I was under the weather on Thursday, and happily, the Farm Gal let me do my weekly pick up on Saturday. Here’s the bounty from week 18 of my Sport Hill Farm CSA:

• 1 bag of red potatoes
• 1 bunch of baby beets and with tops
• 1 acorn squash
• 3 bell peppers
• 1 bag of lettuce mix (Boston Bibb and Mizuna)
• 1 watermelon
• 1 bag of green beans
• 2 tomatoes

The last watermelon. Sigh.

Quite a respectable yield, considering the weather we’ve been having. The remaining weeks likely will reflect the impact that excessive rain, along with very little sun or wind can have on plants. Already Patti tells us the broccoli was a casualty. This is the fun of a CSA—chancing it along with the farmer. You never know what’s going to happen. Even with all the damage that weather’s done to our food stores and crops, we’ve fared better here than some of those in other parts of the country. All in all, we’ve done pretty well for ourselves this year.

Further on in my Saturday forage I scored a Maitake mushroom! Local mushrooms are pretty scarce in these parts, with the majority of growers dealing directly with restaurants. But I was lucky enough to be shopping at Holbrook Farm while their mycologist was paying a call!

The perfect dinner to celebrate the Maitakes:

• Maitake from Holbrook Farm
• pan-seared beef tenderloin from Stuarts Family Farm
• kale, sauteed with garlic, both from Sport Hill Farm
• purple potatoes from Riverbank Farm

Yummm…