accomplish all of this, she is taking a well-deserved break from the farm until the end of the season. As our small team will even be smaller, we decided we would be now writing the blog posts every second week. 

We are swimming under slicer tomatoes!

Rebecca will keep driving Julie and I until the end of the season. Speaking of the end of the season… We just made a plan to extend our production until December. As the Lunenburg market runs year round, we are doing a real fall trial to see how we feel about it.

Hopefully we can have a lighter schedule by then, only working on harvesting, washing and packing and going to the market. It will be a great way to ease into the winter and I am excited about trying this out.

We made a little crop plan for the shoulder season, ordered a few more seeds and we will start seeding in the fields this week (as well as in the greenhouse). Our polytunnels will then be moved on top of those crops to protect them when the temperatures cool down in the fall. It is a bit of work ahead of us, especially because we will have to be on time before the first frost but I am confident we will get it done.

I discovered the tiniest frog (or toad? maybe you know) in the lettuce this morning

We have 4 polytunnels (3 currently in use, for the hot crops) that we like to move at the end of the summer so we can start working with them early in the spring - and also saving us a lot of heavy work at the very beginning of the season. It is also nicer to do this heavy work in the perfect late summer weather.

I must say I am also delighted that Julie will still be there to help us with this: everything will be so much faster 🙂

For this week’s recipe I was thinking about eggplants - I have a feeling this vegetable isn’t the most appreciated even though it is personally one of my summer favorites.

We grow different varieties at the farm, the classic globe Italian-like ones that are bigger and pear shaped and some Asian varieties, skinnier and longer. For the latest I just like to chop them and throw them in a pan, stir fry style, with oil, salt, pepper and garlic (of course you can also marinate those if you feel like it!).

For the Italian ones, why not try a marinade before cooking them? Eggplants absorb marinades very well and this allows them to enhance their texture and get rid of the slight bitterness they can carry.

Mediterranean marinated eggplants

Ingredients for a marinade with 2 medium globe eggplants, sliced into ½-inch rounds.

• ½ cup olive oil

• ¼ cup red wine vinegar

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped

• salt and pepper to taste

• 
  

In a large bowl, just whisk together all the ingredients. Add the eggplant slice to the preparation, making sure they are well-coated with it. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes (one hour is better) or, if you have time, overnight in the refrigerator.

You can then grill the eggplant until they are tender and lightly charred, about 5 minutes per side.

Enjoy!

I hope you have a great week.

Until next time,

Raphaëlle and the Spring Tide team