CSA Week 10 and Farm Stand updates

After two straight difficult watermelon seasons, it looks like we finally have a decent crop! Disease pressure (anthracnose) appears to be reduced, perhaps in part because we threw out all old seed, sanitized our seed storage bins over the winter, took a break from cantaloupe (which appeared to be more disease-prone), and got lucky with weather the past couple of weeks. We’ve definitely spotted some diseased plants in our melon planting, but so far it is less widespread than in the past two years.

We also tried out a new system for deterring crows from pecking open our watermelon: a scarecrow and old CDs strung above the planting (the flashing movement of the CDs blowing in the breeze is supposed to be a deterrent). It’s hard to say definitively if this system worked, or if the less diseased plants have created better cover for the melons, or if the crows have just moved on. Either way, we are very happy about it, as the old system involved stretching berry netting over the entire planting and crawling around underneath to harvest the watermelon. This year we only have coyote fencing in the way. This means we are able to drive a tractor with a bulk bin just outside the fence and toss melons into it, changing the watermelon harvest from a dreaded activity to a crew favorite. Sarah even got to use some of her volleyball skills to save an errant watermelon or two from landing on the ground!

While August is a time when we start enjoying classic summer veggies and fruit like tomatoes and watermelon, it is also a time when we begin to harvest some of our fall storage crops for curing. At the end of last week we pulled all of our shallots into the greenhouse and all of our spaghetti squash into the barn. Onions will probably be harvested later this week or next, and we’ll begin harvesting the rest of the winter squash by late August!

This week in the CSA:

• Watermelon - this variety is called Starlight. It has seeds, but the flavor is amazing! (We had researched and planned to trial a seedless variety this year, but we were notified late in the season the seedless variety we had purchased was not going to be available afterall, so we will try again next year!)

• Heirloom tomatoes - These tomatoes are odd looking but have the best flavor and are gorgeous when cut up into tomato salads. We grow Striped German and Pineapple (yellow with pink stripes), Cherokee Purple (purple with greenish shoulders), Cherokee Green (greenish yellow) and Pruden’s Purple (actually pink).

• Slicing Tomatoes - Big Beef (red), Bigdena (red), Chef’s Choice (orange) and Damsel (pink). We think the orange and pink tomatoes have the best flavor of the slicers!

• Peppers - green bells and purple “Islander” peppers

• Eggplant

• Potatoes

• Fresh Onions - both Ailsa Craig (white) and Red Long of Tropea (red). They should be stored in the refrigerator.

• Cucumbers - picklers are much more plentiful than slicers right now. They don’t have to be pickled - you can use them in place of slicers anytime. They sometimes have slightly thicker skin, but if you peel them they taste virtually the same!

• Zucchini and summer squash - the plantings we are currently picking from aren’t producing very well - hopefully the final planting will be a little more productive.

• Carrots

• Beets

• Cabbage

• Celery

• Swiss Chard

• Arugula or Yukina Savoy

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Edamame - Pick pods that have filled out. See the recipe below for a simple boiled or steamed preparation!

• Tomatillos or husk cherries - you’ll have a choice between either of these. Both have husks. Tomatillos should be picked when the fruit has filled out so much that the husk has split, they can be green or purple. Husk cherries should be picked when the husk is brown and papery, to eat remove the husk, the berry inside will be yellow. Husk cherries usually fall on the ground when they ripen, hence why they are sometimes called “ground cherries”!

• Cherry tomatoes - We have longer beds than usual this season (about 250' feet long), but those who walk to the back of the beds will be amply rewarded with very fast picking (it’ll probably take less time overall than if you try to hunt for tomatoes at the front of the beds)! We’re picking all varieties right now: Sungolds (orange), yellow mini (yellow), grape (red), cherry bomb (red), sunpeach (pink), Jasper (red), Bumblebee (yellow with pink stripes), Lucky Tiger (oblong and green with pink stripes), Black cherry (purplish brown), Mountain Magic (red “cocktail” size) and Wapsipinicon Peach (yellow cocktail size with fuzzy skins). You can also check signs out in the fields for guidance on the correct color for ripeness.

