beans beans the magical fruit

     With the dog days of summer behind us for the forseeable future, thoughts and feelings drift towards the harvest season. the late summer bounty. a settling down to the harvest table if you will. a time to gather and enjoy the company of friends, heck, have a weekend. a time for more reflection on the season thus far. The days are not feeling so long and then too short for all the work that needs to get done, but long enough.
The mornings have been refreshingly cold. My feet begin to feel chilled around 4:45 am, and I awaken to tuck the blankets around my bare feetsies and think about getting up. The sun is still in the dreamtime of the morning, and so I follow the sun. An hour later I am awakened again, this time to see an amazing red and orange band hovering above the mountain tops. Atmospheric gases, pollution and particles give a most dramatic show for the early crowd to witness. another hour later the round sun appears- red and orange like its opening act, but more focused and brilliant, charging ahead gathering momentum as the a.m. hours pass.


green and yellow beans: Leonardis Organics. this is a good time for fresh beans in lake county. milder daytime temps and greater relative humidity make for happier bean plants. picked monday morning while the sun warmed my back and a humming melody. stir fry , salad with herbs ,

fresh soybean: Full Moon. first time Ive seen a soy bean grow. Neat plant. with plentiful water exhibited running growth habit, beans seemed to begin drying just as they began to plump, very short window for harvest. a variety of plump green and yellowing, and not so plump green pods for your enjoyment. try my favorite and simple boiled edamame recipe, did someone say succotash?

arava melon: Full Moon. what a difference a week makes. plentiful harvest of melons this week. delicious and juicy. packed with sugar and fiber. best to be eaten on its own as it may cause some digestive disturbance if combined with other foods. makes a great breakfast jumpstart. zing. what kind of flavors do you taste?

lemon cucumber: Full Moon. another week of these cute and convenient little ones. After saying this was the tastiest crop last week, I found some bitter bites. uh oh. no bueno. could be caused by extreme temperature fluctutaions. cukes are muy sensitivo to the slightest stress. and certain bitter flavored chemicals increase with stress, tho the lemon cucumber is usually fine. please let me know if you got any bitter skinned cukes, one should not normally have to peel these, nor suffer a bitter bite.
delicious in salad with cilantro, dill, garlic, vinegar, sweet/spicy peppers. choose your own adventure.

red slicer tomato: Full Moon. steady supply of these sweet and salad ready toms. great on open face sandwich too. nothin like fresh tomato. lycopene is a bright red carotenoid or phytochemical that gives the tomato its color and latin name roots (lycopersicum)

sungold cherry tomato: Bio Farm. pop em, roast em with pasta, blend em gazpacho style

summer squash: Full Moon. crookneck and zucchini,

on rotation this week:
okra: Full Moon

watermelon: Full Moon

let food be thy medicine

 With insane heat behind us, things have gotten back to normal around here. There are still more fires sparking up, this time started by lightning during our brief five drops of rain this week. The smoke can be pretty thick at times, and winds carry lots of particulate matter, some very irritating to the skin and eyes.
Ive been picking the okra now everyday and im surprised by my urge to chomp and chew methodically, till my mouth is full of a thick bolus that so smoothly glides down my throat. Im a newish fan of okra, first tried it  a few years ago while harvesting at a local farm in the east bay, and a farming buddy from the south gave me the grand tour of okra appreciation when I first moved up here. The smoke and the heat have begged me to find remedies that will allow me to continue  my work efforts during the hot day. Cucumbers and Okra to the rescue!

Eating with the seasons is a core component of a holistic lifestyle.without getting too out there, see if you follow my logic. our growing food is participating in the same daily dance of survival that we humans are. subject to the same planetary cycles, daily rhythms, environment and such. Plants and humans have incredible faculties for healing and adapting.Nature provides both the poison and antidote, in the plant world one will often find them growing next to or near eachother. So is it possible that we can heal ourselves, and adapt with our world of constant change, by eating the foods grown in our specific region and season? why is it a cucumber grows in the heat, yet provides a cooling treat?
  "let food be thy medicine..."-Hippocrates.





Garbanzo bean: Full Moon. fresh.exciting. simply pop the pod and release the bean into your salad, soup, or  dish. roast on the bbq with chili powder and a squirt of lime, or in a pan .  complete with green stems and leaves, perfect for a refreshing sun tea. here's a story from mariqueta farm about that.
If the pod is yellow and dry, it will need slightly longer cook than green pods. a unique experience.
more recipe ideas here

Red Lasoda Potato : Clover Creek Family Farm. Thurston and I harvested these tonight. Nice big and small red  new potatoes. New potato? yes fresh and new to the above ground world. a thin skin easily disturbed by sharp things like gopher teeth. Thurston swears that a gopher wound will not fall to rot and some of these wounded beauts grace your box this week. perfect for baking, roasting, mashing and stewing.

