Everything we harvested this week seemed covered in honey bees – which was lovely, friendly and reassuring, and reminded us that we aren’t the only ones busily hustling out in those fields in late August.  Many of the high summer crops we are enjoying in abundance right now must be picked daily to be harvested at peak flavor and condition - think raspberries, summer squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons. This riot of production makes us thankful for those patient crops like kale and cabbage that can wait quite some days in the field and stay perfectly beautiful and tasty until we can get to them.

Harvest is the main focus of our farm days in the summer, but there are lots of other important tasks we need to fit in before cold weather and short sun put an end to our garden year. We've been seeding our final autumn crops like lettuce, spinach, radish, carrots and Asian greens and we'll soon put nourishing, weed-smothering cover crop seeds out on the sections of the fields that we'll be resting next year. We're cleaning up finished crops like beans and zucchini, and tilling in debris to make our soil strong and rich for 2016 and beyond. And we've also started planting our new perennial herb field. We LOVE cooking with fresh herbs and we aim to get some in every box of the season as well, so you can experiment with them, too. We grow about 600 feet of perennial herbs in permanent beds but we move them to a new section of the farm every four years so that we have a chance to pull out under-producing varieties, add new varieties, divide plants that we like and want to propagate, and load the soil with composted manure and micro-nutrients. 2015 happens to be a moving year, and we've begun the giant, but exciting job of creating that new herb field.  Yesterday we planted a few dozen new plants of German Winter Thyme and divided six French Tarragon plants into about 25 new clumps. In between harvests for the rest of the season we'll be moving the rest of the sorrel, chives, oregano, citrus thyme, violas, cornflower, lovage, lemon balm, sage, rhubarb and Chinese leeks. We'll also be adding lavender and more edible flowers. It is a job I love and one that produces a lot of wonderful flavors for us to use throughout the entire year. This week you've got sage, thyme, sorrel and from the old herb beds and rosemary from our pots (it's not perennial here so we don't grow it in the ground) - we thought these sprigs would pair will with the new potatoes, squash and tomatoes. Here's what else is in the box:

Squash Blossoms – A rare treat we don't always pack. These taste like a combination of cucumbers, melons and summer squash. Mostly pulled from our pumpkin vines, they appear fragile but hold up well to stuffing with soft cheeses, sauteeing or baking. We've been baking them on top of egg frittatas and quiches all month for our bed and breakfast guests. See the Farmer Kriss Pinterest page for recipes.

Basil – Fresh harvest from our new plants in the hoophouse. Hopefully these will take us through tomato season.

Raspberries – We could pick these twice a day and still miss some. The vines are LOADED and the berries are bursting with flavor. Doesn’t get fresher than this.

Tomatoes! – This could be peak week for tomatoes – you’ve got a TON in these heavy boxes. Remember – color doesn’t count! We’ve got tomatoes that’ll be ripe when green, when orange, when purple, when pink and when red, so go by feel.

Tomatillos – Some years I don’t grow these and some years I do. If you’ve ever grown them, you know they are just such a pain to harvest!  They grow in little paper bags, so you can’t see how big they are and you have to feel them to find out if they are full in the bag, which is when they are ready. Often, they fall from the plant RIGHT as they ripen. Frustrating, but SOOO YUMMY. I must say I am glad I grew them this year. We’ve been roasting them and making salsa verde with the lovely big scallions and Hungarian hot wax peppers. We wish we had cilantro in the field, but we are buying it, just like you! The hot dry weather last week sent them all into bolting.  Check the Farmer Kriss Pinterest page for recipes.

Yellow  Squash– We have been making our bed and breakfast guests frittatas with yellow squash and kale – delicious!  

Sorrel - So fresh and tender - wonderful paired with new red potatoes  in the Russian peasant soup Schav, or baked into a potato gratin. Lots of recipes on the pinterest page this week.

Cucumbers – A GREAT year here for cukes, though bugs have been making their way up the vines this week, and you’ll notice damaged skins. The squash beetles have overcome the zucchini, and that must have kept them distracted from the cuke vines for a while, but now they are everywhere. Still, the vines are producing like crazy. Enjoy!