• Hot peppers - Jalapeños (green) and ancho poblanos (green, about 4” long).

• Dragon Tongue beans- Look under the foliage to find beans. Dragon tongue beans are white with purple spots and can be prepared like green beans. To pick, hold the plant just above the stem of the bean and gently pull the bean off.

• Herbs: parsley, dill, dill seeds, dill flowers, cilantro, coriander seeds, Italian basil, Thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. Many of the herb plants in the herb beds near the farm stand are still small. Please pick sprigs, leaving plenty of plant below to continue to grow. For sage, pick off only a couple of individual leaves, leaving at least 6 or 7 leaves per branch. For Italian basil, please pinch the tops only so that the plants will branch and grow bigger.
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, star flower, verbena, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, decorative basil, sunflowers (in the flower field this week), zinnias, and more. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

Watermelon Cucumber Mint Cooler

from honestcooking.com

• 4 cups of watermelon, de-seeded and chopped

• 2 cup of cucumber, skinned and sliced

• juice from ½ lime

• 1 large spring of fresh mint

• ½ cup of honey

• 2 cups of ice

• cucumber slices for garnish

Instructions

1. Puree the watermelon in blender.

2. Pour the fruit juice into large pitcher through mesh sieve.

3. Push fruit with wooden spatula as needed to remove all of the juice.

4. Repeat process with the cucumber.

5. Add in the lime juice and honey to pitcher.

6. Stir well.

7. Drop in the mint and ice.

8. Let sit in fridge over night.

9. Stir again.

10. Serve over more ice and a few slices of cucumber.

Edamame in the Shell

by Mark Bitman

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/12796-edamame-in-the-shell

Ingredients:

• Salt

• 1 pound fresh or frozen edamame in their pods

• Black pepper to taste

Preparation:

To boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it generously. Add the edamame, return to a boil and cook until bright green, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain. To microwave: Put the edamame in a microwave-safe dish with ¼ cup water and a pinch of salt, cover partly and microwave on high until bright green, 1 to 5 minutes, depending on your microwave power.

Sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and a little or a lot of black pepper. Toss and serve hot, warm or chilled with an empty bowl on the side for the pods.

CSA Week 9 and Farm Stand updates

We are in the thick of harvest season! This time of year we spend our days harvesting as fast as we can to keep up with ripening crops, trying to get them at just the right time for optimal size and quality. Any remaining time we have is spent weeding and irrigating the fall crops to keep them happy during hot summer days. After a very rainy spring and early summer we are now in a dry spell and hoping for rain. Our sandy soil drains out quickly and it becomes a full time job to set up irrigation on all our crops. Our transplanting is almost done for the year (with only lettuce, spinach and herbs left to go), and we have only a few crops left to seed directly in the field such as turnips, radishes, greens, and some late fall beets and carrots. With the end of veggie planting in sight we can start thinking about our other main planting project: cover crops! Lise diligently mows and disks in any areas where we are done harvesting vegetables to make way for the planting of cover crops so that we will be sure to have a nice stand before the winter to protect our soil. We will be ordering the seed this week and next thing you know we will be seeding field peas and triticale to prepare fields for next year!

This week in the CSA:

• Tomatoes - In addition to our high tunnel tomatoes are field tomatoes (pink damsel, one of our favorites!) are starting to ripen

• Peppers - green bells and purple “Islander” peppers

• Eggplant

• Red Potatoes

• Fresh Onions - both Ailsa Craig (white) and Red Long of Tropea (red). They should be stored in the refrigerator.

• Cucumbers - slicers and picklers

• Zucchini

• Summer Squash

• Carrots

• Beets

• Cabbage

• Kale

• Swiss Chard

• Arugula

• Celery

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Cherry tomatoes - Sungolds (orange), yellow mini (yellow), grape (red), cherry bomb (red), sunpeach (pink), and more are ripening. Check signs for guidance on the correct color for ripeness.

• Hot peppers - these got damaged by Colorado potato beetles, but there are still some nice jalapenos (green) and fresno chiles (red) out there.

