STRAWBERRIES (1 QT): As good as it gets, you might get a State Fair award winner in your quart as the first berries this year are just about perfect.
STRAWBERRIES (1 PT): The benefits of a bounty, a pint to snack on while you work on a recipe for the quart!
RED LEAF LETTUCE: Trying to size up after a rough May, our mainstay variety called New Red Fire is coming through.
ROMAINE LETTUCE: This speckled variety (Flashy Trout Back) gets its name for an obvious reason. This crunchy lettuce is great on a sandwich or in a Caesar salad.
GARLIC SCAPES: The hardneck garlic is growing on schedule, putting out their scapes just as the strawberries are ripening. They are a great combination, especially in a creamy dressing .
GREENS CHOICE: Sprouting broccoli, kale or chard.
HERBS: Cilantro, dill or a mixed bunch.
FARM REPORT:
I could easily fill another farm report with complaints about the weather, but I will try to restrain myself. In brief, we’ve had way too much rain and many of the crops are feeling the effects. The bok choi have bolted, the radishes and turnips have rotted and the cabbage crop is half-dead. However, it could be worse. Right now the news is of a huge tornado barreling across eastern Kansas flipping cars over in its wake. Hopefully everyone is okay and the storm loses strength by the time it gets to us. We have battened down the hatches, covered the strawberry patch and we have gotten by with no damage other than more rain.
Now on to what your farmers have been up to, plus if you make it to the end, a little Graff family history.
Between rain storms we got more plants in the ground, including several hundred summer crisp lettuces.
Mulching continues to be a top priority. Without it our topsoil would be heading downhill, but with a good layer of hay mulch it is staying put.
The hens are really enjoying their home in the high tunnel. Under the cover, the girls have the driest spot on the farm. They are happily eating the remains of the winter crops and having lots of their favorite dust baths.
Okay, you made it to the bit about my family history.
My grandparents, John and Allene Graff, grew up in and around Excelsior Springs, Missouri. They were farmers, but also had various enterprises over the years. In the 1930s they lived on a farm just outside of town with sheep, cattle, poultry and a large vegetable garden. Some of their farm products made it to the grocery store in town that my grandpa and his brother had at the time.
That’s Uncle Bill on the left and my grandpa, John, on the right. As you can see the grocery was tiny by today’s standards, a small store-front with lots of cans and boxes of shelf-stable foods. The perishables were brought in as needed and were by necessity local. The only snippet of family lore about the store that has made it to my generation is that Grandpa would call the farm and say, “Allene, go butcher a dozen chickens and bring them to the store.” I’m not sure what to make of that. I would like to know what Allene (my namesake, Rebecca Allene Graff) thought of this directive. If I could go back in time, I would quiz my deceased grandparents about the store, the farm and their experiences surviving the Great Depression. Instead, I am left to imagine a lost world where local food was the norm.
Kudos to you and Tom for helping to reclaim a little bit of that 'lost world'.