Peppers – Nothing red out there in the hoophouse yet, but we are hoping the extra heat will help us ripen some before the chilly nights close in. Sweet blocky peppers, and hot skinny peppers this week!

Eggplant –  Just a few little ones this week! Dice and enjoy sautéed with squash and pepper. Don’t peel! At this size they are not bitter skinned.

Herb Bags:  Sage, Thyme and Rosemary –The sage, thyme and rosemary will all be great with your new potatoes, squashes, tomatoes and eggplant. Think Mediterranean!  

Melon! – We don’t always see these ripen in our chilly valley, but we do our best, starting the plants in our little greenhouse while it’s still cold, and then putting the vines on black plastic out in the field to increase the heat the ground will hold beneath them. This year it worked! Lovely muskmelons for you, though some have a bit of bug damage where the skin stayed damp on the black plastic. Oh, well – tradeoffs! The bugs only munched into the rind, and left the sweet inner flesh for us!

Sprouting Broccoli - This could be the last of our broccoli stalks, but we did side-dress them with composted manure in the hopes that we'll get a second flush from them in the autumn.

Kale – This week we just picked the gorgeous White Russian and Rainbow Lacinato leaves.

Onions - You've got both onions and shallots this week.

Scallions – These Nabechan scallions are getting bigger and stronger, but you can still use most of the stem. I clean off the bulb, cut it in half, and then chop on up the stem. Perfect for salsa.

Mini Cabbages – We started growing small cabbages when we packed Shortie Shares and needed to find small varieties of things to fit in the boxes. But we fell in love with these pointy heirloom Early Jersey Wakefield cabbages on the merits of taste and cuteness as well! Plus, now there is room for other things in your box! Try a fresh slaw or sauté with summer squash.

New Red Potatoes – These lovely Dark Red Norlands are terrific both for baking or boiling. Enjoy with toasted sage butter, or roast them with olive oil and rosemary.

Yippee! First tomato box and it includes the first raspberries, first peppers and first eggplants – a week of firsts and high summer now!  Everything we harvested this week seemed covered in honey bees – which was lovely, friendly and reassuring, and reminded us that we aren’t the only ones busily hustling out in those fields in late August. This box represents the beginning of hot season fruits that in our little cool valley are not easy to grow – when they appear we always feel so victorious because our chilly nights tend to work against us. Of course, those nights in the 50s (we actually had some DAYS in the 50s this week!) give us good sleep and great greens, so we aren’t complaining. And RAIN – we needed it bad, and we got it bad. Some of the tender things we packed, like chard and heirloom tomatoes and basil look a bit rough around the edges because of the two pounding storms we had this week, but a bit of damage was worth it to get those crops something other than well water from our irrigation tape.

This week is a turning point here on the farm. As we start to harvest the high summer crops, we till in the early spring plots and make our final plantings for fall harvests of cool season crops again.  Other than planting cover crops to enrich the soil and bulbs for garlic and flowers, we have put our last seeds in the ground for 2015.  As we lose sunlight, we anticipate the chill days of fall and the harvest of frost-sweetened cole and root crops.  But that's weeks away - there are many harvests of tomatoes and peppers between now and then!  And here’s what’s in the box:

Basil – The Japanese beetles have found the basil rows, so the bags are small this week. But we planted a new group on the other side of the farm inside our hoop house, so we hope evade those bugs and keep you in pesto until the end of tomato season.

Raspberries – These little jewels are the first fruits on our loaded vines. Our varieties are fall cultivars, so we should have a lot for you in the coming weeks.

Tomatoes – This early harvest off the tomato vines is mostly little cherries of various colors, but each of you got a bunch of slicers, too. Eat the soft ones first and save the firmer ones. We tried to pack everyone a variety of slicers at different ripenesses so they’d last you two weeks. Remember – color doesn’t count! We’ve got tomatoes that’ll be ripe when green, when orange, when purple, when pink and when red, so go by feel.

