This Week's Share: Melons, Tomatoes, Peppers & More

This week's featured photo is from Instagram (via user "julz711"), featuring rhubarb galette she served with sweetened creme fraiche! Send us your own photos or post them to Instagram with hashtag #ClagettFarm and we'll feature them here! 

 

THIS WEEK'S SHARE

• 2 pounds total combination eggplant + corn + melons
• 5 1/2 pounds total combination tomatoes + peppers
• 4 1/4 pounds squash + cucumbers 
• 1/4 pounds garlic + onions + chile peppers
• 1 head garlic* 

 * Here's a tip on how to store the garlic we're giving you: you can either store it on a shelf in a cool, dark place, or you can store it in your refrigerator. Once it goes into the fridge, it should stay there until you're ready to use it. The garlic should last for months once stowed. 

 

What's on U-Pick:

• Cucumbers

• Herbs: Basil. We have lime basil, anise basil, cinnamon basil, Thai basil, spicy globe basil and holy basil. Plus lots of herbs available for cutting, including anise hissop, mint, marjoram, chamomile (there’s a lot there, and one of you really needs to pick and dry all those flowers for tea), sorrel, sage, garlic chives, onion chives that are blooming, thyme, cilantro, savory, lavender and nigella seeds (you pick the dried bulbs).  

• Medicinal Herbs: Passion flower leaves, echinacea flowers and leaves, wormwood, hissop, holy basil, and calenbula flowers. 

• Flowers: this is a really good time to pick a bouquet at the farm. 

• Wild Black Cherry Trees: There are a number of wild black cherry trees that have fruit right now. The cherries are tart and will hang around for a while. 

  

Questions or comments? Let us know!

This Week's Share: Cucumbers, Squash, Shallots and More

 

This week's featured photo is from Instagram (via user "jessemessy91"), featuring kale & tomato in a garlic & whole grain mustard sauce over pasta that she made with her share! Send us your own photos or post them to Instagram with hashtag #ClagettFarm and we'll feature them here! 

 

THIS WEEK'S SHARE

• 3 pounds total combination peppers + corn + tomatoes
• 1 pound total combination kale + chard + rhubarb + shallots
• 4 1/2 pounds total combination cucumbers + squash
• 1 head garlic* 

 * Here's a tip on how to store the garlic we're giving you: you can either store it on a shelf in a cool, dark place, or you can store it in your refrigerator. Once it goes into the fridge, it should stay there until you're ready to use it. The garlic should last for months once stowed. 

 

What's on U-Pick:

This is a great time to make pesto and freeze it for winter-- lots of Genovese basil is available at the farm, along with: 

• Cucumbers: We've put one of the fields on u-pick. We think it's unlikely there will be many left by Saturday of this week. 

• Buckwheat: We have little buckwheat sprouts that you can pick for a salad. It's a cover crop but works well for a salad! Bring some scissors and a little bag for this. 

• Herbs: Basil. We have lime basil, anise basil, cinnamon basil, Thai basil, spicy globe basil and holy basil. Plus lots of herbs available for cutting, including anise hissop, mint, marjoram, chamomile (there’s a lot there, and one of you really needs to pick and dry all those flowers for tea), sorrel, sage, garlic chives, onion chives that are blooming, thyme, cilantro, savory, lavender and nigella seeds (you pick the dried bulbs).  

• Medicinal Herbs: Passion flower leaves, echinacea flowers and leaves, wormwood, hissop, holy basil, and calenbula flowers. 

• Flowers: this is a really good time to pick a bouquet at the farm. 

• Wild Black Cherry Trees: There are a number of wild black cherry trees that have fruit right now. The cherries are tart and will hang around for a while. 

 

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT NEXT WEEK: 

We'll still have corn next week. Tomatoes and peppers will get more abundant. The eggplant plants look fantastic, but they're not fruiting, so we'll so how those develop.  This is the last week of kale and the only week for shallots. Rhubarb is likely gone after this week, as well. Look for more cucumbers and squash. 

 

Questions or comments? Let us know!

This Week's Share: First Tomatoes + Canning Classes

This week's featured photo is from Instagram (via user "MrsPepperMonkey"), featuring squash from the farm. Send us your own photos or post them to Instagram with hashtag #ClagettFarm and we'll feature them here! 

 

Want To Learn to Can?

For a number of years now one of our CSA Members, Susan Sanders, has generously offered a canning workshop for our CSA Members. The class is in Susan's home in the Dupont Circle area and it serves as a great primer on the basics of canning tomatoes, jams, relishes and other high acid foods. The workshop is great for demystifying the canning process, and giving you some hands on experience. If you have any interest in canning, we highly recommend you attend a workshop. Space is limited, so sign up ASAP!

When:  Sunday, August 10 or Sunday, August 24 (choose one), 2-5pm.  

Where:  Susan lives near Dupont Circle in DC.  We'll give you more details when you sign up. 

Sign up by sending an email to Susan with your preferred date.  Classes are limited to 6 participants each. 

Cost:  Susan only charges a $5 fee for supplies, which includes some photocopies and a jar of something you've made.  Keep in mind that no one is licensed, insured, or paid for this activity. Susan offers this class to you because many of our members have asked over the years, and she is willing to do it.  Thank you Susan! 

If you have any questions about the workshops, please let us know.

 

Update: Rain + Upcoming Shares 

The farm got 1.75 inches of rain last night -- and we really needed it! It was the first soaking rain we'd had in over a month. Between the cool late spring and the dry spell, there's been a slump in the size of the share.  Don't lose hope -- the size of the share will rebound soon!  We'll start to see more summer vegetables coming up, including peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, melons, and more corn -- all those crops are looking great right now. 

 

 

THIS WEEK'S SHARE

• 2 heads garlic
• 2 3/4 pound total combination squash + sweet corn (Wednesday only*) + cucumbers
• 3/4 pounds total combination kale + collards + carrots + bell peppers (1 max) + hot chiles + tomatoes (1 max)

* Corn is Wednesdays only this week because of how it grew. We'll even this out with a  future week that will have corn for only Saturday. 

 

What's on U-Pick:

This is a great time to make pesto and freeze it for winter-- lots of Genovese basil is available at the farm, along with: 

• Herbs: Basil. We have lime basil, anise basil, cinnamon basil, Thai basil, spicy globe basil and holy basil. Plus lots of herbs available for cutting, including anise hissop, mint, marjoram, chamomile (there’s a lot there, and one of you really needs to pick and dry all those flowers for tea), sorrel, sage, garlic chives, onion chives that are blooming, thyme, cilantro, savory, lavender and nigella seeds (you pick the dried bulbs).  

• Medicinal Herbs: Passion flower leaves, echinacea flowers and leaves, wormwood, hissop, holy basil, and calenbula flowers. 

• Flowers: this is a really good time to pick a bouquet at the farm. 

• Wild Black Cherry Trees: There are a number of wild black cherry trees that have fruit right now. The cherries are tart! 

 

Questions or comments? Let us know!

This Week's Share: Garlic, Sweet Corn and More

This week's featured photo is an aerial shot of the farm, sent in from Phil, who shot a series of photos and videos using a drone. Woah!  We'll share more of Phil's photos soon. In the meantime, you can submit your photos or post them to Instagram with hashtag #ClagettFarm and we'll feature them here! Don't worry -- you don't need a drone in order to submit a photo....

 

Thanks to Our Volunteers! Thanks to the farm staff and volunteers, all the garlic has been harvested over the last week and a half. We got more than 3,000 pounds in one day -- and we picked for 9 days!  (The garlic will weigh a lot less after it's trimmed and dried). Thanks to everyone who came out to volunteer.  

Here's this week's share info:

• 1 head garlic
• 1/2 pound total combination collards + Swiss chard + basil
• 1/4 pound total combination of tiny vegetables, including bunching onions + beets + fennel
• 1 1/2 pound total combination cucumbers + squash
• 1 pound of sweet corn* (the ears are small are have caterpillars in them) + bell peppers + cabbage

* A few notes on the corn -- it's somewhat small but delicious. As with other organic corn, there are caterpillars, so the bug phobic should avoid it. We're thrilled to have it because this is the earliest we've ever had corn. We have a new fence this year that's helping keep deer out (though not all critters).

 

What's on U-Pick:

This is a great time to make pesto and freeze it for winter-- lots of Genovese basil is available at the farm, along with: 

• Herbs: Basil. We have lime basil, anise basil, cinnamon basil, Thai basil, spicy globe basil and holy basil. Plus lots of herbs available for cutting, including anise hissop, mint, marjoram, chamomile (there’s a lot there, and one of you really needs to pick and dry all those flowers for tea), sorrel, sage, garlic chives, onion chives that are blooming, thyme, cilantro, savory, lavender and nigella seeds (you pick the dried bulbs).  

• Medicinal Herbs: Passion flower leaves, echinacea flowers and leaves, wormwood, hissop, holy basil, and calenbula flowers. 

• Flowers: this is a really good time to pick a bouquet at the farm. 

• Damanged Garlic Bulbs. We left damaged garlic bulbs behind in the fields. You can peel them and store them in the fridge. They're still delicious. 

What's coming up in the share:

We're watching the weather! More rain will mean more summer vegetables (the hurrican rain missed the farm) and we only got a sprinkle yesterday. Do a rain dance!

 

Questions or comments? Let us know!

 

This Week's Share: Squash, Cucumbers and More

 This week's featured photo is from Instagram user martik_justbecause who posted a photo from a day spent on the farm. You can submit your photos or post them to Instagram with hashtag #ClagettFarm and we'll feature them here! 

Here's what this week's share looks like:

• 1/2 pound total combination Swiss chard + kale + collards + radishes
• 1/2 pound total combination fennel + carrots + beets + onions
• 2 pounds total combination  cabbage + kholrabi + turnips + bunching onions + garlic
• 4 pounds total combination squash + cucumbers

 

What's on U-Pick:

No changes this week:

• Herbs: Basil. We have lime basil, anise basil, cinnamon basil, Thai basil, spicy globe basil and holy basil. Plus lots of herbs available for cutting, including anise hissop, mint, marjoram, chamomile (there’s a lot there, and one of you really needs to pick and dry all those flowers for tea), sorrel, sage, garlic chives, onion chives that are blooming, thyme, cilantro, savory, lavender and nigella flowers.  

What's coming up in the share:

Next week's share should look a lot like this week -- we'll see how the crops progress over the next 7 days!

 

Questions or comments? Let us know!

Volunteers Needed to Harvest Garlic

Our annual garlic harvset is underway (photo above!). It's a big job and we need some help.

Want to come volunteer at the farm? Here's when need help harvesting garlic:

• Tomorrow (Wednesday, July 2)
• Thursday a.m. (July 3)
• Saturday a.m. (July 5)
• Monday (July 7)
• Tuesday (July 8)
• Wednesday (July 9)

The job mostly consists of pulling the garlic, brushing it off, and loading it up.  

We hope you can come out and join us! Call the farm if you have questions: 301-627-4662.