Tag: food

Mid-August Eggplants

I cannot believe we are already at the middle of August. Obviously, I have not Blogged recently. Quite honestly, it has been simply too depressing to write about not having any veggies for our CSA Members. The rains and the heat together caused most all of the plants to wither and die except for the cucumbers and cantaloupe and eggplant which were in a drier section of the garden. However, the deer got in and ate all of the cucumbers and cantaloupe and then the plants turned yellow. The eggplant remain and we do have beautiful globe eggplants this year! The one bright spot!! We also have potatoes. The okra plants are less than two feet high; thus, there is no need to use a ladder to harvest them this season. LOL You just gotta laugh at the craziness of it all . . . it is as if we live in Florida!

I have posted two new easy eggplant recipes to the website. Both are delicious and freeze well. This is the only vegetable I have to process, so we shall be eating lots of eggplant this winter in our household. Eggplant is naturally bitter; but as long as they are growing quickly, we never remove the skin when we prepare them. Also, we much prefer to roast our eggplant as this method brings out the sweetness. I simply brush the slices with EVOO rather than frying in it.

Eggplants are nutrient-rich, antioxidant-packed fruits that may benefit your heart, blood sugar, weight, and cancer risk. Their hearty texture is a good stand-in for meat. You can roast, bake, steam, or sauté eggplant. When it’s cut up, it makes a good addition to curries and soups or even as a basil substitute for pesto which can be used for dips, pizza, or sandwich spread.

We will offer a limited number of CSA Boxes. If you really love eggplant and potatoes, please send me an email at canecreekcsa@gmail.com and I will prepare a box for you. There may be some offerings over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, we will not be able to resume the entire CSA schedule again as we had planned at the end of June.

In The CSA Box

We are so glad you have joined us for this 2025 Harvest Season. We are having a challenging start. Last year we grew sweet bell peppers which weighed one pound each! This year the plants are doing so poorly in the field soil that we planted new seeds in the greenhouse on Friday. The soil tests and ph are good, but the texture of it is off. No doubt our soil is suffering from Helene Trauma.

Speaking of Helene, during the extensive cleanup process, Robert found a piece of engraved metal which was given as a “reward for distinguished service with the Farm Bureau.” With the help of the Fairview Town Crier Editor we tracked down the son of the man whose name was on the plaque. We returned it to the family this weekend. It turns out his father started the Farm Bureau in Buncombe County decades ago. How ironic that this little part of the award washed up onto a family farm during the raging waters of Cane Creek last September!

Curtis Wright (holding our Helene Find) and Robert Ploeger (on the right)

Robert has a new toy to mow the fields with this season. The lay of the land is extremely rough after all of the heavy equipment that was required for Helene debris removal. I would take a video of him mowing, but it might make one nauseous to watch as he bounces up and down!

72″ Rotary Mower on a PTO

Your choice to eat local, organic foods is a commitment to consuming nutritious, energetic foods! By joining our CSA, you are engaging in conscious eating just as we are engaged in conscious farming. Our choices make us all rebels who believe that all food should be local–or as local as possible!

This week we will add romaine, escarole, and possibly lettuce and kale to the Joi Choi, Ching Chang, and Asian Delight. The Tatsoi is over as it is a very finicky plant growing only under the best of conditions.

Beeturia and Broad-Beans

In the box this week you can expect green cabbage, red beets, a variety of patty pan squash, long summer squash, yellow or green zucchini , orange carrots, some cukes (still regrowing from the deer feast), the last of the broccoli (on Wednesday only), some yellow broad-beans, and perhaps a bit of okra. I will know for sure once I began packing the harvest into boxes!  The okra plants are stunted this season, so the amount will be limited. Then again, that seems to suit most families as many do not like okra.

I love the sweetness of roasted beets! Please remember that beet juice will stain anything it touches!  To remove the pinkish stain from your fingers, try rubbing with salt or lemon juice. Also, ingesting beets will stain bodily fluids of people sometimes. This is called beeturia. The discoloration is due to betalain, a natural pigment found in beets. Not all people experience this; but if you are one of select who does, please do not be alarmed. It might be the time to bring out your “red” dish towel if you have one.

Leaving a bit of stem on the beet prevents excessive “bleeding” while boiling.

Speaking of roasted . . . a friend was telling me how she sliced patty pans and roasted them in EVOO with onions. I think I will give this a try tonight as we have been steaming patty pans recently. A change will be nice. A word on the yellow broad-beans. Robert and I think they are tougher than the green beans; therefore, I steamed a batch last evening for two (2) minutes instead of the one (1) minute setting which I typically use for veggies. We thought they were prefect–with butter, of course!

We do now have a twirling eight-foot fence around the gardens. It rather makes me dizzy to look at it on a windy day. Here’s trusting the Mama deer feels the same way. Robert saw the spotted fawn again last evening. He is about the size of large dog now! He very agilely ran from one tree line to the other when Robert was harvesting squash. I think they surprised one another!!

Blueberry Alert

Some of our CSA Members have been asking about our U-pick blueberries. They did survive that late May frost! However, this extended drought is taking its toll on our blueberries this season. Many berries are simply falling to the ground in this dry heat. Additionally, we have a late variety which will not be ready for another six weeks. This is not encouraging news, I know. Therefore, today I want to direct you to another local farm where blueberries and blackberries are currently (and for the next 3 – 4 weeks) available for picking! This location is the Cloud 9 Farm at 137 Bob Barnwell Road in Fletcher. My friend, Janet, has beautifully mowed and irrigated berry patches–which explains why she has so many berries this year. Also, she keeps the bushes trimmed so picking is easily maneuvered. Her business is berries where ours is veggies which means our berry patch is somewhat neglected during our harvest season.

Cloud 9 Farm Berries are available now on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon. Drive past the “main venue entrance” to the BLUE GATE and berry patch. Janet will be there to give you more directions. No need to call, just check out the link above for details in advance.

Cloud 9 Farm is a 200 acre family farm that Janet’s father had the foresight to purchase decades ago. We have had family members get married there. And we have had family members stay in two of the vacation rental homes/cabins which are available for short-term rentals. It is in the neighborhood and great for when company outstrips ones available bedrooms!

As CSA Members, you are still welcomed to visit our blueberry patch, of course. If you have been here before, you know our bushes are quite tall and the field is not mowed which does make for a difficult picking site–except for the most adventurous! We do not charge a fee; we simply ask that you leave a half-share of what you harvest for the farmer who trims and weeds the patch each fall.

Membership Form Submission Errors

Twice in the last week families seeking CSA Membership have emailed me to see if we received their information form. And I had NOT. This rarely happens; however, it has happened twice in the last week! If you filled out and submitted the form on our website (or here) and I have not gotten back to you, please send me a direct email. As a general rule, I will reply within 4 to 24 hours to let you know we are including you in our 2024 CSA Harvest. Not getting a Welcome Email from me means something has gone wrong!

Our greenhouse is full of plants of all sizes. Here are the first seeds which we planted. They will be moving outside into the “real world” after this weekend’s cold snap passes.

Below are some of the smaller plants just recently moved into their individual peat pots (on the bottom) and some in between sizes of plants. There are seedbeds yet to be started as well. Just a reminder that each joi choi, romaine, kohlrabi, and head of broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce, etc. you find in your early CSA Boxes started out as a tiny seed in our greenhouse. It takes time and patience to grow a garden!

My view from the greenhouse has changed from a sea of yellow daffodils to a sea of pink tulips, azaleas, and the majestic Redbud tree. Ever changing, but still beautiful signs of Spring!