• Rainbow Chard
• Rainbow Carrots
• Sweet Corn - the first pick of the season! This is a slightly diminuitive but extremely tender and sweet organic variety called "Sweetness," which ripens first in our sweet corn line-up. We grow five successive plantings of corn each year, the last four all being a variety called "Allure." Allure makes big, fat bicolor ears and huge towering plants, which become an essential feedstock in our compost production in the fall after we're done harvesting all the ears. This week's share is a little teaser of what's to come in the corn universe over the next 6 weeks :)
• Cucumbers
• Red Long of Tropea Onions
• Strawberries
• Tomatoes
• Heirloom Tomato
• Serrano Pepper

On Rotation:

• Green Beans - Folks are receiving either French filets (long and squiggly) or Romanos (wide and flat). Both delicious lightly steamed or sauteed.
• Head Lettuce - Every year in August we experience a marked slowdown in lettuce growth until it regains its stride for fall. We might have enough heads for everyone this week, but if not it will be on rotation this week and next.
• Fennel

August + Strawberries = Yum

Mostly as a farmer I feel like I don't know things. All kinds of things. Why the chard is taller than me this year, and how those pesky symphylans made their way into that one field, and if we're going to have an early fall, and which of the overwintering onion varieties will bolt and why. But there is one thing that I think I reliably know: our strawberries taste the best in August. Why? I don't know. But I could wager a Male Answer Syndrome kind of guess: Warmer days, cooler nights, fully-mature well-established plants that can support the whole-hearted production of berries with higher brix levels? Whatever the reason, they are really good right now. A little fragile on Tuesdays when we go to pick because they're dead ripe after a warm weekend of ripening, but loaded with extra sugars. Incidentally, we also see more bug damage in August. Why? Maybe the invertebrate population knows a good thing when it tastes it. Once again, pure conjecture. But I'm good with all this unknowing; it keeps a person perpetually humble and in awe of the many forces at work in the natural world that are much, much smarter and more amazing than us. Or at least me.

The point is, the moment has come to u-pick! The crowds have thinned out (we are no longer getting picked out within 45 minutes of opening the gates) and the berries are abundant, so please come revel in the glory of bountiful red, glossy, super-sweet strawberries in a more relaxed setting (I need to re-brand them as "August-bearers" to try to quell a little bit of that early season strawberry hype).

Also, if you are a CSA member and are on the list for a special order flat, we will get to you this month! We failed at filling any special orders for today because we are down one person on the crew this week, but hope to start sending out more flats again next week (and maybe even this Saturday for all you Bandon and Port Orford members who are patiently waiting).

If you are not on our special order strawberry list and would like to be, email us you name, pickup location, a cell number we can text to (if possible) and the quantity of flats you'd like. We'll try to take care of as many orders for CSA members as possible between now and the end of the berry season (which is usually mid-late September).

Enjoy the August food! It doesn't get much better.