What a delicious week. When CJ appeared out of the greenhouse one morning, her shirt covered in cherry tomato juice and clutching her full belly, we knew it was time to start harvesting cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes will start with a trickle, but we hope to have a flood for you before too long.  Enjoy them! (Click here for a pictures of CJ on one of her cherry tomato harvesting missions.)  

The big farm garlic harvest day is scheduled for Tuesday, July 28th. We’ll start the harvest at 8am and will go until at least 5pm, so feel free to come by at any point during the day. Even if you just stop by for an hour, you’ll have an important impact on the harvest. You can sort garlic bulbs, pull garlic in the field, tie garlic in bundles, hoist garlic to Bill in the third floor of the barn… so many satisfying and crucial jobs!  It’s always a great community day, and everyone who helps out gets to go home with their pockets full of garlic. I’ll have my cell phone with me all day (712-7382) so call or text if you have any questions. All are welcome. Bring a hat, a water bottle, and gloves if you want to pull garlic in the field. We hope to see you there!

Arla Casselman of Calico Floriculture will be at the UUR and PBMC pickups to distribute the first week of five flower CSA deliveries. Check out her work, talk with her about her farm and her designs, and you can still always sign up for the remaining four weeks. We can’t wait to see her arrangements.

The organic blueberry sign-up was emailed to all members last week, and there is still some availability.  There is a limit of one box per CSA family, and the cost is $38 per 10 lb box. Click here (or at tinyurl.com/2015blueberries) to sign up, and please get in touch with me with any questions.

A couple pieces of advice about this week’s delivery: cut the greens off your carrots as soon as you get home.  Even if you plan on using them in your cooking (see recipe link below), your carrots will store so much better if separated from their greens and stored in a plastic bag. Also, remember to never store tomatoes in the fridge! It ruins their texture and fresh tomatoes are too precious a thing to fool with.

Have a wonderful week and we hope to see many of you on Tuesday!

Reba and the HCF crew

Summer CSA Week 7 of 16:  Beets, Carrots with Greens,  New Garlic, Arugula, Kale, Cherry Tomatoes, Zucchini or Zephyr Summer Squash, Green Beans, [Eggplant or Basil]

This week’s recipes: Beet, Barley, Arugula and Feta Salad, Fried Green Meatlessballs