CSA Week 11

Hello! Welcome to week 11!

Last week as I was harvesting sunflowers I noticed many more bees than usual. I stepped back to look at the row of flowers and saw there were 5 to 8 bees on each head of the sunflower. This was a sure sign that Armando was up to something with his bees. I look up the hill and there he is with Joe, both in their bee suits, giving the hives a little pine needle smoke from the smoker to quiet down the colonies so they can work in relative calm to collect our summer honey.

Here is a short pictorial of how that incredibly unique golden syrup got into those glass jars.

Here is Armando.

He has about 3 lbs. of bees to start the hives in the spring.
We started three more hives this year. Last years' hives restarted themselves after the long,
cold winter.

The bees are poured into the hives...........

Armando takes a close look to make sure the colony is accepting it's new queen.

The queen is shipped along with the bees but in a separate, little wooden box with mesh windows.

The mesh screen allows the colony to smell the pheromones of their new queen and to give

them time to accept her as their collective mother.

On August 11th , they smoke the bees to keep them calm as they take away the "supers" or

honey storage portions of the hive.

The wax caps are carefully scraped off, revealing the glistening sweetness inside each

tiny cell.

The frames are put 2 by 2 into the honey extractor and through centrifugal force,

the honey is thrown to the sides of the extractor.

The liquid gold is then put through a sive and bottled.

Your majestic summer honey is ready!

Harvested just for you...............

Honey

Lettuce Mix

Green Scallions

Sweet Italian and Bell Peppers

Tomatillos

A variety of Heirloom Tomatoes

Jalapenos

Yellow Storage Onions

Adirondack Blue Potatoes

Seasonal Fruit Share:

Blueberries

Nectarines

Jupiter Grapes

Charentais Melons

I tasted these beautiful Jupiter Grapes last week at Mick's stand and could barely walk away from them. These are seedless and full of flavor. Enjoy!

What's for dessert? The Charentais Melons are a French variety, deliciously sweet, cantaloupe with a light flower aroma. These are grown by Peter Kline of Seedling Fruit.

Adirondack Blue Potato, yes this potato does have a bold blue/purple skin and flesh. These are great roasted, boiled, steamed or mashed and also adds a great color in your salad.

Peppers! This is their first appearance from the field. The Italian variety is a long and conical in shape pepper. Both varieties will have various colors from red to orange to yellow. All are ripe and ready for your grill or thinly sliced, raw and wonderfully crunchy.

Tomatillos! "Tomato Verde" These are the small green round tomatoes that are popular in Mexican Cuisine. You will want to discard the husk around the tomatillo and store them in a plastic bag in your fridge until ready for use. Here is an easy and tasty tomatillo salsa recipe:

8 to 10 tomatillos, husked and well washed, quartered

1/2 bunch of scallions, roots and green ends trimmed, cut into segments

5 garlic cloves, smashed

2 jalapenos, roughly chopped

Pinch of allspice

Salt to taste

Puree all ingredients together until very smooth either in a blender or food processor.

Season with salt.

Top your favorite enchiladas, tamales or skirt stake.

Enjoy the bounty of the farm!

Your farmers,

Tania and Chris Cubberly