• Green and Dragon Tongue beans- Look under the foliage to find beans. Dragon tongue beans are white with purple spots and can be prepared like green beans. To pick, hold the plant just above the stem of the bean and gently pull the bean off.

• Herbs: parsley, dill seeds, dill flowers, coriander seeds, thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. Many of the herb plants in the herb beds near the farm stand are still small. Please pick sprigs, leaving plenty of plant below to continue to grow. For sage, pick off only a couple of individual leaves, leaving at least 6 or 7 leaves per branch.
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, star flower, verbena, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, decorative basil, buttercream sunflowers (in the flower field this week), zinnias, and more. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as baby boy chow. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

Green Gazpacho

Adapted from “Plenty,” by Yotam Ottolenghi

• 2 celery sticks, roughly chopped

• 2 green peppers, seeded and roughly chopped

• 3 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped

• 1 mildly spicy chili (such as jalapeño), roughly chopped

• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 1 1/2 cups walnuts, lightly toasted

• 1/4 pound arugula or other tender green

• 1/2 cup basil leaves

• 1/4 cup parsley

• 1 cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling

• 1/4 cup sherry vinegar

• 2 teaspoons salt

• Freshly ground white pepper

• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt

• 2 cups water

• Ice cubes

Combine the celery, green peppers, cucumbers, chili, garlic, sugar, walnuts, spinach, basil, parsley, olive oil, sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and 1 cup water in blender and puree until smooth. Check seasonings, and add more water if you feel it needs it. Let chill in refrigerator. To serve, divide into six bowls, and garnish each with a dollop of Greek yogurt, two ice cubes and a drizzle of olive oil.

Cucumber Yogurt Raita Salad

by Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 2 long, English-style cucumbers (2 pounds total)

• 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, diced

• 1/2 medium red onion, chopped small

Dressing:

• 1 cup (227 grams) plain, full-fat yogurt

• 1 garlic clove, peeled

• 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled

• 1/4 teaspoon granulated sugar

• Juice of half a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

• 1 tablespoon minced mild or hot fresh chile (I used a jalapeno)

• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, black or yellow mustard seeds or nigella seeds (I used black mustard seeds)

• 2 tablespoons chopped mint leaves, divided

• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves, divided

• Kosher salt to taste

Make the dressing by placing yogurt in a medium bowl and using a very fine grater to grate the garlic and ginger over it. Stir in sugar, lemon, chile, seeds, half of the mint and cilantro and season it with salt to taste. Set aside until you’re ready to serve the salad.

Cut the cucumbers in half lengthwise, then each half three more times into long wedge-shaped pieces (i.e. 8 long pieces per cucumber). Cut them into 1 to 1 1/2-inch lengths on a diagonal and add them to a big bowl. Pile tomatoes and onion on top and when you’re ready to eat, mix half of the dressing with the salad. Sprinkle with remaining mint and cilantro and serve with extra yogurt dressing on the side.

CSA Week 8 and Farm Stand updates

Every week we update our to-do list on a whiteboard in the barn, but in July many things remain on the list every week. Some stay on the list because they are maintenance tasks we accomplish but need to repeat, like cultivating weeds with the tractors or mowing and weed-whacking around the property. Others stay on the list because they are much bigger projects than the length of their line on the to-do list implies. “Weed carrots” sounds like a pretty straightforward and innocuous task, but it feels never-ending as new carrot successions germinate (unfortunately not as quickly as the newly churned up weed seeds germinate). Weed control in general has overtaken transplanting as the most time-consuming non-harvest task. Perhaps we should consider breaking our weeding to-do list down into 50 foot increments so that we could have the satisfaction of crossing things off more frequently!

While we are still in the midst of a pretty intense stretch of the season, we take comfort in the projects we do get to cross off (garlic harvest - check!) and the fact that we are more than halfway through the hardest four months of the year. We also find relief in the crew’s energy and sense of humor. They push through hard tasks like weed-whacking in the heat, they keep each others’ spirits up as they chat while making their way through long weeding projects, and sometimes they even show up with a scarecrow sitting in their passenger seat ready to guard the watermelon (and make us laugh)!

