June 25

Farm Notes

Considering that it’s late June in North Carolina, I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by how lovely the weather has been this week! (Mostly) clear skies, cool, and super low humidity… I know it’s too good to stick around, but I’ll take it while it lasts.

We’ve officially rounded out Week 2 of our Summer CSA, and the boxes have been filled with a rainbow of color. From new potatoes to beets, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, zucchini, fresh herbs, etc… it’s an especially delicious time of year as we enjoy the both the late spring and all the early summer veggie goodness.

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I’ll be honest that I was a little worried going into our new CSA model about whether we’d have the abundance and diversity to fill our boxes each week… and as we get rolling into summer, I can say I’m relieved by how well things are working out. In general, farms using a CSA model need to design a careful crop plan to ensure enough diversity and well-timed successions of veggies to keep the boxes varied and abundant from week to week. But because I didn’t go into this season planning to do a CSA (we decided to make the shift after realizing that I would be 6-8 months pregnant through this summer, and the farmstand model was going to be too tough of a workload for me to handle) – our crop plan wasn’t exactly designed with a CSA in mind, but so far, so good!

That’s not to say that everything has gone perfectly… I think it’s important to also talk about some of the failures and things I know we can improve on for next season. For one thing, we’ve really struggled with pest pressure on our cucurbits (zucchini, cucumbers, winter squash, etc). Unfortunately, the pests (mostly vine borers and squash bugs) got too far ahead of me on our zucchini, and our whole crop (and attempts for a 2nd succession) are already basically finished for the season. I also wish that I had planned better successions for summer lettuces… we have more lettuces that will be ready to harvest soon, but next time I’ll have more regular plantings so we have a consistent supply through the summer.

How are YOUR gardens growing this season? I’d love to hear how things are going, and if you have any questions or need help trouble-shooting any issues, don’t hesitate to let me know! A reminder that our next Zoom Q&A session is this Sunday, June 27th @ 3pm-4pm EST! This is a great time for us to connect one on one and I’ll happily answer any questions you have around growing + cooking seasonal veggies. You can submit questions ahead of time HERE, and HERE is the Zoom link to join on Sunday.

Kitchen Notes

It feels like all of the sudden, there is an epic abundance of summer veggies that we get to cook with! Even though I don’t have much time/energy to cook these days, the nice thing about summer veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, etc is they are so fresh and delicious on their own that you don’t have to do much to make a nourishing and vibrant meal.

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June 18

Farm Notes

Week 1 of the Farmbelly Summer CSA is officially in the books! It’s been a gorgeous, sunshine filled week, and our new CSA distribution model has already done wonders to help lighten/streamline my workload… which I’m especially grateful for as I enter the 6th month of my pregnancy. Speaking of which, many of y’all have asked for more updates on how we’re doing over here! Overall I’m still feeling great, though I am finding that I definitely need to take more breaks and ask for a lot more help when it comes to lifting + carrying things that I could normally easily tackle on my own. It’s been a good (and humbling) experience to slow down and ask for help… two things that don’t usually come naturally to me (!) so I’m very grateful for the many hands that help this little farm run.

Back to the veggies! Pictured here is our Tuesday full share (plus eggs): spring onions, looseleaf lettuce, zucchini, new potatoes, slicing cuke, basil, beet root medley and cherry tomatoes:

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Looking ahead to the next few weeks, the okra is starting to come in, along with our eggplant and cucumbers. We’ve harvested + cured about 1/2 of our potatoes, and overall we’ve had great production from our tubers this season. Peppers tend to take a little longer and still have a few weeks before we’ll be harvesting those. We were a little late getting our first succession of green beans in the ground, but they are growing leaps and bounds every day and we should be harvesting in the next week or two, and our 2nd succession of beans has just been seeded. Lots of deliciousness ahead my friends!

Kitchen Notes

Tomato season is here! This week our cherry and heirloom tomatoes started hitting their stride, and I feel like I’ve incorporated tomatoes into every meal (and not complaining one bit…)!

In honor of this beloved fruit of summer, yesterday I led another mini virtual cooking lesson on all things tomatoes! In the lesson, I dig into the 4 main types of tomatoes (cherries, paste, slicers, and heirlooms) and talk about proper storage, harvesting, and cooking with each type of tomato. HERE is the link to watch the recording via Facebook, or you can find it on our Google Drive folder HERE.

