Dinner Is Delivered

Tonight I knew what meat we were going to have for dinner (request of chicken from Michael) but I was waiting for the CSA box to come so I could choose what vegetables to have.  Good choice.  Tonight we had sliced onions, potatoes, yellow squash and zucchini with a little bit of garlic all buttered, salt and peppered and put in a foil pack for the grill.  I love me some grilled veggies!  Tomorrow night we have corn on the cob!

The weather has been giving us all fits and I worry every time a storm blows thru here that it will hit the farm hard.  I plan to go this weekend to see the damage to the greenhouse in person from the bad storm that blew thru a few weeks ago.

There is nothing better than a good salted tomato.  This week in our boxes we have some dandies!  The big one is one of Andy's families heirloom variety tomatoes.  He can't remember the actual name of the variety...they just call them 'flat pink' tomatoes.  That seems so funny to me...sounds like something I would say!  Those heirlooms have less acid than regular tomatoes have  and they just happen to be Andy's favorite.  The other variety we got this wee is called Mt. Fresh...which Andy calls just regular tomatoes.  I love it!  We will be getting some Italian heirlooms in the coming weeks.  The are a different shape...oblong and cylindrical in shape.  They are more meaty and are good for canning, but Andy and his family just like to eat them slices.  He has never really met a tomato that he doesn't like.

Andy being the good organic farmer that he is wants us to understand his methods of growing.  They divide their land into three sections.  They rotate their crops and each section has to produce for two years and then a year that it goes fallow.  During the fallow year they put in cover crops, let them grow and then plow them under.  This helps build humus in the soil. (an element that is often overlooked in most of the modern day agriculture world).  If the weather permits they like to a crop of oats in the spring.Then when May-June rolls around that is plowed under and they put in a crop of buckwheat.  If the weather permits they will plant another crop of buckwheat.  But in a dry year like the one that we have had, they will be satisfied with just one crop.  In the late summer and early fall they will put  in rye which will overwinter.  This will be plowed under in the spring so produce can be planted.  During the fallow year, as the cover crops grow, Andy will spread a layer of composted manure from the cows, horses and pigs.  They also rotate the chicken out over the cover crops.  They add 'their fertilizer' to the soil while at the same time they are producing good quality eggs...since the cover crops are a good source of protein for the chickens.