Celebrating a Vibrant Cover Crop

This is the time of year when we see our land management plan come to life as we tuck away sections of spring and summer soil into cover crops. We planted 2 stands of sorghum sudan grass in late July which make our hearts sing. This luscious, organic matter producing grass has been the work of many people. Dave, our land owner, let us borrow his mouldboard plough to turn under stubborn rye and vetch. When the plough broke, our neighbor and CSA member Alton came over with his welding equipment to fix it. Aliyah and Jenny learned together on the plough and got the soil turned. Jenny planted the cover crop and Eva disked it in. There were many steps in this process which we know will produce results in soil. In many ways looking at a section of cover crop is even more satisfying and gratifying than looking at a hefty field of vegetables. It represents success, care and big-time learning in our long-term direction forward.


Winter and Fall Seeding

We’re seeding lots of fall and winter spinach and lettuce right now, getting ready for cool weather crops. After a long string of poor spinach germination we are attempting a switch to transplanted field house spinach. We hope this will become big and bountiful to feed our hungry Winter CSA members (and us farmers) November – January. We’re also excited to trial some winter hardy lettuce varieties this year to keep the salad season going.


Beans Beans Beans

But summer is not nearly over yet! We’ve got our eye on a beautifully weed-free bed of beans which should be producing and arriving in shares next week. Herbs are at their peak of flavor, including some beautiful cilantro and dill. Peppers are turning gorgeous colors and field tomatoes are rocking. We hope you are enjoy these days and meals!


Recipe of the Week!

From Julie Fischer
of @healthyonhudson (Instagram)

We love it when our CSA members get creative with their veggie share, and we love it even more when they share it with everyone, as Julie has recently done on here awesome Instagram feed. Julie is a part of our Rivertown CSA down in Westchester county, closer to New York. She posted a delicious looking image of a ratatouille, the recipe for which she kindly shared for this weeks newsletter.

Why we love this recipe... it's that time of the summer when the fridge might contain some lingering veggies leftover from the busy summer's over-scheduled weeks. And you need to make room for the coming fall crops! And so, it's time to do a clear out and cook something delicious with all that remaining bounty. This is the key to that delicious door! Julie gives us a great list of veggies for the recipe, but feel free to mix and match with what you have leftover in the fridge. Thanks Julie for sharing!


Ingredients:
1-2 onions
2 eggplant
2 large zucchini
3 garlic cloves - minced
1 green pepper - cut into chunks
2 large tomatoes - cut into chunks
1 - 6 oz can tomato paste
1 tbsp fresh basil chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Steps:
Layer half of the veggies in crock pot in order: onion, eggplant, zucchini, garlic, pepper, tomato
Then sprinkle half of the basil, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper
Add 1/2 can of tomato paste
Repeat with remailing vegetables, herbs,spices, and tomato paste.
Drizzle with olive oil
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours
Store in refrigerator or can be frozen

YUM!