What’s in the Box: Cherry tomato mix, shallots, slicing tomatoes, red cabbage, sweet yellow onion, red torpedo onion, leeks, celery, red bell pepper, tempest garlic, dragons tongue beans, and broccoli raab.
What’s going on at the farm: We have our annual farm dinner this weekend and get to spend some time on the farm with members, workers, and friends enjoying some great food and company! Please join us for this fantastic evening on the farm this Saturday at 4pm! We will plan on eating by 5pm. I will be sending out another e-mail with details by Wednesday but basically its 4-dusk for dinner and its a potluck so bring a dish to pass. We will have a bonfire afterwards and it would be appreciated if folks could RSVP with their expected party size. We are getting loads of cherry tomatoes and beans right now so that has been keeping us very busy and generous portions of them coming in shares this week! Shallots are a new for some this week as well and they store well without refrigeration and have a nice rich buttery flavor. This week will push us into the last quarter of the season. We will have plenty of onions, peppers, potatoes, lettuce and crispy roots coming for the end of summer into fall. We are well into clean up work at this point too cleaning up areas that used to be filled with crops and pulling up plastic film mulch beds and drip lines. Spinach of three types, lettuce, greens mix, and salad turnips were planted this week for late season cold crops. We finally finished topping all of our fall onions this week too and we have around 5,000 lbs of these and summer onions, and shallots, stored up for fall! I have gotten a few e-mails about when the end of the season is and so will drop this reminder for all too. Our regular season is 21 weeks and this is week #15 so we have six weeks for full season members left. Bi-weekly members are on the 8th of 10 deliveries this week so they have two weeks left, week 17 and 19 of the season. Week 19 is the second week of October but I will remind in the newsletter as well. Our final week for full season members is the fourth week of October this year the 21st and 23rd respectively! Dragons tongue beans are an item I get regular questions about how to prepare them. They are very tender and crisp and the whole pod can be eaten, they can be used raw or are also very good steamed or my favorite sautéed with garlic, onion, or shallot! Broccoli raab is new this week too! It is sweet like broccoli but there is also a little mustard flavor to it. It gets a tiny floret when mature. It also is excellent just before maturity without the floret and can be used raw as a salad green or as a sautee green. We are also going to try and add concord grapes to the box this week, not sure if there will be enough to go around but we will do our best to make it happen. They are great fresh or as a sauce or jam. Some other new crops coming soon include daikon radish, arugula, white icicle radishes, spicy salad/braising greens, and potatoes. Enjoy the produce everyone!
