August Updates From Table Root Farm – August Heat brings hot peppers!
I’ll start this month’s update off with a quick story to make you laugh. As I made my way through the garden this morning, I was excited to discover that my peppers are ripening and as any gardener knows, popping a fresh piece of produce, straight from the vine into your mouth, is a special pleasure only available to those who are also willing to wade through spider webs, sweat profusely and lose oneself in the identification of bugs & fungus. Well, I had not grown tabasco peppers before and thoughtfully wondered how spicy they were…knowing better than to just eat one, I just ate a small one. Almost instantaneously, my mouth and lips were on fire, I was spitting the pepper into the tomatoes and cursing loudly enough that I’m hoping the squash beetles, vine borers and leaf footed bugs were scared off. I sit here now, eating a fresh cucumber with hummus while my lips continue to burn ever so slightly.
I have loaded the fall events calendar with my Meal Prep 101 series classes. These classes are two hours long and are offered during the day and the evening.
Aug. 8th 12-1 at Old Rucker Farm: Botanical Mocktails – Please register at https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/alpharetta/activity/search/detail/65826?onlineSiteId=0&from_original_cui=true
All other events are at Table Root Farm and registration is available at tablerootfarm.com/events-calendar
Aug 13 11-1 & 5:30-7:30: Meal Prep 101: Sauces, Dips & Dressings
Aug 20 11-1 & 5:30-7:30: Meal Prep 101: Grains & Beans
Aug 26 7-8p: Nutritional Talk – Feeding kids nutrient dense foods
Aug 27 11-1 & 5:30-7:30: Meal Prep 101: Meats
Sept 10 11-1 & 5:30-7:30: Meal Prep 101: Veggies and Extras
Sept 18 11-1 & 5:30-7:30: Roasting Veggies
Sept 26 11-1 & 5:30-7:30: Fall Salads
Sept 30 7-8: Nutritional Talk – Topic TBD
Oct 8 11-1 & 5:30-7:30: Fall Salads
Oct 17 6-8: Hosting a Quick & Casual Happy Hour; Cocktails, Mocktails & Apps
Oct 24 11-1 & 5:30-7:30: Soups
Oct. 28 7-8 Nutritional Talk- Topic TBD
If you have a topic you would like me to cover for a Nutritional Talk, please email me!
In other exciting news, yesterday we received our permit to rent the farmhouse at Table Root Farm for Farm Stays. I am planning to have it available for rent by the beginning of September. It will be intermittently available as I still plan to host classes here. I am very much looking forward to creating a Locavore Farm Stay experience that would be a great weekend getaway for those looking to escape the city or place for locals to have their friends and family stay. I will be adding a page to my website where updates can be found going forward. Otherwise, I hope to have all details available in the September newsletter.
In gardening news, the tomatoes & cucumbers are on their way out, having fought valiantly against extreme heat, followed by daily downpours, caterpillars of all varieties and ultimately, it seems the blight will do the tomatoes in, while the vine borers have finally found the cucumbers. Although I must admit, after the cucumber trellis collapsed twice and continued to produce countless cucumbers daily, I’m about ready to let the vine borers have them as we have eaten and pickled more cucumbers this summer than I can count! Many of the squash vine are looking quite ragged, but I think they will stay strong while the honeynut, butternut and sugar dumpling squash ripen. My second planting of string beans is about to start producing and the okra has just started to go nuts. The peppers are also just getting started and I’ve got my fingers crossed that they make it through this next week or two of extreme heat. I look forward to putting in the next plantings of squashes, beets, carrots, radishes, lettuces, & kale as soon as our daily highs are below 90.
I hope everyone is getting out to enjoy the summer sunshine and that those of you in the south are ready for the start of school next week! I know our family is struggling with the idea that summer is over, but it has been a fabulous summer full of memory making moments and returning to some semblance of routine will have benefits to all of us.