Tomatillos – Some years I don’t grow these and some years I do. If you’ve ever grown them, you know they are just such a pain to harvest!  They grow in little paper bags, so you can’t see how big they are and you have to feel them to find out if they are full in the bag, which is when they are ready. Often, they fall from the plant RIGHT as they ripen. Frustrating, but SOOO YUMMY. I must say I am glad I grew them this year. We’ve been roasting them and making salsa verde with the lovely big scallions and Hungarian hot wax peppers. We wish we had cilantro in the field, but we are buying it, just like you! The hot dry weather last week sent them all into bolting.  Check the Farmer Kriss Pinterest page for recipes.

Yellow  Squash and Zucchinis – This is the end of the zucchini and the peak of the yellow squash. We LOVE zucchini as you know, but we love yellow squash even more! We have been making our bed and breakfast guests frittatas with yellow squash and Swiss chard – delicious!  

Cucumbers – A GREAT year here for cukes, though bugs have been making their way up the vines this week, and you’ll notice damaged skins. The squash beetles have overcome the zucchini, and that must have kept them distracted from the cuke vines for a while, but now they are everywhere. Still, the vines are producing like crazy. Enjoy!

Peppers – You’ve each got two green sweet peppers and two yellow Hungarian HOT wax peppers.  Enjoy – lots more to come! We grew peppers in the our hoop house this year so that we could enjoy a longer harvest season than we usually do – once the nights get often into the low 50s we can close the sides and let the peppers keep ripening.

Eggplant –  Just a few little ones this week! Dice and enjoy sautéed with squash and pepper. Don’t peel! At this size they are not bitter skinned.

Herb Bags: Chocolate Mint, Sage, Summer Savory and Rosemary – Mint bunches are ideal for Mojitos on a hot sultry August afternoon. The sage, savory and rosemary will all be great with your new potatoes, squashes, tomatoes and eggplant. Think Mediterranean!  

Swiss Chard – We gave these plants a little break for a few weeks and now they are back with gusto! We are using this for our fresh eating greens these days, but use as you would  spinach in all cooked dishes. We’ve been pickling the stems, diced, and using them for relish.

Onions – We’ve packed you a handful of special little Red Marble pearl onions. I am super proud of these because I’ve grown them a couple of times and never harvest them small enough to use as pearls. Somehow I always just miss the window between too small and too big – but this year I nailed it! Enjoy! Peel carefully and lightly sauté or steam. We’re serving these roasted with the final green beans at our field to table dinner this Saturday. They are wonderful with mushrooms, too! You also have some yellow shallots. Very tasty.  

Scallions – These Nabechan scallions are getting bigger and stronger, but you can still use most of the stem. I clean off the bulb, cut it in half, and then chop on up the stem. Perfect for salsa.

Mini Cabbages – We started growing small cabbages when we packed Shortie Shares and needed to find small varieties of things to fit in the boxes. But we fell in love with these pointy heirloom Early Jersey Wakefield cabbages on the merits of taste and cuteness as well! Plus, now there is room for other things in your box! Try a fresh slaw or sauté with summer squash.

New Red Potatoes – These lovely Dark Red Norlands are terrific both for baking or boiling. Enjoy with toasted sage butter, or roast them with olive oil and rosemary.

Yippee! First tomato box and it includes the first raspberries, first collards and first peppers – it is high summer now! Everything we harvested this week seemed covered in honey bees – which was lovely, friendly and reassuring, and reminded us that we aren’t the only ones busily hustling out in those fields in August. This box represents the beginning of hot season fruits that in our little cool valley are not easy to grow – when they appear we always feel so victorious because our chilly nights tend to work against us. Of course, those nights in the 60s give us good sleep and great greens, so we aren’t complaining.

In addition to harvesting this past week, we also spent some time filming here on the farm with Inga Witschre, host of the delightful PBS series “Around the Farm Table.” We talked and played a bit too much, so we didn’t finish filming the episode yet, but we did whip up a great breakfast for some of my bed and breakfast guests. Inga made a frittata with veggies from the gardens, and I, of course, made Chocolate Zucchini mini bundt cakes served with jam and berries.  Head over to the Recipe Blog for the instructions.  We’ve got a bit more to film, but stayed tuned and I’ll let you know when the episode is going to air!

