CSA Newsletter: Summer 2010 – Week 11
Community News: We just wanted to say thank you to our membership! In light of the late blight news, there has just been an outpouring of support from you, our membership. Your notes and messages have been really uplifting. Here we are, frustrated that we won’t have as much to give you as we would like, and you are reassuring us that you understand. Many thanks.
From the Fields: All of your well wishes must have somehow communicated with the winds, because the blight has not advanced as quickly as we expected. With Friday’s downpour, we thought for sure we’d come back to blackened fields, but not so! We were able to harvest quite a bit yesterday and today, so you can all expect another week of tomatoes. We wanted to prepare you for the worst last week€¦ it makes this week’s tomatoes that much more special, because we weren’t sure we’d have them!
So what is this late blight, any way? Well it is the same fungus that caused the Irish potato famine in the 1800s. The spores of this fungus can travel up to 40 miles from their source. On a tomato plant they tend to attack the leaves first, as they have done on ours. The tell-tale sign is a blackish, gray lesion. The blight travels through the plants and kills off the greens. Sometimes it spreads to the fruit. We try to avoid picking these fruits, so they shouldn’t be
Late Blight on Tomato Fruit
ending up in your share. It is possible, however, that a fruit could be picked with a small lesion that we don’t see and it progresses once with you. If you see your tomato develop what you see in the picture posted in this newsletter, bag it up, throw it away, and wash your hands to avoid unintentional spreading to backyard gardens, etc. ** Remember, it is normal to have lots of little black spots on your tomato, like there have been in previous weeks ” this is NOT blight.**
Okay, so what else is going on besides the blight? The season’s onions have all been harvested, and they look great. Meanwhile, the red peppers are starting to come in strong. Carmen peppers are a favorite of mine. They are so sweet and delicious. We can eat them raw like an apple. Slice some up with an heirloom and parsley over cottage cheese€¦ a favorite summertime lunch. In other news, the green and gold zucchini and cucumbers are starting to wane. Can you believe it? You probably felt like you were swimming in them at times, but there is only one planting left. After that we’ll have to leave the green and gold to the Pack. (Sorry ” first pre-season game was this weekend ” couldn’t resist the reference!)
Share News: The new items continue€¦. It’s week 11 and there has been something new every week so far! This week our new item is leeks. See the super yummy linguine recipe for this week.
Enjoy! Sincerely, Mike, Cassie, Zea, and Crew
In the Box:
- Beets ” *EOs
- Carrots
- Celery
- Cucumber
- Garlic
- Leeks
- Melon* (either Cantaloupe or Spanish Sugar Nut)
- Parsley, Curly ” *EOs
- Pepper, Hot Wax (small, pointy tip, either orange or greenish/yellow)
- Pepper, Red Sweet Carmen
- Sweet Corn – *EOs
- Tomatoes, Cherry (either Large Red or Sungold)
- Tomatoes, Slicing – Red and Orange
- Tomatoes, Heirloom
- Tomatoes, Roma – *EOs
- Zucchini, Gold and/or Green
REGs = regular shares only
EOs = everyother shares only
This Week’s Recipes:
Summer Week 11 – Wednesday, August 18th – Everyother Week A
