In This Week’s Share
- braising mix
- collards, kale, chard – bunched together
- kale tops
- cucumbers
- carrots
- basil
- sage
- tomatoes
packed together in a bag
- baby carrots
- salad turnips
- radishes
- beets
- cipollini onions
packed together in a small bag:
- tomatillos
- gherkins and/or ground cherries
- jalapeño pepper and/or cayenne pepper
Every other week half share members: this week is an “A” week.
Farm News
It’s the height of the summer. Whether you’re working or playing, it seems that August is a busy month for everyone. Here on the farm we’re planting for fall and trying to stay on top of weeds, pests and disease, but we’re also bringing in our biggest harvests of the year. Not all of the produce makes it past quality control here – tomatoes crack in the rain, cucumbers can be misshapen, beets and turnips can be undersized or scabbed, herbs can be damaged by insects. After we pack up your bags with the cream of the crop we’re left with an assortment of ugly but tasty vegetables. Quite honestly, after a long day on the farm we’d like to just compost them. But we know how much we’ll miss those summer flavors when the first frosts come so despite the already busy schedule, it’s time to preserve. We pickle, puree, dehydrate, freeze, ferment… any means possible to salvage unmarketable produce and save it for the long cold winter. The Hudson Valley Seed Library has a great post on preserving that gives an overview of the many easy ways to save your veggies and herbs.
Recipes
You can’t beat chips and fresh salsa. Just rough chop your tomatoes, tomatillos and ground cherries, mince the jalapeno and onion, add some garlic, cilantro, a squeeze of lime and a pinch of salt. Done. Throw in chopped gherkins or cucumbers, or sliced radishes or turnips if you wanna get crazy. Or try any number of salsa recipes out there: fire roasted salsa; Rick Bayless’s late summer salsa mexicana; chunky tomatillo salsa.
Some other good uses for your share this week: roasted tomatoes and cipollini onions, coconut milk braised greens, chard and white bean stew, braised green tacos, basil sage pesto.
