IN THE FLOWERS
This Week’s Flower Challenge: This week, we’d like to offer a simple challenge. When you get to the garden, instead of beginning with your old favorites, the flowers that call to you every week, do a little exploring and begin your bouquet with something you haven’t used before. It may be a color you’re not usually drawn to, or a flower that you’ve never noticed. See what new patterns and connections arise.
A bouquet featuring Wild Vetch, Agrostemma, Scabiosas, Zinderella Zinnias, Cupcake Cosmos, Wild Radish, Xeranthemum, and Goose the garden cat.
IN THE HERBS
Oregano, Marjoram, Thyme, Chives & Garlic Chives, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbena, Tulsi Basil, Purple & Green & Bi-color Shiso (aka Perilla), Mints, Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Thai Basil, Green Coriander, Dill Flowers, Anise Hyssop, Sage, Tarragon, and Vietnamese Cilantro, Sorrel, Husk Cherries, Lemongrass.
Herb Spotlight: Have you cooked with tarragon this season? While frequently associated with the flavors of spring, this beloved French culinary herb is still producing beautifully as we slip into fall. If you’re totally unfamiliar with its flavor, try nibbling a leaf next time you’re in the garden. The French tarragon we grow has a bittersweet, anise-like flavor and the curious tendency to slightly numb your tongue when eaten raw much like Sichuan peppercorn (but without the spice!). You can find it near the picnic table in the garden, just behind the Spearmint planter. For some inspiration, check out this list of tarragon recipes from MasterClass.
Tarragon Vinegar - Fresh tarragon leaves gently bruised and seeped in white wine vinegar for three weeks before getting strained and stored for up to six months.
Béarnaise Sauce - A classic butter-based sauce made with white wine vinegar, egg yolks, lemon juice, minced shallots, and chopped fresh tarragon. A great sauce to pair with roast chicken breasts.
Herb Salad Dressing - A light, herbaceous dressing make of tarragon, vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh tarragon.
Omelette with Fresh Tarragon - A traditional French omelette filled with goat cheese and chopped fresh tarragon. Find the perfect omelette recipe here.
Chicken Tarragon - Boneless chicken thighs cooked with shallots in butter, dry white wine, tarragon, and broth in a Dutch oven, and topped with fresh tarragon leaves.
Tarragon Aioli - Mayonnaise combined with minced garlic, minced tarragon leaves, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Serve slathered on crusty bread with fresh tomato, lettuce, and bacon for the ultimate herbaceous BLT. (Learn how Alice Waters makes aioli here.)
Warm Potato Salad with Tarragon - Boiled, cubed potatoes coated in a mixture of dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, chopped tarragon, and minced garlic. Seasoned with salt and pepper and topped with more fresh tarragon.
Crab Cakes with Tarragon - Classic crab cakes made with crab meat, bread crumbs, egg, mayonnaise, scallions, lemon juice, tarragon, and seasonings.
Tomato, Mozzarella, and Tarragon Salad - A riff on a traditional Caprese salad, swapping fresh tarragon leaves for basil.
FAQ
When does the CSA end? Exact dates are TBD, depending on the weather. The flower and herb garden will starting winding down in October and we’ll put her to bed in November. But expect some good blooms all the way til then. The strawberries will usually wrap up a little earlier, producing through the end of September.
If I go away can a friend use my share? Yes! If you’ll be out of town or unable to come pick strawbs and flowers, feel free to send a friend or relative in your stead. Please verbally orient them as to the directions and how things work as we are not always around.
FARMER’S LOG
As farmers, we tend to relish the closing of seasons, the quieting of the year, towards which we are now being ushered. We coax plants into fruition, make space for them, and then tuck them gently back into the sweet dark earth to feed another. We hope that as you spend time in the autumnal garden this season with the flash and glow of color slowly simmering down around you, you’ll find glimpses of the beauty of decay, and the endless rich connections of each life to another.
Lines written in the days of growing darkness
by Mary Oliver
Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends
into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry out
to the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married
to the vitality of what will be?
I don’t say
it’s easy, but
what else will do
if the love one claims to have for the world
be true?
So let us go on, cheerfully enough,
this and every crisping day,
though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black,
and the sweets of the year be doomed.
See you in the fields,
David and Kayta
