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.