Well, yesterday was hot. Our weather station recorded a high around 32C, though accounting for humidity and UV intensity, the "feels like" was close to 40C... and it's not even July!
Adapting to extreme heat is simply a reality of the times so we'll be experimenting with movable shade cloth to try to make specific areas more hospitable for working on exceptionally hot days.
Garlic Scapes
This week's shares will include a bunch of garlic scapes! Garlic scapes are shoots that grow out of the top of the garlic plants in early summer. If left they develop into a flower that produces seeds, though many gardeners (including us) harvest the scapes for their own sake.
You can use them as you would chives but they have a distinct, garlicy flavour. Chop the scapes to season soups, stir fry, add them to an omelette or even directly into your salads. If you're feeling a little more adventurous, there's a recipe for a Garlic Scape Pesto that we've tried and enjoyed, you can find it below :).
Garlic Scape Pesto
Ingredients
1 cup garlic scapes, cut into 1" pieces
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup cashews (or nuts)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Pepper and salt to taste
Directions
In a food processor, process the scapes and basil for 30 seconds
Add the nuts and process for another 30 seconds
Drizzle the olive oil in as you continue to run the processor
Add in the parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.
Mix and taste, adding salt and pepper as desired.
Enjoy!
Cucumbers or Peas
This week's shares will contain either cucumbers or peas. Our plants didn't produce enough this week to include in all shares, so we'll divide them up and alternate in future shares.
We've also been dealing with very high cucumber beetle pressure among our cucumber plants. We've been diligent in daily checks and soap spraying but they seem to thrive and multiply in the heat and there's been no shortage. We're pivoting our defence strategy to lean more heavily on diatomaceous earth so hopefully we'll see improvement in the coming week.
Continuous Feedback Welcome!
We're very thankful to receive feedback from customers throughout the season - especially "critical" feedback. It's the best tool we have to adjust our processes and methods and improve the outcome of our efforts.
One customer recently told us of some bad radish received in their share. They were hesitant to do so but we were very happy they chose to! We realize that for every person who reports trouble, there's probably 10 who experienced the same thing.
As a result of that feedback, we've adopted a more aggressive inspection process with our radish harvest. This week we've been randomly sampling and cutting open radish to test and explore their quality. This weeks overall look better than previous, so we're wondering if there was an issue local to the bed the previous radish crop grew in, or perhaps the ups and downs in heat and rain landed at a more sensitive time in it's development.
Either way this feedback allowed us to direct our attention more carefully so we're very grateful for it!
If you ever have an issue or a comment you'd like to tell us about, our feedback form is always open.
Follow the link below to share your feedback with us!
Bobcaygeon Garden Tour
This year we're happy to be taking part in the Bobcaygeon Horticultural Society's Annual Garden Tour.
The tour takes place on July 9th from 10am to 4pm and offers attendees the opportunity to visit and tour gardens throughout the Bobcaygeon area. Tickets are $15 and all proceeds go to supporting the Bobcaygeon Horticultural Society.
If you'd like to a buy a ticket, you can do so directly from us! Either when you pick up your share or when we delivery - let us know if you're interested!
This Week's CSA Share
Salad Mix
Head Lettuce
Garlic Scapes
Pea Shoot Microgreens
Spinach
Radish
Cucumbers or Snow Peas
Food Bank Donations
So far this season we've donated nearly 300 pounds of fresh produce to our local food banks. Most of our donated produce goes to Kawartha Lakes Food Source, a fantastic charitable organization that distributes to many food banks within Kawartha Lakes.
We also make direct donations to the Fenelon Falls Salvation Army, Bobcaygeon Food Bank, and the Kinmount Salvation Army Food Bank.
A big thank you to all of our CSA customers who support our operation and make this possible!