SM24 (W11): A Lil’ Lull

Aug 12

Dear Farm Community -

Another sweltering week in the books. We were busy in the fields and greenhouses this past week seedin’ weedin’ and seethin’!! Let me break this down for y’all….

We seeded TONS of late summer/early fall greens and brassicas - upwards of 80 128-cell trays of cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, radicchio, endive, herbs, and more that are now on their germination journey (germ-ney?). Our two seed houses are getting seriously full to the brim - just check out the photo above!!! We also seeded some beds of carrots and beets and we direct-seeded some arugula into our high tunnels that will hopefully produce some greatly-missed greens shortly. In the coming weeks we’ll be planting more seedlings out into the fields and freeing up some of that seed house real estate.

We weeded a good deal in our greenhouses and fields… lots of unspoken thank-you’s from those crops that have been fighting the good fight against nut-sedge, pigweed, ground cherries, grasses, and more. They can finally breathe! Check out this parsley bed transformation that’s sure to make you feel that same sigh of relief:

And…. seething? Yes, folks. We are seething! Because the crows have returned to wreak more havoc on the farm. We discovered tons of large irrigation leaks in our dahlia field last week, similar in nature to the big crow-inflicted leaks in the sunflower planting just one field over. We are not sure what we’ve done to anger this avian cohort, all we know is we’re running out of splicers to fix the drip tape irrigation. We’re wracking our brains on how to overcome this. Do we need a dedicated crow entertainment center to distract them from wrecking our livelihood? Full of shiny CD’s and keys and costume jewelry? Is there a blood sacrifice that would appease them? Or perhaps a food offering? Anybody with avian negotiation experience is more than welcome to offer potential solutions! If you need us we’ll be busy fixing drip tape and reading about how to befriend crows….

You may have noticed markets have been a little light recently! We are in a bit of a mid-summer lull, a time when our first-succession plantings of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and other summer staples are slowing down and producing much less, and our second-succession plantings of these crops are not yet in their abundant hour. We’ll see more headed to market in the coming weeks as these crops mature and begin to offer us larger harvests. We also had a few floral hiccups this summer with certain flower plantings failing or producing less than anticipated. The long drought earlier in the summer and extreme high temps have done us no favors, but these things happen in farming! We’re taking it all in stride and making sure to pay extra attention to those plantings that are thriving. This past week we’ve started to see an uptick in our flower harvests and are seeing to it that this trend continues through the fall. Onwards and upwards and the abundance will follow!

Speaking of fall, in case you missed last week’s announcement…. our FALL CSA FULL SEASON SHARES ARE NOW ON SALE!!!!!!!! Simplify your autumn and get 12 weeks of easy peasy local produce in one payment. By signing up for the full Fall season you also receive a discount, making this an even better value than the weekly subscription. The Fall CSA session runs from September 3rd to November 23rd, giving you a beautiful variety of warm weather and cool weather crops. In the veggie shares you’ll still catch some weeks of summer goodies like tomatoes, peppers, and okra, and then see the seasons changing each week with sweet potatoes, greens, lettuce, and root veggies coming in later. Our flower shares will at first include end-of-summer favorites like sunflowers, Mexican sage, marigolds, and zinnias, and you’ll have lots of cool weather blooms later on to bless your bouquets! Bring on the Dahlias! We are also offering organic pasture-raised eggs from Smyly Farms as an add-on. Check out all the wonderful ways you can bring local agriculture into your life this fall:

Shop Full-Season CSA Shares

CSA shares this week contain another hit parade of summer faves. However, for the star item of the newsletter I think it’s about time we revisited cherry tomatoes and explored some more delicious and inventive ways to employ them in the kitchen. Cherry tomatoes make an excellent accompaniment to roasted fish, and these NYT recipes for one-pan roasted fish with cherry tomatoes and coconut fish and tomato bake hit every time. Take on some savory baking with a tomato galette with roasted garlic or let rich flavors mix in this recipe for marinated cherry tomato burrata. You could really put the cherry on top (haha) with a cherry tomato-inspired cocktail called the El Gallito! We hope you enjoy all that your CSA has to offer this week :) And please let us know if there’s anything you’ve been loving - the feedback helps us to create the CSA “menu” each week and beyond that we just love to hear about what our fruits and veggies turn into :)

Happy eating and thanks for supporting local agriculture!!
Diamond Hill Farmers

if we are united, the crows cannot win: