Farm updates, Ag Day Farmers' Market and CSA Week 14!

We've got a big weekend coming up for Concord farms and farmers with the Food Farm and Garden Fair! This Saturday, September 8th, 10am - 2pm we'll once again be participating in the annual Ag Day Farmers' Market on Main Street in Concord Center. This producer-only market features Concord farms and the food, flowers and plants we grow right here in town! There will also be music, games, breakfast treats, ice cream, and an interactive display from the Concord Museum about Concord's agrarian past. We'll have a booth at the market selling our veggies and we'll have a tally sheet at the market so if you're a Barrett's Bucks member you can do your shopping there! Meanwhile, back at the farm both the store and CSA will still be open regular hours Saturday 9am-3pm.

On Sunday, September 9th, 10am - 11am, as part of the Food, Farm and Garden Fair weekend, we will be hosting a Meet the Machines tour at the farm. We'll demo a piece of tractor equipment and talk about how we use our equipment to get everything done! There will also be time for questions and for kids to explore the equipment with parental supervision. For a full schedule of farm tours, visit https://www.ccfoodcollaborative.org/farm-tours.

This weekend at the market and at the tour, you'll also be able to pick up a farm passport book. Visit Concord farm stands September 9th-22nd, get your passport book stamped, and submit it for a chance to win $50 in farm bucks to spend at your participating farm stand of choice in Concord. 

We'll be busy this week not only prepping for the market, but also harvesting more winter squash, thinning and weeding carrots, irrigating some fall crops, prepping to plant our fall-planted strawberries, breaking new ground at the Corey Meadow and putting together our brochure for the 2019 season!

This week in the CSA:

• Leeks - A flavorful veggie in the allium family (along with garlic, onions and scallions). Use the white part and pale green part for most dishes. Leek tops can be used to make vegetable stock (you can freeze them to use later if you don't feel like making soup stock in 90 degree weather!). Transitional.
• Garlic
• Slicing Tomatoes - red, orange or pink.
• Heirloom tomatoes
• Eggplant
• Green peppers
• Colored peppers - Carmens, which are red frying peppers, are pretty abundant right now, but some of the bell pepper varieties are picking up in productivity too! All of the peppers we put in the CSA distribution area are sweet peppers. Hot peppers are in the PYO field!
• Summer Squash - Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional.
• Spaghetti Squash - Transitional.
• Beets
• Kale - this week we'll have Toscano kale, also known as "dinosaur kale" because it looks a little like the texture of reptile skin! It's a flat variety and thus really great for making kale chips.
• Baby Bok Choi
• Arugula - no lettuce or lettuce mix in the CSA this week, but arugula and Yukina make a really great salad!
• Yukina Savoy - milder flavor than arugula. Can be eaten raw in a salad or you can cook it like you would spinach.

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Sunflowers
• Cherry tomatoes
• Husk cherries
• Tomatillos
• Hot peppers - the fresno and ancho peppers are now open in addition to jalapenos and serranos.
• Herbs - cilantro, dill, basil, thyme, mint, oregano, sage.

In the farm store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as salanova, head lettuce, and bulk paste tomatoes for making sauce. We'll also have organic raspberries from Silferleaf Farm in Concord (just down the road from us!) corn from Verrill, honey from Double B honey (produced by bees right here on the property!), and eggs from Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds. 

PYO Flowers:

You don't have to be a Flower CSA member to pick  - just talk to a shopkeeper about purchasing a bouquet a la carte. Flowers in bloom right now include zinnias, calendula, amaranth, orlaya, Sweet Annie, bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, gomphrena, ammi, torch, and more.

Here are two ways to cook your spaghetti squash!

Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Leeks

• 1 cooked spaghetti squash, halved, seeds removed
• 1 medium leek, sliced thinly (white and pale green part)
• 1 large garlic clove, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tomatoes, chopped (4 cups)
• 1⁄4 cup basil
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1⁄4 cup grated parmesan
• 2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled for topping (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Trim the ends from the squash and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and pulp and discard. Use a deep baking pan and fill with about an inch of water. Place the squash cut side down in the water. Bake for about 30 mins or until the squash is tender and can be easily pierced with a knife. Let cool.

Sauté leek and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, salt and pepper, and basil. Simmer together about 5 minutes more.

Shred the spaghetti squash flesh with a fork, keeping it inside the shell. Toss with butter. Spoon mixture on top of shredded squash, top with parmesan and bacon.

Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Mushrooms and Leeks

Cathy Roma | whatshouldimakefor.com

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp extra virigin olive oil divided
• 1 large spaghetti squash about 2 1/2 lbs
• 8 oz mixed mushrooms oyster, cremini, shiitake, sliced into 1 inch pieces
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 large leeks white and pale green parts only, sliced thinly into half moons and rinsed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 parmesan cheese + for garnish
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp fresh thyme minced
• Kosher salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a sheet tray with nonstick aluminum foil.

2. Trim the ends from the squash and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and pulp and discard. Drizzle with one tablespoon olive oil and place cut side down on the tray.

3. Roast for about 30 mins or until the squash is tender and can be easily pierced with a knife.

4. Cool slightly and use a fork to shred the squash into spaghetti strands. Set aside.

5. On a separate sheet tray lined with nonstick aluminum foil, toss the mushrooms with the remaining olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt.

6. Roast for about 15 mins or until the mushrooms are browned and a little crispy.

7. While the squash and mushrooms are roasting, heat the butter in a large saute pan until melted.

8. Add the leeks and cook over medium/high heat until golden and tender. Add the garlic and saute for 2 more mins.

9. Add the wine and cook for 2 mins. Add the squash, parmesan cheese, lemon zest and thyme and toss together. Season to taste with kosher salt and pepper.

10. To serve, top the spaghetti squash with the roasted mushrooms and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Farm updates and CSA week 13

We are in the thick of summer tomatoes and heat these days but the start of the winter squash harvest makes it feel like fall is just around the corner! The kickoff for fall for us each year is the annual Ag Day Farmers Market! This year it will take place on September 8th 10am-2pm on Main Street in Concord Center. Stop by and say hello to us and our fellow Concord farmers! We will be there selling vegetables and flowers, and in addition there will be kids activities and music. We hear that Concord farmer Bill Kenney might be coming by with his green bean picking machine so we can all check it out! 

In the meantime, we are busy cultivating our fall brassicas and lettuce plantings, clipping and binning up winter squash as it ripens, and continuing to weed the carrots. Right now we are experiencing a break in the carrot harvest with the end of the spring carrots and a delayed harvest for fall (our first couple of plantings got scorched by the midsummer heat and then washed out in the rainstorms) but we are continuing to enjoy a bountiful tomato harvest, just brought in a great crop of spaghetti squash, and are excited to be distributing the first of the cured garlic harvest this week!

This week in the CSA:

• Spaghetti squash - Cut in half and bake. To serve, use a fork to scrape out the "spaghetti" inside and top with your favorite sauce! These are ripe when the outside is bright yellow. 
• Garlic - This garlic has been cured so it can be kept outside the fridge. Store in a cool dark place.
• Kale - Our fall crop is now ready!
• Yukina savoy - A tasty salad green. It can also be lightly cooked. 
• Salanova Lettuce Mix - a farmfavorite is back for the fall!
• Colored sweet peppers 
• Green and purple bell peppers
• Slicing tomatoes - Mountain Merit (red), Damsel (pink) and Chef's Choice Orange (orange of course!).
• Heirloom tomatoes - Pruden's Purple, Striped German, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green and Carbon. These have been sprayed with organic copper to prevent late blight, so be sure to wash them before eating.
• Fresh onions - Transitional.
• Eggplant
• Summer squash - Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional.

CSA Pick-your-own

• Cherry tomatoes - all are ripe. Also the cocktail size tomatoes (Mountain Magic and Wapsipinicon Peach) are ripe.
• Husk cherries
• Hot peppers - jalapeño and serrano.
• Cilantro, basil, sage, mint, oregano or thyme.

In the farm store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as bulk paste tomatoes for making sauce. We'll also have organic raspberries from Silferleaf Farm in Concord (just down the road from us!) corn from Verrill, honey from Double B honey (produced by bees right here on the property!), and eggs from Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds. 

PYO Flowers:

You don't have to be a Flower CSA member to pick  - just talk to a shopkeeper about purchasing a bouquet a la carte. Flowers in bloom right now include zinnias, calendula, amaranth, orlaya, Sweet Annie, bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, gomphrena, ammi, torch, and more.

