A quick pic of today's CSA goodies: several varieties of potatoes, baby squash and zukes, peppers, eggplant, cukes, and a bag of beautiful heirloom tomatoes -- notice the different varieties. I laid the 6" ruler across the top of one just to give an indication of their size. One slice out of the middle would cover a piece of bread for a summer tomato sandwich. (Note: the basket of potatoes on the upper left corner was not from today but from the last couple of weeks from the CSA share. Only the ones in the plastic bag are from today. I can't eat them fast enough!)
I walked around in Sammy's gardens a bit before coming home and was just astounded at the sheer size of what he grows. Tomato plants 7-8 feet tall in a forest of vines. I don't even see how he gets down the rows to pick, so long and large have the vines grown horizontally, all dripping with fruit. And no sign of yellow leaves (wilt disease). Just amazing.
The summer squash leaves stand 4-5 feet high -- it looks like you could climb up on them and walk on top of the solid green surface of the leaves blending together. I have never seen yellow squash flowers so big -- as broad as a bread plate or soup bowl with bees trafficking in and out. I saw cucumber beetles (like ladybugs, but green with black spots) on the squash plant leaves but saw no damage to the plants at all.
The years Sammy has spent nurturing the soil on his farm have paid off. The plants he grows are hard to believe. Wish I had taken my camera.
Caught this little guy sunning on top of the kale in front of my house:
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So, how are you cooking/eating all these pretty veggies? And how does he do it with those tomatoes? They're organic???
ReplyDeleteI need to get someone to split the share with me next summer -- it's definitely more than I can eat alone. Yep, everything is certified organic. I asked Sammy a couple weeks ago if he used anything special on the tomatoes and he said no -- he uses kelp and trace minerals on the whole garden, but nothing special on the tomatoes. The main thing he does is plow back into the soil all the spent plants which feeds the soil with fresh organic matter. If you could see how much organic matter is represented by those hundreds of tomato and squash plants, and all the rest -- that's a lot of organic matter that feeds the soil a couple of times every year. A pretty good system, obviously.
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