CSA's and Container Gardening

Hopefully my readers can take the summer months of lax posting as it just being the summer, the strange time of the year where time slips away like the freshly squeezed juice of a lemon through a strainer. That's my hope, anyway. There is definitely much to come as we've been overwhelmed with produce from our CSA, Wimer's Organics as well as our own container garden.

If you are a member of or considering becoming a member of  a CSA for this or next season, Wimer's is definitely the one to go with. They seem rather dirt cheap for the amazing, delicious, and organic offerings we get bi-weekly (there's no way we could eat as much as we get in one week!). They even offer payment plans, which I was happily surprised to find out, since joining a CSA is a lot of money to put out up front for the season or seasons you want. I know this had been a reason in teh past we had not joined one sooner, as I have also heard from friends and acquaintances, always with a wistful look in their eye. I was happy not to have that wistful look in my eye this year.

Along with comparing their previous grow seasons yields, which offered tremendous variety, more so we thought than other farms, the close pick up location, and the opportunity to purchase eggs, yogurt, chickens, and other items from their store (like COFFEE!) sealed the deal. We also get a thoughtful weekly email from Bud Wimer about the farm, maybe some recipes, and what to expect "in the box," an advance peep so as to plan ahead for meals and trips the grocer. And what was "in the box" this week you might inquire? In addition to the pounds and pounds of the three varieties of tomatoes you see below, we also got six ears of corn, two eggplants, two red peppers, a hunk of fresh mint, some beets, and a giant onion. Mind you, we still are working off of some leftovers of our last share.

Wimer's is a Certified Organic Farm, and while a lot of families and individuals choose to eat as much organic possible, this could also be a clincher, but as I've stated before, we wouldn't purchase organic fruit or vegetables over non-organic; we're more interested in that the crops and animals are raised and bred with resourceful and ecologically safe manners, (for example, Integrated Pest Management), as local as possible, and cage free (for the animals, not the crops for that one :)

We've had some struggle with some of our crops, particularly the zucchini, squash, and cucumbers. They come up but somehow either don't grow to a picking size before shriveling (zukes and squash) or they turn into some sort of oddly shaped rotund fruit which we can't use, either for pickling or just well, as a cucumber. Our tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and strawberries are for the most part doing well. The marjoram died in one of the earlier of our many heat waves, but the rest powered through..

Right now we are flush with tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes, as you can see. The first two images are beautiful roma, cherry, and beefsteak (?) from our CSA, and the last two are champion, patio, and lemony tomatoes and orange, green, and red peppers recently picked from our garden.

We're thinking some sauce is in order to make use before it spoils.Maybe a  lot of sauce. Stay tuned for that post.