What’s in the Box: Pea shoots, sweet peppers, spaghetti squash, yellow storage onion, red storage onion, dragons tongue romano beans, porcelain garlic, green pepper, quajillo chili peppers, chocolate mint, and edamame.
What’s going on at the farm: Its been a scorcher this week and i’m guessing the last blast of hot air for the summer. In fact it seems like one of the few of them after our cool August, September is going out with temps in the 80’s and 90’s. We hired on two new workers this week Kevin and Emily. I told everyone about Kevin last week but Emily had her first day last Thursday and we are excited to have her on the farm. She has experience working on several other organic vegetable farms and she is also interested in seed production and preservation. We weeded our late carrots this week and the greenhouse which is pumping out a nice looking crop of arugula and turnips at the moment. Watering has been an issue this week with the temps so high I find myself misting pea shoots a lot. We started more batches of those this week and ordered 200 lbs of pea seeds to produce shoots with the potting soil we got in last week. That should last us almost a year at the rate we’ve been producing them but we will see. Our crop selection looks tasty this week and will include.
Sweet peppers are pouring in with this heat so we will be including a mix of all the types we can! Enjoy these while they last because when the heat is gone they will ripen much slower. Stuffed peppers are a great way to use up a lot of these and if you find you have excess you can chop them and freeze them to put in chili or soup in the winter.
Our spaghetti squash is fully ripened and cured with a nice deep yellow now and they make an amazing substitute for noodles in your favorite pasta dish.
Garlic i’m sure your all familiar with, remember it does not need refrigeration just room temp is great. One of my favorite things to do with it is roast whole bulbs in the oven on low for 40 minutes or so and then spread the cloves like/with butter on bread.
Storage onions are a regular thing in our shares and so here they are again. The base of cooking in my book, the yellow onions are getting down there so some smaller ones this week. One nice thing about having some smaller onions around is you can use them when you just need a little onion without having to save a huge cut onion in the fridge.
Dragons tongue beans are back this week and they stay crisp when cooked and remember to give them a little air flow in the fridge. They are very good with the garlic too!
Pea shoots are back again and these lovely little sprouts will make great salads with some of your peppers, and other veggies!
Guajillo chile peppers are our hot pepper this week and one of my favorites. They can be dried and ground into a delicious powder but I really like these fresh. The heat is mild and the flavor complex with these. I like to mince them up on the little pizzas we make at home or on taco’s but they are good on everything if you ask me and the heat is tolerable to even the most sensitive taste buds. since they are a drying pepper they do not need to be refrigerated.
Green peppers are here again this week and they are good in so many dishes its hard not to find a use for these.
Edamame, these soy bean pods are meant to be eaten steamed and they are so sweet and tasty. Cook them in a steamer basket or in boiling water following these simple steps. This is our first crop of edamame ever so let us know how you like them. I for one am all for growing more next year all ready.
- Bring water and salt to a boil. Add edamame and cook for 5 minutes until edamame are tender and easily release from their pod.
- Drain thoroughly and toss generously with a coarse finishing salt like kosher salt or fleur de sel. Serve warm or cold.
Thanks for being a part of the farm folks. Two weeks remain after this one. Week #19 which is our last week for bi-weekly shares, and of course our final delivery for full season members the week after. Enjoy the food all!