8th Week

This week marks the start of our newest experiment...a pick-your-own herb garden for CSA members. We have planted an herb garden designed for CSA members to harvest their own sprigs as needed for a flavorful addition to a special dish. In this garden you will find sage, tarragon, oregano, parsley, basil, edible flowers, and thyme. There are also the quintessential garden flower, sweet peas, that need to be picked and enjoyed in order to keep them coming. Feel free to enter the garden, harvest a sprig of this, that or the other and a few flowers to garnish your salad and a bouquet of sweet peas for your bedside table. The herb garden is in front of the greenhouse. Please respect the needs of all CSA members and don't harvest herbs to dry or to supply your neighbors. Come by anytime and help yourselves. We hope you enjoy.

This week's harvest includes:
green beans
lettuce
arugala
kale
radishes
summer squash, patty pan, and zucchini (all interchangeable in recipes)
cucumbers
dill
basil
parsley
cilantro
green onions
pak choi

A note on Patty pan squash- Patty pan squash are a space ship looking variety of summer ripening squash that can be used interchangeably in recipes with yellow summer squash and zucchini. Don't be scared off by the spaceship shaped squash, embrace the patty pan.

Mid-summer is a cherished time when we try to take a breath and soak in all the beauty of the garden and the pasture and the flavor of the harvest. This season, we are delighted with the growth of the vegetables and the flowers. Unfortunately, a fertile garden also produces a fertile crop of weeds. There are spots of our garden that are lush with lamb's quarters and purslane and amaranth. Each day we embark on another session of weeding, wheel hoes and stirrup hoes in hand, unveiling a tidy row of crops. When we reach the end of a freshly cultivated row, there is a cathartic sense of accomplishment. In addition to the growth of the vegetables, we are also noticing the growth of the number of people at our dinner table each night. Maine summers always bring throngs of house guests, old friends and family who come to enjoy the cooler weather, beaches and northern woods. We open our arms to them, feed them our wholesome farm food and put them to work. Our hands are so busy in the summer, I think we might make others feel uneasy if they don't lend a hand in the harvest or help weed a row. I like to think that once they are awake and they join us in the garden at 5:30 AM and pay witness the sun rise over the tree tops, just maybe they are hooked and know the blessing of dawn and dusk like parenthesis on their day, increasing their appreciation of living so close to the land. I also like to imagine that hosting all these house guests is a prelude to a future in agrotourism , as proprietors of The Inn at Broadturn Farm. For now, we'll just keep our doors open to our friends and family, enjoy the time and conversation we get with them while we harvest carrots, and share the joy we've found in our farming life. We tell them all they get bonus points, and more time to talk with us, if they come in the winter but very few people take us up on the offer.

Blessings on the meal,
Stacy and John