Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has greens, radishes, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, scallions, carrots or beets, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, Walla Walla sweet onions, garlic, basil and parsley.
Field Notes. Ken has started harvesting onions – first the Walla Walla onions. Next it will be the red onions, and then the storage onions.
Once he digs and pulls them he leaves them to dry. Then he moves them to the racks and I help him lay the onions on the trays and lift them onto the racks up so they can cure.
Ken is in his mid summer mode – picking crops that require every other day harvest, planting fall crops, moving animals to new pastures. The push is on as the days have started to shorten. Many old religions have a marker at this start of August. Celts called it Lughnassa – it was the start of harvest. For most farmers the equinox and solstice are the end markers; the drama is mid point between.
From the Kitchen. Summer vegetables. Now we move into crops that like and thrive in the heat – nightshades like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and cucurbits like cucumbers and zucchini. Ken has made his first summer bake – eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes onions, garlic, some cheese on top.
With the Walla Walla sweet onions I have gotten the annual question from Ken – “Did you add SUGAR to this??” These are a sweet, juicy onion – not a keeper – that is great raw, sauteed or caramelized, I use them in everything – tomato salads with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and basil or sauteed with anything in the cabbage family – cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, or bok choy.
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Til Next Week , Judith and the Gang
