Ripeness

One of the great benefits of eating locally is learning what Ripe and Fresh really mean.

Fresh is a bunch of kale harvested and eaten within the same day. Potatoes which, when you cut them with a knife, snap apart, full of potato juice.

We have been doing Fresh since the beginning of the CSA. (with a few exceptions, like the green cabbage which had been in our cooler for a few weeks since the early summer harvest.) When we talk about Ripe, we are talking about fruit.

These melons are Ripe. What that means is they are as close to bursting as possible. A few have already burst. In some varieties, there is actually a hollow space inside a ripe watermelon-- something you would probably never experience in a supermarket melon.

Of course, it is not easy to teeter on the edge of ripeness in the melon field. One bump and the melon will split open and then you have to eat it right away... Which is the kind of imperative I can live with. We hope you can too!

The Harvest

Lettuce

Broccoli

Chard

Napa Cabbage

Fennel

Basil

Tomatoes (finally!)

Watermelon

Radish

Cucumber

Garlic

By the way, sometimes, in our quest for Ripeness, we need to shuffle the CSA harvest list around a little. Last week, Friday pick-up people did not get melons, but they got broccoli. This week, Tuesday will get the broccoli, and Friday gets the melons... 

 Get some peaches in the store.

Pick some blueberries on your way through the door.

These peaches are RIPE!

...obligatory flower picture.

-John

PS....Wednesday night the 14th is a community pizza dinner fundraiser for The Long Barn, the non-profit that manages educational programming for children at the farm. Consider joining us for pizza. All the proceeds benefit The Long Barn. Click Here for details.