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Rising River Farm CSA
Newsletter
Box 6*** July 26th 2006
13208 201st AVE SW -Rochester, WA 98579
(360) 273-5368
risingirverfarm@yahoo.com www.risingriverfarm.com
Hello,
Don’t’ forget! The potluck/farm tour
is this Saturday @ 4:00. We hope to see you all here.
Kids especially love the field walk-looking at the tractor
and being able to pick veggies right out of the ground. It
sounds like the weather will mellow out considerably and it
won’t be so torturously hot.
Hosting the CSA gathering always gives us a much-needed push
to get at those weeds under control. This week and last we
have been making a massive sweep through the fields with the
tillers, wheel hoe, and hands and knees. It is a lot like
the frantic house cleaning one might do when the in-laws are
coming for a week long stay. (Just for the record, I adore
my mother in law!) Some “problem areas” keep getting
bumped back on the priority list due to other more pressing
matters, so this pushes them back up on the list! We always
feel so good afterwards and can enter this most intense part
of summer feeling more caught up.
This little heat wave made me glad we live in Western WA (as
opposed to Oklahoma where I came from) and only have to endure
these temperatures a few time each summer. The vegetables
wait for nothing. Rain, heat, cold, wind whatever-the crops
need to be harvested. Some days we started even earlier, but
even so we were still out at 3:30 getting the last of the
day’s harvest. Thankfully the hottest days were days
off.
Praise be to our heavy (clay-loam) soil. In the spring we
curse our soil for its moisture holding tendencies making
it hard to open up ground in the early season. But when we
have 3-4 days of upper 90’s we wouldn’t trade
our soil for anything. We irrigated as normal and nothing
seemed to suffer in the heat. Several crops absolutely thrived!
Tomatoes, basil, summer squash, and green beans exploded with
growth. We have two planting of green beans on at once. As
a result you get a healthy amount of those today.
Adding to the intensity of summer work is the onset of pickling
cucumbers! I love how many people still make their own pickles.
I hear a lot of stories from customers about how much their
kids, grandkids, friends and neighbors beg them to make pickles
every year. In a day and age where we can buy anything we
want in the stores at any time of year, so many people still
choose to make their own pickles. It is like a stubborn spark
of a dying art, refusing to be blown out. Hopefully it will
re-ignite peoples’ desire to preserve more of their
own food. In the bleakness of winter when kale, squash and
potatoes are just about all there is, it is wonderful to pull
out the summer’s harvest from the freezer or canning
shelf and still enjoy locally grown produce! In the last section
of your CSA cookbook there are tips on how to freeze your
veggies for winter eating. Some require blanching, so be sure
to read up on it before just popping them in the freezer.
As I mention the pickling cukes are on. If you want to order
some call us and we can leave them at your pick-up site.
Prices:
Smalls-$1.60/lb Dill $2.00/bunch
Medium-$1.20/lb Garlic $10.00
Large-$1.00/lb
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