This week in the CSA:

• Tomatoes - The tomatoes from our new high tunnel are coming in, so we’ll have a mix of red and orange slicers, as well as heirlooms available!

• Peppers - green bells and purple “Islander” peppers

• Eggplant

• Red Potatoes

• Fresh Onions - both Ailsa Craig (white) and Red Long of Tropea (red). They should be stored in the refrigerator.

• Cucumbers - slicers and picklers

• Zucchini

• Summer Squash

• Carrots

• Mini Cabbage - Green, purple and Caraflex

• Kale

• Chard

• Mizuna or Baby bok choi

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Tomatillos - pick when the tomatillo fills out the entire papery husk around it. Great for roasting and making salsa verde.

• Hot peppers - these got damaged by Colorado potato beetles, but there are still some nice jalapenos (green) and fresno chiles (red) out there.

• Cherry tomatoes - Sungolds (orange), yellow mini (yellow), grape (red), cherry bomb (red), sunpeach (pink) and more are ripening. Check signs for guidance on the correct color for ripeness.

• Green and purple snap beans - Look under the foliage to find beans. To pick, hold the plant just above the stem of the bean and gently pull the bean off.

• Herbs: parsley, dill flowers and dill seeds, cilantro and coriander seeds, thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. Many of the herb plants in the herb beds near the farm stand are still small. Please pick sprigs, leaving plenty of plant below to continue to grow. For sage, pick off only a couple of individual leaves, leaving at least 6 or 7 leaves per branch.
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, sunflowers, decorative basil, zinnias, and more this week. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store, as well as our own blueberries, flower bouquets, and arugula. We’ll also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

This eggplant and tomato recipe was suggested to us by a CSA member!

Persian Seared Eggplant and Tomato Beef (Gheimeh Baademjaan)

from HonestandTasty.com

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 large Eggplant or the equivalent amount of the smaller eggplant variety

• 2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• 1-1.5 pounds of Lean Ground Beef

• 1 White or Yellow Onion, pureed in a food processor or shredded with a box grater

• 1 teaspoon Turmeric Powder

• 2 teaspoons Sea Salt

• 1 teaspoon Black Pepper

• 5 ounces (⅔ cup) of tomato paste

• 1 large Tomato (or 2 small/medium ones), rinsed and cut into thick wedges

• 1 cup of Greek Yogurt

• 1 tablespoon (approximately 4 to 5 cloves) of freshly Minced Garlic

Instructions

1. Rinse the eggplant. Remove its stem and slice the eggplant into ¼-inch thick slices. Then cut into a bit larger than bite-sized pieces.

2. Put water into a large pan to an inch deep. Add in the eggplant into a single layer. Turn heat to high and place cover over pan. Once the water starts seeming like it wants to boil, reduce heat to a simmer (most likely medium heat). After a couple minutes, flip them to cook the other side for another 2 minutes or so. The eggplant should soften and may slightly change in color. Remove the eggplant to a clean plate. Work in batches if needed.

3. Rinse and dry the pan. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the pan on med-high heat. Swirl oil around in pan to coat the surface.

4. Add the eggplant to the pan in a single layer and don’t touch the eggplant for 2 minutes while it sears on one side. After 2 minutes, flip the eggplant and allow to cook for another 2 minutes before removing to a clean plate. Work in batches if needed (add more olive oil for each new batch).

5. In a mixing bowl, combine the beef, onion, turmeric, salt, and pepper.

6. Add the beef mixture to the pan on high heat and use a spatula to break up the beef into small pieces.

7. Allow to cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the beef has browned and begins sauteing in its own natural fat.

8. At this point, mix in the tomato paste.

9. Mix in the eggplant and fresh tomato.

10. Turn heat to med-low and mix occasionally for 5 minutes.

11. To make the garlic yogurt, mix the garlic into the yogurt. Serve a large dollop of it on top of the beef mixture in your own plate that you’ll enjoy with bread, pasta, rice, or quinoa.

