Hey there CSA members!
The tomatoes are pouring in now and so many perfect cherry tomatoes coming out of the high tunnel we can barely pick them as fast as they ripen now. Tomatoes are my absolute favorite crop and we spend a lot of hours maintaining them since they’re started in March. I think homegrown organic tomatoes don’t really get much better then these and hopefully these sweet fruits being one of the most hydrating veggies will help everyone stay energized in the summer heat. My favorite thing to do with them lately is to make caprese pizza on the grill! We are just starting to see some of the first peppers coming in but just a few so far. This last week we got some of the garlic in but we still have more to harvest. This coming week I have my organic inspection so taking lots of time for paperwork and things this week also for the yearly review. I spend over 3 thousand a year being certified organic and making sure to use the correct inputs for fertilizer, seed, and more and trace it all from seed to sale which is pretty time consuming but worth it in the long run to maintain organic status and work for what we believe in here. Thank you all for being a part of that and I hope you can taste the difference in the veggies compared to the grocer.
Cherry tomatoes: I think we have some amazing cherry tomatoes and they make great pico, or caprese salads, or roast them on a skewer on low on the grill. So many coming in that we are loading up large shares with double of these this week just like last week.
Heirloom tomatoes: These are so good for BLT’s or tomato sandwiches, or sliced thick on a plate with just some olive oil and balsamic and basil or cheese. They also make great sauce or panzanilla salad. We’ll distribute larger tomatoes to larger shares.
Purple Carrots: The carrots keep coming! enjoy these dark purple roots packed with nutrition, they also have a yellow core down the center.
Green Onion: These sweet green onions are great sliced thinly on anything.
Curly kale, Our curly kale is great for salad or cooking. When using it raw its best to massage the greens with some oil to tenderize it a bit for salad.
Pea Shoots: Our micro green of the week will be pea shoots this week! These sweet and tender greens are good on pretty much everything
Serrano Chile: just a little heat for some thai or mexican food perhaps? A little goes a ways with these fresh dark green chilies.
Garlic: More fresh garlic for your plates, it goes oh so well with the tomatoes for some pizza maybe?
Thats all our items for this week folks. Thanks for being part of the CSA and I hope you enjoyed the first half of the season and this first share of the second half….. We will keep working through the summer heat and sweat it out getting the vegetables harvested every day out here to keep a fresh supply coming for a delicious and nutritious rest of summer ahead of us. Thank you all again for supporting our efforts here at Roots Down!
-Kyle and crew
