Hi all, sorry for the delay in posting to the blog.  I've had some family events to attend this weekend and I've been out straight.  I hope everyone has picked up and taken a look at the share this week.  I'm pretty excited about things in the garden as they are really beginning to fill in and the harvest is more interesting.  You may notice the title of this blog is a bit more eccentric than usual.  Let's dive right into an explanation...
Expectations.  I was hoping to have golden beens for you this week, as well as peas and spinach.  Unfortunately, it poured all Thursday night and part of Friday morning during the harvest.  Anyone who has grown beans knows about the only real problem with them.  You can't harvest when they are wet.  In fact, it's best to stay away from them all together.  When the leaves of bean plants are wet, they are susceptible to damage when you touch them.  They will get a mold/wilt on them and kill the plants.  So I couldn't pick the golden beans.  The only reason I was able to sneak in the green beans is because I've been harvesting them since last Tuesday when the sun made an appearance or two.  Also, the harvest of potatoes in the rain really slowed me down.  You may have noticed how muddy they were (Hopefully this doesn't deter anyone from what's underneath all that dirt).  This prevented me from having the time to harvest the spinach and peas.  Hopefully, I'll have time next week.
Reality.  So I wasn't able to get everything into the harvest this week that I wanted to, but it's still pretty good.  I'm happy to report that our basil has arrived.  I've posted a picture of this wonderful herb to the right.  I hope everyone enjoys the scent, flavor and color of this basil.  Most of the basil that you can buy in the store is called Genovese Basil.  I like that well enough and have some of it growing.  However, I really like the kind you'll find in your share which is Nufar Basil.  It's more flavorful and much more aromatic than Genovese.  Also, it's slightly more cold hardy.  That doesn't actually mean much as far as this herb is concerned.  It's native to the warm climate of India and that general part of the world.  One of the obvious choices for preparation of Basil is Pesto.  Emily and I had our first fresh pesto of the summer this week and it was absolutely wonderful.  If you've never had pesto with fresh basil (what is labeled fresh in the supermarket is actually likely to have come from Israel and be several days old, flown in on huge planes and then trucked across the continent.  Also, it's coated in a waxy film to help preserve it's freshness beyond the limits of nature.) then I suggest you forgo all other ideas of preparation and make a pesto.  I promise there will be more basil to try other things.  Pesto first!!!  I've been making basil pesto for years so I don't really follow a recipe anymore.  However, if you've never made it, it's a good idea because getting the right ratio is important.  I've posted a link to our recipe's page that includes the original recipe that I started with.  I now use my own judgement in making each batch.  I will post other ideas as the season progresses.  If you aren't much of a pesto fan, try using the leaves fresh in salad for an added Mediterranean flare.  You can also use them on pretty much any dish involving chicken or fish.  Back when I was a carnivore, I don't know if I would have used basil on a dish involving red meat but that doesn't mean it wouldn't work.
Other items that will appear in everyone's share or half share include: Two types of lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson and Waldmann's Dark Green, Pinck Beauty Radishes, Green Beans and New Potatoes.  The full share includes two bags of Waldmann's, and larger bags of Beans, Potatoes and Radishes (including purple, red and white).  The potatoes in Newport are in brown paper bags next to the fridge.  I noticed there were two left so if you picked up your share and didn't get them, please feel free to stop by.  If not, they will be there next week and will still be great.
Also in the full share this week is the early manifestations of Leeks.  The type in yourshare is called Tadorna and they are really looking beautiful this year.  The first thing to know about Leeks is that the entire plant is edible (I wouldn't eat the stringy roots at the bottom though).  Most books, shows and general discussion centers around the white part at the base of the plant instructing one to discard the dark green leaves.  I won't tell you in full detail what I think of that.  Let's just say...it's ridiculous.  The leaves have just as much use, if not more, as the white base and they are very flavorful.  Leeks are in the same family as onions and share many of the same properties, including their usefulness as a storage crop.  The second thing to know about leeks is that they need to be washed more than your average vegetable.  The reason is the design of the plant.  The way the leaves issue forth from the stalk makes they wonderful places for silt and soil to build up after a rainstorm.  I wash mine under running water and pull the leaves back gently to expose the sand that's lodged down deep between the stalk and the leaves.  Also, cut off the roots as close to the bottom of the plant as possible.  I'll include a link in our recipes page for a wonderful Leek and Potato Soup.  It's perfect for all seasons because when it's cold out in the winter, it's a great, hearty way to warm the body.  In the summer it makes a wonderful chilled soup to eat on a warm summer night under the setting sun.
Finally, Hope for the Future.  I don't think I need say anymore than the pictures below.  These are the first Golden Cherry and Washington Red Tomatoes.  Not enough for the shares yet but they are on their way.  Also, in the third picture, you'll notice a Jalapeno in the upper right corner.

