Common Ground Fair weekend is somewhat like homecoming weekend on the farm. Former apprentices and volunteers, friends and family are all in the area — if we don’t see them at the fair, they’ll probably swing by the farm on their way to or from Unity. As I sit and type this letter after dinner on Saturday night, I hear raucous laughter from the kitchen as Bill and our former apprentices John and Sara, now the farmers of Sparkplug Farm on Vinalhaven, catch up on farm news, island gossip and tales from family life. It’s wonderful to hear of their successes.
Finally this week… groundcherries! Not true cherries, these amazing little fruits are relatives of the tomato, and are also known as husk cherries or cape gooseberries. When the husk is cream-colored and papery, pop the little fruit out of the husk and enjoy. The fruit should no longer be green. I don’t know what I enjoy more — unwrapping each gorgeous little gift, the feel of the smooth little fruit, or the pop of the fruit as it explodes with flavor in my mouth. They’re awesome. Like many crops this year, they had a hard time with the recent heavy rain, but hopefully we’ll have them for a few more weeks to come.
We received a number of requests for green tomatoes this year (relish? fried green tomatoes?) so when we pulled out the tomatoes from our first two greenhouses, we wanted to share them with you. Enjoy!
This week I’ll be sending out the link for the fall CSA sign-up. We’re trying something new this fall — in an attempt to try to improve the challenging meld of family and farm life during the school week, we’re going to try to limit our fall CSA share delivery to the Sunday morning Rockland delivery. If Sunday doesn’t fill up, we’ll expand pick-up options to the farm as well, but we’re trying to minimize pick-ups for the fall season so that we can try to make it to a few more of the kids’ soccer games and school events.
Bulk garlic for planting or culinary use will be available at pick-ups this week (2.5 lbs for $20). And the odd bag of tomatoes to “put by” will still also be available (10 lbs for $15). And remember to bring cash or a checkbook to the CSA pick-up next week (starting 9/29). Monohanako pottery will be for sale to benefit the HCF CSA Financial Aid Fund (see poster below for more details). I can’t wait!
Have a wonderful week,
Reba and the HCF crew
Veggies Week 15 of 18: Husk Cherries, Winter Squash (Carnival), Swiss Chard, Red Onion, Green Tomatoes, Slicing Tomato, Dill, Green/Red Peppers, Mesclun Mix
This week’s recipes: Lemon-Dill Yogurt Dressing, Fried Green Tomatoes
Old friends back to clean onions with us again! R to L Corinne, Reanna, Bill and Christine.
HATCHET COVE FARM 