Dear Farm Community,

Heavy Season harvests continue!! We’re pretty much working sun up ‘till 100-degree heat index harvesting tomatoes, summer squash, winter squash, cucumbers, more tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, okra, peppers, more tomatoes, and more squash. Our summer muscles are lookin’ pretty tuff by now, but all these harvests are still leaving us sore as can be. It’s truly non-stop harvesting and when we get a break in that, it’s off to some corner of the farm, scuffle-hoe in tow, to knock back the weeds as best we can.

But the harvests we’ve been reaping are just gorg. I mean LOOK AT THAT SQUASH HAUL! Are you surprised to see such a wintery crop in the heat of summer? This is something we’ve seen confuse a lot of people through the years - seeing “winter squash” in the summertime. Make no mistake! These delicious curcubits are happy to grow in the heat of the summer, alongside their summer squash, melon, cucumber, and gourd relatives. Their title “winter squash” comes from their ability to be stored into the wintertime, thanks to their thick skin that develops over their long growing season. We reckon you’ll cook up yours well before winter, but I’m sure it came in plenty handy to Georgians of times past before supermarkets were around.

In other news, the drought finally broke, we’ve been getting tons of rain, been busy flipping fields from our late spring plantings into fall crops, and that all gets two thumbs up from Carter:

The Morton Rd crew spent an afternoon last week trellising pole beans which turned out to be a special kind of upper body workout, with one person unrolling a huge upright role of trellising (you cant find a better pectoral program at any gym) and two others threading the metal poles overhead between the netting (hello biceps). If any of you are looking to cancel your crossfit membership, we know a place Despite the workout, we got it knocked out and our bean plants can now grow onward and upward! Check out our instagram for a fun time lapse vid that we unofficially titled “How to Trellis Your Pole Beans in 30 Seconds ~ Doctors Hate This One Trick!!!”

We’re workin’ hard to get y’all some more Know Your Farmer’s to enjoy ~ with all this work to do in the fields it’s hard to chase down farmers (or their publicists) to ask those hard hitting questions ;-) Stay tuned though, we’re cooking up some good stuff (and I’m getting faster 🚜 💨🏃‍♀️). They can’t run forever!!

We got some of those beautiful butternuts in your shares this week. While a butternut squash soup might not be exactly what you’re craving on a 100% humidity, 95-degree evening, there are plenty of ways to enjoy this sweet, versatile squash before the cool evenings roll through. This Butternut, Chickpea, Feta & Pickled Radish Salad feels especially suited to summer, pairing harissa-roasted squash and chickpeas with tangy pickled radishes, salty feta, fresh dill, and toasted pepitas. For something a little more indulgent, this Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Galette layers thin slices of squash over herbed goat cheese inside a flaky, rustic crust, while this Easy Butternut Squash Ravioli smartly uses wonton wrappers to make a surprisingly approachable pasta filled with squash, mascarpone, and Parmesan and finished in garlic-sage butter. And perhaps for one of these inevitable summer thunderstorms, save this recipe for Quinoa with Squash, Prunes & Pomegranate, a warmly spiced, sweet-and-savory bowl brightened with lemon, mint, and juicy pomegranate seeds. How delicious!

You’ll also be getting sweet potato greens this week ~ more on them and how amazing they are in another newsletter, but if you’re not sure what to do with them, or any other item in your share, you can head to our recipe page for info & inspo 💖

Happy Eating!
Diamond Hill Farmers

eat with the seasons 🌱

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