Garden Lane Community Supported Agriculture – Week #2 LE Garden – June 12, 2013 A Belated Hello to All, Yesterday my computer was limping seriously, and I had it on Clean Up all day, hoping it would be working by evening. Then the storm interfered, so I am finally getting to the newsletter this week. I hope none of you suffered serious problems from the storms last night, although I imagine many of you were without electricity for some time. We are feeling very fortunate; we got over 2 inches of rain and lots of lightning and occasional wind gusts, but we never lost electricity, and this morning there is very little obvious wind damage. I love the smell of rain washed air that is recharged from the lightning…such a fresh clean smell. For our returning members, who can appreciate the significance…Estela flew up from Mexico yesterday and showed up to work today. What a welcome sight to all of us here at LE Garden!! We have really missed her. All of our helpers have said how incomplete it has felt without her here. For me, it has been like working with an injured right arm. She has worked with me for so long, that she just knows what I need done and how to do it. Besides being a valuable worker, she is as sweet as they come. Her arrival here was delayed because she had an emergency appendectomy in March. Her recovery was slow due to some other health issues. She wants very much to work here, but has some handicaps…no heavy lifting, and not to work in the sun. Those are both kind of hard to avoid on the farm, but our produce cleaning and packing area is in the shade, and nobody packs produce more beautifully than Estela; we will just have to do lifting for her. Since we didn’t send any new or unusual produce yesterday, and Liz told all of you about the strawberries that needed immediate attention, I decided to wait until today to send our news. Crop Report… Since we have very few puddles this morning, even though we got over 2 inches of rain, we know the rain was needed; the ground soaked it up like a sponge. The warmer weather has not only made the asparagus start producing more and bigger stalks again; it has improved the looks of peppers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplant, which are warm weather plant varieties. This rain should make them look even better. Snap peas are big enough to start picking tomorrow, and hopefully we will be able to share next Wednesday, as far as they will go. Our goal, between the two farms, is to get them to everyone as soon as possible. Our potatoes are blooming, and we will harvest some of them soon for those new little red potatoes. We got melon, cucumber, and summer squash transplants planted in the past week, and pickle seed planted. Okra has started to produce very small amounts. I put together an ‘okra lovers’ list from the surveys that members filled out, and will only send okra to those members on a rotating basis. Some may only want it 1-2 times a season; other members will take it as often as they can get it. If you didn’t fill out a survey, you will not get okra, unless you let me know you want it. We rarely have enough okra to send to all members at one time, so this is our way of getting it to those interested in receiving it. On the surveys, it is one of the most frequently ‘disliked’ vegetables, but as with most kinds of produce, it is a matter of finding the right way to fix it to satisfy your tastes. Raul has been cultivating sweet corn, and other crops that are planted in row widths to work with the cultivator. We cultivate to get rid of weeds, as well as aerate the soil a bit. The weeds will grow like crazy now that it has rained; there will be lots of weeding going on in the next week. Ron returned from his Minnesota fishing trip last Saturday, so he had lots of jobs waiting for him…mowing the yard, managing the asparagus crop, mowing some patches of cover crop to prepare beds for planting winter squash, pumpkins and gourds as soon as possible; it’s a little too wet for a day or two. Yesterday from LE Garden… Asparagus Knob onions Strawberries, cost shared with Lane’s End Farm, purchased from Johnson’s Farm in Hobart. Our asparagus patch is enjoying a revival because of the warmer weather, and now, with the rain, it may last a litlle longer. Friends of ours, owners of asparagus fields, took off a few days for a family event, and asked us to pick their crop while they are gone, so yesterday we had LOTS of asparagus. Some of their asparagus would have been better if picked a day earlier, so had more seed heads showing, but was still very tender. We sent extra asparagus this week since we had it. I had some pictures to share, but the computer is taking too long to retrieve the images, so they will have to wait until later. I hope to have a healthier computer next week. Until next time, Linda Ebert LE Garden To check us out on Facebook, put a space between L and E. Microwave Lemon-Buttered Asparagus 1 lb. fresh Asparagus 1/3 Cup water 3 T. Butter or margarine, melted 3 T. Lemon juice 1 T. Grated parmesan cheese ¼ t. paprika Lemon wedges Clean and arrange asparagus in an 11 X 7 baking dish, with stem ends toward the outside of the dish. Add water. Cover and microwave at high setting 6-7 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Let stand covered for 1 minute. Drain. Combine butter & lemon juice. Stir well. Pour over arranged asparagus. Combine Parmesan Cheese and paprika, and sprinkle over asparagus. Serves 4. Asparagus may be steamed 4-6 minutes instead of being microwaved if you prefer.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 04:49:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015