Please be sure to wash your weekly share thoroughly before serving. To preserve freshness, it is NOT ‘table ready’ (i.e., pre-washed). We deliver your Olin-Fox Farms’ produce right from the fields to ensure highest quality.

We hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July. During the off week, we as well as the other farms were able to make some much-needed progress with regular chores and ongoing projects, despite the extreme heat and constant requirements of watering. Can you imagine having to fill a 300-gallon tank to water 300 feet long rows of melons every other day? Well, that's what the guys at Canning Farm have been doing; and thanks to Tommy and Miles, you will be enjoying the fruits of their labor this week.

Even with the added protection of a wide-brimmed straw hat and frequent applications of sun screen lotion, working outdoors the entire day in the full heat of the sun [plus the higher 'heat index' with the heavy humidity] tends to bake and scorch a body nigh unto the total enervation of heat exhaustion. After prolonged exposure to the sun or with sunburn, when you are feeling tired and exhausted, refrain from eating any wheat products (including pastas!) and coat your skin with one of the following vegetable oils which are rich in poly-unsaturated fats and linoletic acid, Vitamin F, a skin regenerator: safflower oil, olive oil, castor bean oil, sunflower oil, or peanut oil. For sunburn, it helps to take the amino acid Histidine as well. Some of us resort to taking salt tablets from the pharmacy to replace the salts lost through the rivulets of perspiration trickling into our eyes, down our necks and backs and soaking all of our clothing in addition to consuming copious volumes of cool water and wearing a damp towel draped around the neck. By the end of such a day, you are fried, frazzled and too weary to eat much supper. But, when the time comes to harvest the fruits of our labors, it's worth plugging along, even with all of the vicissitudes.

A Refreshing, Thirst-Quenching Option: Aromatic Flavored Water
Try this for an interesting 'aromatherapeutic' alternative to expensive bottled waters [Note: the lucrative bottled water industry does not say much about the unhealthy underbelly of their products. Studies indicate that it's not a good idea to store water in plastic containers because the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) of the plastic can leach into the water]. Crush some fresh basil and mint leaves, put them in a large carafe, add room temperature water, and let this mixture sit for half of an hour. Then add one tablespoon of honey, one tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice and mix. This is an aromatic and refreshing beverage to accompany any meal, or as a handy pick-me-up loaded with healthy bioflavornoids, electrolytes and enzymes you can prepare at home at a fraction of the cost of 'gourmet' bottled waters. Water filtered through an activated charcoal filtration process removes the impurities from tap water, but leaves the water-soluble minerals.

And from Olin-Fox Farms, another turkey tale: John set up 2 motion-sensor sprinklers hoping to keep the wild turkey out of the 2 newly-planted lemon grass and ginger areas. While the sensors were very effective keeping the wild turkeys out of the straw-mulched beds, with them being triggered so often by the interloping birds, they started diverting too much of the limited water supply away from areas really in need of moisture. So John thought and thought and thought, and finally proclaimed, "Well, we could try laying out a few pieces of short soaker hose in 's' curves and maybe the turkeys will fooled into thinking they are snakes." Clever strategy, but that only worked for a day or so. Then John thought and thought and thought some more, until he finally remembered that one year we put up wind socks over the corn areas to keep the crows out. "Okay, let's give it a try with the turkeys." And what do you know, folks? That did the job and has kept them out for a week now. Apparently, what with the almost constant movement, the wary wall-eyed turkeys must think it is weird kind of dangerous octopus or some other unknown creature. If they get wise to this ruse, too, perhaps our CSA members can come up some other ways to spook those wily rapscallions. Wonder if they could be lured into a big 'Have-A-Heart' trap?

Personnel News

Young master Stevie Jett, our fine Field Manager at Olin Fox Farms, is away in Richmond this week for a pipe organ music camp. Next week, our newsletter editor, Ethan Brent, will be on vacation celebrating his birthday with friends in cool Nova Scotia, Canada.

Crop Report

We are pleased to announce (with a modest fanfare) that the very crème de la crème of summer's crops are now being harvested --- melons, sweet corn and tomatoes. The eggplant is starting off a bit slower this year, and the free-range eggs have really slowed down somewhat, both due to the heat, but will surely pick up again once the weather breaks. All the garlic has been harvested and cured here at Olin-Fox Farms and some will be included in your shares for the next several weeks.

Argent Sweet Corn, Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Beefmaster Tomatoes, German Stiffneck Garlic, Cantaloupe or Sugar Baby Watermelon

Recipes

`Warm Goat Cheese Salad with Roasted Garlic`

Adapted from A New Way to Cook. Serves 4

This salad is a combination of simple elements: mesclun salad (or your favorite mix of salad greens), warm goat cheese, Roasted Garlic and good, crusty bread: a perfect lunch. The garlic cloves, soft and puree-like from roasting, can be squeezed onto slabs of bread, along with the creamy goat cheese, to make an impromptu open-face sandwich as you eat the greens. Add some thinly sliced tomato, if you like.

The basic formula lends itself to improvisation: you can replace the mesclun with other greens and dressings—dandelion with anchovy or bacon dressing, frisée with walnut oil for example—or throw in walnuts, cooked new potatoes, or roasted peppers and a few Sweet Olive Tomatoes . Any variety of aged goat cheeses will work well. Pyramids, cones or three-sided logs especially lend themselves to appealingly-shaped portions.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar, preferably aged
1-1/2 teaspoons water 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt Freshly ground black pepper
8 cups (about 12 ounces) cleaned and dried mesclun, or other salad greens
8 ounces mild goat cheese, such as Lingot or Montrachet, cut into 4 equal portions
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/4 teaspoon dried
Roasted Garlic

Slices of excellent, rustic bread, such as walnut, ciabatta, focaccio or sourdough, toasted if you like, with melted butter, even better!

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a small bowl, combine the balsamic vinegar and sherry vinegar, water, extra-virgin olive oil and a generous pinch salt. Place the greens in a large bowl and drizzle the dressing over. Toss to coat, adding salt and pepper to taste. Divide the salad between 4 dinner plates.

2. Place the goat cheese in a small cast-iron skillet or a heavy baking pan and sprinkle the thyme and pepper to taste over each slice. Bake until the cheese is warmed through and soft but not collapsing, about 3 minutes. Using a thin metal spatula, place one slice of cheese directly on each portion of the greens along with one or two heads of Roasted Garlic. Pass the bread on the side.

Roasted Garlic

Ingredients

1-1/2 teaspoons water
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/4 teaspoon dried

Serves 4

You can roast as many heads of garlic at once as you wish. Simply double or triple the recipe, wrapping no more than 4 large or 8 small heads in each package.

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2. Gently peel off the papery white skin from each head of garlic to reveal the cloves, without separating them. Place the garlic on a sheet of aluminum foil [NOTE: Alice uses a cast-iron pot with a tight fitting lid instead of aluminum foil]. Using a slightly dampened brush, coat each head of garlic with the olive oil, and nestle the thyme springs among them. 3. Dribble the water onto the foil. Pull the edges of the foil up and crimp tightly together to form a package. Place on a baking sheet.

4. Bake the garlic until the flesh is soft, about 34 to 45 minutes. To eat the garlic, pull off 1 clove at a time and squeeze the soft flesh out of the skin.

5. Roasted Garlic is best eaten or used when still warm.

Written by Ethan Brent, Official Newsletter Focalizer

Bon Appetit!