Hello CSA Members!
It was so hot out this last week but we were lucky we got some rain this at the end of it but we could use some more soon. I’m glad its not as dry as last season was so far. This week we harvested a lot of beets and other early summer crops for your shares and did a lot of tomato trimming and weeding. We also got all the peppers planted last week and we put in red and orange Italian peppers, orange, yellow, and red bell peppers, and many different hot peppers including a new heatless habanero, poblano, Shishito, and aji rico which are all nice and fairly mild chilies with good flavors. We will do more weeding and tomato trimming this week and i’m going to keep working on preparing the greenhouse site more now that berry season is over, that project got put aside for a little while. This last week we also had summer solstice which marks the longest days of the year! I hope everyone gets out and enjoys some outdoor activities this week after getting energized with some healthy veggies! The sunsets this time of year make for a great end to long days of work. Spring greens are finished now and summer salads can consist of heartier things like grated kohlrabi, shaved beets or fennel. This weekend I had some roasted beets, zucchini and fennel in the oven and it was so satisfying. Here’s the list of crops for this week.
Green Onion: Another round of scallions will be harvested this week to keep the onions flowing. These mild green onions are good raw or cooked.
Fennel: Our fennel is ginormous. It’s an italian vegetable and although the bulb is the best part the stalks and fronds are edible and can be used also. I like to thinly slice the bulb for coleslaw with kohlrabi, or roast it with beets, or saute it for pasta dishes. It can be roasted, grilled, sautéed, and eaten raw. The anise flavor is more prounounced raw but I love the fresh flavor of it.
Beets: Red beets are your classic beet with smaller greens and deep red roots. They do bleed unlike the chioggia beets and have smaller greens but this is the beet most of you are familiar with. The variety is Red Ace and they are a good tasting beet in both baby and large size. The greens can be minced into ribbons and sautéed with oil or butter for a healthy green or even juiced.
Purple Snow Peas. These purple snow peas are good raw or cooked! The pod is rich in antioxidants and the peas are sweet. This pea gets sweeter when cooked and the purple color won’t fade away like many purple veggies do when they are cooked.
Kohlrabi: We have purple, white, and green varieties of kohlrabi and everyone will get a random choice with larger boxes getting more bulbs. These “cabbage apple” are good raw or cooked, i like them grated as a slaw or sliced up for a fresh snack.
Swiss Chard: This saute green is great in place of any recipe you would use spinach in. I like it best in a frittata in the morning with some scrambled eggs but it would make a great spinach pie or calzone also.
Basil: Fresh basil tops good for stir fry, pasta dishes or whatever else you like.
Zucchini: We are picking them at a small size right now but they are tasty like that split in half and grilled or roasted is my favorite way to eat them.
Thats our list for this week folks, I hope everyone has a good week and is enjoying the official beginning of summer. -Kyle