What to Do With Your Share---Week 18

It was a wonderful weekend at the farm as we celebrated our tenth season. Yeah! A splendid time was had by all as the pictures below can attest.

It was great to host the CSA on a day that did not include manual labor. The food seemed extra tasty  as we all dined in the midway.

Mark Flynn entertaining and feeding the crowd.

Hangin' in the back yard.

 On Saturday our grill was hot and so I roasted a batch of hot peppers. The large green peppers are an Anaheim type and are good for roasting and peeling. The yellow and red Hungarian hot wax are good grilled, but aren't good for peeling as they are thin.

Hot, hot peppers.

In the Share - Week 17

TOMATOES (F/P)  700+ pounds just today.  The red hybrids are at their peak.

CHERRY TOMATOES (F/P) 

ROMA TOMATOES  (F)  Tom's post covers some good hints for cooking with whole tomatoes.  Romas are great for sauce-making.

SWEET PEPPERS (F/P)  The hot weather ripened a truckload of these today.

YELLOW ONIONS (F/P)

ARUGULA (F/P)  The second cutting which isn't as perfect as the first, but still very edible.

EGGPLANT (F) 

SALSA OR OKRA (F)

HOT PEPPERS AND BASIL  (F/P) The hot peppers are Anaheim or banana types.  Either are pretty mild especially if you remove the seeds. 

GREENS (F) The first picking of the kale and collards will be small bunches.

NEXT WEEK:  More tomatoes, peppers, basil and eggplant.  Lettuce, carrots and Hakurei turnips return.

FARM REPORT

okra harvest

The onslaught of summer fruit continues.  We are picking okra above our heads, tomatoes that have sprawled up their posts and down to the ground, and pepper plants that have take over the paths.  We have more tomatoes than we had time to count, so we may just send them in and say, "take what you want."

Besides the harvest, the big story this week on the farm is the Fair Share Farm CSA 10th Anniversary Party taking place this Sunday.  We hope you all got the invitation.  Folks can arrive as early as 2 pm.  Program at 4 pm, food at 5 pm.  BYO place setting, dish to share and lawn chair and/or blanket.  Bring instruments, lawn games, participate in a treasure hunt, take a hay ride and stick around for a campfire.  Hope to see you all here!

praying mantis

What to Do With Your Share---Week 17

It's been a series of hot, dry spells that have defined the summer of 2013. It has not rained much since the summer solstice, and Sunday was a real oven. We are looking forward to a cooler forecast for the tenth anniversary party.

Tomatoes continue to ripen and fill the shares. We hope you have been able to see them go to use. One easy way to use them is to "beef up" a store bought sauce. You can't have too many tomatoes in your tomato sauce. It is nice to get the skin off if you are going to cook them for awhile, otherwise you get curls of skin in the sauce.

Pasta tomatoes are the best for sauce

You can blanch your tomatoes in the same boiling water you are going to use to make pasta. Dunk your tomatoes in the water for 1 to 1-1/2 minutes and then cool in cold water. The skins will peel off when you core the tomato. Chop them, heat them in a pan, and then add the tomato sauce. Meanwhile bring the pot of water back to a boil and cook the pasta. A great way to stretch that can of sauce.

Narrow quarters in the high tunnel

What to Do With Your Share---Week 16

The food we are producing at the farm right now is an unprecedented amount. A field crew of 5 is being consumed by the harvest. A good problem to have indeed, but one that can affect the coming season's bounty as we juggle summer and fall tasks.



Fennel, watermelon radish, kale and pole beans

The fall harvest seems to have begun already with the picking of the first radishes and turnip greens. At the same time we are picking the heat loving okra pods. While I don't have a recipe that combines the three, there are many delicious ways to enjoy them. A radish sandwich is always a nice snack. The okra is best when cooked with a dry heat, so that it does not release as much of its slipperiness. The wok-fried okra recipe from 3 years ago is a good example of this.

As far as the turnip greens go, I went to the bookcase and checked out Leafy Greens by Mark Bittman. His Turnip Greens in Mustard Sauce was a perfect accompaniment to some Parker Farm's pork chops tonite. We added some balsamic and olive oil at the end to smooth out some of the bitterness of the greens.



August sunrise

In the Share - Week 16

SWEET PEPPERS (F/P) Ripe sweet peppers are a real treat.  The fruit stays green for months before finally turning to their brilliant shades of yellow and red in late summer.  Finally the wait is over and we have loads of them coming in.  We also have a good selection of 2nds with small blemishes on the bulk list for those of you who would like to freeze some.

TOMATOES (F/P)  More heirlooms and hybrids of all shades and sizes

CARROTS (F/P)  More orange ones this week.

GREEN BEANS (F/P)  The bush beans are done, but the Rattlesnake pole beans continue on.

SALSA PACK OR OKRA (F/P)  We picked 30 lbs. of okra today from some very healthy plants.  Expect to see it in the shares for the next month. 

TURNIP GREENS (F)  Normally we would thin the turnips when they were much younger than they are now.  The plus side of the delay is that they are at a very tasty size for sharing.  Tom's working on a recipe as I write this so check with his post.

RADISHES (F)  More pink ones.  The greens are edible as I was reminded recently.  A light cooking removes the prickles.

CHERRY TOMATOES (F/P)  A quart for the full shares, a pint for the partials.

GARLIC & BASIL (F/P)  A bit of both:  one sprig of basil and one garlic head for each share.

NEXT WEEK:  More tomatoes, peppers, beans, salsa packs, okra and cherry tomatoes.  Maybe lettuce.  Onions and potatoes if we can find the time.

FARM REPORT:

The 1.2 inches of rain on Sunday brought relief to the heat-stressed plants and people.  When you have more tomatoes to pick than hours in the day, it is a lot nicer to be in this pleasant weather than last week's oven.

The baking heat was appreciated by the okra plants.  They are reaching for the sky and are loaded with fruit.  Speaking of loads of fruit,  a bumper crop of tomatoes is a lot of work but has a great payoff.  What other occupation do you get to eat your prized accomplishments?  I need to stop writing so that I can do just that...  happy eating!

What to Do With Your Share---Week 15

Green Beans
The green beans are growing well this summer and we are happy to be in the middle of such a productive crop. It is so productive that we are not able to pick all the beds in a CSA morning. U-pick beans are available, but that too is falling short. But it's ok, as whatever doesn't get harvested and eaten is fed instead to the soil. It will still be a source of nutrition to you.

It is only a few weeks during the year that we have roma bean available. Fresh picked and steamed, they make many a nice, simple dish. You can spice up  the dish below with some hot peppers, it's a perfect use for them.

Roma Beans and Red Peppers
1 lb roma beans, stem snapped off
1 medium red pepper, seeded and chopped into small dice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1-1/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
grated cheese

 

Steam the beans for 3 minutes or until tender

Drain water and add all ingredient to pot, stir and cover
Let stand for 5 minutes
Serve with topping of cheese and green garnish

Eggplant
One last eggplant recipe for this year. Such a recipe was something that I was not aware of...eggplant bacon. Member Nancy Ricklefs mentioned it while bean picking, so we tried it out. Our search led to a recipe at TheVeg.org. Pictures of our results are shown below.

It turns the eggplant into a type of jerky that goes well on a sandwich, or could be diced into "bacon bits." It is worth trying. There is a dehydrator and an oven method given in the recipe.



Marinated strips in the dehydrator on a mesh screen

Eggplant, tomato, basil sandwich

In the Share - Week 15

cantaloupe

GREEN BEANS (F/P)  Choices this week:  standard, Roma or Rattlesnake (purple-streaked pole bean).

TOMATOES (F/P)  Lots more tomatoes are coming to you this week.  Heirlooms, Amana Orange and Hungarian Heart, are especially lovely plus there are lots of red hybrids.

RADISHES (F/P)  Tender, pink radishes for something different.

ARUGULA (F/P)  Bagged baby leaves from the first of our mid-summer plantings.

SWEET PEPPERS (F)  Ripe reds and yellows this week.

MELONS (F/P)  Full shares get the cantaloupes this time, partial shares get the watermelon.  There are 2 types of cantaloupe in the shares this week.  One we love and plan to grow more of, the other not so much.  If your cantaloupe lacks sweetness, consider making a Liquado.  Blend crushed ice, milk, honey and melon for a real treat.

CHERRY TOMATOES (F/P)  at least a pint for all.

SUMMER SQUASH (P)  Squash bugs have devastated the plants, so this is it.

OKRA OR SALSA PACK (F)  The okra is loving this hot weather.  Get it while it is at its peak.

NEXT WEEK:  More tomatoes, peppers, beans, okra and salsa packs.  We hope to have time to pack the carrots and onions that we have been meaning to get out but haven't had the time for.

FARM REPORT:  The late summer harvest has been particularly bountiful this year.  The tomatoes have continued their steady onslaught of fruits.  The peppers are loaded and ripening in increasing speed.  The melons have given us a respectable harvest, despite the heavy pest pressure usual for the Cucurbitae family.  And then there are the beans...  The farm crew of five is spending most of its time with the harvest and barely keeping up even with a full crew of CSA workers on Weds. and Sat. mornings. 

 

Saturday bean harvest

And we added some new items to the harvest list this week:  a taste of spice to go with the summer fruits.  We usually bunch the arugula, but we are experimenting with bagging it instead. The farm crew of five made the first run at it today.

arugula cut

You never know what you will find when you are elbow deep in the plants.  Tom found this beautiful monarch chrysalis in the bush beans.  You would think someone had come along with their bedazzler, but no they manufacture the gold accents themselves.

monarch chrysalis

 

Oh, and how could I forget the baby chicks!?  One-day-old Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks arrived in the mail Thursday morning.  All 50 are now settled in their brooding box in the upper barn.  In six months time if all goes well (right!?) they should start laying eggs. 

 

 

First moments at the farm