Here’s what’s in the box:





Basil – The Japanese beetles have found the basil rows, so the bags are small this week. But we planted a new group on the other side of the farm inside our hoop house, so we hope to keep you in pesto until the end of tomato season.

Raspberries – These little jewels are the first fruits on our loaded vines. Our varieties are fall cultivars, so we should have a lot for you in the coming weeks.

Tomatoes! – This first harvest off the tomato vines is primarily little cherries of various colors, but each of you got one ripe Black Prince slicer. They are our first to ripen every year and we just love them.

Yellow  Squash and Zucchinis – This is the end of the zucchini and the beginning of yellow squash. We LOVE zucchini as you know, but we love yellow squash even more! We wouldn’t think of baking with these – the flavor is so creamy and nutty and incredible lightly sautéed with garlic, onions, or whatever you want! Egg hash is a staple here in summer squash season, and we of course, have been serving it to our bed and breakfast guests a lot.  Last week we had guests from France, Holland and England, and they all call zucchinis "courgettes," which I find soooooo pretty! Almost makes them sound too pretty to eat.

Sprouting Broccoli – Have we already said a millllllllion times how much we love sprouting broccoli! These lovely plants are like shrubs in the garden now and they just keep producing sweet, tender stalks. Where head broccoli is now bolting in the heat, these plants are delighted to keep making us food. Thank you, pretty plants!

Cucumbers – A GREAT year here for cukes. The squash beetles have overcome the zucchini, and that must have kept them distracted from the cuke vines, which still just have a reasonable amount of cucumber beetles on them. A blessing. This might be a year for you to try refrigerator pickles, if you never have. Look for some nice recipes on our Farmer Kriss Pinterest page.

Peppers – Yay! You’ve got one each of a chartreuse sweet pepper, a green pepper and a HOT Hungarian wax which is long and skinny. Enjoy – lots more to come! We grew peppers in the our hoop house this year so that we could enjoy a longer harvest season than we usually do – once the nights get reliably into the low 50s we can close the sides and let the peppers keep ripening.

Chocolate Mint – These bunches are ideal for those Mojitos on a hot sultry August afternoon. Also great blitzed and blended into chocolate cakes and brownies this time of year, and perfect to garnish your fruit salads and tarts. Keep in a jar with a little water in the fridge and you should be able to pick off these for a couple of weeks.

Swiss Chard – we gave these plants a little break for a few weeks and now they are back with a terrific vengeance! We are using this for our fresh eating green these days, but use as you would  spinach in all cooked dishes. We’ve been pickling the stems, diced, and using them for relish.

String Beans – What a BUMPER crop this year! Delicious! Sautee just lightly to preserve flavor and crunch. We included Red Marble onions in this box, because if you peel them and half or leave whole, they look and taste great cooked up with the multi-colored beans.  Treat them like pearl onions – which they are, only prettier! The purple beans will stay purple if you barely cook them, too.

Parsley – The first harvest off of our plants, which we grew in the shade so they wouldn’t bolt in the heat. But since it’s a cool year, they just took forever to grow!

Fennel – Our fennel bulbs were looking like they wanted to bolt and flower, so we are going to let them. So pretty and so loved by butterflies and bees! But we harvested some nice baby bulbs for you to enjoy. We’ve been chopping the bulbs thinly and using like celery in potato salads. The fronds make a great herb to season and top when plating the salad.

Collards – YUM! I am a fan off every single brassica that is grown on the face of the earth, but I must say that collards are at the top of the list. A southern favorite that is basically a cabbage that never heads up, this green is perfect chopped and cooked in the skillet from your morning bacon. For some reason, collards pair so very well with all smoked meats. I like them with cubed salami, and ham hocks, as well. Drizzle after sautéing with a little balsamic vinegar reduction and you will swoon!

Onions – We’ve packed some nice mild yellow globe onions, and some very special Red Marble pearl onions. I am super proud of these because I’ve grown them a couple of times and never harvest them small enough to use as pearls. Somehow I always just miss the window between too small and too big – but this year I nailed it! Enjoy! We served a gorgeous dish at a party this week with lightly sautéed string beans, Red Marble onions, halved, and mushrooms. Lightly seasoned with olive oil and salt, they were perfect at room temperature.

