Thursday, August 26, 2010

Week 12: In this Week's Share

More TOMATOES- as long as warm, sunny weather prevails, we will keep harvesting luscious heirloom tomatoes. Some cherry tomatoes will show up in shares, but mostly slicers. If you're interested in canning, please inquire about paste/roma toms for preserving.

Peppers OR Eggplant- again, these are trickling in, so you'll see one or the other. You may see Nadia (classic dark purple Italian eggplant), Beatrice (lighter, rounder fuschia eggplant), or Rosa Bianca(heirloom pink and white eggplant). The peppers come from various varieties of bells- some that mature to red, others that mature to orange or yellow. (Did you know that green peppers are unripe fruit? Funny that so many people like them...)

Garlic! another fat bulb for salsa, roasting, or keeping vampires at bay

Onions- sweet Ailsa Craig or Bianca- both excellent raw, as they are extra juicy and sweet, not excellent keepers, but they'll be fine for a few weeks if you need to store them.

Cilantro! Are you getting the sense that it's a SALSA share this week? A great time to use up any extra peaches you may have laying around....

HOT peppers: either Jalapeno, Hot paper Lantern (similar to Habanero but more elongated), Czech black (blackish red outside, red inside), or Limon (lime green, maturing to schoolbus yellow, a delicious citrusy heat-packed pepper)

Potatoes! Either Caribe (purple skin, white flesh) or Red Gold (red skin, gold flesh)

Beets- the last of the early beet planting- these are mostly small beets that we finally gave up on waiting to size up- perfect for pickling (the smaller ones), boiling, or roasting

Baby Beet Greens (optional extra)- the thinnings from the new beet planting- use any way you'd use spinach. My favorite thing is to lightly steam or saute them with sweet onions, and serve with balsamic vinegar and goat cheese.

Cucumbers-these are finally tapering off (the first generation- the second is still on the upswing). Try finely chopped in salsa! If you're interested in pickling cukes for preserving, let me know.

Summer squash- this week you may see Costata Romanesca (ridged Italinan zucchini), Zephyr (yellow crookneck with a green butt- looks like an elongated Easter egg dipped half into green dye, patty pan (the "spaceship" squash), regular green or golden zucchini, "eightball" zucchini (small green ball-shaped zukes) or possibly things we've forgotten we planted!
That's it for this week= enjoy, and see you at market! cheers, Michelle

Friday, August 20, 2010

Week 11: In this week's share

They're here! the very first Birch Point Tomatoes of 2010! You'll see Sungold cherry tomatoes (the ridiculously sweet orange cherry toms), Fargo yellow pear tomatoes, or the first ripe heirloom slicers (most likely Cherokee purple, Rose de Berne, "Penny's Yellow," or Valencia- some of the earliest to ripen). There will be more each week; this is just the beginning. Enjoy as is, or sliced with salt, olive oil, basil and fresh mozzarella....

Scallions are back! These mid-season green onions are a harbinger of the autumn lurking right around the corner (just barely being held at bay by the onslaught of ripening tomatoes and peppers!).

Basil- to make another batch of pesto or enjoy with your tomatoes

Hakurei Turnips OR Radishes- we can't get enough of these- and they keep giving. You may see small turnips; we're coming to the end of this particular batch, but they are so tasty you can toss whole turnips into salad when they're bite-sized. And don't forget to steam or saute the greens and enjoy with vinegar or hot sauce! Radishes can be enjoyed fresh with salt, OR roasted whole with other root veggies- cooking mellows out the bite and lends sweetness to the spice.

Carrots- we're also getting to the end of this early carrot planting, so you may see small and/or funky roots- the next generation is coming on in the field, but may be a couple weeks away from harvest. Next week: either beets OR baby beet thinnings from the new fall beet beds.

Kale or Chard- did you even notice we took a week off from these last week? We thought you would enjoy the break and take the opportunity to clean out the past week's veggies, but so many people asked for more, they're back this week! What's your
favorite, kale or chard?