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

Tarator - Bulgarian Cold Cucumber Soup

By Nelka on May 15, 2003 on food.com

• 2 cucumbers (about 1 lb)

• 1 lb plain yogurt

• 3 -4 garlic cloves

• 2 -3 tablespoons of crushed walnuts (optional)

• 1 bunch fresh dill

• olive oil

• salt

• about 1 cup water (optional)

Cut the cucumbers into cubes and put them in a bowl. Beat the yogurt with a fork until it gets liquid and pour it over the cucumbers. Add the crushed garlic, the walnuts and the minced dill as well as salt and oil to taste. Add some water to make the soup as liquid as you like. Put into the refrigerator to cool or add ice cubes. Serve cold.

CSA week 7 and Farm Stand updates

It is summer squash and cucumber season and we are enjoying bountiful crops of both! In fact, we have already began to harvest our second planting of summer squash and zucchini and the next cucumbers are on their way. This is a great time for squash grilling, refrigerator pickle making, and general enjoyment of these summer veggies at their height. While extreme heat can cause problems on the farm such as blossom drop in eggplant and peppers, the hot temperatures this weekend did help speed up ripening of some crowd favorites such as cherry tomatoes and eggplant which will make their debut in the CSA and slicing and heirloom tomatoes which will be available in the farm store. We are continuing to weed, protect, and cultivate future crops such as winter squash (in the photo above Sarah driving our Farmall 140 with pumpkin knives attached to cultivate the winter squash), fall beets and carrots, fall brassicas, and another favorite, watermelon! All these crops on the horizon are looking good now but this is a precarious month for them as we race to clear the weeds so they don’t choke out the crops, hope for rain but steadily work to set up irrigation when needed, and protect late summer and fall crops from animal pests to the best of our ability (turkeys, rabbits, coyotes, crows, oh my!).

This week in the CSA:

• Eggplant

• Red Potatoes

• Fresh Onions - both Ailsa Craig (white) and Red Long of Tropea (red). They should be stored in the refrigerator.

• Cucumbers

• Zucchini

• Summer Squash

• Beets

• Carrots

• Celery

• Mini Cabbage - Green, purple and Caraflex

• Kale

• Swiss chard

• Arugula - The planting we are picking from this week has some holes from flea beetles but it is tender and tasty!

• Salanova - the last planting until fall.

• Lettuce - summer crisp, panisse, and red leaf

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Cherry tomatoes! Sungolds, cherry bomb, yellow mini and others have begun to ripen so we will have the first taste in the CSA this week!

• Sunflowers

• Green and purple snap beans

• Herbs: basil, cilantro, parsley, dill flowers, thai basil, chives, peppermint, thyme, spearmint
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, sunflowers, decorative basil, zinnias, and more this week. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store, as well as our own blueberries, tomatoes (slicing and heirloom), peppers, flower bouquets, as well as eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

Pasta With Green Beans And Potatoes With Pesto

 by Nancy Harmon Jenkins from from NY Times Cooking

·       2 cups packed tender young basil leaves

·       ¼ cup pine nuts

·       1 teaspoon salt

·       2 plump garlic cloves, peeled and crushed with flat blade of a knife

·       ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, or more to taste

·       ½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, or more to taste

·        Salt to taste

·       ½ pound small potatoes, peeled and sliced about 1/4-inch thick

·       ¼ pound tender young green beans, cut into 1-inch lengths

·       1 pound trenette, or other long, thin pasta

Make pesto: in bowl of food processor, add basil, pine nuts, salt and garlic. Pulse until mixture is coarse and grainy. With motor running, add oil in slow, steady stream. Add cheese; process just enough to mix well. If sauce is too dry, add a little more oil. Taste; add more cheese or salt, if desired. Bring 6 quarts water to rolling boil. Add at least 2 tablespoons salt and the potato slices. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until potatoes have started to soften but are not cooked through. Add green beans, and continue boiling another 5 minutes. Add pasta, and stir. Start testing pasta at 5 minutes. When it is done, and when potatoes and beans are tender, drain and turn pasta and vegetables immediately into preheated bowl. Add pesto, and mix thoroughly. Serve immediately.

