What’s in the Box:
Heirloom tomatoes, yellow sweet onion, red torpedo onion, garlic, eggplant, assorted sweet peppers, sunflower shoots, pea shoots, leeks, cayenne peppers, aji rico hot peppers, cantaloupe, and watermelon (bi-weekly-only)
What’s going on at the farm:
Way too much rain was the highlight of last week. Now we’ve got a lot of humidity and heat building up again. My greenhouse project is well under way as we got most of the logs cut and moved this week. I’m almost ready to start prying the roots out of the ground this week. On Wednesday the new structure comes and we will have the parts on hand to build! Its hard to keep energy up this time of year after working so hard all year long so slow and steady is my pace heading into the last quarter of the season. Melons and cantaloupes are in and tasting great! Our green beans, dragons tongue beans, and edamame and winter squash are loving the heat and precipitation too. Beans should be ready very soon. Here is this weeks rundown.
Cantaloupe: This fruit is a favorite of many, yours should have a nice yellow tint to it before you cut it open, and a light scent out of the stem end of the melon. No need to refrigerate it unless it has a crack or a has been cut open. I just let them ripen at home on my counter. Some of them will be very ripe and others slightly under so its up to you when to cut it.
Watermelon is here this week for bi-weekly members only since they missed out last week we will do our best to get everyone a watermelon. Most of them are orange glow heirloom melons which are orange with a white seed, but you may also receive seedless pink or yellow melons depending on what is ripe this week.
Torpedo onions are a summer red onion great for eating raw as they are not to sharp. I do believe they are good with everything! These store dry but won’t keep well after October.
Sweet yellow onions are in the box again this week too, a great staple for any dish this is likely the last week for these sweet onions. These store dry but won’t keep well after October.
Leeks are another mild onion coming to you this week, great in stir fries, or sautéed in butter with potatoes for some potato leek soup which can also be served cold!
Garlic is back again with flavor this week! It’s great for you and will hold until spring with no refrigeration at room temp.
Aji Rico chilies are one of our hot peppers this week, these have a tear drop shape and red color and they are very fruity with a small amount of heat. I would call these mild with great flavor and I really like them with tomatoes for fresh pico, or on tacos or nachos.
Cayenne is our other hot pepper this week and we have a lot of these pouring in right now, they are great for making red pepper flakes if you dry them slowly in the oven or a dehydrator, if you have one.
Sweet peppers are numerous right now too expect a lot of red, yellow, and maybe even some orange sweet peppers of different shapes and sizes in the mix. In general these are larger then the hot peppers so easy to tell them apart.
Sunflower shoots and pea shoots are back again and they make great salads together and great compliment to your other meals too.
eggplant. Just a few smaller fruits to go around now with these creamy and spongy summer fruits soak up anything you can spice or marinate them with. I like them best fried in olive oil for sandwiches, pasta, or ratatouille.
Tomatoes are still coming in pretty well too, a random blend will go in each box and although they are getting a bit smaller they do not lack in flavor!
Until next week then folks, happy Labor Day weekend and enjoy the veg!
-Farmer Kyle
