Welcome fall shareholders!
The hatching has begun. Snapping turtles love the tilled sandy soil of littleGrasse. It was such a pleasure to watch this motivated traveler, make their way towards the water, which is not a short journey and involves cutting through the woods to get to the marsh. While turtle survival rate in the early days is low, if all goes well, snappers live up to 40 years!
I hope you are eating with similar gusto as us these days. Our meals haven’t been elaborate, but the flavors of summer shine through in the ingredients. A weeknight favorite is infusing garlic into butter or oil on low heat while preparing the meal then drizzling on steamed beans, broccoli or carrots with a complementary minced herb. Here’s some of the mouthwatering treats coming our of your kitchens including kale chips, ramen bulked up with sauteed veg and homemade pizza with fat roasted tomato rounds and okra. We love seeing these photos: share by text, email or tag @littlegrassefoodworks on FB.
This week we did some of the last transplanting of the season, putting in hundreds of Chinese cabbage. If you are 
new to this vegetable, think crunchy and versatile, well-suited to cabbage salads, cooked or fermented into kimchis and pickles. The crop looks good and we will be glad to distribute them in the fall. We have more direct seeding to do, mainly greens such as the ever popular spinach, along with lettuce greens and cilantro. If you ever want to learn more about how we do things or join us in the gardens any Wednesday 5:30-7:30pm or Saturday 9am-1pm.
Tips for Success
- The you pick share is meant to be for the amounts that your household can eat fresh in a week. It is not intended to provide bulk amounts to preserve for the off-season. That said, sometimes we have a great bounty, such as garlic scapes in June. Currently there’s lots of kale, don’t be shy about the harvest, and all shareholders are welcome to harvest more than fresh amounts to blanch and freeze a few packs.
- We find households get the best value in the share if they plan to come at least once per week. Visit anytime during daylight hours. You can choose to come the same time every week or on a whim.
Crops Available
- Rainbow Carrots* (there’s pitchfork in field to loosen them)
- Potatoes: French fingerling, Red Norland and Libby Purple* (on share table)
- French red shallots* (on share table)
- The cutting flowers! (Currently blooming: asters, calendula, celosia, cosmos, drumstick flower, dahlias, false sunflower, gomphrena, hyssop, millet, rudbeckia, statice, strawflower, sunflowers, yarrow, zinnias).
- Arugula
- Beans, green and yellow
- Beets
- Chard
- Cucumbers* (in fridge)
- Hot peppers
- Green peppers
- Kale
- Summer squash and zucchini (in fridge)
- Spicy mixed greens
- Tomatoes (on share table)
- Anise hyssop
- Calendula
- Cilantro
- Dill
- Purple basil
- Lemon Balm
- Mint
- Oregano
- Parsley
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Tulsi or Holy basil
- Yarrow