Beans, Chard, Cucumbers, Garlic, Lettuce, Onion, Hot pepper (Anaheim or Ancho), Potatoes, Squash, Basil
I am attempting to rein in my natural gloominess, but I have not gotten a lot of help this past week, what with the pounding from four storms Saturday night and the advice from a neurosurgeon last Thursday that I have an operation on my herniated disk. Massive amounts of precipitation (including a little hail during the two middle storms) and surgery don’t make for a great farming season.
We still have a lot of vegetables out in the fields (and lots of garlic drying in the barn), but at some point I have to plant still more vegetables to get us through the season, and we have to beat back the weeds, which have gone into their midsummer overdrive and are rapidly engulfing a number of crops. Between pain and rain I have yet to find the time to prepare beds for and plant fall carrots and beets, a third round of green beans, two of the three varieties of shell beans, another succession of herbs or any fall greens. And with the soil fully saturated we cannot get a tractor into the fields, let alone cultivate any beds. Even hoes don’t work in mud. So we are reduced to hand weeding, which is a tough way to try to keep ten acres of vegetables clear. To make things more fun, the dirt splashed up onto the crops and the humid conditions create all sorts of opportunities for diseases, one of which is running wild through the early planting of red tomatoes. To top it off, some time on Saturday a flash flood went through one of the greenhouses, removing large portions of a couple of beds of newly transplanted lettuce and escarole.
It could have been worse. We found just about every seedling down at the far end of the house (along with the topsoil) and got them back in the ground. They should do well enough in spite of the deluge (which did have the good effect, at least, of watering the greenhouse really well).
Come to think of it, most of the problems on the farm could have been worse. Yes, we had four storms and way too much rain, but just down the road the corn fields are shredded by hail while we only had minor damage. [TC1] There are crops—parsnips, carrots, beans, some of the carrots--that desperately need weeding, but others—onions, beets, potatoes, chard—are in pretty good shape. And maybe if whatever is attacking the tomatoes causes some of the foliage to drop off, the fruit will finally start to ripen. There’s even a chance that the back specialist I saw today, who bothered to spend more than two minutes with me, has come up with a nonsurgical way to get my back to work and get me back to work.
But enough with the optimism. Let’s talk about vegetables. Obviously we have not encountered a serious shortage yet. Well, except for tomatoes. I cannot really explain what is going on with the tomatoes, which we should have in far greater quantities by now. All I know is that other farmers are having the same problem. All I can do is keep spraying them to keep the diseases in check (we alternate between a copper/sulfur mix and a biological formulation called Serenade) and hope all the fruit on the vines ripens soon.
In the meantime, you can console yourself with potatoes. Last year we had a terrible yield. This year’s won’t set any records, but is far better, and with another 29 rows still out there, we should be more than set for the season. And they come already peeled. That’s what happens when you have to dig new potatoes in wet ground and keep them in the barrel washer a few extra minutes to get the lumps of dirt off. My only advice is that you eat them soon. While potatoes are usually a storage crop, new potatoes (potatoes dug while the plants are still alive and before the tubers have set their skins and settled into comfortable dormancy) are not. So heat up that olive oil and chop that garlic. Or make a bean, potato and (small amounts of) tomato salad.
As for your chard, you really do want to sauté it with olive oil and garlic (lots of garlic). Believe me. I am sure there are other ways to prepare it, but they just don’t taste as good. There is a legitimate argument about whether or not to steam the chard ad squeeze out the moisture before sautéing it. My experience suggests that doing so is a good idea, but it also suggests that it is a whole extra step in what is otherwise an incredibly simple dish. It is unquestionably worth doing if you plan to use the chard as a filling or topping (otherwise it is just too wet). The other point of debate is whether or not to remove the stems. I happen to like a bit of stem with the leaves, but some people object to the texture. You could always cook the stems separately. There’s a nice Italian recipe for a chard stem gratin.
If you are not sure what to do with a lot of cucumbers, you could peel and seed a few and put them in the blender with some yogurt, lime juice and mint and whip up a tasty cold soup. Which might be even tastier if you added a peeled, seeded roasted Anaheim (long and pale green) or Ancho (blunt and dark green) pepper.
Black currants probably would not taste good in that soup. But they taste good in a lot of things (jams, pies, crisps, sorbets, ice cream). Unfortunately, we just don’t have time to pick them. If you are interested in getting some you could come out to the farm this weekend and pick your own. Just let me know if you are thinking of doing so (Thomas@theallegedfarm.com) and we can arrange a time.