Hi all!
I hope everyone had a great week and enjoyed the heat.  I hope some of you are getting to the beaches this summer.  This was a great week for it.  I was in the garden most of the week and it was hot.  It's raining now and I'm glad for it.  We need the rain badly in the gardens.  This will help and hopefully it will continue through the night.

First, some housekeeping things.  I appreciate everyone getting their bags back each week.  This makes my job easier and allows me to spend more time on the harvest.  I know it can be tough to remember in the busy summer but thank you and keep up the good work.
Also, I think I've spoken to everyone in Winterport about this but just to let the Bangor and Newport pick-up folks know.  It's that time of the year when I have to begin harvesting more than I have been.  That means harvest will begin on Thursday and go later on Friday.  This pushes back the time that your share will be available for pick-up.  I will have shares to their respective places according to the following schedule affective this week.  I appreciate everyone's flexibility.

Newport - 2:00pm Friday (I hope everyone notices the new refrigerator.  Shares will be in that from now on)
Bangor - 2:30 pm Friday (The Italian Grocer is still working well but we're getting full bags now.  Please pick up your shares as promptly as possible as I have to move things in their cooler to make room for the bags.  They are being very generous and everyone is doing a great job.  Thank you)
Winterport - 3:30 pm Friday

This week's share contains the usual suspects, WP Lettuce Mix, Soft Lettuce Mix and Spinach.  Incidentally, I wanted to post a link to a recipe I really like for spinach.  http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1935,149169-225198,00.html  the recipe calls for frozen spinach...blah.  We're lucky in that we have fresh, local spinach.  Use the leaves raw for this.  I would just fill the food processor with the whole leaves, or pack about two cups of torn spinach leaves to get the right amount.  Personally, I omit the cheese but before I was vegan it was a nice addition.  Also, Instead of vegetable oil I use olive oil because I prefer the taste and it's better for you.  Finally, the recipe includes a note to add water to the pesto after blending to thin.  I prefer to add 5 tablespoons of the water from the cooking pasta.  Just prior to draining the pasta, take the 5 tablespoons (more or less depending on desired texture) of boiling water and stir into the pesto.  This makes the transition from raw to cooked a bit easier on the spinach. 

Also, I am cleaning out the greenhouse for the season.  The plan is to get it emptied of weeds and vegetables and let the soil rest for a while.  Then I'll till in some fresh compost and around mid-August I'll plant for the winter and next spring.  That process yielded the beets and beet greens in your share this week.  As you can see there are quite a few and I hope everyone enjoys the full sized beets.  That's the last of them (unless I get more by fall before the snow flies).

I also included a radish mix.  I ordered a new type of radish from Johnny's Selected Seeds on a whim.  A gardener's impulse buy if you will.  I like the color but they have taken a while to mature.  I intended to have only the mix in this week's share but they didn't quite make it to full size in enough quantity to make it worthwhile.  So I included some pink beauty radishes to make up the majority of the mix.  The other colors are purple, red and white.  I hope you enjoy.

Things are coming in in full swing in the gardens these days.  Sunflowers have come up from a recent planting.  Beans and peas are coming very soon and I harvested about 10 'new' potatoes this morning just to try them.  It will be a while yet for those.  We're also getting in some hay on the farm and that's a fun (though exhausting in this heat) venture.  I hope everyone enjoys this week's share.
                                       

What a fine morning to be a farmer in Maine.  The air had a nice chill to it this morning and my feet were actually cold in flip-flops as I began the harvest.  Once the sun came up it began to warm up but didn't get too hot and there was a nice breeze.  It's one of those days when you want to just stop and stand outside, eyes closed and face tilted toward the sun.  I did so today on many occasions.  What a great day to be in the garden.

I'm excited about this week's harvest because there is so much coming in in the garden and everything is beginning to be bountiful.  You should see the Tango Lettuce rows.  The beans and potatoes have begun to blossom, I saw my first chocolate pepper this morning.  Last night I began working on the trellis for our cherry tomatoes and notice there are quite a few already forming!  Some of the squashes have started to vine out and the sunflowers I planted two weeks ago are already a foot tall!  Hello Summer.

