The flower garden is in its prime, photo by Adam Ford

This Week’s Availability

This week we will have:

Greens: baby lettuce, green curly kale bunches, rainbow chard, green head lettuce, pea shoots, fairy cabbage
Roots: new red potatoes, red beet bunches, yellow beet bunches
Alliums: scallions, chives, yellow onions, red onions, sweet onions, fresh garlic bulbs
Herbs: sage, parsley, basil tops, bulk pesto basil
Fruiting crops: zucchini, summer squash, slicing cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, tomatillos, red Italian Carmen sweet peppers
Miscellaneous: rhubarb, celery

Crop Report

It’s full on tomato season…there are so many good slicing and cherry tomatoes are available now, and plenty of nice basil to accompany them. (If you are interested in drying cherry tomatoes, we have bulk flats available this week, $48/flat. If you order veggies online, you can select it there. If you pick up at the barn, send us an email.) The red carmen peppers have been so good, our kids like to just eat them whole. Cucumbers are continuing to be great, and our weekly seedings of baby lettuce mix allow us to harvest excellent quality fresh salad mix even in the late summer. If you haven’t tried the Ailsa Craig sweet onions, they are hands down the best onion to slow cook with olive oil and salt into sweet and delicious caramelized goodness.

Click here to order your veggies for a delivered bag to Ludlow or Rutland

*So many onions drying down, photo by Adam Ford*

Farm News

This is K2, and I have hijacked this part of the newsletter this week. Kara gave me an opportunity to write a little of the newsletter because my final day at the farm is coming up in the next few days. I jumped at the opportunity to write so that I could share some of the amazing things about working at this farm. I know that anyone that gets their CSA here or receives this newsletter already knows how great the farm is, but I hope to elaborate with a little of my perspective.

I found a home here at ESF a few years ago, and what I assumed would be just be one season of farmwork blossomed into almost five. More importantly, I found a family here. Farming is tough work, and it takes a lot to fill the display cooler/delivered bags with the fruits (veggies?) of our labor, so being surrounded by a hardworking team, that feels more like a family, makes a big difference. I have absolutely loved working outside in all kinds of weather. Pulling the sled through snow banks filled with totes of veggies that were harvested from under multiple row covers to working in the tomato and cucumber jungle in August while wondering if I will ever cool off again. The addition of Diesel, the electric farm utility vehicle, has made a huge difference. The crew used to line up with three people pulling the fully laden garden cart up the hill while another person pushed from the back, and then finally getting to the top of the hill and questioning my life choices. I have really enjoyed witnessing how the farm has changed practice from more tillage to a low till farm and incorporating the ridges that we now grow on. One of my favorite new practices at the farm has been planting flowers at the ends of some of the fields to offer more opportunities for pollenators. Walking through the fields and seeing the variety of size and colors of flowers brings a smile to my face every time.

It truly has been a blessing for me to work here and rediscover myself. I will remain in the area and plan to visit the farm often for beautiful, fresh, and local veggies. Thank you to everyone that supports this special farm. K2 out.

Have a great week,

-ESF Team: Kara, Ryan, K2, Vanessa, Taylor, Katie, Galen, Leah, Natalie, Cindy, Georgia, Amelia, Hannah, and Grandpa Jim the delivery guy (and Sky and Soraya)

Fresh Salsa

We like having a nice fresh salsa available in the fridge this time of year