 

Quick Fresh Tomato Sauce

DAVID TANIS

• YIELD About 2 1/2 cups
• TIME 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 5 pounds tomatoes
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 garlic clove, halved
• 1 basil sprig
• 1 bay leaf

PREPARATION

1. Cut tomatoes in half horizontally. Squeeze out the seeds and discard, if you wish. Press the cut side of tomato against the large holes of a box grater and grate tomato flesh into a bowl. Discard skins. You should have about 4 cups.
2. Put tomato pulp in a low wide saucepan over high heat. Add salt, olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, basil and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a brisk simmer.
3. Reduce the sauce by almost half, stirring occasionally, to produce about 2 1/2 cups medium-thick sauce, 10 to 15 minutes. Taste and adjust salt. It will keep up to 5 days in the refrigerator or may be frozen.

Salsa Fresca

MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN

• YIELD 2 cups
• TIME 10 minutes

• ¼ small white or red onion, minced
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1 pound fresh, ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 to 3 jalapeño or serrano chiles, to taste, minced (and seeded, if you would like a milder salsa)
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, more to taste
• 1 to 3 teaspoons fresh lime juice(optional)
•  Salt to tast

PREPARATION

1. Place minced onion in a bowl and cover with cold water. Add vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes or longer. Drain and rinse with cold water.
2. In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients and stir in onions. (If your tomatoes are full of flavor, you won’t need lime juice.) Ideally, let stand at room temperature for 15 to 30 minutes before eating so that flavors will blend and ripen.

Farm updates and CSA Week 12

The cooler weather forecast for this week is very welcome after what has been a particularly hot and humid summer. It's not only a pleasant time weather-wise, but vegetable-wise too, with tomatoes in abundance and some fall crops on the horizon. There is one aspect of this time of year that we don't like: schools start up again, meaning we have to say goodbye to our employees who are teachers and college students. Molly and Dave had their last days this past week, and soon we will say goodbye to Emma as well. Both Jacob and Rebecca will soon be cutting back hours as they return to school and teaching, but we are grateful that we will still get to see them on the farm (albeit a little less regularly) through the fall. We will miss the spark they all bring to conversations in the fields, as well as the immense amount of work they help us get done!

School departures mean that the rest of the crew will have plenty to keep us busy in spite of the fact that there is very little left to plant and weeding pressure is diminishing. Harvesting will take up a lot of our time - not only summer crops like tomatoes, melons, zucchini and cucumbers, but also fall storage crops like onions and winter squash. We harvested all of our shallots and half of our storage onions in the past week and half. They are now curing in our greenhouse and we are looking forward to harvesting the rest of the onions, as well as spaghetti squash and pumpkins this week! There are also still fall carrots, beets and brassicas to be weeded, garlic and strawberries to be planted, plastic mulch and drip tape to be pulled, new ground to be broken for next season, cover crops to be seeded and hoop houses to be built. Fortunately, our Assistant Growers Janel, Katherine and Zach are still here to help us accomplish all that! We are so lucky to have such a great crew - all these things would be physically (and psychologically!) impossible on our own.

This week in the CSA:

• Colored sweet peppers - Mostly Carmen (a sweet red frying pepper, also known as a "bull's horn" type due to it's pointy shape) and Flavorburst (yellow bell pepper). Colored peppers are slow to ripen in our climate. We've picked many of them this week while they are still partly green (if you wait until they turn fully colored they unfortunately often have pepper maggot damage and rotten spots).
• Green and purple bell peppers
• Slicing tomatoes - Mountain Merit (red), Damsel (pink) and Chef's Choice Orange (orange of course!).
• Heirloom tomatoes - Pruden's Purple, Striped German, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green and Carbon. These have been sprayed with organic copper to prevent late blight, so be sure to wash them before eating.
• Eggplant
• Watermelon - Starlight (striped skin) and Blacktail Mountain (solid dark green with a yellow spot on the skin). Both varieties have red flesh and seeds.
• Summer squash - Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional.
• Cucumbers - slicing and pickling. Transitional.
• Fresh onions - We are now cutting the tops off, but you should still refrigerate these onions as they are uncured. Transitional.
• Potatoes - Carola (yellow skin and flesh). Transitional
• Beets
• Chard
• Arugula

CSA Pick-your-own

• Cherry tomatoes - all are ripe. Also the cocktail size tomatoes (Mountain Magic and Wapsipinicon Peach) are ripe.
• Husk cherries
• Edamame - steam them, shell them and season them with a little salt for a delicious snack.
• Basil
• Cilantro, sage, mint, oregano or thyme.

