Dear Farm Community,

PHEWWWWWW it sure did heat up fast, didn’t it? Last week’s temps in the mid-90’s gave us our first taste of the true summer slog that lasts months and months. The soupy, sticky, sweaty, sunny, humid Georgia heat that tests us mind body and soul and leaves us in a fever dream. Summer is the most challenging season on the farm, and one that seems to last way longer than any other. We’re chugging our water, drinking our electrolytes, and lingering a little longer in the walk-in cooler from time to time…..

But this time of year brings more than a blistering sun ~ it’s a time for planting, a time for harvesting, and (quite regrettably), a time to keep up with all these goshdang weeds. We’re getting a taste of all of the above!

Sweet potato slips landed in the ground last week. For those of you unfamiliar with growing sweet potatoes ~ they are not grown from seeds or whole tubers buried in the ground, but rather from rooted sections of vine that, when planted, will then root out, grow a whole tangle of vines and leaves, and develop tubers underground for harvest later in the year. We spent half a day planting out a big ol’ field of sweet potato slips, which looks like one person laying the slip on the ground and another coming behind with a very advanced tool (a wood stick) and poking them into the ground. The heat brought out the sillies in us as we muttered under our breaths “I’d like to see AI take MY JOB!!!” and scooted along the beds and poked the slips into the ground. The end result: a whole field of future sweet potatoes and some very pooped farmers (see main image above).

Last week also saw some other action on the farm: fall chrysanthemums have been planted out! All of the plants this year were propagated from our favorite heirloom varieties from last year. We’re talking Kelvin Mandarin, Purple Light, Prom King, Evan’s Dream, and more. All the fancy, breathtaking varieties that looked so gorgeous in last fall’s bouquets :-)

We saved the strongest, healthiest plants from last year’s crop, which became our “mother plants.” We cared for them all winter, then rooted cuttings from them, which are now this year’s chrysanthemum babies. Now that they’re in the ground, it’s a slow process of growing, weeding, and upkeep until their harvest in the fall. They’re the last “bang” of the year, and their harvest in many ways represents another year in the books. But it all starts now, right in the peak of our season!

In flowerland, we’re also seeing some incredible blooms - the Dahlia field continues to amaze us with an earlt flush, and we’re harvesting incredible stems of Lisianthus. After some trouble with these flowers last year, we’re happy that the changes we made in our crop plan have proved worthwhile. I mean check it out!!!!

This week in your CSA’s you’re reaping the benefits of a booming bumper crop of cucumbers!! So we’ve decided to share a TON of recipes to help you get the most of cucumber mania !!!!!!!!!!

a little adult bevy for the world cup: cucumber gimlet
a little all ages fancy bevy: cool as a cucumber mocktail
love the spicy: spicy asian cucumber salad
hate the spicy: creamy cucumber salad
love the cheesy: cucumber caprese salad
love the easy: 4-ingredient cucumber salad
snacky perfection: cucumber sandwiches
time for picnic?: cucumber olive lentil salad
a summer soup: cold cucumber soup
you bought the tahini, now you have to use it: cucumber hummus
healthy snack: just eat it like a banana :-)
getting creative now: cucumber sushi boats
cucumber dessert?!?! cucumber-lime bars
ANOTHER dessert?!! white chocolate mousse with cucumber granita

We hope you enjoy cooling down with a refreshing cucumber dish this week. We declared Saturday “CUCUMBER DAY” at the farmers market, but we’ll extend it to “CUCUMBER WEEK” so nobody misses out ;-) Celebrate accordingly!

Cool like cucumbers,
Diamond Hill Farmers

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