THE BEET: VOLUME 20; WEEK 7

FULL SHARE & GREEN HALF SHARE PICKUP TONIGHT


218 Gates Avenue between Classon and Franklin
(IMPACCT Brooklyn at the Gibbs Mansion)
5:00 to 7:30 pm

Upcoming extras!

Next week, July 29th - Union St. Honey will be joining us at distribution, offering hyper-local (great for seasonal allergies), unfiltered honey from their rooftop hives in Park Slope. Try a sample or buy a jar! If you miss this week, they may be joining us again in the future - stay tuned!

AND...

Lewis Waite Farms will be making their second delivery of the season, next week, July 29th!
Click here to browse their vast catalog of local and organic goods, all sourced from small farms and producers in the Hudson Valley and Berkshires. Order by 8:30am, Wednesday, 7/28, for delivery with your 7/29 share (select "Clinton Hill" from the "shopping for" drop-down menu).

This week's share

  • Tomatoes

  • Genovese basil

  • Squashes or cucumbers

  • Green cabbage

  • White cippolini onions

  • Romaine lettuce

  • Hakurei turnips

  • Swiss chard

  • Fruit: Apricots from Yonder Farm

Bread shares from Maison Flèche start this week!

The News from Windflower Farm

Distribution #7 - Week of July 19, 2021

Hello from Windflower Farm, where we have spent recent evenings binge watching Downton Abbey. My favorite lines so far have come from the dowager countess, Maggie Smith’s character: “’Weekend,’ what’s a weekend?” But another line also resonates: According to Daisy, the kitchen maid, “No farmer is his own boss. He takes his orders from the sun and the snow and the wind and the rain.”


What’s new on the farm?

A Great Blue Heron flies low overhead on its way from one pond in the neighborhood to another. I am returning from the back fields with an empty sprayer. Leaf hoppers and Colorado potato beetles have moved into our potatoes and will ruin the crop if given enough time. In a brief window between rains, I have sprayed a brew of beneficial fungi, root extracts and soaps to slow the progress of the little bugs. Beetle larvae are straightforward in their attack: they eat leaves, and in their many thousands can eventually defoliate a crop. A good rotation is usually adequate to prevent infestation, but not this year. Leafhoppers are a little more complicated: they pierce and suck, using their proboscis like a straw, slurping the potato sap. They exude a toxin in the course of their feeding, and it is the “hopper burn” it produces that is most damaging to the plant. At this point, a spray is the only thing between a poor crop and a good one.

The materials I’ve chosen to protect our crops are supposed to have minimal impact on non pest insects, but it is not zero impact. Bird chatter and distant tractors are the only sounds I hear as I write this, but I know that throughout the Americas and Europe songbirds are disappearing at an alarming rate, as are the insect populations upon which they depend. The heron, especially - perhaps because of its great size or its graceful flight - reminds me of what might be lost in the wake of climate change and habitat destruction. These encounters with our wild neighbors help me to take seriously my stewardship of this small farm and improve my decision making regarding our farming practices.

Have a great week,

Ted

Recipes

Put your tomatoes and basil to good use in this simple tomato crudo recipe (no cooking!). Or try this cabbage salad from Lil' Deb's Oasis in Hudson, NY - go by the book or make a few modifications - hakurei turnips instead of the radishes, and last week's cilantro for the mint!

Rachael Maingot