In the farm store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as bulk paste tomatoes for making sauce. We'll also still have corn from Verrill, honey from Double B honey (produced by bees right here on the property!), and eggs from Pete and Jen. 

PYO Flowers:

You don't have to be a Flower CSA member to pick  - just talk to a shopkeeper about purchasing a bouquet a la carte. Flowers in bloom right now include zinnias, snapdragons bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, gomphrena, orlaya, calendula, ammi and more.

Tomato and Squash Gratin

by Sara Kate Gillingham, from thekitchn.com Jul 20, 2015

Serves 4

• 5 to 6 medium yellow squash, thinly sliced lengthwise
• 3 to 4 large tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil
• 15 to 20 whole basil leaves
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Place one layer of sliced squash in the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish. Top with a layer of sliced tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and a few basil leaves. Generously drizzle olive oil over everything and sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top. Repeat in the same order until you run out of vegetables. The top layer should be tomatoes.

Add a final toss of Parmesan and a generous coating of breadcrumbs and more olive oil. Bake until everything is soft, bubbly and brown on top (about 30 to 40 minutes). Serve as a side dish with whatever you’re grilling or with a bean salad or pasta dish for a complete meal.

Zucchini Grilled Cheese

from smittenkitchen.com

SERVINGS: MAKES 4 SANDWICHES
TIME: 45 MINUTES

You can use a mix of any cheeses — although a couple that melt well is ideal for sandwich adherence — you like with zucchini, I’ve suggested three here. All gruyere (2 cups) works well too.

• 1 pound (about 2 large) zucchini or other summer squash, trimmed
• 1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea or table salt, plus more if needed
• 1 cup (3 ounces or 85 grams) coarsely grated gruyere cheese
• 3/4 cup (2 1/2 ounces or 70 grams) coarsely grated fontina or provolone cheese
• 1/4 cup (20 grams) finely grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 8 thin slices bread of your choice, I used a country-style white bread
• A couple tablespoons softened butter or olive oil for brushing bread

Prepare zucchini: Use a food processor with a grater attachment or the large holes of a box grater to grate the zucchini. In a large colander, toss together the zucchini and salt. Let stand for 20 to 30 minutes, until the zucchini has wilted and begun to release liquid. Drain the zucchini in a colander and then use your hands to squeeze out as much water as possible, a fistful at a time. Place wrung-out zucchini on paper towels to drain further.

Make filling and assemble sandwiches: Mix zucchini with grated cheese, a lot of freshly ground black pepper, and more salt if needed. 

Brush or spread the bread sides that will form the outsides of the sandwiches with olive oil or softened butter. Spread zucchini-cheese on insides and close the sandwiches. 

Cook the sandwiches: Place sandwiches on a large griddle or frying pan over low-medium heat. I like to cook grilled cheese slowly to give the centers a chance to really melt before the outsides get too brown. When the undersides are a deep golden brown, flip the sandwiches and cook until the color underneath matches the lid. Cut sandwiches in half and dig in. Perhaps some pickled vegetable sandwich slaw on the side?

Farm Updates and CSA Week 11

It's hard to believe we are halfway through the Main Season CSA! There are signs of a turning point; the summer harvest is in full swing with many crops like summer squash and zucchini being picked every day to keep up with their growth and we have finished up most of our planting for fall so the only boxes left unchecked on our field schedule are the last of the spinach, greens and lettuce plantings! The big greenhouse is emptying out just in time for us to bring in our onion harvest for curing. While the onions we are currently enjoying in the farm store and CSA are fresh onions that must be kept in the fridge and used within a week or two, the storage onions we will be harvesting will be kept in the greenhouse with a shade cloth on it to dry out the skin, preserving them for fall and winter storage without the need for refrigeration. Our least favorite sign of a changing season is the departure of summer staff that begins at the end of this week with Molly leaving to head back to college in Pennsylvania. It has been fantastic to have her back for her second season at the farm!

