Well folks, over the course of just one week, our Cucumber harvest has nearly tripled, so this is a great week for slicing up cukes for snacks, a refreshing salad, a batch of fridge pickles or a cool cocktail. I’m late to the party, but I discovered Tangy Loopy Cukes over the weekend. Fun to say—even more fun to make and eat! It goes without saying with the Zucchini and Summer Squash, but the cucurbit crops really love these late July days.

As you walk up to the farm stand this week, you’ll notice that the cut flower garden is blooming beautifully. As of this morning an array of Poppies, Zinnias, Bachelor Buttons, Cleome, and even a few Sunflowers are opening up and showing out in a big way, so members of the CSA should tack on an extra few minutes to their pickups to spend a few minutes among the flowers and/or cutting a little bouquet to take home, free of charge. Though we love growing all of the vegetables and fruit across all of our acreage, the cut flower garden is a real treasure. It is one little way that we can thank you for supporting us and showing up here week after week, and it is our hope that cutting a few blooms brings a bit of color, creativity and calm into your life! Pro-tip—a travel mug or cup makes a great transport vessel for your flowers. You can add water from our spigot, and pop your bouquet right into your cupholder for the trip home.

Weeks like these I want to laugh in the face of anyone who has ever thought of farming as the Simple Life. As I paced my way in from the blueberry field a bit ago, I was hit by the realization that we’re currently tending to four seasons of crops (the majority of which are not perennials). While some of the days were spent picking blueberries, loading up wheelbarrows of zucchini and trellising Tomatoes that are just starting to blush, the crew spent the end of the week knocking out huge fall and overwintering planting—one that we will likely be harvesting from well into next Spring. And at one point in the past 24 hours, Mark discovered that the pump we currently rely on for irrigating our fields of Sweet Corn, Celery and Winter Squash was down for the count. (Thank goodness for this overcast Monday weather!) And thankfully, after troubleshooting, ordering parts, troubleshooting some more, he got the pump up and running again. This is all to say that farming is just a bonkers line of work, but I’m thankful that we have good food to show for it. So, let’s get into it!