Garlic: Biofarm. perfect for mashed potatoes, what can be said about garlic that hasnt been already? anti bacterial, immune booster,  breath freshener... you name it.

Gypsy Peppers: Biofarm. Gorgeous yellow gypsy pepper. sweet. link for stuffed pepper recipe.

Lemon Cucumber:  Full Moon. Despite some cosmetic cucumber beetle damage these are the tastiest crop of lemon cukes I have grown. hope you like em too  and more to come.

Crookneck Squash: Full Moon. the plants themselves give off a buttery aroma and the fruits have a delightful flavor. first harvest from this bed planted by my dad. thanks

Arava Melon/ Green Okra/Udumalapet Eggplant: Full Moon. Ok. some of you will be receiving melon this week, and the others Okra and Eggplant. Unfortunately not enough for everyone this week. Next week I will rotate so if you missed out on one this week, keep your head up for next week.

arava is a delicious and sweet melon. green fleshed and intoxicating aroma. these are a "full slip" melon, meaning they "slip" from the vine when they are ready to harvest. no one likes an unripe melon, it worth the wait.  store at room temperature for quick eating or store in fridge if it'll be a few days.

okra is one of those unusual veggies that comes with some big fans or some big haters. ya either love it or hate it. but like the link says "giving okra a second chance" its "sliminess" is usually the turn off for folks. this can be mitigated by hot and quick pan roasting, or a light steaming and adding to a dish of other cooked veggies. This sliminess is also one of it s strong points too, great for thickening a stew (gumbo) or light soup, and great for coating our internal skin with moist mucilage.

the squirrels and heat left a couple of these for us this week. With last weeks heat wave the eggplants went on vacation, ceased flowering and have now begun to resume their regular work schedule. After removing all the half eaten fruits, and putting up protection we hopefully will be getting a lot more of  these small fruits.When slicing a few of these up the other night I was amazed to smell bannana! the more mature fruits have a yellow skin benefit from a slicing, salting and rinsing before cooking to remove any bitterness near the skin. the plant's own protective barrier to pests.


Red Slicer Tomato : Full Moon. More from our Oregon Spring beds. This is a great canning tomato, if you would like pounds for sauce, let me know-will be harvesting for a couple more weeks. the other heirloom varieties (purple calabash, kellogs breakfast, snow white) are slower to ripen and may be another week or more before we begin to harvest them.

#11

Bella Dulce melon, a few weeks from harvest.

Arava melon one week from harvest.

       Im not sure if you were as disappointed by last weeks box as I was. my apologies if you were. I am sensitive to variety and felt that lacking last week. I am also a fan of novelty and to have nothing new on the menu left me a little sour.  So I am excited to tell you that there are some new items this week and on the horizon...but first... Have you see any of the perseid meteor shower? A good excuse to "space out" after the sun goes down, make a wish on  a shooting star... Everything under the sun is growing well but intense solar heat has put a hurtin on the crops. causing wilting, flower/fruit drop, leaf  burns, sunburn on fruits and has been challenging our farmers as well. Throw in a few fires erupting this weekend and sheesh! what a week.  the local radio station has done a nice job keeping the community informed and up to date on road closure, evacuation zones and where to go for food and shelter. The theme of crisis bringing folks together has come up. Its true. the urgency and necessity for support and interdependent community  is strong in emergency situations. sometimes stressful times can wear our protective barriers thin and we may rub eachother the wrong way while sometimes we let these barriers down by choice when times get tough and we pull together and realize our vulnerability and humanity and generosity takes over. I hope you all enjoy this weeks installment and share a meal with friends for goodness sake.

and on the virtues of patience...
come on melons! dont make us wait so long. the anticipation for melons is high right now. a good handfull are changing color but wont be ready this morn. ahh! next week expect the tropical flavored green fleshed  arava!
the soybeans and garbanzo beans are setting more fruit and looks like next week for them too. woohoo.

Asian Cucumber:Leonardis Organics. delicious thin skinned asian cucumber. satsuki madori. Jim has grown superior cucumbers. Jim was featured in the CAFF e newsletter this month and briefly mentioned us and our working together, thanks Jim and congrats. 

