Week 5 of the shares and the zucchinis / summer squash have kicked into high gear! While we harvest most crops within 24 hours of delivering to share members, there are a few that have to be harvested every day or two and summer squash are one of those crops. I went into the field this morning to harvest any squash that had grown big enough since my last thorough harvest on Friday. And I came out of the field with 95 zucchini. Since I will harvest at least two more times prior to delivering shares this week there will be plenty of squash to go around! You may notice that I use the terms zucchini and summer squash interchangeably. This isn't actually biologically correct but easiest nonetheless. We grow a variety of summer squash, including zucchinis. Zucchini are what most people think of when the term summer squash is used and they can be either solid green, solid yellow, or green and white striped. The clearest distinction is the shape: zucchini are long and narrow. There are also green, yellow, and variegated summer squash but their shape generally diverges slightly or greatly from the long and narrow shape of zucchini. Summer squash may have a curve, or one end will be bulbous, or come in radically different shapes like patty pan squash which are shaped like flying saucers. Oh, and all zucchini are summer squash but not all summer squash are zucchini. But it doesn't really matter to me what you call them: they can all be used the same way! We LOVE summer squash in our house and quite often consume them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast I love a plate of pan fried or roasted zucchini with an egg on top. And for lunch and dinner the sky is the limit as to how you can prepare these vegetables. In other non-zucchini news on the farm, the bees are doing well. Rob has been busy adding supers (bee boxes) to hives and catching swarms. Bees swarm when the population of the hive gets too big. The hive senses this and starts creating queen cells (which will turn into a new queen). The existing queen then leaves the hive with a bunch of workers. Swarms generally go to high location not far from the original hive. So often we find swarms in one of the trees surrounding the hives. Swarms tend to happen more often when we receive a lot of rain. This is because rain prevents the bees from leaving the hive to die. The population builds up quickly as a result and eventually becomes too great for one hive to support. While a few swarms are a nice way to increase the total number of hives we have, we don't want the hives to swarm too much, especially the closer we get to fall. A newly swarmed hive will have a lower population and no stored up honey. This means that they need time to build up enough strength and resources to survive the winter. Just a quick reminder to share members that we have frozen whole chickens available for purchase at $5/lb. Our chickens are pasture raised and fed 100% certified organic grains. To place an order, simple email me with the number of chickens you would like and I will make arrangements with you to bring to our CSA pickup. Well, since I talked so much about zucchini all ready in this post, I might as well include some recipes to use this vegetable! Visit the links below for some zucchini inspiration:
10 Easy and Healthy Zucchini Recipes Got a Boatload of Zucchini? 15 Tasty Recipes to Help You Use It Masala Zucchini Comments are closed.
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