Last weekend marked our least rainy Garden Morning and potluck in three months! The jolly group harvested a couple thousand German Extra Hardy garlic as well as cleaning up in the flower beds, weeding fall carrots and harvesting cucumbers and zucchini. We welcomed new shareholders along with a handful of St. Lawrence students.
There’s a type of summer spinach available that is meant to do well in summer conditions, but it’s clearly less vigorous than its cool weather cousins. We planted it due to popularity among shareholders, but recognize that we’ll have better plantings later during the spring and fall.
We’ve seen the very first tomatoes, but the fields need more heat! Nightshade family crops- which also include peppers and eggplant- rely on warmth to set and mature fruit, so dipping into the 40s at night is no good for that.
There’s a few remaining slots for the Free Choice Fall Share that runs for 8 weeks in September and October. Forward this invitation to your whole food loving friends.
Invitation to the Gardens
- Join us in the gardens this Saturday am and you’ll get to catch up with GH, who is visiting this weekend.
- August Garden Morning, Saturday 8/26, participate anytime after 9am with noonish potluck.
- Spread the word to all the painters in your life, littleGrasse is hosting open air painting on August 26th as part of the NoCo Arts Fest organized by SLC Arts. Painters can come to the farm anytime that day and set up in their location of choice. The finished paintings will be displayed at littleGrasse during Local Foods Weekend organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension. Artists are also welcome to join the potluck that day.
Here’s some current soil management activities at littleGrasse. This black tarp is use for no-till, and was in the location where winter squash grew last year. After the garlic harvest, we shifted the tarp to cover that newly exposed soil, thereby suppressing emerging weeds and breaking down the mulch in that area. The now bare soil (right part of photo) was immediately seeded to a cover crop before today’s rain. All these efforts work towards encouraging biological activity in the soil as well as increasing the amount of organic matter.
What a treat during last Saturday’s Garden Morning! For the inaugural use of our new barn stove (thank you shareholders April and David), Jim and Regan prepped two full trays of breaded farm fresh zucchini and fried it up during the potluck. Amazing contribution, all the hungry folks loved it!
littleGrasse has a multi-year partnership with Big Spoon Kitchen of Potsdam, which includes a couple cool pieces. We grow out a soft neck variety that co-owner Rose Rivezzi’s father had in his own central NY garden, and share it back to Rose. In the photo, co-owner Will is picking up load from the farm because we also supply all the garlic for Big Spoon Kitchen’s weekly menu and catering. They love the big cloves and its long storage capacity.
Tips & Flavor Notes
- There’s new harvest areas beyond the greenhouse available of green beans and two varieties of head lettuce. Enjoy now!
- Hot tip from a fellow shareholder Emily, try celery top pesto. We enjoyed it at the potluck. The flavor and texture were excellent and it’s another way to use the entire stalk and reduce waste.
Camilla and family are removing the spent blooms from the flowers, which is a great activity for all ages. If you are ever in the gardens and see a bloom that is “past its prime”, simply snip below the blossom and let the bloom fall to the ground. Deadheading is an important step to promoting new flower growth on the plants.
There’s a fresh batch of green beans just beyond the greenhouse. We eat these regularly in a very simple way: boil, then pan fry with butter or oil laced with garlic, salt and pepper. Other interesting additions include a dollop of miso or hot sauce.
Crops Available
This list and availability are subject to change, check the share whiteboard at the start of every visit. If you are unsure about how to harvest: ask us! In person, via text or email.
Cell phone numbers, Flip: 315-854-5399 and Bob 315-854-5395.
*Asterisk marks crops added this week
- Beans
- Bulb fennel
- Celery stalks
- Chard
- Cucumbers*
- Garlic
- Head Lettuce- 2 varieties
- Flowers including Bee Balm, Calendula, Craspedia, Celosia, Cleome, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Daisy, Dill, Echinacea, Feverfew, Gaillardia, Salvia, Sunflowers, Tithonia, Zinnias
- Kale- 3 varieties
- Onions
- Spinach
- Scallions
- Summer Squash
- Zucchini
Culinary and Medicinal Herbs
- Anise hyssop
- Bee balm
- Basil
- Bronze leaf fennel
- Calendula
- Cilantro
- Dill
- Lavender
- Lemon balm
- Lemon verbena
- Mint
- Oregano
- Parsley
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Tarragon
- Tulsi holy basil
Always entertained by the night sky,
-Flip and Bob