Rusty working in his garden ...
Oh, summer is upon us. This week we weathered several truly hot days, followed this weekend by a lovely break that brought us cooler temperatures and some rare all-day thunderstorms. Out here on the farm, life feels buzzing with fullness from sunup to sundown (which is still quite a long day, in spite of us having passed the solstice now!). If we ourselves are not moving on a project, then someone else on the island is: another farmer making use of the last moments of the day to mow or the barn swallows busily feeding their babies in the nest on our porch. Always something.
All this movement and work makes for a beautifully exhausting time of year. Really, we love it, because we know how quickly this moment will shift again. We love watching the heat speed along plant growth. This time of year we can check on a planting in the morning and find it larger or taller at the end of the day. So much growth!
For your viewing pleasure, here are snapshots from the week:
Dottie in our home garden (same as "Rusty's garden" above).
… is it so ridiculous that we have a home garden? This is actually the third time we’ve attempted a small garden in this spot, and the first year it’s actually really worked — in large part because it’s the first year that kids have been super engaged in it, allowing us time and energy to take care of it! I can tell you what: it is SUPER satisfying to hoe such a (relatively) small space! We’re having lots of fun, and the kids visit it daily to check on plant progress. This year our garden is mostly random things that Rusty was interested and we had extra transplants of. Casey tried to keep things in rows, but with kids helping, it’s a bit more random than not. But we’re hooked and will keeping on “gardening” every year! (Also, if you visit us, Rusty will insist on giving you an extensive tour of his garden. It’s his favorite thing to do right now.)
Casey and the crew brought in our garlic harvest last week. It's as beautiful as we anticipated! Casey lined these garlic up on the table the other night without saying anything. How could I NOT take a photo???
And speaking of July growth, the field corn planting is exploding right now — taller and taller every day!
This is how Casey begins every single day (including weekends) this time of year. After all these years, Casey is still our main irrigation pipe mover! In midsummer, he moves pipe usually twice per day. These are 40' long sticks of aluminum — not as heavy as one might expect, but it still adds up to A LOT of work every day (including simply plenty of walking!).
But there are moments for play too in July ... lots of them! We spend quite a lot of time outdoors, exploring the farm or just swinging away in the shed ...
I hope you all are enjoying summer’s energy too! This is the moment in the year when summer feels like it could last forever. It won’t. Let that thought carry you through those extra hot afternoons — savor it!
Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
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Meet this week’s vegetables:
- Potatoes!!!! — Casey was super excited to harvest the first of this year’s potatoes for you this week! Food-wise, we’re in a bit of a lull between exciting fruit crops (the cherries and raspberries are done but we’re still waiting on tomatoes …). But, potatoes! In our house, we’ve been making a lot of hashbrowns lately with these delicious potatoes, but I think a potato salad may be in the works for our weekend trip to the beach. I don’t really need to give you advice on this one, I’m sure!
- Celery leaf — Think of this crop as an herb rather than a vegetable — this is celery that is grown specifically for its leaves, which pack some seriously delicious celery flavor. You can chop it and add to a salad (or even a potato salad), or add to stocks and soups for the quintessential celery base flavor.
- Salad mix
- Kale
- Chard
- Summer squash & zucchini — Have you tried making last week’s “squash-a-ganouj” recipe yet? If not, try it this week! I think we’ve been eating it almost daily!!!
- Garlic — Some of the beautiful new crop! Use for making squash-a-ganouj or in any other delicious garlic application!!!
