August means its time for fall planting! We are finally getting on top of all the weeds that took over while we were occupied with the new baby, and it feels good to be re-taking our beds with new plantings. We just learned that it’s not too late for cucumbers, so we got another round of those in, as well as our last succession of our purple green beans. Last week and this week we are also starting to plant fall crops like beets, radishes, spinach, and carrots. This year because of Cassidy’s birth we are a bit behind, so it feels strange to be planting fall crops when our summer crops aren’t even in full swing yet, but hopefully that just means we will have a bountiful autumn!
This has been a great year for foraging chanterelle mushrooms, one of our favorite wild mushrooms. These bright orange, irregular mushrooms have no poisonous look-a-likes, and are easy to spot on the forest floor. This makes it fun hunting for the whole family, because even Quin can find some! They are delicious just fried up with butter and salt and eaten like that, or added to pasta, pizza, eggs, atop meat…anywhere you would use mushrooms, these add a nutty, sweet, complex flavor. Some of you have already gotten them, and please let us know if you would like us to save you any. We haven’t been giving too many to the farm share because we forage for them the day of market, and never know how many we will find.
The wild elderberries have also started ripening, and we are also bringing a limited amount to market, but again, we would be happy to save some for you if you are interested. This has been an especially bountiful wild foraging year, and we can’t wait to see how the autumnberries will be!