This Week at the Farm: Stock Up on Summer Veggies
Everything in the farmstand looks amazing — garlic, corn, melons, peppers, heirloom tomatoes, basil, fennel… there’s more than we have time to list!
As the harvests get bigger, the kitchen spends more time focusing on processing and preserving—cutting corn off the cob, making kraut, pickling, freezing, etc.—so a wider variety of veggies can be enjoyed through the end of the season and into next year.
If you have room in your cabinets or freezer and the time to do it, this is the perfect time to start stocking up on summer veggies. Eggplant, zucchini and summer squash, cucumbers, and heirloom tomatoes are on sale (keep reading for details). And make sure to stop by this weekend to pick a few more pints before the PYO blueberry patch closes for the season. This is the last weekend of Pick-Your-Own!
Stock Up!
EGGPLANT is the vegetable of the week and 10% off through Monday, August 19. Click here for tips on how to preserve it. Or enjoy it now! Add some onion, zucchini and tomatoes (also on sale), and peppers and make a delicious ratatouille.
ZUCCHINI and SUMMER SQUASH are priced at $1.75/lb (originally $2.25/lb). Now’s the time to stock up! You can grate or slice it, quickly blanch it, then store it in the freezer to stock up for fall and winter.
TOMATOES! It was our first week harvesting tomatoes from the field, and we have tons (literally!)—starting this morning they’re on sale for the week. (We’re running out of space for them in our storage rooms!) Get your canner out or make space in your freezer! Heirlooms, slicers, and paste tomatoes are all 25% off when you buy 10 pounds or more.
CUCUMBERS are 15% off when you buy 5 pounds or more, 20% off when you buy 10 pounds or more, and 25% off when you buy 20 pounds or more. Try this quick pickle or go with a more traditional shelf stable pickle.
The garlic (essential for pickling and making tomato sauce!) is ready, and the crew is working on cleaning it up, little by little. There’s some in the farmstand now! In a couple weeks we’ll have storage onions, too. We harvested them this week and now they’re laid out to dry in a greenhouse for the next couple weeks before we can sell them in the farmstand.
Fruit from Our Orchard
Our little orchard by the river is producing the most delicious, organic summer apples, pears, and plums. They’re for sale in the farmstand now, you can get cider (pressed by Will!) in the Hello Cafe, and the kitchen is making jams that will be available later in the season.
Summer Camp Wrap-Up
These past 7 weeks of summer camp have flown by! Over the course of the summer, 154 campers played, observed, learned, ate, laughed, helped, planted, harvested, created, and challenged themselves while they were here at Cedar Circle Farm. They made connections with their instructors, with each other, and with the environment as they held cicadas for the first time, built fairy houses, baked yeasted bread for the farm staff, dissected owl pellets, learned how to build fires, constructed boats to sail down the Connecticut River, searched for bugs around the farm, created nature art, and took care of the chickens.
It is our goal at camp to provide a safe environment in which campers can have fun while learning about, and connecting to, place. And it’s helpful if we can eat farm-fresh fruit and vegetables along the way. As one camper explained, “My brain just grew two inches!”
Fall Education Programs
Although summer isn’t over just yet, we’re excited to announce our Fall Education Programs: Cooking for Middle Schoolers from 3:30–5:15 on Mondays (September 23 to November 4), Little Farmers Pre-K Program from 10–11 on Tuesdays (through the end of October), Homeschool Farm Science from 1–3 on Wednesdays (September 25 to October 5), and field trips and farm tours.
Willing Hands Garden Tour Recap
Shawn, our Research & Development Lead and Willing Hands Garden Coordinator, led a tour of the Willing Hands Garden on Thursday as part of VT Open Farm Week. This year he’s headed up the transition to a permanent bed system, which will minimize soil disturbance and preserve soil biology. The goal is to improve the health of the soil and ultimately produce more nutrient dense food. The garden looks amazing!
We’ve already said good-bye to many seasonal staff members who are heading back to high school and college, and more will be leaving very soon. Their help is invaluable, and the energy and enthusiasm they bring to the farm every day is contagious. It’s sad to see them go and we’ll miss them dearly, but we wish them all the best.
See you at the farm!
—From all of us at Cedar Circle
Upcoming
August 17: Norwich Farmers’ Market, 9–1.
August 18: Knife sharpening at the farmstand, 10–2.
August 20: Little Farmers drop-in class for children ages 2 to 5, 10–11 am.
August 22: Lebanon Farmers Market, 4–7 pm.
September 23: Cooking for Middle Schoolers, 3:30–5:15pm.
September 25: Homeschool Farm Science, 1–3pm.
October 13: Pumpkin Festival, 10–3. [Volunteer]