Sungold cherry tomatoes: BioFarm. The best tasting cherry tomato out there! very sweet flavor. bright tangerine orange color. Judith grows the best cherry tomatoes.

Italian Eggplant: BioFarm. Large dark purple glossy skin.  I was hoping to bring you the Listada de Gandia or the Rosa Bianca from our farm, but the squirrels and quail have been at it again, poking and chewing holes into these beauts. A barrier of some sort is needed if we are to enjoy these in the coming weeks. For now we can enjoy these beauts from Biofarm. Judith has been dealing with a lot of squirrel pressure as well this year and suggested the fence idea as well as getting a .22 rifle. I think with the increased extreme weather  we are seeing increased pressure from our furry friends looking for a meal in hard times.

Armenian Cukes: Full Moon. standing up to the heat like champs. thick skin to stay crunchy and ornate seed cavity to delight the eyes. in fact feeling hot or irritated? cut a couple cuke circles place them over your eyes for a minute and tell me you dont feel better. great chopped up in  a salad, juiced! (big hit this week-super hydrating, cooling and alkalizing). check the recipes from july 30 post. actually makes a great pickle too.

Jericho Romaine: Love Farm. Gadzooks. the fantastic romaine showing his/her head in this weeks box. a surprise delivery of Pineapple Tomatoes from Teale this week in your tomato bag.Teale tells me peaches will be coming soon. yippee!

Red slicer tomatoes:  Full Moon. Oregon Spring Bush is the name of these red tomato. Known for its sweet, juicy flesh, this is the premier early- season variety for areas with cool summer nights. and cool nights we do. this week for instance we topped out at 106.4 F in the early afternoon and before sunrise drop  to 48 F. this can throw summer crops off. off flavors, off ripening times, off mineral absorption. 
a nice plant canopy can hold radiating and stored heat off the soil and bear the less than perfect temp patterns. we irrigate regularly to establish deep roots vigorous and lush greenery, ample flower production and hopefully fruit set and once fruits begin to ripen we reduce water to develop stronger flavor.

Onion: Full Moon. harvested cured and ready for seasoning your meals. In  haste I trimmed some tops that were still green and not fully cured, if you find green rings at the top of the onion, either keep in fridge or use first as it will lose moisture quickly.

Dill: Full Moon. the Modern Herbal says:"... Dill possess stimulant, aromatic, carminative and stomachic properties." In laymens terms that means benefits the stomach, apetite, digestion and related gas. enjoy with easy confidence! make a sauce or dressing and garnish a bean dish, fish,  tofu or any meal. It is said that the oils are strongest before flowering, hence the tall stalks and prepubescent flower heads. heres more recipe ideas than one might try to shake a stick at. the champagne dill carrots sound good

Whooah, we're half way there

howdy folks.
I am one tuckered out farmer tonight.
please excuse the less than inspiring post.
we'll be soo excited for next week. see sneak preview pics at bottom.
please check previous posts for recipe links.
many hours in the sun. crispt.

weather forecast says: "Oppressive heat is forecast to arrive in force" and "The 'Dog Days of Summer' are coming later this week w/ very hot days & sultry nights expected. " (really it can get more oppressive?!) hopefully this will be good for the eggplants and tomatoes. just a handful have begun to ripen and a butt load expected in the coming weeks. If you would like to order tomatoes for canning, now would be a good time to put in your order. email me with your interest and we can discuss the details.
mooneymanna@gmail.com

Chorus:
Whooah, we're half way there
Livin on a prayer
Take my hand and we'll make it - I swear
Livin on a prayer

Box number 10 brought to you by bon jovi.

japanese eggplant: full moon farm.  tender and purple.

armenian cucumber: full moon farm. crunchy and green.

summer squash: full moon farm. soft and green. shishkabob?!

carrots: ancient lake garden. crunchy and orange.

purple top turnip: ancient lake garden. round and purple/white.

mixed herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, dill, rosemary): you may have access to wonderful herbs like this already and in case you dont... here they are. great for dressings, sauces (dill yogurt) tea (infuse room temp water with thyme and oregano flowers for nice treat), or cut and dry for later use. using stripped rosemary sticks for shishkabob skewers is all the rage these days, make sure its soaked in water  so it doesnt burn over the flames.


 

listada de gandia eggplant. on bed of wilted amaranth.

fresh soy beans coming soon.

garbanzo filling out their pods.

yellow wax bush bean flowering soon after the heat passes.