Dear Farm Community -

We’ve passed the half way point in the summer CSA - we hope you’ve been enjoying the incredible bounty that is summer growing! Tomato season is absolutely peaking right now and it’s a small miracle that we’re able to fit our harvests in the cool-room every week. There’s lots of shuffling around, sorting, inspecting, and of course harvesting from our 7 tomato greenhouses three times a week! It’s a huge job that we accomplish with lots of coordinated teamwork, good tunes and conversations, and spiderwebs to the face (yes, this is in fact a perk that comes with the job). Many of us even have designated tomato-harvesting shirts because of the glamorous tomato-pollen-yellow color we end up covered in from head to toe after traversing through the plants for hours. If you ever see someone’s face looking jaundiced on the farm, worry not - chances are they’ve just been spending a lot of time in the tomato houses! Tomato season is a huge labor of love, but we sure do love love love all the incredible varieties of tomatoes that have been growing this year!!

This past week we also spent a good deal of time weeding our bean field and trying to keep the pigweed from taking over. Pigweed is one of the biggest weed pressures we have in that corner of the farm, and this lovely weed will reach 4+ feet tall if left unchecked, completely smothering any crops trying to grow in the same space. Pigweed also has a fun (read: not fun) feature - sharp spines along its stem make it a little bit more challenging than the average weed to pull. Nevertheless, equipped with tough gloves and a can-do attitude, we took to the bean field last week and started on the task of rescuing our beans from this foe. Lots of healthy bean plants are now liberated and soooo grateful for the newly spacious real estate!

We’re also experiencing a new challenge on the farm thats a bit of a puzzler. We are being visited by a flock of wrathful crows intent on sowing chaos. In reality it seems more likely that they are just smart and hungry, but our newly seeded sunflower field is not only going ungerminated, but we have found dozens of large holes in our irrigation. We speculate that these crows, in searching for (and finding) our yummy sunflower seeds, have pecked holes in the irrigation as collateral damage. While we are trying to assess which one is their leader and how to negotiate a truce, we also spent some time last week removing the damaged irrigation and re-seeding the field. It really would be funny if it weren’t so dang annoying. (Please inquire for the newly available position of full-time scarecrow, ha ha). Wish us luck with this next planting!

We did have some wins though - in preparation for seeding out fall brassicas, lettuces, and celery, we got the shade cloth on our main seed house last week and it went much easier than any of us anticipated. We’re now ready to start dreaming about autumn and all of the delicious greens that come with the cooler weather!

However, a wise man once said “Be Here Now," and the here and now is SUMMER and your Week 7 CSA!! Of course both slicing tomatoes and cherry tomatoes will be in your shares this week, but y’all are also getting another summer favorite - okra! People have LOTS of opinions about okra and how to cook it. The general questions are… To bread or not to bread? To roast, sauté, or stew? In a dish or on its own? Okra can be delicious all of these ways, and it’s really about finding which way is yummiest for you! Try it roasted in the oven to get out some of the notorious “slime” that people often criticize, and vary this by roasting it cut long-ways to make some finger food (this recipe even has a yummy aioli you can make). The Pioneer Woman might argue that the most classic way is to bread it and fry it, which is iconic of southern cuisine. Set aside a little more time in the kitchen and you can make another iconic southern classic - Gumbo! If you’re a vegetarian, try out this vegetarian gumbo that is still every bit as flavorful. I’ll let you in on a “secret third option” too - okra is even delicious when eaten raw. Try a nibble and see :)

Embrace the Slime!
Diamond Hill Farmers

P.S. For some more farm fun, check out our instagram for a recent floral “who wore it best” post and let us know what you think!! Shoutout to Farmer Jackie for crafting the beautiful flower crown of lisianthus that inspired it! :)