Week Fourteen: Watermelon and Cantaloupe!

Firstly, I was featured on Annarbor.com last week! Read Jen Haines' excellent article here!
It's been another good week at the farm. These cool mornings have been deceptive--we workers start the day in multiple layers and wind up scattering sweatshirts, socks, scarves, and warm hats around the fields as the day warms up. On Tuesday afternoon we visited the hay field to dig the last of the potatoes. As we worked, we noticed a cloud of dragonflies hovering in the air over the field. It was so magical to be surrounded by these fluttering wings--kind of like being accompanied by fairies. On Wednesday we started very early on our big harvest. We picked whole lime basil plants and brought in Napa cabbage thinnings. Unfortunatley, due to the cool weather this summer we are not getting a good sweet corn harvest this year. On the other hand, we aren't seeing much of the tomato blight that many local farms are getting, so that's good. Also this week, some of the other apprentices helped with the melon harvest--so many large watermelon and cantaloupe that a *tractor and wagon* were required to bring them all in! Hope you're hungry for summer fruit... :-)

This week's bounty
Choice of 1 eggplant or 4 ears of corn (we chose a combo)
Edamame - 3 plants
Potatoes - 1 box
Sweet peppers - 3
Lime basil - 1 plant
Napa greens - 1 1/2 lb
Pears (from our orchard trees!!) - 1 box
Parsley - 1 bunch
Cantaloupe - 2
Lettuce - 2 heads
Radishes - 3
Sweet basil - 7 tips
Garlic - 1 bulb
Summer squash - 2
Hot peppers - 3
Watermelon - 2
Tomatoes - 6 lbs

With all that bounty we'll be making:
Victoria's Stir Fry - my Chinese buddy's favorite stir fry sauce on napa cabbage, radishes, and peppers.
Herb-Roasted Potatoes - from The Boxing Clever Cookbook p. 165
Ratatouille - Classic summer stew of deliciousness from Moosewood p. 119
Lime Basil Pesto - we're adapting the classic Moosewood recipe (p. 74) by using cashews to balance the unusual lime basil flavor.
Kristin's Hot Pepper Chutney - fellow farm worker Kristin learned this spicy-sweet condiment recipe while WWOOFing in Ireland. Yum!
Tomato Juice - summer, straight up.
Solidarity Salad with Edamame Happy Labor Day.
Also, everyone will be getting a watermelon AND a cantaloupe as well as just a taste of sweet corn.

See you Friday!
Mary

Photos: 1. Happy Farm Workers after a morning of harvest: Ricardo, Kristin, Mary, Paul, Katharina, Anne, Nikki 2. A wagon-load of watermelon 3. Nothing wrong with these tomatoes! 4. Pears 5. Thank you, Dani, for putting together our pizzas last week!!