Chocolate Pie. We return this week with chocolate pie for one last hooray before switching flavors. This pie is a refrigerated item and should be kept cold and served cold. Eats well as is, or top with a dollop of whipped cream, marshmallows, or even ice cream. I've been told the options are endless.

Red Haven Peaches This week's peaches are free-stone - the classic red haven variety.

Matt and his team at Eshleman Fruit Farm are picking for us every-other-day and we just received our shipment of fresh peaches.

Next week, Matt expects to have even more and we will begin selling them by the peck and crate for canning.

This week we embrace an American classic - Meatloaf.

Bundle includes: $32 (save $13 off retail)

Grassfed Ground Beef - 1#

Pasture Raised Ground Pork - 1#

Whole Wheat Bread - 1 loaf

Ketchup - 1 half pint

Bread and Butter Pickles - 1 pint

Pepper Butter - 1 half pint

Lettuce - 1 head bibb

Tomatoes - 2#

This bundle welcomes back the first of a fresh batch of bread and butter pickles that we just made last week. Yes, canning season has begun on the farm.

The ketchup and pepper butter are also both farm classics. The ketchup is low in sugar and derived from field ripe tomatoes. It's not a sugary concoction and fire engine red. It's a delicious preserve, balanced in natural tomato flavor and the acid of cider vinegar and the maltiness of Ohio sorghum. It's great on the sandwich, or as an ingredient/glaze on the loaf.

Pepper butter is dairy free. Yes, I know it's confusing. It's like apple butter - a preserve of cooked down produce. In this case, it's made from hot hungarian peppers, mustard, and vinegar. It's the best condiment we have, in my opinion. Tangy, slightly sweet, and mild heat.

Whole wheat bread. Slice it and toast it for a meatloaf sandwich, or cube it, dry it out, and grind for fresh bread crumbs to use in your meatloaf.

Here are some recipes from our website for inspiration:

This time of the year, farmers are looking to get a last crop in the ground. For the "main season" produce growers, transplants are in the greenhouse and ready to go outside.

I talked this morning with Joseph Miller at Morning Glory Organics in New Bedford, and he is planning on putting his final crop - zucchini - in the ground this Friday, July 29. Similarly, Eli at Weaver's Truck Patch in Fredericksburg is getting his last plantings of broccoli in the ground already!

Other growers I have spoken with recently are looking to the first week of August for fall plantings of beets, turnips, and rutabaga for winter storage. Cold hardy greens - like lettuce and spinach - can still be planted up into September.

This time of the year, the days are already getting shorter. Plants need not only water and heat, but also a certain number of hours of sunshine. The shorter days will dictate whether or not a crop matures.

Annual Forages for the Livestock. On my farm, I'm concerned about feeding the beef this fall and into the winter.

I rent some land from a neighbor, and a few years ago I passed on a 6 acre parcel when the rental price went up. It was a wetter piece of land and it didn't yield well (if you could get in). 2 years ago, another farmer attempted to plow it. He kind of got through it. So last spring he attempted to plant it, but couldn't get in the field. The weeds started to come fast. I didn't want to see it go to seed and spread to my farm, so I started brush hogging it monthly. Well, I beat down the weeds and quite a bit of grass grew back - rye and timothy - but nothing outstanding.

This summer has been very dry, and as I was rotating the beef from field to field, I was starting to get very concerned about running out of grass.

I talked to the other farmer and came up with an arrangement to graze off the field. In hindsight, the timing was perfect. I quickly put up fence and got water over there for the beef. It bought me 7 days of time, in which time the rain finally came. The grass began to green up again. (to the left, a photo of the beef on that pasture last week)

After I took the beef off that pasture, I started thinking about how the field could be more valuable in the future. (the plowed field to the right)

If I could get it established as permanent pasture, it would soak up some of the water and improve the soil. It would be a safer bet than trying to get in an annual crop like corn or beans (what the other farmer was trying).

Permanent pasture is best planted in September or October. I had recently read an interesting article about planting cool season annuals - like oats - as a forage crop instead of a grain crop. When planted at the right time, the plant will establish a strong stand, out compete the weeds, and yield a high quality (high in protein and sugar) forage that can be mowed for hay. This is in contrast to the oats that I had written about recently - those traditionally planted in the spring and harvested for the grain in July.

I did a little research, and settled on two experiments this fall (for two different fields).

Experiment #1: plant oats with intent to harvest at 55 to 60 days for wrapped hay

Experiment #2: plant brown-rib pearl millet (brown rib refers to hybrids with more easily digestible fibers)

Both experiments will be followed with a fall planting of permanent pasture.

Experiment #2 is on another field that currently has meat chickens on it. The chickens are schedule for harvest on August 2nd, which means I likely won't be able to get the crop planted until the week of August 9th. Although only 10 to 14 days later, that time is critical for the oats to mature and produce the feed quality I want. I decided to try another annual crop I've read about.

The millet is interesting to me too because it can be grazed off early - like at 30 days - and then it will regrow for a second "cutting." That is, assuming I keep the beef from eating it to the ground and some rain follows.

Millet is renowned for taking off in hot, dry conditions. Another more common option is sorghum sudangrass. But there is one important consideration for sorghum - if grazed when frost is likely, there is the chance of prussic acid poisonings. The frost makes the plant produce an acid that is poisonous to beef. Millet does not produce prussic acid.

So my goal on experiment #2 is to let the beef graze it once at a minimum, and hopefully (if weather conditions are right) graze it a second time into November.

As a reminder, when we publish the bag contents, the produce isn't harvested. Instead, the growers are estimating what is hanging on the plant, hoping it will ripen before you get your Fresh Fork share or that they can stare at a field and guesstimate how much is there.

Last week, we got shorted across the board, particularly on peaches and blueberries. The peach harvest was just starting; and sadly, the blueberry grower had the berries, just didn't have any help to pick them. Sadly, some of that fruit rotted on the vines or fed the birds.

When we get shorted, we try to substitute something of equal or greater value. For example, last week we rejected all the dill for the large bag - it was too mature and seedy. In place of the dill, we used heirloom cherry tomatoes - which cost $2 more per serving than dill.

When we ran low on peaches and blueberries, we switched to cherry tomatoes, then corn, then double tomatoes. It gets confusing to follow, but we try our hardest to make sure everyone gets a full bag.

This week's potentially tricky items - eggplant, cantaloupe, and green beans.

If you are missing an item, please double look for something extra or just let us know if you need a replacement.

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