WILD HARE WEEKLY, SUMMER #9

Did you know that we grow more than 40 varieties of tomatoes at Wild Hare? Well, you do now. This afternoon, we kicked off this week's harvest with a preponderance of really gorgeous Roma Tomatoes, aka Paste or Sauce Tomatoes. We'll pick colorful cherries, meaty slicers, a handful of heirlooms, and surely have some seconds and splits at the farmstand this week. But, seeing these beauties laid out on our tables ahead of tomorrow's CSA distribution, I wanted to take a moment to bust a myth, clear the air, and spread the good word about Romas. Even though they're considered sauce tomatoes, you can use Roma Tomatoes for more than just sauce. Yep. They're are actually perfectly tasty for fresh eating. They lend themselves toward saucing, because they tend to have a higher ratio of flesh to juice than other tomatoes, meaning that you don't have to spend the extra time boiling out and reducing down extra liquid. Our Romas tend to be firmer and almost gummier than our slicers, but they're plenty sweet and flavorful. Griddlers Gourmet Grilled Cheeses like to use them for their magical tomato soup for this reason, but meanwhile, I watch my friend Christie, owner and purveyor of green goodness at Green Heart Smoothie chow down handfuls of them totally raw just about every week. So go ahead, snack away, cut them into your salads, slice them onto sandwiches, make fresh salsa or make sauce. Whatever floats your boat on a given day. Conversely, you can make fine sauces with any sort of beefsteak or heirloom tomato if you cook it down, and Cherry Tomatoes (when we don't sell them out from under ourselves) are one of our favorites to toss with a simple bit of olive oil, garlic and angel hair. My point? Don't get hung up on the names or types too much. Just enjoy them any which way you like.

WILD HARE WEEKLY, SUMMER #8

WILD HARE WEEKLY, SUMMER #8

Finally it is July proper--high temps, cool cucumbers and juicy tomatoes to boot. It is the time of year when we finally get to nosh on all of the deep summer veg (much of which is technically fruit if we're being honest with ourselves). Luckily things like blueberries, cucumbers and salad greens tend to be refreshing and hydrating too.

I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to send a newsletter out last week. Hopefully you enjoyed those great big Collard Greens and Blueberries just the same. Mark and I were invited to participate as part of a panel of Young and Beginning Producers with Northwest Farm Credit Services on July 15th in Woodinville. We were only one county away for about 30 hours, but we had plenty of catching up to do upon our return. It was a truly enriching experience to meet and share a handful of business owners like ourselves, though certainly different types producers--we were flanked by beginning winemakers, fishermen and geoduck farmers, sharing our successes, drawbacks, and hopes for the future with a seasoned board of growers, many of whom were multi-generational large scale conventional commodity farmers. There are just so many ways to work in agriculture. It was a pleasure to share our enthusiasm for our way of farming--and our gratitude for all of you! And if the week wasn't eventful enough, I have to say a big thank you to PCC Farmland Trust, Tahoma Audubon and to those of you who turned out for Birding on the Farm this past Sunday. We were up to our binoculars in blue skies, great company and such wonderful insights about the habitat that we share here in the valley.

Keep Cool!
Katie

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