[local eating] Cod share, week 6, plus veggies, week 8

[magid]

OK, one week we did get non-cod, but really, halfway through and 83% cod makes it pretty much a cod share. I like cod, but I think it would have been nice for the information to give better estimates of what fish were likely.

Given the heat, the email confirming this week's pickup suggested cutting cod steaks and grilling them outside, but I have no grill. Yesterday's errands had me too frazzled to cook, anyway, so today I decided that I was going to minimize prep time and get the fish cooking as quickly as possible (read: I'm slow filleting, and there isn't so much time before the fast starts, either), going again with the whole stuffed fish idea. This time, I stuffed it with lemon, onion, tomatoes, and bits of artichoke heart. I would have added olives, except I'm out (*wah*)

---

Farm share pickup this week included:

• a head of lettuce (again, I chose a red-leafed kind)
  
• six ears of corn
  
• a bunch of scallions
  
• a pound of largeish carrots (that would be three)
  
• three cucumbers (not pounds! *huzzah*)
  
• two tomatoes
  
• a bunch of chard (I got a Bright Lights mixture)
  
• a bunch of dill (already flowering)
  
• a bunch of cilantro (given away)
  
• three summer squash (I chose zucchinis)
  
• a head of cabbage (I chose a red one, for the color, though they also tended towards larger than the green ones)

I'm thinking a fresh corn and tomato salad would be good. Not sure what else yet, though I may saute the chard and freeze it.

There is sad news: a quarter of the tomato crop has already been hit by tomato blight (I know that other farms have lost all their tomatoes). Apparently, the blight made it up here via seedlings sold through a couple of big name distributors (WalMart, Lowe's, etc), and with the rainy weather, and since it's airborne, a number of farms have been affected (and one farm has canceled deliveries in August entirely). Red Fire has pulled those tomato plants up, bagged them, and sent them to the trash (rather than the usual composting), and is spraying the remaining tomatoes with copper (the only treatment option that works for organic operations) in the hope that it will be effective. Here's hoping... (more details below).

This week's newsletter included an article about the tomato blight.

Late Blight Strikes Tomatoes
By Farmer Ryan Voiland

We are very sad to report that late blight (Phytophthora infestans) has struck one of our outdoor tomato fields. This disease is the most dreaded disease that exists for tomato and potato growers. It is the disease that caused the Irish Potato famine in the 1800's. Mostly it is a disease that has not been common in Massachusetts or in the Northeast in general, but in recent years there have been some outbreaks reported in places like New York state and Maine.

Late Blight Spread by Big Box Stores
Unfortunately this spring big box retailers like Lowe's, Wal Mart and Home Depot all purchased late blight infested tomato plants from a nursery in the south and sold them to home gardeners all over the east coast. This effectively inoculated every corner of our region with this pathogen.
The cool, rainy and humid weather that we have been having creates perfect conditions for this disease to thrive. The disease spores travel very easily on wind, clothes, hands and farm machinery, so plant pathology experts at Umass have been alerting growers to be on the look out for this disease. Many farms in the valley are finding it in their fields. They say that all tomato and potato fields in Massachusetts are at high risk for getting devastated by this disease.

Indeed, it has devastated our earliest outdoor tomato planting, and now it is spreading into additional blocks of tomatoes on the same general field area. The disease spreads with devastating speed and can kill healthy tomato plants within one week of initial infection.
Based on the advice of Umass extension experts we removed the area of the field that was most severely infected. We pulled up the plants, stuffed them into plastic garbage bags, sealed the tops and took them to the dump. This should reduce the inoculum somewhat and slow the spread of the disease onto other still healthy tomato plants.

Copper Spray Technique
Meanwhile Umass extension recommends that we spray all of our still uninfected tomato and potato fields with a copper material at least once per week until the crops ripen. This is fixed copper and is the only material that certified organic growers can use that has a chance of slowing the spread of the disease.
Even though it is a naturally occurring metal and is allowed for use in organic farming, it is a material that can irritate the eyes and skin of the person applying it. For this reason you may see us driving around the farm on the spraying tractor wearing a mask and goggles as a safety precaution. There is a possibility that you will see some of the green residue of this spray on the tomato fruits, and if you do you should wash the fruits before eating. Copper in this form has a very low toxicity to humans and animals, but it is important to wash it off the fruit.
We don't like having to rely on a spray to fight this disease, but we see no other alternative. Our tomato crop is at very high risk and even with the spray we might lose most of the tomato crop.

Already the early half acre block of tomatoes that were just about to begin ripening is mostly a loss. This means that shareholders will not get as many tomatoes in the next few weeks as we had planned. There is still hope for the mid season and late season plantings. If the copper can prevent the fungus from inoculating and infecting the leaves and fruits on these other plantings, we might still get a good crop. Right now the disease is apparent in about ¼ of our total tomato fields.

Not all hope is lost:
Since we planted so many acres of tomatoes (almost 8) we might still have enough to give out plenty of tomatoes when August and September arrive. We will just have to wait and see. Fortunately our later fields of tomato plantings are growing in isolated fields that are over half a mile away from the infected planting, so these fields might still escape it entirely. Thankfully, our potato crop appears to be clean up to this point. Less rain and more dry warm weather would also help dramatically, so we can all hope for that! -Ryan

---

Tuesday morning, in an attempt to deal with the cucumber glut, a salad for breakfast: local organic [cucumbers (farm share), tomato (farm share), apricot (neighbor), basil (farm share), and chive (porch)] with nonlocal nonorganic [olive oil, feta, and black pepper]. It was yummy.

Comments

[gingicat]

Huh, we got four whiting on Monday, and flounder last week. Along with cod, mind you.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Depends on what's caught each day. Also, I know that last week some of the half shares at my distribution had flounder in them as well, because the guy mentioned it. I was ok with just the cod, so he didn't try to look through the bags for one with a flounder.

Cucumber glut

[trainingmom.livejournal.com]

There is a persian dish where you blend cucumbers with yougert and maybe crushed ice to make a smoothly. Really nice and cool and uses lots of cucs.

Re: Cucumber glut

[magid.livejournal.com]

That sounds interesting. I have yogurt, too. Though I've been focusing on putting them into salad, and I think I'm down to 6 pickling cucumbers (the three from this week very small, because I wanted to see the end of the cucumbers someday...).

Really, I should probably pickle them. But somehow that doesn't interest me. Ah, well.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Some week when you again have cucumber glut your little brother and your niece and nephew would be happy to help take some of the extras off your hands.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm almost out of the cucumber glut, but I might bring a couple this week if there are any left Monday.