Hi Everyone,

What a welcome the cooler temperatures and cloudy skies were this week!! We actually got an inch of much needed rain on Friday evening and it just changed the whole look of the farm! For the first time in weeks you could actually drive from one field to another and not leave a cloud of dust behind you! The plants seem to stand taller and the crunch of the brown grass beneath your feet has even softened to allow bare feet the pleasure of a soft, cool, padded walk of light green again. The sweet potatoes, so desperate for water since planting weeks ago, are now able to stretch their roots into soft, moist soil instead of dry, arid desert like soil. Though we are far behind on the normal amount of rainfall for the year, it's amazing what one inch of rain will do in reviving and re-vitalizing life on the farm (including ours!) We now have breathing room, at least for a few days to continue planting your fall crops instead of stopping everything to lay out more irrigation for the sweet potatoes and other crops. The Yukon Gold, white and red potatoes got a nice drink and will soon be ready to make their appearance in your boxes.

Thursday was the official start of summer, even though we feel we've had summer for a month already. The high temperatures and drought conditions have certainly made us believe that we went from winter to summer and just forgot spring altogether. Even if the calendar dictates Thursday to be the start of summer, here on the farm summer for us is defined by the digging of the Irish potatoes. This is always done the week of July 4th. This month seems to usher in all the tastes we have been waiting for since December. Tomatoes, squashes, bell peppers, okra, blackberries, melons.all these just scream SUMMER!! Soon you will hear their little summer voices, smell their sweet aroma and taste their sun drenched flavors, and without consulting the calendar, you too will know for sure that summer is here!

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR A CHANGE IN PICKUP DATES IN JULY!!! JULY 4TH FALLS ON A WEDNESDAY. WE WILL CHANGE THAT WEEK'S PICKUP TO TUESDAY, JULY 3RD TO ALLOW YOU ALL TO USE YOUR VEGGIES AT YOUR FAMILY DINNER, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, SPEND THE DAY WITH YOUR FAMILY INSTEAD OF PICKING UP VEGGIES.

Here are the veggies that will make your family dinner this week:

Green Curly Kale
Onions
Red Cabbage
Broccoli
Purple Cauliflower
Basil
Cucumbers
Yellow Summer Squash
Zucchini
Patty Pan Squash (scalloped, great on the grill, a little salt,pepper, nothing else! It is also great raw in a salad or as a snack with dip, you can cook it along with your other squash as well if you like)
Romaine Lettuce (The heads are small, but we cut them to keep the deer from getting them first! 4,000 heads were eaten at a deer party last week!! Row covers arrived today, so hopefully you'll have larger lettuce for a couple more weeks!)
Zephyr Squash (Yellow with Green bottom, smooth, great grille, raw in salad, or cooked like the regular summer squash)
Green Tomatoes!! They will be red soon!