Hello! Welcome to Week 12!
Let's talk compost.........a necessary soil conditioner for every organic farmer at the end of their season. It is "composed of organic materials derived from plant and animal matter that has been decomposed largely through aerobic decomposition."-Wikipedia.
In the Spring of 2010 we started piling horse manure and bedding (straw) in long 500 feet windrows. Then we added piled green material (grass clippings, vegetable scraps and landscape waste) along side the first pile. Every month we try to combine these two piles together, "turn" and aerate the piles to encourage the decomposition and to keep the microbes and other critters happy.
The pile on the left has been turned. The pile on the far right has yet not been combined with green material or turned.
Here are the combined "greens" and "browns" being tossed by the spreader, making a new single pile.
Along with cover crops, the compost we make is the main component of our on farm fertility. Pictured below are Geoff and Bill who helped us with this big project.
Along with cover crops, the compost we make is the main component of our on farm fertility. Pictured below are Geoff and Bill who helped us with this big project.
Harvest just for you.............
San Marzano Tomatoes
Yellow Wax Beans
Mustard Cooking Greens
Fingerling Potatoes
Hakurei Sweet Salad Turnips
Walla Walla Onions
Fall (?!) Butternut Squash
Fresh Mint
Seasonal Fruit harvested just for you...........
Golden Supreme Apples
Stanley Plums
Niagara Seedless Grapes
A few recipes to enjoy this week!
Yellow Bean and Fingerling Potato Salad (I substituted green beans).
If you had plans to make tomato sauce, here is the finest tomato to make the best sauce ever! San Marzano Tomatoes are a rare find around here, fresh that is. You can always find them in a can but after you make your own sauce from a fresh tomato it will be very hard for you to reach for the can. You'll have to wait all winter to wrap your hands around this fresh tomato. They are also great roasted, perfect for you Labor Day BBQ.
Here Smitten Kitchen is using "unloved tomatoes", although you're using the best they do offer a great recipe that can be turned even more basic without the carrot or celery which is the way I prefer. Fresh Tomato Sauce!
Our tomato varieties: starting clockwise, San Marzano, Juliet, Flame (orange), Rose, Brownberry, Garden Peach (Yellow, slight fuzzy skin), Green Zebra. Not pictured are Sungold (small gold, sweet) and Striped German. It has been a great tomato season and we hope you have enjoyed tasting the varieties we grew for you!
Enjoy this weeks bounty!
Your farmers,
Tania and Chris Cubberly