This week's harvest has some of the usual suspects.  Our Whale Spinach really took off this week in the heat so I got a bunch of it before it goes to seed.  You'll also find a bag of WP Lettuce Mix (Full Share members will have two full bags).  This week, there is also a new lettuce mix I'm calling Soft Mix.  I call it that because of the texture of the leaves.  Simpson and Marimba Lettuces are both softer, juicier leaves and they make a nice compliment to each other both texturally and colorfully. 

I also included some more mint as it is so plentiful right now and smelling great.  I had a few requests about other ideas for mint recipes and I found another great site online.  This url appears to be a forum in which people discussed ideas for use of mint.  I especially like the mint pesto though that might be a bit much for some folks.  Also the mint ice cubes are a great idea.  Don't forget it goes great in drinks to add a summer flare.  Also, you can add mint leaves as an edible garnish to any fruit based dessert or one involving ice cream.  Cooking shows are pretty much always adding mint leaves to dessert for interest.  I'd love to hear what some of you think about the ideas on this website and if anyone tries them, how they are for you.  Also, at the bottom of this blog entry, I've included a recipe for Mojito that Sue found for me.  She and John went to a gathering a few nights ago and she said they served this drink and it was exquisite.  This is an adults only recipe but you might be able to leave out the rum and make it kid friendly.  http://www.chowhound.com/topics/343366

You may recall the picture at left from a couple of weeks ago.  I mentioned that the dill had come up but was lost in the weeds.  It's amazing what a difference weeding and mulching will make.  As you can see at the right, Once I did that, the dill took off and there are bunches in the shares this week.  Dill is such a wonderful herb.  I use it fresh in salads by cutting small slivers of the fern-like leaves and sprinkling the top or putting the cuttings into olive oil with garlic and pepper for a great dressing.  You can also use the leaves to make pickles and there are a couple of recipes at the following address.  http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Herbs-and-Spices/Herbs/Dill/Main.aspx  One recipe, Dilled Garlic, sounds quite good.  You can store the dill in the refrigerator right in the bag or take it out, re-cut the stems at a diagonal and place in a glass of water (like you would for flowers).  I prefer the second method because I like the smell of dill in the kitchen.

The full share folks will find a head of red romaine lettuce in this week's bag.  I decided at the last minute to put that in this week.  I had already decided on what I would bring home for Emily and I and therefore, didn't need the romaine for myself.  I'm jealous though because it looks pretty good. 

Lastly, I've included some pictures of the goings on at the farm to let you know summer is in full swing (in case the heat waves of the last week didn't do that already).  John began the haying process yesterday and was working on it again today when I left the farm with your shares.  Even though I have severe allergies, I love hay season and haying.  It's hard work but the smell is wonderful, the fields look great during all stages of the process and it brings folks out of the woodwork to help, get together and buy the hay.  I'm also very excited because of a new mulching method that John told me his father used to use.  I'm going to try it next year and it involves large quantities of hay being left outside all winter.  Should be a good project.  Also, we're running the tractors on a combination of diesel and vegetable oil that's been run through a reactor to make it useful as fuel.  The mix is about 50:50.  Vegetable oil burns much cleaner, is easier on the engines than diesel and with prices the way they are, it just makes good sense.


Finally, I walked by the pig tractor this morning to harvest some lettuce and had to stop for a photo.  they were both passed out in the coolness of the mud.  John moved them this morning when I got to the farm and they had a great time turning up the sod.  One woke up and got curious before I could snap the photo but seeing them there made me jealous.  A good nap is a great idea!
                                      

The Mojito recipe came from Drinksmixer.com so I'll just include the link rather than retyping the recipe.  http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink582.html

I hope everyone has great plans for this weekend and that everyone has a happy and safe holiday.  This week's produce is available as of 5:30 pm on Thursday and will be ready at the usual time on Friday/Saturday if you can't get to it until then.

I've had a busy week this week in the garden.  I took the whole week off from my other job to try and get caught up on weeds and some other things.  I had some great help and after a week of work, I'm beginning to feel better about things in the rows (though we're not completely out of the woods yet - and some of these weeds make me think I'm in the woods when I'm in the garden :) ).  I also did some transplanting of sets and saw some great wildlife on the farm this week.  Below are some pictures.

Generally, when I get to the farm in the morning, the first thing I do is walk Brinkley, our family dog.  He loves the farm because he can roam about free of his leash, there is plenty of wonderful smelling stuff for him to roll in, and he loves to go for walks with dad down through the pastures and woods.  On one morning this week, we happened upon three deer in one of the lower fields.  Two bucks and a doe mulling over some of last year's pumpkin patch.
     

