What a wild week it has been! When you’re farming, experience is a huge advantage. Throughout the years, you see a lot of things and learn a lot as well. However, experience can only get you so far. You also have to be curious and willing to learn.

The last few weeks we have been finding lots of funky things happening around the farm. Nature is so cool! Whenever we find something abnormal, we have to act fast. It’s important to do research right away to figure out if the abnormality is something that we can live with, or if it’s due to an insect or disease that we need to get rid of immediately before it spreads and creates a much larger issue. Thankfully most of the abnormalities we’ve been finding have been do to genetics or environmental factors. You know, all the stuff we want to control, but don’t yet have the superpowers to do so.

Our greenhouse cucumbers have been the source of most abnormalities. We’ve been finding fruit that has leaves growing out of it, tendrils that are trying to grow new plants, and baby fruit that is growing new branches out of the flowers. It looks crazy, but from the research we’ve done, it appears to be harmless. Google and our University extension expert, both tell us that this can happen when the plant goes through sudden temperature fluctuations. Over the last few weeks, we’ve had a few times where we go from 80° and sunny to 60° and cloudy in less than 24 hours. That large temperature change causes a lot of stress to the plants just like it does to humans. Vegetables tend to like consistency. Temps that stay the same, and watering that happens regularly and in the same amount each time. Unfortunately, we can’t control the weather (boy do we wish we could), so we just laugh about our freaky finds and keep harvesting away.

The other abnormality we noticed was that two of our onions have variegated tops. Normally onion tops are solid green, but two of the plants have green and yellow striped tops. This is due to a genetic disease called chimera. This is when the plants genetics cause it to produce chlorophyll incorrectly. Another weird thing that is completely harmless, yet something else that is entirely out of our control.

 This finding caused a little more panic than the cucumbers. Usually, yellowing on a plant points almost immediately to a disease or virus. We plant hundreds of onions, and rely on them to get us all the way to the end of Winter shares in April. One disease or virus could be catastrophic for us. Thankfully it seems like we’ll be okay, but we’ll still be keeping a close eye on the onions just to be sure.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) for all of you, none of these crazy vegetables will make their way into your boxes this summer. These stay at the farm so they can be fully inspected, and sometimes sampled, to see if further knowledge about the issues can be gained. The upshot of this story is that here at the Food Farm we aren’t perfect, but we promise to never stop learning and growing. I hope you all find ways this week to stay a little wild and weird just like the vegetables!

In your share this week:

Quinoa or grain salads are one of my favorite ways to eat veggies in the summer. They’re great fresh, but also delicious as leftovers once all the flavors have had even longer to marinate together. This Roasted Cauliflower Quinoa Salad is a great way to use up lots of veggies in this weeks share. This recipe calls for frozen peas, but if you wanted to use the sugar snap peas from your box, that would also be delicious. No need to shell them, just chop them up into bite size pieces, and continue on with the recipe as it’s written.

When basil season comes around, most people think of pesto. I immediately think of this Basil Raspberry Tea. With raspberries starting to ripen, this is such a fun and delicious drink to have on hand. It’s so refreshing after a hot day, and it’s easy to make ahead for those Summer get togethers, or just as a fun way to toast to the weekend. The recipe has both a cocktail and mocktail version so there’s something for everyone.