This week in the CSA:

• Watermelon! The variety we are picking now is called Starlight. We pick them ripe so they are ready to eat. 
• Red Ace Beets - The greens are very nice on this planting so cut off and store separately for later cooking with some olive oil and garlic. 
• Heirloom tomatoes 
• Slicing tomatoes
• Eggplant
• Potatoes - Transitional.
• Fresh onions - Transitional.
• Summer squash - Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional.
• Cucumbers - Transitional.
• Peppers - green and purple.
• Carrots
• Lettuce
• Arugula or Red Russian Kale
• Swiss chard

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Husk Cherries - These sweet fruit are hard to describe but worth a taste! They are ripe when the husk is brown and has fallen to the ground so to pick look under the plants. 
• Cherry tomatoes - All varieties are ready now, including Sungold (orange - a farm favorite, incredibly flavorful), Cherry Bomb (red), Jasper (red), Yellow Mini (yellow and pink striped), Sunpeach (pink), Mountain Magic (red cocktail size), and Grape (red), and Lucky Tiger (green with pink stripes).
• Edamame
• Dragon's Tongue Beans (pale yellow flat pods with purple speckles).
• Basil 
• Tomatillos - We grow a purple variety that is great for salsa!

In the farm store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available. We'll also still have corn from Verrill, honey from Double B honey (produced by bees right here on the property!), and eggs from Pete and Jen. 

PYO Flowers:

You don't have to be a Flower CSA member to pick  - just talk to a shopkeeper about purchasing a bouquet a la carte. Flowers in bloom right now include zinnias, snapdragons bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, gomphrena, ammi and more.

Surprise Tatin

From “Plenty,” by Yotam Ottolenghi

printed on the Denver Post

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups cherry tomatoes
• 2  tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 pound new potatoes (skins on)
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 oregano sprigs
• 5 ounces aged goat cheese, sliced
• 1 puff pastry sheet, rolled thin

Directions

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Halve the tomatoes and place them skin-side down on a baking sheet. Drizzle over some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in oven to dry for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook potatoes in boiling salted water for 25 minutes. Drain and let cool. Trim off a bit of the top and bottom of each potato, then cut into 1-inch-thick discs.

Saute the onion with the oil and some salt for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Once you’ve prepared all the vegetables, brush a 9-inch cake pan with oil and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper. In a small pan cook the sugar and butter over high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, to get a semi-dark caramel. Pour the caramel carefully into the cake pan and tilt it to spread the caramel evenly over the bottom. Pick the oregano leaves, tear and scatter onto the caramel.

Lay the potato slices close together, cut-side down, on the bottom of the pan. Gently press onion and tomatoes into the gaps and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Spread the slices of goat cheese evenly over the potatoes. Cut a puff pastry disc that is 1-inch larger in diameter than the pan. Lay the pastry lid over the tart filling and gently tuck the edges down around the potatoes inside the pan. (At this stage you can chill the tart for up to 24 hours.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake the tart for 25 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 and continue baking for 15 minutes, or until pastry is thoroughly cooked. Remove from oven and let settle for 2 minutes only. Hold an inverted plate firmly on top of the pan and carefully but briskly turn them over together, then lift off the pan. Serve hot or warm.

Farm updates and CSA Week 10

Many summer crops are taking off right now - cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes especially seemed to have a burst of ripening at the end of last week. The predicted heat this week should translate to some nice tomato harvests, and will also hopefully help our watermelon and colored peppers along so that we can be harvesting them soon as well. The hot and dry conditions are also good weed killing weather - we'll have our cultivating tractors and stirrup hoes out this week for sure! Another plus to this weather is that it creates unfavorable conditions for the spread of many plant diseases. Of course, hot weather isn't always great for every plant. Extreme heat can cause the blossoms to drop off of eggplant, which leads to gaps in the harvest later on. We think this is what's going on with our eggplant harvest right now - hot conditions several weeks ago caused blossoms to drop, hence not much fruit right now. The plants look healthy, though, so the prognosis is good for future harvests! Another downside to the heat is that it creates tough working conditions for the crew. However, we've got some lighter duty afternoon tasks and frequent water (and maybe popsicle breaks) planned.

