CSA week 7

Over the course of our seven years here, I’ve been slowly adjusting the way I think about our grass; lawn, pasture, and field. When we first moved in we bought a DR push string trimmer, thinking it was the most versatile grass mowing tool we could get on our budget. Kyle worked landscaping full time during the weekdays, and I worked nights, so the lawn care fell to me and I took it very seriously. I think part of my lawn mowing obsession came from fear of it getting too long for the string mower to handle, so I mowed the whole “lawn” pretty much weekly, which took about four hours and left me covered in grass clippings and sweat. We used the DR trimmer to mow the field and pasture too, although at less frequent intervals. At one point mid-summer the mower wouldn’t start so I drove it to a shop in Windham, ME. The shop owners were horrified to learn the machine was practically brand new, they said it looked at least 10 years old. We got the mower back a few weeks later and I rushed out that evening to get control back of our relatively unruly lawn. In the three weeks it hadn’t been mowed, a colony of ground hornets built a nest in one section and I got about 8 stings on each ankle when I pushed over it. I abandoned the nest area but kept mowing until about 30 minutes later, I felt hot and itchy all over and realized I had broken out in hives over my entire body. I stopped mowing and called the health center and was directed to take Benadryl immediately.

I believe we went another year with the DR trimmer until it failed to start again, and I was too embarrassed to take it back to the shop in the condition it was in. By talking about my lawn mowing saga at the restaurant I was working at, the groundskeeper felt bad for me and offered his old riding mower. He dropped it off here later that week, and I was off mowing again except much more efficiently, and with a lot less sweat. The “new'“ old mower and I still had hard times, it was VERY old and was a hydrostatic transmission. Once in gear it went forward unless you manually took it out with a hand lever on the right side below the seat. I never quite mastered taking it out of gear quickly, and I often bumped into things at full speed like our raspberry trellis posts, the sides of the barn, rocks, and our apple trees. On one of my bumps into an apple tree, the mower came to a screeching halt and the engine fell off and out of the front of the mower. Come to find out, the bolts holding it on its block had rusted through, and my head on collisions had been slowly working the screws loose. The engine got put back on, and there were many other similar repairs to make since it was so old. Perhaps the biggest safety flaw in this old mower, was it was missing most of the guard around the blades and a large chuck of frame that protected the engine area from debris. I was mowing the front yard late that fall doing big circular laps. Under the large ash tree were quite a bit of fallen leaves, and really I knew I should have been raking not mowing, but I kept mowing. As I made the laps up and under the tree, the leaves would build up in the front of the mower and get stuffed under the engine. The mower would start to smoke, but as I kept driving, the leaves would drop out behind me and I could complete the circles. On the 6th or 7th lap like that, the leaves didn’t spill out, and the front of the mower burst spontaneously into flame. I screamed or swore or did some combination of the two, jumped off and ran desperately for the garden hose. With the water on, I ran towards the mower still on fire and was jerked to a stop as the hose ran out of length just short. With the sprayer, the jet reached and I was able to hose down the front, and the flames went out. I hosed the ground and leaves for good measure and then pushed the mower back to the stone driveway. I was grateful none of our neighbors drove by during this event, and when Kyle came home several hours later he asked me what smelled like smoke.

My mowing drama continued for another couple years although the fire was the climax. I did get it stuck in the ditch by the side of the road and had to pry it out with our steel rock bar, but otherwise the mower and I were relatively unscathed.

We have now upgraded to a newer riding mower that doesn’t go unless you have your foot on “forward”, and all sorts of other slightly irritating but probably necessary safety features. Our mowing schedule has reduced to loosely once every 2-3 weeks. With this more relaxed approach the clover is able to jump up between cuttings and the bees bumble about on this staple food source. We acquired a brush hog for our tractor and just mowed our field last week for the first and last time this year. I enjoyed the wild look the field took on, filling with weeds, tall grass, and wild flowers.

• Sweet peppers -Corn got moved to next week, wasn’t ready!!!

• Chioggia Beets

• Red/ or Green Cabbage

• Tomatillos

• Red Round Tomatoes

• Cucumbers

• Summer Squash/Zucchini

• Mini Romaine

Green Salsa

Ingredients

-8 ounces (5 to 6 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed

-Fresh hot green chiles, to taste (roughly 2 serranos or 1 jalapeno), stemmed

-5 or 6 sprigs fresh cilantro (thick stems removed), roughly chopped

- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion

-Salt

Roughly chop the tomatillos and the chilies. In a blender or food processor, combine the tomatillos, chiles, cilantro and 1/4 cup water. Process to a coarse puree, then scrape into a serving dish. Rinse the onion under cold water, then shake to remove excess moisture. Stir into the salsa and season with salt, usually a generous 1/4 teaspoon.

CHIOGGIA BEET SALAD

1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice

1/4 cup hazelnut or olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

6 small Chioggia beets, peeled and sliced very thin

1/2 cup crumbled ricotta salata cheese

1/4 cup torn mint leaves

1/2 cup roughly chopped toasted hazelnuts

Whisk together lemon juice, oil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add beets and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle with remaining ingredients.