I just walked in from the farmstand where I was sobbing big farm girl tears over the gorgeous wave of tomatoes that flowed through the barn doors today. The ardor with which I love tomatoes is almost embarrassing, and I'm probably a bit tired. But in that moment, all I could think about was eating tomato sandwiches with the people I love. For me, tomatoes mean home, and for as long as I can remember, there was always a tomato beside the toaster at my grandparents' house, a loaf of bread, salt, pepper and (depending on the decade that we're talking about here) margarine or butter. Mark prefers his with mayo, but for me (and the daughter who I'm teaching well), one of the greatest pleasures in life comes from tomatoes layered upon two slices of toast, buttered and sprinkled with nothing more than a pinch of salt and three grinds of pepper. There's a sense of satisfaction in knowing that the tomato on my grandma's counter is one of mine these days, and Kim and I were pretty proud to look up at the stacks of tomatoes on the table (and cross our fingers that the table doesn't buckle under the weight overnight). It feels like a long overdue housewarming, and I'm delighted at the prospect of you all taking a bit of our joy home with you--along with a side of crisp lettuce and peaches to boot.

You might be relieved to know that the zucchini has mellowed out a bit, but not as thankful as our crew is! There are 'bumper crops' and there are 'whatever we want to call what happened last week in the field.' Our BIG thanks are going out to Harvest Pierce County for helping us get 700 lbs of squash and cucumbers from our farm to local food banks last week.

Have a great week!
Katie

PS: Thank you in advance for your patience as I rework the newsletter format. You might have noticed that it looks a little different; however, the goal is to have all of this weekly content stored and searchable on our website over the next few months. As always, I'm a work in progress.

The season has truly come into fruition. Relentless yet pleasing, exhausting but somehow invigorating--this is what I think Camus was getting at when he wrote about the invincible summer that lies within. Everything is push and pull. Many farmers will agree that July is the absolute worst--a force to be reckoned with. Be that as it may, sitting down to a summer meal (or more likely, snacking on something out in the field) is about the most life-affirming of things that we do. Every time we turn around, there is another round of crisp cucumbers, summer squash of every shape and kind, sweet blueberries and incredible tomatoes ripe and ready for the picking. This week, we’re delighted to have enough of all these things to go around for members of our CSA, along with some gorgeous fennel that just happens to be in its prime out there in the field and some long-awaited bunched baby carrots. With any luck, the heat will actually break between now and the end of the week, and we can find ourselves baking Zucchini Breads and roasting some split Tomatoes with Fennel for soup. But until then, few things satisfy quite like quick raw salads made of Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Fennel and yes, even those Zucchini.