This decline of strawberries, coupled with the day length decrease, is a reminder that we must now order our new plants for the 2011 harvest.  We always plant a new strawberry crop each fall for the next spring. This morning, after reading a panicked email from a farmer friend that said every nursery is sold out already, I got on the phone.  And it’s true! It seems as though most of the nurseries that grow these transplants are sold out this year. Due to the cool season all over the state of California, the plants haven’t been able to catch up to the demand and the yields are late and low.

Strawberries are unique plants that have many specific needs for large scale growing. Their flowering and fruiting are influenced by day length and there are different varieties that fruit when the days are long, or short. And there are also varieties that are unaffected by day length. These are the day neutral varieties.  We usually plant varieties of berries called Albion and Seascape, both day-neutral varieties.  We normally purchase our transplants from large nursery operations located in and the around the Shasta area. The soil is very sandy there and perfect for long, healthy strawberry roots.  The elevation is a lot higher as well and when the baby strawberries are moved down to our coastal area they kick into awesome production. These nurseries have very strict production guidelines that all strawberry farmers rely on. These guidelines insure a healthy and disease free strawberry plant. Why not grow our own from the long runners that shoot off of the strawberry plants each year? Because the risk of disease is too high and we don’t have the high elevation to trigger the physiology of the plant to kick into high fruit production.

The strawberry plant is an incredible gift from nature. The wild ancestors of the modern cultivated strawberry are from North and South America. The Native peoples of some regions of North America considered the strawberry the strongest of plants because it fruited so early and it also marked the beginning of summer in many places.  Today, it is still a celebrated crop here at Blue House Farm and elsewhere, with festivals, dances, parades and feasts dedicated to its red juiciness.

When strawberries are eaten in their wild form, their fruit is tiny and when picked dead ripe, incredibly soft and sweet. Not characteristics of your average supermarket berries. Wild berries usually produce fruit for a couple weeks and then stop. To domesticate the strawberry, plant breeders choose fruit size, flavor and length of harvest as top priorities. In this selection process, some of the qualities of disease resistance, plant vigor and resilience of the wild plants are lost. This is why, in general, strawberries must be constantly cared for. They need the perfect amount of food, water, sunlight, no weeds, well drained soil, disease free fields and robust pest repellent programs.

So, as of right now, the future of the strawberry harvest is up in the air.  Although production and fruit size diminish greatly the second year and the prevalence of disease and pests increase, we plan to keep this years’ crop in the ground. I will continue my search for strawberry plants and in the meantime, the smells and tastes of familiar summer crops will keep me excited. And don’t worry, the strawberries will be back in your box soon too.
-Ned

• 1 Head cabbage, cored & shredded
• 1 small red onion, halved & thinly sliced
• 1 med carrot, cut thin diagonally then slivered
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 tea sea salt
• 2 to 3 pinches coarse-ground pepper
• 1/2 C white wine vinegar
• 1/4 C pineapple juice ( can use grapefruit or orange juice also)

Toss together cabbage, onion, carrot, garlic, salt and pepper. Combine the vinegar and pineapple juice, and pour the liquid over the vegetables. Mix well.

Pack the mixture into a jar or plastic tub, cover the container tightly and refrigerate it for at least 12 hours. During this period, occasionally stir the mixture or shake the container.

The pickled cabbage will keep well, covered and refrigerated for at least 4 days. Makes about 6 cups.

-From The Joy of Pickling by Linda Zeirdrich

Drain beans, cover and bring to boil. Remove scum that rises to surface then add herbs, 1 1/2 tea salt and all but 1/2 C onion. Lower heat and simmer until tender (1 1/2 hours).
Slice kale leaves from their stems and shop coarsely. Bring a few quarts water to a boil, add salt and kale. Simmer until tender (5-7 min) then drain in colander.
Heat oil in a wide skillet. Add remaining 1/2 C onion, and 1/2 C cilantro. Cook over medium heat until onion has softened, add kale and beans (with enough liquid so there’s plenty of sauce). Simmer together 10 min. Serve garnished with crumbled feta cheese and remaining cilantro.

