Picking watermelon

One of my favorite holidays is fast approaching....Labor Day. Marking the end of the summer season, Labor Day is laid back and easy. No gifts, no elaborate meals, no pressure. The weather is usually nice (unlike Memorial Day) and no changing around on the calendar; always the first Monday of September. Just blue skies and a BBQ or two.

This upcoming weekend is prime BBQ & picnic time and what makes a BBQ great? Watermelon!

We have had a great crop this year; sweet, juicy and tasty! One question that we answer quite a bit is "How do you know a watermelon is good/sweet/juicy?" The short answer is to get your watermelon from someone that grows them. We can tell in the field if the melon is ready or not. If it's ready, then it goes on the trailer. Not ready? It stays in the field. Simple? Of course it is easy if you've picked 56,938 melons in your life! How about some pictures?

First, you need to get out to the melon patch. Really, there are melons out there--not just weeds! If you look closely, you can see some melons through all the weeds. As you may have noticed, weed control isn't very high on our list right now. We do try to keep the weeds to a minimum early in the season, but it's a losing battle. Notice the lovely stand of lambs quarters in the background, in front of the corn. We have the loveliest weeds!






The two pictures above show what we look for in a ripe watermelon. The top picture is the ground spot. That's where the melon sits on the ground as it grows. In a immature melon, this spot will be very light in color; off-white or cream colored. As the melon matures, this spot will darken in color. Each variety is different and some will be very dark yellow while some are a pale butter color.

The bottom picture is of the infamous tendril. This very small and seemingly insignificant part of the stem system is perhaps the most helpful to a us. When the tendril dries up, we figure that we've got a pretty ripe melon. The ground spot is checked, the melon is thumped (listening for a clear, ringing tone) and if everything checks out, it gets picked and put on the trailer. Notice the black dog supervising in the background. Skipper is keeping everything running smoothly!


It may not look muddy, but Dana managed to rub off quite a bit of dirt on her shirt. Bill and the crew fan out across the field, similar to a fire brigade line. Bill, Karen & Brenda usually do the actual checking and picking and the others are just muscle.



Picture to be posted later, but as the melons are picked, they get tossed down the line into the trailer. It sounds easy, but it's much harder than it looks...many of these melons are in the neighborhood of 20-30 lbs and we can pick over 200 for a weekend market. It is a great upper body workout for abs and arms (coming soon--Mitchell Farms Workout video!)

What does all that work get you? A beautiful, sweet watermelon! This is one of the Vanessas: a small, dark personal sized melon. Very juicy & sweet with a crisp bite and a great size for just one or two.

Besides watermelon, what else will we have for your picnicing needs?

• Yellow watermelon--we will have a few--we've almost picked all of the yellow watermelon (note to Bill: grow more!) and some of y'all are addicted to them! Come and check early in the market if you want one.
• Sweet Corn-nature's original fast food: minutes from pot or grill to table! If you are having out of town visitors, you must introduce them to our corn. They'll be amazed that simple corn can taste so good!
• Cantaloupe--this will be coming to a close soon, but right now they are at their peak!
• Crensahw melons- new for us! This is a cross between a casaba melon & a persian melon yielding an oblong, bright yellow melon with a sweet, spicy scent. Ours are a pale orange color on the inside, with a firm, fine grained texture. It's the new thing to try this week!
• Green beans--we love this new variety that we are growing for fall. Very straight, skinny and tender--good enough to nibble on raw.
• Cucumbers-starting to make a comeback with the new fall planting
• Summer squash--ditto to cucumbers!
  
• Eggplant--all shapes, colors and sizes. It isn't too late to give one a try!
• Sweet onions
• Hot peppers--jalapeno, habanero, peppercorncini
  
• Green peppers

.......and that's about it. You'll notice that tomatoes are absent from the list. We've struggled with them all season and now the plants have just given up. They were good while we had them!

I am looking forward to seeing lots and lots of folks at the market this weekend! Have company in for the weekend? Bring them down and show off one of the best farmer's markets in the state! Remember those canvas bags, grab a cup of coffee and the dog and get downtown! We look forward to seeing you!

Back to School

Sorry for the lack of posting, but this week was just jam packed with markets, football & soccer practice, first days of school, more school supply shopping and work! I work for one of the school districts and August is when my department get busier than normal putting the final touches on the classrooms and schools before teachers and students come back. I can always tell that summer is over when I start hearing from teachers! It's good to hear from them--they are always excited to start another year.

This is the time of the year that we see about a 50% drop in market attendance. The markets don't stop when school starts--in fact, this is when some of the best items are being brought to the markets. With the change in time for the Saturday market this year (7:30 am to noon) should give people a chance to stop by and stock up for the week. Don't think you have to be at the market at the crack of dawn--there is still plenty of high quality produce and large selections at the market--why do you think we got that massive trailer? All the better to bring more stuff for you folks!

For those of you that know us, we have 4 children. If you come to the Uptown Normal market, likely you've seen all three of them (and one or two extras!) helping out, bagging sweet corn and waiting on customers. The fourth one is rarely seen--Kyle is currently serving our country with the Marine Corps. He is stationed in Cherry Point NC (beautiful area--you should visit!) and has been shuttling back and forth between there and Iraq. Unfortunately, the USMC doesn't think picking sweet corn is a priority or I'd have him here every summer! He and his family will be back in town for their annual visit starting this week. Kyle is larger than life and will get you wrapped up in whatever scheme he is focused on at the time. He is a whirlwind of energy, always up for a good time and when he was home, good help on the farm. The picture to the left is a day when he didn't really want to be there: it was cold and wet. I unfortunately didn't have my camera when they came back from picking sweet corn, with Kyle riding on top of the truck roof, singing a little ditty about picking corn, trying to keep everyone's spirits up. I'm trying to get him to stop by one of the Saturday markets--maybe you'll be lucky enough to meet him and his beautiful wife & daughter.

So, with KKA in town and my dad(of pineapple growing fame) & step-mom coming in early September, it's a 3 ring circus ALL. THE. TIME. Did I mention that Kyle has lab mix that stays with us when they are in town? 4 dogs. 1 house. Circus=Mitchell House!

In between all this familial bliss are the crops that need to be harvested! This is the time to start putting away for the non-growing months, with freezing, canning or drying. Bill & I are experimenting with dehydrating peppers for chili powder & paprika, our sweet onions for onion powder and garlic for garlic powder. I bought a dehydrator last year and dried tomatoes for use in soups and stews. I didn't make enough! It is quite amazing at how much water is in food--and how much of it goes away when the product is dried. It's no wonder that dried fruits are expensive!

Following some advice I found on the internet (forget exactly where), I washed and dried whole jalepeno, habanero and Hungarian peppers and put them in the dehydrator. It has taken most of a week, but they are all almost completely dried and ready to be pulverized in a coffee grinder. I also thinly sliced onions and garlic and dried them as well. Since they are thinner, they dry faster. I'll grind them up as well.

I was curious as to how the garlic and onions would taste. The garlic flavor is more concentrated, but not unpleasant when eaten as a "chip", but requires a good tooth brushing! These will make excellent garlic powder! The sweet onions were a surprise! I expected all "hot" onion flavor and no sweet, but the sweet, mild onion taste really came through! Bill thought it tasted like onion candy and would be great sprinkled over salads or squashes. I sliced some more onions last night to dry and put into a trail mix. I'm also going to experiment with drying some potatoes for my own instant mashed!

This weekend in Downtown Bloomington is the Hot August Nights, so plan ahead for parking. There is always FREE, CONVENIENT parking in the Monroe St (I think) parking garage, just south of Fox & Hounds. It's free, its shady for those hot day and there is lots of room! Some streets may be cordoned off, so parking will be a little different than in past weeks.

But don't let that stop you! How can you go another week without:

• Watermelon--red & seedless--very juicy and sweet! They come in a range of sizes from small to very large!
  
• Cantaloupe--season is short, enjoy them now when they are at their best
• Sweet Corn--if you are "corned" out, think about putting some in the freezer for a blast of summer in the middle of winter--Easy as falling off a log: boil water, blanch for 1 minute, put in ice water, cut off cob and freeze! You can do this with just one ear or with 100!
• Tomatoes-perfect for salsa, fresh or canned
• Eggplant--we have been bringing record numbers of eggplant--try a white one or a skinny Asian one!
  
• Green peppers
• Hot peppers
• Sweet onions
• Potatoes
• cucumbers--finally, our late crop is starting to produce
• Summer squash--ditto!
• Green Beans--fall crop--these are beautiful, long and crisp. Pair up with some small, fresh potatoes.

Remember, rain or shine! Bring your bags! Bring your cameras--we love it when folks take pictures of our veggies! Bring a friend!

The Eagle has landed...

Y'all are familiar with my griping about how busy we are and dashing here & there with farm stuff and kid stuff...right? Well, our salvation has just arrived (Wednesday at 4:40 pm) in the shape of Bill's mom, Margaret. She is a saint in human form and a dervish of cleaning (Bill used to call her the Fairbury tornado due to her mad cleaning skillz). Why is this SO exciting? 'Cause it means that my house will not be condemned by the health department!! Within in minutes of pulling up to the house, she was asking what she could do to help....she and Emily started with dishes.

Now, we don't have the typical OMG it's my Mother in Law relationship--in fact, I'll let anyone clean my kitchen! Margaret is a great person and now that she is living in Florida we only get to see her about 3 or 4 times a year. The kids love having her around (except when she makes them clean their rooms!) because she is fun! And she spoils them with lots of hugs, kisses and love--and Disney passes! She works a few days a the Mouse House so when her grandkids come down, we have day passes for Disney. See, I told you she spoils them!

This time, Margaret came with a friend. She recently got a puppy that is part Yorkie and part Chihauhau--so cute! Cubby is so much smaller than our dogs (!) but settled right in and felt comfortable taking Chase's bone away from him this morning! Yes, Margaret is a Cubs fan, to the dismay of Bill. For those of you that know about Bill's love for all things St. Louis & Cardinal, this is very sad. Ball games are quite fun to watch, however with both of them razzing each other, often via long distance!

Now that both of us have our new right hand, some of the craziness that permeates the late summer markets will abate somewhat. We will be at our Country Insurance stand and at the State Farm market until the end of August. I will continue Tuesday afternoons in Uptown Normal as long as we have product and plenty of customers. Of course, we will be in Downtown Bloomington through the end of October (not so far away) with plenty of fall goodies.

What will we bring on our new fancy trailer?

• Sweet corn-still picking, although in a new patch, with 2 or 3 patches starting to pollinate. We'll have plenty of corn for Labor Day picnics!
• Watermelon-man, do we have a lot of watermelon! All sizes from small to feed-an-army size. Again, we will have plenty in time for Labor Day.
• Cantaloupe-juicy, sweet, lovely orange color--it's a fantastic way to get vitamin C
• Tomatoes--even with some major crop failure, the tomatoes that we are picking are just fantastic! They are loving this moderate weather--it seems to be giving the plants a chance to recuperate.
• Sweet onions--we hit a home run with the sweet onions this year--planted plenty of them and they got lots & lots of water, which is what onions need. These are fabulous cooked or raw.
• Potatoes--The white potatoes aren't quite ready, but the red-skinned ones are. Fresh potatoes that haven't been chilled are crisp and actually have taste!
• Eggplant--another home run crop. Disease issues haven't seemed to bother the eggplant and we've been picking enough for everyone in B-N to have one! Our white ones and the longer, striped Antiguas are just now starting to mature, so you'll be seeing more of them at the markets.
  
• Green Peppers--some are green, some are turning red, some are confused and are a little of both!
• Sweet Banana peppers--slice for salads, pickle for winter, stuff with cream cheese and bake!
• Hot peppers--just in time for fresh salsa! Hot pepper jelly is great over cream cheese (ok, low-fat!) or goat cheese.
  
• Cucumbers-still struggling, but we may have a few!
• Zucchini & squash-the plants are blooming so you may start to see some fruits here & there.

Will it rain Saturday AM? I hope not--although we had a great crowd last week! Friday night, set out your canvas bags, rain boots & umbrella, set your alarm and make your shopping list! We'll be ready for you at 7:30!

Can't think of a good title

I'm a little late in posting this week, but we've been running crazy! We have had record crowds at all our markets this week: that's fantastic! I hope we can keep this "I-need-fresh-local-food" train going even after the start of school. Usually market attendance starts to wane the week before school with more week day activities, but there is so much really great produce yet to come that you need to dedicate 20 minutes on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday to stock up for the week. After a summer of eating fresh, local foods, can you really go back to eating lousy supermarket food? I didn't think so!

In addition to the crazy that surrounds us, it's been an expensive week for us. Our large 12' trailer that we haul most of our produce blew out the bearings on one side, making it VERY unsafe for use. Luckily, one of our workers noticed that the tire was not at the proper angle while Bill was hauling about 300 lbs of watermelon back to the main farm!

We've discussed getting a new trailer, but what we were using worked. At least, until this season. We have brought to market more produce than we ever have before. Both trailers are packed full, as well as my truck which doubles as the tomato conveyance (we have around 320 lbs of tomatoes last week--that's a lot!). Since we've always skirted the weight limit on the big trailer, we decided to upgrade to a newer, sturdier and safer trailer. This baby is 16' (!) long and is rated for 5000 lbs--that's a lot of melons! So now we can easily (and safely) bring more cantaloupe and watermelon to market--all good for you!

The watermelon are really starting to produce and we've (ha!-like I've done much) done a great job in keeping them alive this wet spring & summer. Bill read in Farm Week that since they've been keeping meterologic records in 1895(!) that January-July 2008 has been the wettest on record. All I know is that it's August and my grass is still green!

I get asked what else you can do with watermelon, other than just eat and enjoy it. Weeeeell, I think it's pretty good just the way it is! I haven't tried grilling it (yet--although grilled peaches are fab!) and it doesn't lend itself well to canning (watermelon rind pickles do come to mind) or freezing. However, one of my very savvy CSA members freezes her extra watermelon (is there such a thing as leftover watermelon?) for : watermelon margaritas! How awesome is that! Can you picture the middle of February, cold, snow and ice, dark by 3:30---instant summer! If you aren't into margaritas, you could easily make a slushy with other fruit.

What will we be bringing on our fancy, new trailer?

• Sweet corn
• Watermelon-all seedless, red or yellow, small, medium, large and largest!
• Cantaloupe-haven't been many this week--we are hoping the next crop is ready on Friday
• Tomatoes-we'll have more 'maters this week--you all are a tomato deprived bunch!
• Eggplant-all kinds! The white eggplants are starting to produce and are very good for grilling as they seem to be a little more firm
• Green peppers
• Banana peppers
• Hot peppers--several kinds, Hot Hungarian, Cherry Bomb, anaheim, jalepeno-perfect for salasa
• Sweet onions
• Potoatoes
• Cucumbers-a definite maybe
• Pickling cucumbers
• Armenian cucumbers-this is new for us and according to the internet and Monica from AZ--these are the best slicing & eating cukes ever! Also known as "snake melons", they don't look like your standard cuke--I think Saturday should be a day to try something new!

I know I'm forgetting something, so stop by and check out the table! Tonight, put your canvas bags in the car (you know who you are!) so you'll be ready for the best market of the season!

Guest entry

Hi! It's Skipper the Black Lab here. Mom's been very busy, so I'd thought I would help out a little. She's always griping that I don't help at the market! Someone needs to watch and make sure our setup looks good. That's my job.

If you can't tell, I just love coming to the market on Saturday mornings. I've been the top dog for the last few years, but my parents just had to go get another dog. You've probably seen him, he's the obnoxious yellow dog, Chase. He is a knucklehead---not like me at all!

Anyway, my humans have been working very hard in all this heat and humidity. They leave us at home in the AC, because we just go flop in a mud puddle at the farm. Mom doesn't appreciate muddy dogs--not sure why. It's just too hot for us, but Dad brought the trailer back just now and man, is it full!

It must have been miserable out there tonight, but this is what Dad brought back:

• Watermelon! Lots and lots of watermelon! Mom will have red and yellow seedless ones.
• Cantaloupe
• Sweet corn--still sweet and tender--there is a bunch of it
• Eggplant-both regular and Asian varieties
• Tomatoes-red and yummy--it almost makes me wish I liked them--I'd rather have a hamburger, though.
• all kinds of hot peppers--Mom has been talking about making salsa--I guess it's good
• green peppers
  
• cucumbers--Mom and Dad were talking about Armenian cucumbers and how good they are--I still want a hamburger!

It is too hot for me to go to the Uptown Normal market (black dogs and hot afternoon sun don't mix well), but I'll be at the Saturday market. Stop by and say hi!

Skipper

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Scenes from a market

Couldn't make it down to the market Saturday? Here's what you missed........

What's in your truck?

This is what our truck & trailer look like on Friday nights. By the time many of you get to the market, much of this is gone or re-arranged onto tables. There is about 300 dozen ears of corn on the truck---believe me, it will go fast!

See everyone in the morning!