In this lesson, I also quickly demo how to make the easiest / most luxurious tomato dish ever…. slow roasted cherry tomato confit! HERE is the recipe (which is barely a recipe) if you’d like to enjoy an explosion of tomato flavor – I like to enjoy these slow roasted tomatoes over some creamy polenta, on top of some crusty bread + goat cheese, scrambled up with some eggs, or just straight from a spoon! What are some of YOUR favorite recipes for sweet tomato tomatoes?

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Today’s Stats

  • Low temp: 55F

  • High temp: 90F

  • Sunrise: 6:00am

  • Sunset: 8:37pm

  • Moon phase: Waxing gibbous

  • Additional notes: Sunny and hot all day

June 11

Farm Notes

Goodness gracious, it feels like we are farming in the rainforest! The past week has been wildly hot and humid and wet, and it hasn’t been the most pleasant weather for farming… but that’s just summer here in North Carolina, and we can’t complain about all the gorgeous veggies that are starting to flow in from our garden. Zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, etc have arrived, and so have the days of needing to harvest daily to keep up with all the abundance.

We officially held the last farmstand of the season this week, and next week we begin our Summer CSA! I’m beyond grateful for all the support from our community as we make this shift mid-season, which will really help me lighten and streamline my workload as we prepare to grow our family this fall. Our first official week of the CSA looks like it will be a delicious one… with a new crop of looseleaf lettuce, zucchini, onions, cherry tomatoes, new potatoes and lots more on the harvest list.

Yesterday we planted sweet potatoes, and it’s my first time ever growing them! When growing sweet potatoes, you plant what’s known as a ‘slip’ – which typically need to be ordered from your local farm/garden supply store. We got ours from our favorite local farm store in Pittsboro, Country Farm & Home. There are lots of different sweet potato varieties out there, and I had to practice some serious self control to not try them all! We ended up planting just two varieties: Beauregard and NC-122 (for a full list of different varieties and their characteristics, here’s a great resource).

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A few additional notes about planting sweet potatoes:

  • Sweet potatoes prefer loose, well-drained soil for best results. If you have clay soil or drainage problems, work in lots of compost or other organic matter and make raised beds, hills, or planting ridges approximately 8 inches high.

  • Plant your slips at least 4-6 inches deep, spaced about 12” apart in rows at least 3 feet apart, to make room for all the sprawling vines! Water newly planted slips immediately and keep the soil moist for at least the first week as roots develop.

  • Sweet potatoes like the soil to be quite warm, so we planted ours under black landscape fabric (which also helps keep down weed pressure) though you can certainly plant them directly in your garden without the use of any fabric.

  • Time to practice some patience! Sweet potatoes take 3-4 months to mature, so we plan to harvest these in October/November. I’ll keep y’all posted on their progress!

Kitchen Notes

Native elderberry bush

Native elderberry bush

If you live in the south east/mid-atlantic region, chances are that Elderberry bushes are in bloom on roadsides all around you! Elderberries are a spreading shrub grows to be about 8-10 feet and with a spray of creamy-white flowers in mid-summer, giving way to loose clusters of delicious black fruits that are high in nutrients and antioxidants, which have long been used by Native Americans for all their medicinal properties.

Every year around this time, I can be found scurrying along the sides of the road to collect the fragrant blooms, which I soak in simple syrup to made a fabulous elderflower syrup that I look forward to every summer.

Elderflower syrup is delicious stirred into a glass of cold club soda or ginger beer for a refreshing, non-alcoholic spritzer, and it is also divine added to a glass of sparkling wine or your favorite gin or vodka cocktail. I also enjoy drizzling it over fresh fruit, fruit sorbet, or over some tangy greek yogurt.

The syrup is super simple to make at home, here’s the recipe I used, adapted from the blog Lemon & Olive Oil.

Elderflower Syrup

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INGREDIENTS

  • 3 packed cups elderflower blooms

  • 1 organic lemon, sliced

  • 2 cups granulated sugar

  • 2 cups filtered water

  • 1/4 teaspoon citric acid or 1 tablespoon lemon juice

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Trim stems of the elderflower blooms, getting as close to the base of the florets as possible (the stems are mildly toxic and, while a few won’t hurt, you definitely want to get rid of as much as possible). Make sure there aren’t any bugs hiding in your blooms!

  2. Place the flowers in a clean quart-sized mason jar, along with the slices of lemon.

  3. In a saucepan, heat sugar and water together until simmering and sugar is completely dissolved. Stir in citric acid or lemon juice.

  4. Pour warm syrup over flowers. Cover the jar with a cloth or paper towel (with a rubber band around it to keep it tight) and store in your fridge for 4-6 days, stirring the mixture once per day, until the flowers start to turn brown and the syrup takes on a pale yellow hue. Strain syrup through a fine mesh sieve lined with a clean cheesecloth, discarding leftover flowers and lemon slices.

  5. At this point the syrup can be refrigerated in a jar for up to 1 month.

Today’s Stats

  • Low temp: 68F

  • High temp: 84F

  • Sunrise: 6:00am

  • Sunset: 8:34pm

  • Moon phase: Waxing crescent

  • Additional notes: Hot, humid and scattered storms

June 4

Farm Notes

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Holy guacamole, how is it JUNE?! Last week, Matthew and I were able to sneak away for a few days to the gulf coast of Florida for some sunshine-filled time off with family. After a whirlwind spring, this trip was just what we needed to rest and restore ahead of an even busier summer season ahead. Once we got back to the farm, it felt like summer had officially arrived.

And now all of the sudden, I’m up to my elbows in tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers… not to mention a lot of weeds! Let’s just say this week has been a lot of playing “catch up” and whipping the garden back into shape. And after an incredibly dry few weeks, all of the sudden we have been inundated with rain around here. While we definitely needed the moisture, of course now all I want is some sunshine! We’re in an important window where we are starting to harvest garlic (which has been growing for over 6 months) and potatoes (which we planted in March), and all of the rain means it’s harder to cure/properly dry these veggies after they are harvested… which isn’t good, obviously! Thankfully, it looks like there is sunshine in the weekend forecast and we’re slowly but surely crossing things off the never-ending farm to-do list.

Over the next week or so, we will be planting heaps more veggies… from sweet potatoes (!) to our 2nd successions of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and summer lettuce. I’m especially excited about the sweet potatoes, because I’ve never grown them before and I’m eager to give them a try. Stay tuned for a tutorial on how we plant the sweet potatoes slips next week. :)

Kitchen Notes

Earlier this week, I hosted a mini virtual cooking lesson focused on Knife Skills! In case you missed it, the link to watch via our private Facebook group is HERE, or you can tune in via our shared Google drive folder HERE. In this lesson, I dig into the main knives you need in your arsenal, how to keep your knives sharp (and safe), how to hold your knife, and how to properly chop, dice, chiffonade, and mince!

Here are a few links to the knives/tools I recommended in this lesson:

And now for an early Summer recipe! This is a quick, colorful salad is perfect for hot summer days when zucchini is flowing from the garden, and you don’t feel like turning on your oven or stove. For this recipe, it’s best to use small to medium sized squash, as larger squash will have tougher skin and larger seeds. This recipe is lightly adapted from the cookbook 'Ruffage' by Abra Berens.

Shaved Summer Squash With Herbs, Lemon & Parmesan

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INGREDIENTS:

  • 2-3 zucchini summer squash, shaved thinly into 1/8" slices (a mandolin works best for this)

  • 1 cup assorted coarsely chopped herbs

  • 4 oz Parmesan cheese, peeled into ribbons

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt

  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

  • Between 1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil

  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Toss together the shaved squash, chopped herbs, Parmesan ribbons, salt + pepper, 1/4 cup of the olive oil, and the lemon juice.

  2. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more olive oil and/or lemon juice as needed to make it well dressed and flavorful.

  3. Serve within the next 30 minutes. If serving later, shave the zucchini in advance but dress just before serving.

Today’s Stats

  • Low temp: 77F

  • High temp: 66F

  • Sunrise: 6:01am

  • Sunset: 8:30pm

  • Moon phase: Waning crescent

  • Additional notes: Rainy all day!