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It may be September, but things ain’t slowin’ down on the farm. Despite getting quite cooler since, Thursday was a steamer and we had our work cut out for us, especially since Chris, a lovely fellow I worked with this summer, had to go back to school. He’s a high school music teacher, which is like, so cool. And he’s in this popular local band with his sister. You should check ‘em out.

It’s always fun seeing the list of what’s what for the day. There was plenty to reap, and I love how it changes slightly each week, as the season progresses.

One of my favorite things to harvest recently has been peppers. I don’t even really like peppers much, but these jewel-toned beauties are so fun to gather. The colors are just so dang vivid, it’s crazy.

The box was so plentiful, it was a little difficult to get the produce arranged and get the boxes closed. That’s because of the watermelon, I s’pose. We harvested both cantaloupe and watermelon, which can be heavy suckers. We pulled the tractor out into the field, and loaded up the trailer with these beauties. It was the great melon toss - from field to person to person to trailer.

Tami’s workin’ it …

(Forget about getting the cantaloupe and the bag of huge, luscious tomatoes in the box. Those were addendums. See, I told you there was a lot of food.)

There were just a few XXL watermelon that Joey kindly let us have one of. (Job perks, ya know.) Let’s just say that my concerns about not being able to get through two watermelon in a timely fashion have been unwarranted.

This week’s bounty: raspberries, beets, cantaloupe, watermelon, green beans, sungold tomatoes, red tomatoes, red Carmen peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, sweet onions (red and white), basil, and sweet corn (from a neighboring farm).

There is a ton of red in our refrigerator. With me not being crazy about peppers, and my husband not being crazy about tomatoes, it could pose a problem. But never fear; we both like salsa! Here is Joey’s salsa recipe and as soon as I finish this post, I’m hightailing it to the kitchen to make several batches to freeze.

Joey’s salsa
3 c chopped tomatoes
4 hot peppers (chopped & seeded)
3/4 c chopped onions  
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 cloves minced garlic 
1/2 c vinegar
1/2 c ground pepper
juice of one lemon
cilantro (optional)

Cook for 1/2 to one hour to thicken. Keep in refrigerator up to two weeks or process in hot water bath for 15 minutes. Makes 2 pints.

This week’s country soundtrack is courtesy of The Backwoods Barbie. Oh Dolly, I love ya, but why did you have to go and mess your face up like that?