Scallions – These Nabechan scallions are getting bigger and stronger, but you can still use most of the stem. I clean off the bulb, cut it in half, and then chop on up the stem.

Garlic – Our garlic bulbs are very small this year. Not quite sure why, but we grew them in two spots and both made diminutive little clumps. Tasty, tho’. Enjoy!

GO SLOW IN THE DRIVE THIS WEEK - KITTENS ARE CRAWLING EVERYWHERE NOW! ENJOY THE SNUGGLES :)

Half way through the season! And we are eating like royalty, no? We tend to think of this 5th box as the last burst of spring before we begin tomato season.  And it sure does feel like summer now, doesn’t it?  Speaking of summer – we are suddenly seeing sweet corn in and around town. Our sweet corn is tassled out, but still very small, and weare not sure when we’ll be able to pack it or how much we’ll be able to get to you.  So this week, we recommend you head down to Doc Reeson’s place and buy some of the first sweet corn of the season from our local neighbor farmers. We bought some this morning to use in our Circle M Corn Souffle for a lunch we catered our here. It is delicious and you should go get some while you’re in town for this weekend’s big 125th Anniversary Celebration in Blanchardville! Parades, plays, petting zoos, carriage rides, old-time bands, quilts, fish boil, bands and FUN all weekend long. See you there!

Here's what's in the box:

Basil – Beautfiul ruffled, chartreuse Nufar basil. Not much, as the Japanese beetles are eating these plants. That’s a first for us here at Circle M. Those stinkers!

Arugula – Wonderful, and starting to get spicy. If you don’t enjoy this as a fresh eating green, go ahead and chop and sauté lightly to eat over rice or pasta, or better yet, put on top of a grilled pizza before you put it on!

Flower Confetti – We’ve packed you some whole calendula and cornflowers to pull the petals off and use as confetti in your concoctions this week. Great on salad, soup, or any dish. Nasturtiums use whole and enjoy the peppery taste.

Zucchini  and Yellow Squash– Young, fresh, tender, delish. We are currently eating this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. NO complaints! Have you tried Zoodles? Zucchini noodles? Create noodles with a carrot peeler, or buy an inexpensive "spiralizer" at Willy Street Co-op or on Amazon. Get rid of carbs and enjoy those yummy pasta sauces! OR shred your zukes and add those carbs back in with some delicious, yet nutritious baked goods. See our moist, rich Chocolate Zucchini Cake recipe - we just whipped this up into tiny bundt cakes with Inga Witscher on her Around The Farm  Table television show!

String Beans -  Tons! Two bags each. And all colors coming ripe at the same time! The purple will turn green when you cook them, though.  Tender, thin, sweet and delicious. Don’t overcook these, they are so very very delicious you’ll want to enjoy them in all their beany glory!

Cucumbers – A jillion! Finally the plants have scrambled up off of the ground and onto the trellises, so we are seeing less  bug damage. Yum!  I’ve been enjoying these very much with chive goat cheese, but they are also very wonderful just sprinkled with vinegar, salt and pepper.

Broccoli – Some of you have little heads and some of you have the tiny spears of our sprouting broccoli, which makes all side shoots. We prefer these to heads, but we’d love to know what you think, too! Chop and eat the whole tender stem. The plants didn't make much this week because it was a bit hot and dry, but we expect these to produce for us all season long. Delicious!

Herb Bouquets:  Lovage, Chives and Dill Seed – All wonderful to pair with the lovely heirloom potatoes we’ve included.

Kale – These bouquets continue to be soooo pretty. We feel very lucky to be eating such luscious greens in the heat of the summer. Enjoy in massaged salads, paired with potatoes in soup and salads, and sautéed with tomatoes and zucchini.

Fresh Onions –Store in the fridge – these sweet Walla Wallas are not cured.

Scallions – Very big and beefy. So easy to clean and use!

Heirloom New Potatoes – We’ve got gorgeous yellow Superior and purple  Peter Wilcox varieties for you this week. Skins are very soft, not cured, and so store in the fridge and scrub gently before cooking.

Garlic -  Not cured, so store in the fridge.