CSA Week 6

In your share this week:

1 lb green and purple beans

assortment of pattypan, zucchini, yellow crookneck summer squash

lots of pickling cukes

lots of slicing cukes

bunch swiss chard

bunch beets

bunch radish

1.5 lbs yukon gold potatoes

1 head garlic

3 shallots

1 bunch scallion

1 bunch each: thyme, cilantro, parsley, dill umbels (flowers)

 Some notes on your produce this week: No greens again this week, though they will be back for week 7 (lettuce, mustard greens, and bok choy.)

Purple beans will turn green when cooking, unfortunately the color doesn't hold when heated!

Parsley is here and will replace cilantro until the cooler weather brings more hospitable conditions for cilantro.

Potatoes are Yukon Golds and unfortunately, due to the early, dry spell, yields are lower than I'd have liked. I'll keep digging away, and we'll see how long they last.

Sadly, my first broccoli crop failed.  The plants, along with cabbage and cauliflower, had been under reemay since getting transplanted out.  From a few tears in the reemay, all seemed to be going as planned with the cauliflower and cabbage.  However, today when I went to harvest the broccoli, usually first from that set, the plants looked unhealthy, unhappy, and stricken with some type of disease.  The next succession is on its way, but it won't be ready for a few weeks, at least.

In other news, our vacation to the Adirondacks was incredible-- two days of beautiful weather, and morning of DUMPING rain to keep us honest and happy to be warm and dry in Old Forge!

 We paddled in Gus's grandpa's old wooden canoe from Blue Mountain Lake through Eagle Lake and Utonawa Lake to the Marion River, about a thirty-five mile trip.

 Burt was, for the most part, an excellent boatmate, though he definitely did not do his fair share of paddling...  After the portage from Utonawa to the head of the Marion.

 Raquette Lake is huge!  Looking north.

 Gus with the boat, what a beaut!

 We also got in a visit to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, where there is a resident boatbuilder whose studio is open to public view.  She wasn't there when we visited, but the museum volunteer told us it took somewhere around 600 hours to complete a hand-built guide boat.  Amazing!  The museum also had incredible collections of antique horse-drawn farming and driving implements-- snow rollers, snowplows, cutters, surries-- and even a train!

The museum's collection of antique guide boats built in the Adirondacks.  We ended up the trip with an incredible performance by the Brubeck Brothers Quartet at View Arts Center in Old Forge, NY.  It was such a joy to get to check out the resources-- natural, human, and community- that are available in the Adirondacks.

Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoy your produce!