Homemade Refrigerator Dill Pickles By Jennifer Segal

• 1-1/4 cups distilled white vinegar (5% acidity)

• 3 tablespoons kosher salt

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 2 cups cold water

• 1-3/4 to 2 pounds pickling cucumbers (about 6), cut into halves or spears

• 2 tablespoons coriander seeds

• 6 large garlic cloves, peeled and halved

• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds

• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 16 dill sprigs (or flowers)

Combine the vinegar, salt and sugar in a small non-reactive saucepan (such as stainless steel, glass, ceramic or teflon) over high heat. Whisk until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Transfer the liquid into a bowl and whisk in the cold water. Refrigerate brine until ready to use. 

Stuff the cucumbers into two clean 1-quart jars. Add the coriander seeds, garlic cloves, mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, dill sprigs, and chilled brine into jars, dividing evenly. If necessary, add a bit of cold water to the jars until the brine covers the cucumbers. Cover and refrigerate about 24 hours, then serve. Cucumbers will keep in the refrigerator for up to one month.

CSA Week 6 and Farm Stand updates

We have another hot week in the forecast (it is July after all!). If you are picking in the CSA PYO fields this week, be sure to wear sun protection and bring a water bottle with you! We have seating in the shade in front of the farm stand, so feel free to rest there if you need. Our field crew will also be taking precautions, which includes saving “lighter” duty tasks like tractor work, bin washing and hand weeding for the hotter afternoon hours. We’ll also likely be taking some popsicle breaks to stay cool!

This time of year we spend a lot of time tending to both our favorite summertime crops, as well as many of our fall crops. We’re working on fencing off our watermelon (to protect the melons from coyotes and crows), trellising our tomatoes, irrigating our summer squash and zucchini, and weeding our peppers. We’re also weeding and thinning fall carrots and beets, transplanting our last fall broccoli succession, and cultivating our winter squash and fall brassicas (Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale and broccoli). All in all, we’re feeling pretty good about what’s coming up on the farm for the rest of the season. In the near future our summer crops are looking healthy and promising, and in the slightly further distant future, our fall crops are off to a great start!

This week in the CSA:

• Potatoes - this week we’re harvesting Dark Red Norlands, a delicious potato with red skin and white flesh. Great for potato salads ( see recipe below) or for roasting!

• Fresh Onions - both Ailsa Craig (white) and Red Long of Tropea (red). These are fresh onions and have a milder and sweeter flavor than cured onions. They should be stored in the refrigerator.

• Mustard Greens - these spicy greens are great cooked or you can add a little bit raw to your salad if you like an extra kick!

• Cucumbers

• Zucchini

• Summer Squash

• Beets

• Carrots

• Celery

• Mini Cabbage - Green, purple and Caraflex (cone shaped!) to choose from.

• Kale

• Swiss chard

• Arugula or Red Russian Kale

• Salanova

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Sunflowers!

• Green Beans - we enjoyed the first of the green beans at the end of last week, and they should continue producing again for this week!

• Herbs: basil, cilantro, parsley, dill flowers, thai basil, chives, peppermint
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll continue to have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, rudbeckia and more this week. Expect more varieties like zinnias soon! Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store, as well as our own blueberries, peppers, eggplant, scallions and flower bouquets, as well as eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds.

Elena’s Potato Salad

from our good friend Elena Colman of Small Farm in Stow!

Ingredients

• 1 quart potatoes

• 1/4 cup water

• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp pepper

• about 1/4 cup olive oil (or in Elena’s words “a few glugs”)

• 1 tbsp spicy mustard

• about 1/4 lb salanova

• 2-3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

• 1 head celery, stalks chopped

• parsley, chopped

• dill, chopped

Boil the potatoes until you can easily stick a fork in them and drain. Mix the water, vinegar, salt and pepper and pour over the potatoes while still hot. Next add oil and mustard to the potatoes. Put in the refrigerator for an hour or more. When it is closer to time to serve, add the salanova, hard boiled eggs, chopped celery stalks, parsley and dill.

Cucumber Lime Popsicles

from everydaymadefresh.com

Ingredients:

• 1 lb cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped

• 1 lime, zest and the juice

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

Instructions:

Mix together all the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until nothing but juice remains. Pour into popsicle molds, and freeze for 6 hours, or until solid. Overnight is best.