Dear Farm Community -

The fall transplanting push continues! A full field planted out last week - lots of broccoli, bok choy, fennel, dill, scallions, spinach, cilantro, and squash are now roommates out in the field! These babies are looking perky and healthy, and we’re happy that their transition out of the greenhouse was an easy one. The weather was kind to us farmers this week too. If you’ve been outside before 8am recently you’ll know the kind of blissful morning weather we’re talking bout - we’re in the 60’s folks! Even the afternoons have been hanging out in the 80’s giving us a that late-summer break in heat we’ve been looking forward to.

This ever so slight dip in temps has also made it possible for some crops to reappear ~ ones previously absent in the mid-summer Georgia heat. We have a beautiful bed of arugula that is headed into CSA’s this week. Check out this lush planting. This is the exact arugula that will be on your plates!

There are other crops coming in that make us jump for joy too - radishes are back! Turnips are back! Sweet potatoes are joining the party! The changing of the seasons is upon us.

With eyes (and hearts) on a future with kale, collards, endive, and cabbage, we gave some more attention to the seedlings we planted out a few weeks ago. The field has quickly filled with weeds, so we spent a good chunk of time last week rescuing those young plants from the grips of purslane, pigweed, and nut sedge. Because we are Certified Naturally Grown and adhere to the highest standards of the organic movement, our farm is human-powered. That means no chemical weeding! Better for the planet, the health of our farmers, the quality of our food and flowers, and the wellbeing of our customers; we do ALL of our weeding by hand and hand tool. With over 7 acres of growing, you can imagine we spend quite a lot of time weeding. If you’ve ever wondered what the heck a handful of farmers talk about while scuffle-hoe-ing and hand pulling weeds for hours on end, I’ll let you in on one of our little pastimes. It’s a game called “House or Pancake” that was introduced to the farm by former DHF farmer Abby! It’s a bit like 20 questions but much less sane and you have to arrive at the answer through (many many) entertaining comparisons. One person picks a secret thing that the rest are trying to guess with the question - which is it more similar to? The leadoff question is always… House or Pancake? As the answerer chooses answers, you ideally get closer to the secret thing. The fun of it is you never know WHY the answerer chooses one over the other, so you’re left to speculate and keep trying until you finally reveal the answer! Here’s a very simple example…..

Secret thing = “the sun”
House or Pancake? House
House or Mountain? Mountain
Mountain or Tree? Mountain
Mountain or Sky? Sky
Sky or Star? Star
Star or the Sun? The answer is the sun!

Most of the time it takes lots of wild turns and a long time to get there - the perfect way to spend two, three, four, or more hours pulling up weeds. Try it out the next you have some idle time!

Enough with games let’s get to your CSA shares this week!!! Week 2 of Fall CSA is really showing its colors! That beautiful arugula you saw above will be in every share this week, perfect for this simple, fresh, and flavorful arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette or use it to top a fancy burger like this caramelized onion and arugula burger! Your radishes can also play a role in this radish, orange, and arugula salad with cumin vinaigrette - and you can toss in some of the cucumbers from your share if you’re feeling so inclined. Turnips will be making their first appearance this week as well. More fanciful recipes to be shared in the future, but for this first week why not try them out as simple as it comes - roast them with olive oil, sage, butter, salt, and pepper.

We hope you enjoy everything in your shares this week and hope you’ll join in on the fun if you aren’t yet a member!

Happy eating :)
Diamond Hill Farmers

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