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Greetings Everyone,
You can access our online store using this link, log in by clicking the icon of the person in the top right hand side of the web page. All orders need to be placed by Thursday at 8 AM so that we will know what to harvest for your share! Please return your boxes because we re-use them!
This week our accommodations are completely booked!!! That means we are a little behind in planting our fall crops because we’ve been prioritizing cleaning over farm work. It definitely is a change in mind set prioritizing farm-stays over growing food, and we must say, cleaning accommodations in an air conditioned environment is much more pleasant than weeding carrots out in the fields with the hot sun blaring down on us. This week, we definitely think this approach to our retirement is the right path forward, so lets hope that eventually our lodging is booked in advance so we are a little less nervous about paying our monthly bills. We’ve discovered that cleaning is a lot easier on our bodies than planting and tending to crops.
You will probably need to white list our email to receive correspondence from us because we have hanged our email from farmer@MountainHarvestOrganic.com to Farmer@MountainHarvestOrganics.com (our email is organics plural).
Your Farmers (and maids),
Carl and Julie
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What is new and abundant this week!
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| These Red Long of Tropea Italian heirloom onions are slightly elongated and thin skinned.Traditionally grown in Mediterranean Italy and France, and are only harvested mid summer for fresh use. They do not cure. We’re providing you with the same recipes that we use for cipollini onions because we couldn’t find links to recipes using the tropea onion. Roast by cutting onions in half in the oven or roasted with a vinegar glaze you are sure to fall in love with these onions. Cooked in a little butter on the stove top, cipollinis become soft and practically melt in your mouth. Their residual sugars caramelize and concentrate, leaving behind none of the astringent raw onion flavor. After all, our region is know for beer, so consider these beer braised tropea onions. If you want to preserve these onions for winter, this jam will be sure to satisfy your craving. |
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| Green cabbage and Napa cabbage are making their debut into the shopping cart this week. The napa cabbage being harvested doesn’t quite look like the photo above, because we had to remove the outer leaves due to bug damage. Growing organically sometimes requires us to co-exist with quite a few pests, and while there are organic sprays that kill the pests, our organic sprays are not persistent in the environment like conventional sprays that are made from petroleum oil. From both a farmer and eaters perspective, it is good that our sprays are not persistent and made from petroleum, because then we don’t hurt ourselves, the bees and butterflies; However, the disadvantage is that we still have bug damage to our crops. We love cabbage, because just as summer heat arrives, the kale crops no longer flourish, yet we can get the nutrition our body needs from cabbage. Napa cabbage is sweet and tender, so you might just consider eating it in a Lemon Coleslaw with sliced bell peppers, lemons and onions. We feel this vegetable is underrated because you don’t see it offered much at restaurants and it is amazing raw in salads or in fried rice. For another main entree, consider this salad with crispy tufu. We frequently enjoy napa slaw salad or asian peanut noodles while napa cabbage is in season. |
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| This week we were craving Salad Caprese, and didn’t have fresh mozarella, but stumbled upon this vegan recipe that is FABULOUS! We hope that with tomatoes in abundance you will give this recipe a try. |
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| SPECIAL NOTES: We are cutting the tops off the beets because the bugs have been enjoying them and they aren’t very pretty. |
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This Weeks Farmer’s Choice Veggie Share
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| This week’s Farmer’s Choice Share includes: (share contents are subject to change based on availability.)
We’re offering both a Farmer’s Choice Veggie and Farmers’ Choice Veggie & Meat Share. Items common in both shares are listed first, followed by items specific to the veggie share and veggie/meat share. The Farmer’s Choice Veggie & Meat share normally has smaller portions of vegetables. )
The following are included only in the veggie share:
The following are included only in the meat share
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What’s Happening on the Farm
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| America’s Bright Future…
(All photographs were contributed by of Liz Russell. Thanks Liz for some excellent pictures of your beautiful family!!!)
What we’ve been enjoying about offering farm-stays, is that we’ve been able to host some amazing guests. These guests have renewed our faith that the next generation of leadership for our country is going to prioritize taking care of our planet!!!
Above are the Liz and Richards children; Molly, Bennett and Hannah, who are enjoying Meadow Fork Creek. The children have inspired us beyond anything we could ever have imagined. We especially think that their love for the outdoors, the animals, harvesting vegetables for their dinner, playing in fresh creek water, making flower bouquets and hiking along the Appalachian Trail is going to have an impact on the world. To think, they stayed here with an unplugged vacation and didn’t get bored. They have some awesome parents to have instilled such excellent values in these children, because the children were excited about almost anything related to being outdoors. We think that these parents exposing their children to the outdoors, are forming a passion inside their soul, and this passion will carry on with them until that time when they are shaping policies for our country. Once they are policy makers, they will have the foresight for regulations that will protect the water, air and forests. We feel extremely blessed to have had this family stay with us. |
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| This family reminded us of our nieces and nephews, our neighbors, our neighbors children and grandchildren. It got us thinking about all the folks in our country who have a deep love and respect for our oceans, mountains, lakes, streams, wildlife and air. So we are thankful for you all who are instilling some awesome values in our next generation of policy makers. |
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| For the past several years, us farmers have been heads down trying to change our direction and reinvent ourselves into offering farm-stays, and right now we are extremely glad we did because as we look around we see a whole lot of beauty on this planet and know that we will be crossing paths with some fabulous people. |
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