-From Local Flavors by
Deborah Madison

Mix together lemon or orange juice, honey, mustard, soy sauce and garlic. While whisking, slowly pour in olive oil. Stir in basil.

Gently toss all chopped veggies in the marinade. Let sit 2-6 hours in the refrigerator. Skewer with bamboo or metal skewers and cook on med hot grill. Alternately, use a cast iron stovetop grill if you’re cooking indoors, or roast in the oven at 350F until brown, stirring once or twice.

Slicing leeks lenthwise in half, marinating lightly and grilling next to your skewers on the grill adds a great addition to the meal.

This week the first substantial picking of zucchini will be happening. We are growing a green zucchini and a yellow one. We try and pick these small when they are young and tender and the seeds have yet to mature, that is when they are most tasty. The yellows are a little slower to come on, but we should still have enough to put a couple in each box. This is a long-awaited crop since the first planting of summer squash failed.

The cucumbers have started too. We’ve been picking modest amounts for the farmers markets and are waiting for them to produce in enough volume to fill the CSA boxes. It should be another week or two at the most.

The bean plants are fully grown, covered in flowers, and just starting to develop little bean pods. And like most crops this year, due to the cool weather, the beans are about three weeks behind normal. This week will mark the fifth consecutive week of below normal temperatures here on the coast.

The tomatoes continue to look better and better every week and are amazingly early for such a cool year. We should still be on schedule for cherry tomatoes and dry-farmed Early Girls in mid-August, Heirlooms by September. The plants are loaded with sized-up green fruit just waiting for a little warm spell to kick them into gear and turn them red.

The pepper plants are also looking big, healthy, and loaded with green fruit. We will pick some peppers green for the boxes in the next week and let the rest mature to their respective red, orange, and yellow stage. This is when they get really sweet and full of Vitamin C.
Last week I mowed down the potato plants. By mowing the above ground parts, it signals to the potato tubers to stop growing and develop a thick protective skin. It usually takes about 10-14 days for the skins to toughen up to a level that can withstand the abuse of our root digger. The root digger undercuts the plant and a rotating chain follows about a foot deep in the soil and lifts them from the ground, shaking off the dirt, and leaving a nice row of potatoes ready to be put into boxes for storage. It is a loud and dusty job, but amazingly quick.

We are putting bags of garlic in your boxes this week. Unfortunately, the garlic this year is mostly small. In past years we have produced stellar crops of large bulbs. This year’s garlic crop looked great in the field until about April. April and May is the month that a garlic plant puts all of its energy from its above ground leaves and sends it down to its swelling bulb. If you have a large healthy plant before April you can usually assume that the bulbs will be big. Unfortunately the never-ending rains that we had through most of April and May created a perfect environment for a fungal outbreak called rust. The rust really attacked those beautiful big leaves and left little energy to be sent down to the developing bulb, thus small bulbs this year.

The most exciting crop for me right now is the artichokes. This is the first time I have ever grown artichokes, so it is fun to learn a new crop. Last week I was walking through the field and was surprised to see 3” chokes bolting up from the large thistle-like plants. They came from nowhere. I had really no idea when these plants would produce something to harvest and in what volume. Artichokes require a certain amount of chill-hours in the winter and early spring to signal them to produce. We had such a non-chilly spring, I was not confident we would see much from these plants. I was wrong. It seems we should have some artichokes for you in the next month.
Enjoy your boxes, Ryan

Cut bacon crosswise into 1/2” pieces and fry in heavy sillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon, transfer to a towel to drain. Pour off all but 2 Tbs of bacon fat and add onion to the skillet. Saute until golden brown (6 min), then add zuchhini. Saute until just tender and brown (4 min).
Cook pasta until tender but firm to bite (9 min). Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 C cooking liquid. Whisk eggs in a medium sized bowl, then add Parmesean cheese, salt and pepper. Gradually whisk in 1/4 C cooking water.
Add pasta to zucchini mixutre in the skillet and heat briefly. Remove from heat. Pour egg mixture into pasta and stir until creamy-not wet with egg or dry with curdled eggs-about 2 min. Add some of the cooking water if necessary to moisen. Stir in bacon and parsely. Serve in shallow bowls garnished with Parmesean cheese.
-From Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes by Jeanne Kelley