WILD HARE WEEKLY, SUMMER #6
Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day? Or shall I ditch the sonnets and tell you what is fresh and tasty this week? Shallots--shallots of them, along with another round of Favas, Zucchini, Squash and another go at the Italian Chard before we give it a good mid-summer mow. Lovely and temperate. If you've not had them before, Shallots are the milder cousins of sweet onions and garlic, and their flavor falls somewhere on the spectrum between the two. By the way Shallots + Zucchini =Delicious! I even like them sauteed with Apricots and a bit of Cumin and Cinnamon on a skillet or on the grill. When life hands you Shallots, why not go savory, right?
And since we're already talking savory, why not get bittersweet for a moment and talk Berries 2019. We hope to harvest a small number of Golden Raspberries at the start of the week and begin Blueberry harvest by the week's end. However, due to the fact that our newest plantings of reds aren't producing yet, we are expecting an almost non-existent Red Raspberry harvest this Summer. Instead of picking, we will be nurturing these young canes that we've planted in anticipation of a fair 2020 harvest. We foresaw this unfortunate gap as we removed a barely-producing/damaged block of Cascade Delights, eventually planting a few more rows of Tulameen in the South field. In a perfect world, we probably would have set this in motion back in 2016 when the established canes were still productive; however, since we didn't own our farmland outright until late 2017, setting a big perennial planting in motion wasn't in the cards (or the budget) until more recently. If ever we needed to call upon the old platitude that "to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow," large perennial plantings are a reminder that the scope of our farm, whether we're talking about the soil, the business, or the people like you and me who comprise them, extends so far beyond a given growing season or year. At my daughter's school, they speak quite often of nurturing a Growth Mindset, but around here, you could say that our growth mindset is perennial.
Just a few hours ago, Mark and I had the opportunity to host a brief visit to the farm from a handful of community leaders, experts and advocates from the WSDA, WSU, PCC Farmland Trust, Pierce County, and a wide range of organizations who are actively looking for ways to sustain agriculture and environment in our area of the Puyallup River Watershed and beyond. One of the consultants asked us what about our farm keeps us up at night, Whereas the short answer for any business owner is always "money," Mark and I also agree that time is always something that we could use more of around here, quantum physics aside. Case in point--the perennial herb garden renovation that keeps slipping to the bottom of our to-do list. Out in the CSA upick beds, the Poppies are poppin (and the Zinnias, Bachelor Buttons and Calendulas too). With any luck, and sufficient staff hours, we'll be planting out new Lavender, English Thyme and Sage with more herbs soon to migrate into their new homes at the front of the perennial herb beds. Black Currants are also ripe and ready for share members to pick this week way out in the orchard. So if Currants are your jam (and trust me, they should be), be sure to check in with Jade or myself so we can point you in the right direction to pick a few this week. The Kale, Collards and Chard happen to also be planted way out West by the orchard this year, so you can do double duty with your long walk!
Perennially Yours,
Katie
Read More