On Thursday, during the harvest, I was crossing the pig tractor row when I noticed one of the strangest things I've ever seen in the garden.  A box turtle.  Now, they certainly aren't strange and in fact, are fairly common.  But not in the garden, which is about two miles from Lake Sebasticook.  This is the nearest body of water that could be habitat for this little fella.  When last I saw him he was making his way through the grass, at least going in the right direction.  Hope he made it.


I also had some company while planting some corn and harvesting some parsley (which you'll find in this week's share).  The photo on the left is a lady bug helping me replant this year's corn crop (the first one never germinated properly).  The photo on the right is of a black swallowtail butterfly.  Very beautiful as a caterpillar and butterfly, but very bad for the parsley.
        

This week's harvest has some new items.
First, Our first round of Green Romaine Lettuce has grown to harvest size and it's looking quite nice this year. 

The first thing to know about Romaine as a member of our CSA, is that it's a lettuce.  You knew that.  But that means it has issues with growth that, while not specific to lettuce, certainly impact lettuce more because of what we want from the plant.  Lettuce grows in such a way as to shade and preserve moisture near it's base.  In other words, lettuce is it's own mulch.  This leads to wilt at the base of most lettuce plants.  Romaine is no exception.  The reason you don't see that in the grocery store is that it is picked off in a processing plant somewhere across the world and thrown away.  This is done to help make the lettuce last through the shipping process as rot leads to more rot.  It's just a waste of lettuce when you're dealing with farm fresh, CSA produce that was picked just a few hours before you get it.  You can cut away the rotted or wilted parts of the lettuce and consume the rest.  It is estimated that at every stage of the process in getting conventionally grown produce from the field to your table, the food industry (and consumers) throw away 10% of food simply because of the way it looks and the fact that it isn't as marketable with a little blemish here or there.  That's 10% at every stop along the way.  Imagine if everyone made the commitment you've made in joining a local food chain that is more worried about the quality and nutrition of the produce than the way it will look in a homogeneous supermarket display.  Romaine: the poster child for a better world. :-)

Anyway, Romaine is the traditional lettuce of Caesar Salad though it's great in any salad mix as far as I'm concerned.  Below is a recipe link for Caesar Salad.  http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1715,134177-248192,00.html.  I also found another link on the same site that lists several salad alternatives for romaine.  They look quite tasty.  http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-00,romaine,FF.html

Also this week, more beet greens and some beets have begun to develop.  The beet greens this week are a mixture of red and gold.  Cooked beets go great in a salad.  Be sure to add them just prior to consumption though because they will leach and stain all of the other ingredients if you don't.  They are also a good addition to a meal as a vegetable by themselves or mixed with others.  I've included a link to a site that shows three traditional ways to cook beets.  It also has a link on the right that shows how to cook beet greens in case you didn't catch that the first week we had them.  I'm looking forward to the beets and greens this week and hope you enjoy too.

http://www.ehow.com/how_3093_cook-beets.html



The final new thing this week is parsley.  Parsley is very good for you and is high in vitamin c.  It has a wonderful aroma, though some people probably don't care as much for it as I do, and makes a good addition to several dishes.  One of the best ways to use parsley (in my opinion) is to add it to a basil or spinach pesto.  I'm sure you can find some good recipes that require parsley and if anyone has any, please feel free to share.  You might consider drying the parsley for use this winter.  To dry parsley, gather the stems and tie with string.  Hang them in a dry area with good ventilation.  I usually hang herbs directly in the kitchen.  Dont' let them hang against anything, rather they should hang freely on all sides to allow for even drying.  I keep ours in front of a double hung window or on a screened porch.  The important thing to remember about drying parsley, and other herbs, is not to let them be hung in direct sunlight.  They will blanch and lose not only their appealing color but most of their taste, smell and usefulness.

The other items in your bag are the WP salad mix with a slight modification.  Some of the red lettuce is a different type as more comes online.  We're trying a few new lettuces as we do every year.  So far I like the taste of the new red salad bowl lettuce better than the lollo.  The former is the narrow, oak leaf shaped red lettuce you might find in your mix.  The latter is the frilly lettuce that's been mixed in since the first delivery.  I welcome your opinions on which of these red lettuces is preferable.  You'll also find baby spinach in your share bag this week.

Ok, that wraps it up for another week.  Again, I hope everyone has a great weekend and stays safe.  Enjoy.