Garlic Scape Processing

I processed 4 crates of garlic scapes this weekend — a nice reprieve from the summer sun : )  It is a fabulous add to sautéed veggies, eggs, soups … you can even spread it on toast!  My employee, John, was telling me how he loves every stage of garlic growing and I cannot agree more.  From separating the bulbs into beautiful cloves, planting clove in the fall soil, covering them for the winter in a bed of straw and then watching them be the first to sprout in the spring.  There are so many beautiful and tasty and genius parts to this plant, it is hard not to love!  You can find the puree for sale in the CSA stand as well as our online store, FarmDrop.

Buckwheat Flowers

As I mentioned before, we started using black plastic mulch for weed protection.  It keeps weeds at bay under the plastic but not beside the plastic.  My dreamy beginner years of no weeds has passed and I have graduated into a mass of grass, mostly crab.  As the name suggests, it does not grow upright but rather “crabs” sideways, over the mulch and under plants.  We tried a grass diversion between the pepper rows this year by seeding buckwheat.  For the most part it has prevented the growth of a lot of weeds, yet now we have to manage the buckwheat : )  It is soft and easy to kill, but the flowers are so beautiful and buzzing with pollinators, I am finding it hard.

pepper plants in a sea of buckwheat

We do need to trim the buckwheat soon though.  Although the pepper plants are green and happy in their flower cave, they are getting quite a bit of shade.  We might do a bit more pathway seeding experiments next year but I think we might also see how efficient straw mulching is.  Ahhh weeds.  If only they grew in the lawn.

This Week’s Bounty: lettuce, onions, zucchini, summer squash, cucumber, green cabbage, pac choi, kale, chard, basil, parsley, cilantro