This week in the CSA:

• Heirloom tomatoes - The varieties we grow are Pruden's Purple (pink and sweet), Striped German (yellow and pink, juicy and sweet), Cherokee Purple (brownish with green shoulders, slightly more acidic flavor), Cherokee Green (yellowish green, slightly tart) and Carbon (similar to Cherokee Purple) We have been spraying the heirlooms regularly with copper (an organic fungicide) to prevent late blight. Please be sure to wash your tomatoes before eating.
• Slicing tomatoes - Defiant (red), Damsel (pink) and Chef's Choice (orange). The Defiant and Damsel are naturally late blight resistant, so we do not spray them. We do however, spray the Chef's Choice, so those should be washed.
• Potatoes - We're now harvesting Carola, a buttery flavored potato with golden skin and flesh. Transitional.
• Fresh onions - Transitional.
• Summer squash - Transitional.
• Zucchini - Transitional.
• Cucumbers - Transitional.
• Peppers - green and purple.
• Carrots
• Lettuce
• Arugula
• Swiss chard

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Cherry tomatoes - so many varieties are ready now, including Sungold (orange - a farm favorite, incredibly flavorful), Cherry Bomb (red), Jasper (red), Yellow Mini (yellow and pink striped), Sunpeach (pink), Mountain Magic (red cocktail size), and Grape (red).
• Beans - we still have green beans as well as some Dragon's Tongue (pale yellow flat pods with purple speckles).
• Basil - we've got 2 plantings that are going strong. It's a good week to make pesto!

In the farm store:

We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as a small amount of eggplant, husk cherries and colored peppers. We'll also still have corn from Verrill, honey from Double B honey (produced by bees right here on the property!), and eggs from Pete and Jen. 

PYO Flowers:

You don't have to be a Flower CSA member to pick  - just talk to a shopkeeper about purchasing a bouquet a la carte. Flowers in bloom right now include zinnias, snapdragons bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, gomphrena, ammi and more.

 

Blistered Beans With Tomato-Almond Pesto

The tomato pesto is delicious, but if you are trying to minimize time in the kitchen during this hot week, we also recommend sautéing your beans, for a couple of minutes, slicing a pint of cherry tomatoes in half, and tossing them in the pan for a minute or two with the green beans!

By Chris Morocco, Bon AppétitNovember 2015

• 2 pints cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 cup unsalted, roasted almonds
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
• 3 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 2 pounds green or Dragon’s Tongue beans, trimmed

Preheat oven to 450°F. Roast tomatoes on a rimmed baking sheet, turning once, until blistered and lightly charred, 15-20 minutes. Let cool slightly. Finely chop almonds in a food processor. Add garlic, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, cayenne, and half of tomatoes; pulse to a coarse pesto consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat 1 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add half of beans; cook, undisturbed, until beginning to blister, about 2 minutes. Toss and continue to cook, tossing occasionally, until tender, 7–9 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Spread beans out on a platter; let cool. Repeat with remaining vegetable oil and beans. Toss beans with pesto; season with salt and pepper if needed. Add remaining tomatoes and transfer to a platter.

ZUCCHINI GRIDDLECAKES (and variation with corn)

By Adam Ried, Boston Globe August 19, 2007

• 2 1/2 pounds small to medium zucchini
• 1 medium onion
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 large eggs, beaten lightly
• 1/2 cup milk or half-and-half
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper, or to taste
• 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons flour
• Corn, vegetable, or canola oil (for cooking)

Using the shredding disk in a food processor or the large holes on a box grater, shred or grate the zucchini (you should have about 8 cups) and the onion. Place the vegetables in a colander, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt, and mix. Place the colander over a bowl and let stand 30 minutes until mixture exudes about 1 cup of liquid. Rinse under cold water. Spread a clean dish towel on a work surface, place the mixture in the center, gather the corners of the towel, and twist to wring out as much liquid as possible. Transfer to a large bowl, and break up clumps with a wooden spoon.Stir parsley, eggs, milk or half-and-half, baking powder, 2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper into the zucchini and blend. Add the flour, and, using a rubber spatula, fold it into the zucchini mixture.

Set the oven rack to the center position and heat to 250 degrees. In a large, nonstick skillet, heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. Measure 2 or 3 tablespoons zucchini batter and pour into the pan to form a disk 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. Repeat until the pan is filled, leaving about 1 inch between cakes. Cook cakes without moving (adjusting heat if pan becomes too hot) until the bottoms are golden brown, about 3 1/2 minutes. Using a spatula, flip the cakes and cook until the second side is golden brown, about 3 1/2 minutes more. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels and set in the warm oven. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm.

VARIATION:

Thyme and corn Remove kernels from 2 ears of corn, about 2 cups. Follow the Zucchini Griddlecakes recipe using 4 zucchini instead of 8. Add the corn and 3/4 teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme to the squeezed zucchini along with the parsley, eggs, milk or half-and-half, baking powder, 2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper