Helene & Jett with Tomato Horn-worm
Tomato Horn-worm has been in evidence in our field tomatoes. We found one and brought it to the pick-up room on Tuesday to the amazement of most. They pupate and then become sphinx moths in their adult lives, but eat an incredible amount in the caterpillar stage.

We have finished off July with record pick-ups including sweet corn, tomatoes, melons, eggplant, cucumbers and beans. All the moisture and warm weather are making for a wonderful growing season. However, Ken has found it challenging to harvest our grain between the rain. He has managed to get both varieties of wheat off and the straw into the barn. The rye was too tough when he tried to harvest it so we are hoping for better weather next week. Our Red Fife Wheat didn’t yield very well, but I am still interested to see what the bread will taste like.

Anne Fong has shared a recipe for Cheddar Zucchini Fritters (you can use any summer squash) that her family has enjoyed. It was forwarded to her, she thinks originally from “Chatelaine Magazine”.

Cheddar-zucchini Fritters

2 small zucchini
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar, preferably old
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 egg white

Sauce

1 lemon
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp Dijon mustard, grainy

Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Do not peel zucchini. Coarsely grate. Spread over paper towels. Cover and press to remove excess water. Turn into large bowl. Sprinkle with corn starch. Toss to mix. Add cheese and onion. Stir to mix. Whisk egg white, then stir into zucchini mixture, along with generous pinch of salt & pepper. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Scoop about 1/4 cup mixture onto baking sheet, then gently press down. Repeat.

Bake in centre of oven until fritters start to firm and are golden at the bottom, about 15 mins. Turn fritters carefully. Continue to bake until set and deep golden on both sides, about 8 mins more. Let stand a couple of minutes to firm up before serving.

Squeeze 1 tbsp lemon into a bowl. Stir in mayonnaise and mustard. Serve fritters with dollop of sauce.

Elaiza on left and Jessica on right
We had a fair-well party for Elaiza the night before she flew back to Germany. Elaiza came as part of her Walforf school grade nine curriculum to work on our farm for three months. She was a great help in growing the produce for the CSA and worked well with the horses. An exceptional young women who fit in well. She and Jessica are good friends and shared a room in the bunkhouse. Jessica is an organic agriculture student from Quebec who has been here since the end of May and will be leaving the end of this month. She brought with her a keen interest in organic agriculture and a desire to learn as much as she can while she is here to apply to her future farming career. We have certainly been blessed with a group of wonderful young people again this season to help us run the farm for yet another year.

Our CSA working shares helped us harvest a beautiful crop of garlic last Tuesday and Thursday. It is now hanging to dry. Everything continues to grow well in the garden. Heat and moisture are welcome and we are expecting a bumper corp of potatoes and tomatoes. The melons, cucumber and squash are growing well too. We hope the Downy Mildew won’t kill the plants before they can produce a good crop. Ken was able to combine our early Harvard wheat last week between the rains. We now need some dry weather so we can bale up the straw.

Another week as flown by! I took some time this morning to take some CSA garden shots.

CSA garden in July
The Summer squash has started and yesterday we harvested our first summer cabbage. It’s very mild and good in cabbage salad! Most of you know how to use summer squash, but we do have some past recipes on the blog from previous years. I haven’t transferred them all to the new recipe section of this website, but if you type in a vegetable name in our “Search this site” box the old entries will come up. We have some summer squash, beet and lots of other vegetable recipes. We are always happy to post new recipe ideas. Please email your favorites and I will post them! Many people have asked what to do with kohlrabi and fennel and ideas other than chopping them up in salad or adding them to stir fry are welcome!

The new Suffolk stallion, Chester, is settling in. He has been driven single, but we are waiting to introduce him to the herd until after the mares have been bred. So far none of our mares have been interested… Our first cut hay is all baled and we hope to get in all mowed away tomorrow morning. So our horses won’t go hungry this winter.

The egg production has been gradually increasing with the new fence. We still aren’t able to keep up with the demand from our CSA members. However, we do still have lots of sausage and freshly ground whole wheat flour available for sale.