Cucumbers are not quite over yet- the first planting has peaked and declined, but the second generation is starting to come on. This week, I took all the old, funny-looking, and left-over cukes, sent them through the cuisinart (slicing not processing), and made a salad with them, with thinly-sliced red cipollini onion, a big pinch of fresh mint, minced, lots of salt, pepper, dash each of cayenne, ground mustard, and sugar, and cider vinegar to mix it all together. We enjoyed it for lunch today, then I added even more sliced cukes, and it's in the fridge right now, getting more marinated by the moment,perhaps dreaming of feta cheese.....

Summer Squash- so who tried the fritters last week? Not I, not yet. I followed my chef friend Abra's lead yesterday and made a gratin-style dish of pan-fried thinly sliced zucchini, baked in a dish with lots of grated parmesan. How could that go wrong, really, even with zucchini? :)

Garlic- please do let us know if it's too much, not enough, if you'd rather have it as an optional extra, loads all at once, or just as is. It will keep for months if properly stored in a cool, dry space (i.e. not the refrigerator- way too humid, and probably not the kitchen- usually too warm AND moist)

BEANS- will be available as optional U-pick for on-farm shares only this week. The first planting is on its way out, but a few stragglers are still there for hard-core gleaners to gather. The next planting is starting to flower, but will still be one to two weeks before harvest.

There, perhaps I'm forgetting something.... if so it'll be a surprise for us both. Real newsletter on its way this weekend. :) buon appetito.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Week 10: In This Week's Share

Note: There IS a full-on newsletter on its way to you- it's in the hands of our editor, being made beautiful right now. Be sure to check "announcements" for how to order organic peaches if you're interested.

In This Week's Share:

The first Peppers or Eggplants of the season! Finally, the nightshades are starting to produce! You may receive one or the other this week, and more of both in upcoming weeks. Peppers: sweet green bells, sweet red “Carmen” horn-shaped sweet fryers, and/or jalapenos. Eggplants: either the classic dark purple “Nadia,” the bright magenta “Beatrice,” or the heirloom pink-white “Rosa Bianca” (yes, that’s redundant). Try eggplant on the grill, or fried and served with cheesy pasta, or classic eggplant Parmigiana.

The first Celery of the season- pungent, sweet, fresh. Did you know you can use the leaves in soup? They’re delicious in veggie soup, clear broth, or minestrone. Two strange things though: red stems (a variety called “Redventure” – yes, it’s supposed to be red!), and bunched stems, rather than the whole celery plant. Rather than behead the poor things, we decided to try harvesting individual stems for bunching and allow the plants to keep growing, to see if we could give you celery at least twice this season, instead of only once. We’d appreciate feedback about the keeping quality of loose stems.

Basil: week two! Regular Italian basil, lemon basil, or Thai basil this week. See “recipes” section for pesto recipe- if you’re like me, you’ll love using lemon basil in pesto; if not, perhaps you’ll love it for other reasons… Thai basil is fantastic in coconut curries, among other things! If you’re interested in a preserving share ($10 for a 1-lb bag) please let me know; we’ll do at least one round of preserving shares- a limited quantity on a first-come, first-served basis, to make sure there is still plenty for weekly shares. Some downy mildew has been spotted on the basil- it shows up as rusty-brown discoloration of the leaves, is completely harmless to humans eating it, but will soon kill affected plants if not promptly removed from the field. So some basil you receive may look a little suntanned, but is still tasty and makes perfect pesto.

Beets: Either classic red, or pink, candy-striped Chioggias, with greens. Hint: goat cheese and beets is never a bad idea, no matter how you slice it…. or crumble it. We’ve embarked on an alternating week carrot-beet cycle, so next week: carrots!

Cucumbers! They just won’t stop. Since we’re between lettuce seasons, we’ve been enjoying bodacious cucumber salads- with fresh herbs, onions, oil and vinegar. I’ve included a crazy-sounding, but delicious, recipe for “Cucumber Curry” in the recipes section. Three different varieties: Marketmore, a classic dark green slicer, Diva, a smooth-skinned sweet slicer, or Lemon Cukes- small, round, and yellow, still tastes like cucumber, not citrus. And the picklers are starting to come on- let us know ASAP if you’re interested in a preserving share in the next few weeks.

