What’s in the Box: Tomato (may include red, yellow, orange, black), green cabbage, leek, celery, fennel (bi-weekly only), summer squash, patty pan squash, mustard greens, cucumber, green filet beans, green or banana pepper, purple glazer garlic, sweet yellow onions, serrano chile pepper, flat Italian parsley, and swiss chard.
What’s going on at the farm: First tomatoes of the season are in for you all and I don’t think I need to make to many recommendations on those but here are a few of my favorite ways to enjoy them. Sliced thick with olive oil and balsamic and raw bits of garlic and cheese over the top. Fresh pico de gailo, Diced tomato, cucumber, and onion salad. Tomato sandwiches with mayo lettuce and maybe cheese and of course the famous BLT! Our green bean crop is looking good and we have been up to our ears picking beans over the last week. Our garlic is all curing and will be clipped this week and ready for distribution as cured garlic for the rest of the season and of course to be saved for our seed in the fall. As soon as garlic is clipped we will be ready to harvest all of our sweet onions for sun curing and we are planning on that for the coming weekend. Peppers are making their way into the mix this week both sweet and green cabbage makes it’s outro for the season this week. Still plenty of zucchini and cucumbers to enjoy and I love them both with the onions. Simply frying some zucchini and sweet onions makes a great side dish with a little of your favorite spices like cumin and garlic or some fresh parsley. I have heard some rave reviews of roasted cabbage being a hit both from employees and CSA members this last week and they could be roasted with squash and onion, fennel, celery, etc… to make a great roasted veggie dish. Another item I like slow roasting at a lower temp is the garlic. Simply wrap a little foil around it and peel most of the skin off and roast at 250 for 30-40 minutes and you can then spread the soft garlic straight out of the bulb in the form of a roasted garlic butter. Leeks are in this week too, and they make a great addition to any veggie mix with their creamy buttery and mild taste. Another new crop for us this season is mustard greens. These are a fancy mustard with a sweet and spicy flavor which is much less pronounced with a little dressing on them. These are wonderful for salad or can be flash sautéed to wilt them although the cook down very fast. Peppers are starting to come in too and this week will be a random selection for each share based on our availability. The last fennel of the year is going out to bi-weekly members this week and it may be the last appearance for swiss chard as well.
This week on the farm our work is intense as we still have all the normal work to do of harvesting, washing, weeding, deliveries, and much more but we also have some big tasks at hand including topping all of our garlic which was harvested (around 3,000 bulbs) and later on this week bringing in all of our sweet onions! which are around the 10,000 range. We are sure to keep busy with this and many more large harvests coming during this main part of the season. I cultivated lots of weeds this week around fall crops of brussel sprouts, winter squash and some more mowed areas relinquished from our cabbage and garlic crops. After the big harvests are done another push on planting is in the works for these newly opened areas and that task must be completed before fall onions are ready to come in from the field. Until next week. Enjoy the veggies and i’ll be seeing quite a few of you at the drop sites.