What a bounty this week!  Last year, members requested more eggplant, and so this year we dedicated almost all of one of our small greenhouses to the plants with their beautiful purple flowers and fruit.  The delicious harvest is now underway!  Also, the largest variety of onion that we grow, Ailsa Craig, was finally ready for harvest this week.  They always amaze us with their grandiosity and make us feel that the long onion haul that started back at the end of February was worth it.

Purslane is the unusual green in a little bag this week.  Purslane is often thought of as a weed, but this is a culinary variety and it is one of my favorite things on the farm.  It has a lemony crunch and all parts of it are edible:  the leaves, the stem and the flower.  Also, it has an extraordinary amount of omega-3 fatty acids, as well as being full of antioxidants.  Every time I snack on it I feel like I’m being virtuous, though I’m really just eating it because I love it!

If you get a cucumber in your share this week, consider it your lucky day. We usually are awash in cucumbers at this time of the season, and I feel bad that we haven’t been able to provide them at the usual rate.  What happened is that we tried a new variety this year, the Diva, and they were true to their name.  They were extremely finicky in the cold spring and transplanted very poorly.  Almost all of our first and second plantings died.  We had a small section of our old standby variety that did well, but it will still be a few weeks before our third planting will be fully on.   It’s disappointing that the Divas didn’t do well, though, because even if they don’t look lovely (they are long and skinny and a bit misshapen) they taste divine.  So enjoy yours if you get one and rest assured if you don’t that everyone will get cucumbers eventually!

Good luck getting through your veggies this week, and we hope you have some memorable meals!

Remember to please continue to let me know if you want a bulk order of kale, chard or collards (10 bunches for $15).

Have a great week,

Reba and the HCF crew

Scenes from a harvest day. Above: the wash shed in full swing. L to R: Minna cleaning garlic, Les checking the “pick-list” that hangs from the ceiling. Neil sorting and washing meslun mix, and Sara in the background searching for the right-sized wax box for kale bunches. The kiddie pool in the center is where all the different mesclun components get mixed together. After everything is mixed and bagged up, the pool gets hoisted to the ceiling to stay clean and out of the way.

Sorting purple potatoes into quarts for wholesale. The potatoes are first dug then washed, dried, and boxed up.

Week 8 (of 18) veggies:  Green Beans, Eggplant, Garlic, Ailsa Craig Onion, Beets, Carrots, Potatoes, Zucchini and/or Zephyr Squash, Cucumber (hopefully), Purslane, Dill

This week’s recipes:  Eggplant Salad with Dill and Garlic, Green Beans with Caramelized Onions, Red Potatoes with Purslane, Chilled Zucchini Soup with Purslane