Summer squash/zucchini- I have to confess: I’ve hit a summer squash wall- both harvesting and eating them. We’ve fried them in butter, had zucchini cookies, steamed them, grilled them, eaten them in burritos, grated them on salad….. but not fritters, not yet- maybe that’s our hope for the rest of the summer squash season! See recipes section.

Cipollini Onions- an Italian open-pollinated onion, sweet and flavorful. The distinctive flattened shape is beautiful and saves time chopping! Cipollini means “little onion” in Italian; despite the name, some of these are huge. These are also an excellent storage onion, so we hope to hold some over for fall/winter.

Garlic- another fresh bulb. Please let us know if you like getting one bulb a week, a bulb every other week, a large quantity all at once, or a bulb or two trickled out at a time- we want to know what works best for you.
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Saturday, August 7, 2010

Week 9: In your share this week

Basil! Is finally here. Regular Italian basil, lemon basil, or Thai basil this week. See “recipes” section for pesto recipe- if you’re like me, you’ll love using lemon basil in pesto; if not, perhaps you’ll love it for other reasons…

Cabbage- the first of the season! Either the small Early Jersey Wakefield (conehead cabbage) or Des Vertus savoy (crinkly-leaf) cabbage. Enjoy cooked or raw. My current favorite slaw recipe is in the recipes section this week.

Potatoes- Caribe (purple skin, white flesh) or Red Gold (red skin, yellow flesh). Try hot buttered potatoes (roasted or boiled) with salt and generous quantities of fresh, chopped Italian parsley.

Beans! It is bean season, and you may see classic green beans, purple beans, "Tongue of Fire" streaked red-yellow beans, or Maxibel (a tiny French "haricot" type bean). Enjoy raw or lightly steamed. The purples will turn green if cooked- even a little. To maintain the purpleness, either steam lightly til just hot, or enjoy raw, perhaps in a marinated bean salad with cucumbers and onions? We may see a lull in beans after this week- the planting we’ve been picking from is slowing down already, and the next succession isn’t quite ready (but be prepared for LOTS of beans in about a month when the pole beans start coming on).

Kale OR Swiss Chard- As David Hambleton from Sisters Hill Farm in western NY once said, “No one can imagine a CSA without kale.” We take him at his word, but try to switch it up with other cooking greens once in a while, like chard, collards (later this fall; they’re so much better after the frost!), turnip and mustard greens, etc. See “recipes” section for my all-time favorite greens recipe.

Carrots- either Sugarsnax (long, skinny orange), Mokum (shorter, fatter orange), or Purple Haze (yes, purple carrots! Stay tuned for more purples and some whites along with the classic orange in the next wave of carrots). We’ve embarked on an alternating week carrot-beet cycle, so next week: beets!

Cucumbers! wow, are there ever cucumbers..... time for non-lettuce salads: pickled or fresh cukes with any combo of other veggies, a simple vinaigrette or bona fide marinade. Three different varieties: Marketmore, a classic dark green slicer, Diva, a smooth-skinned sweet slicer, or Lemon Cukes- small, round, and yellow, still tastes like cucumber, not citrus.

Summer squash/zucchini- time to get out the grill for summer veggies! Either pattypan (“spaceship”) squash, golden or green zucchini, “eightball” (round, dark green) zukes, or yellow crookneck squash. You'll see big zukes later for zucchini bread; for now enjoy the delicate, tender young ones.

Red and/or Sweet white onions- these sweet beauties are mild enough to enjoy raw, but of course can be cooked, grilled, or whatever you need them for.

Garlic- another fresh bulb. Please let us know if you like getting one bulb a week, a bulb every other week, a large quantity all at once, or a bulb or two trickled out at a time- we want to know what works best for you.

Baby Salad Mix – See “Note” about what makes this week’s salad so noteworthy.

Hakurei Turnips- these sweet, mild, tender white roots are about the best thing that’s ever come out of Japan (for me!). They are so mellow, we enjoy them raw, chopped, with or without salt (I recommend with), and in salads. You can of course roast or cook them, and they’re equally delicious that way (but why bother?). Like any turnips, the greens are excellent steamed or lightly sautéed, with a little hot chile oil and vinegar.

Herbs: either Italian flat-leaf parsley, cilantro, or dill.