Summer with a Side of Shishitos
It was 7:45 pm last night when I finally remembered to write the farm journal post for today. Whew! It was like I woke up yesterday morning and fast forwarded 13 hours. And, darn, am I tired! I usually have an idea in my head about what I want to write about earlier in the week, but this week (okay, this month) has truly gotten away from me. I can’t believe it is already Friday, and the last day of July, at that. I think part of the reason this week in particular flew by was because I was writing a column for the Steamboat Pilot and Today on behalf of the Community Agriculture Alliance (CAA), a non-profit I am an executive board member of. The CAA does weekly columns in the newspaper to write about all aspects of agriculture, and this week, I was asked to write a piece. If you are interested in viewing the column, here is the piece I wrote: https://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/community-agriculture-alliance-inspiring-resiliency-in-uncertain-times/.
It starts with a story similar to one I shared in a farm journal I wrote a couple of months ago, but I wanted to broaden the scope to engage my audience and the different community members we have in Steamboat and Routt County as a whole. I was really nervous to write a piece for the paper, but it was good experience to get my writing out to the public in a different way.
In other news on the farm, we are trucking right along with summer! This week I harvested the first spaghetti squash of the season and all of our garlic. Both are currently “curing” before we store them in our cold basement to use as we need them later this year. The peppers have gone off and Jack and I had fun harvesting loads of shishito peppers (our most favorite of the peppers), poblanos, and jalapenos. As a side note, if you have never had shishito peppers before you must find yourself some. Seriously, go now. Put your mask on (safety first!) and go and get ‘em! They make the easiest and most delicious summer appetizer. All you need to do is get some butter or oil heated in a pan until it is piping hot, add in the shishito peppers and cook them until their skins are just barely blistered, then hit them with a good pinch of salt. And…viola! The perfect little green beauties will make your meal and your day. I promise!
Anywho (sorry about that tangent there) we are trucking right along with loads of veggies, the pigs are getting HUGE, Willa is becoming the little sheep guardian we always dreamed her to be, the turkeys are too big for their britches (and getting out of their pen at least once a day), and life is good. We are still waiting on materials to arrive for the walk-in cooler and have about a zillion and one other projects to get done, but summer is passing by in the blink of an eye, and we are trying to keep up with her as best we can.
I hope you, your families, friends, and loved ones are enjoying the summer as much as possible right now. Cross your fingers we can find a way to accomplish our zillions of things to do before winter comes!
Until next week,
Farmer Kinzie