Harvest Party will be on September 17th at the farm! Potluck! Beginning at 3 PM. Email us to let us know if you will make it out. Thanks!
What’s in the box?
full share:
sunshine (yellow) watermelon
green beans
sweet corn
cucumbers
green bell pepper
red bell pepper
hot pepper (the small lime green colored pepper)
broccoli
onions
slicer tomatoes
heirloom tomatoes
single share:
green beans
sweet corn
either sugarbaby watermelon (red), sunshine watermelon (yellow), or cantaloupe
onions
cucumbers
red bell peppers
green bell pepper
hot pepper (the small lime green pepper)
broccoli
slicer tomatoes
Notes on the box….
We are really happy to be putting the sunshine variety of melon in the box. They were grown in the greenhouse and are SUPER sweet. They have earned the nickname sugarbomb melon. They are so addictively sweet that Otto has begun to refuse all food except for this melon. Larry has been seen on multiple occasions hiding by the dumpster eating melon like a squirrel. Josh spilled water all over the lunch table and Rama in his frenzy to crack open a melon. A melon was sliced and Rama helped herself to half of the melon before it could be cut into smaller pieces. We hope that you are enjoying it as much as we are. We ran out of small sunshine melons that would fit into the single share boxes, so some of the single shares may have gotten the red melon or cantaloupe. If your cantaloupe has green skin, let it sit on your counter for a while to ripen up some more. OR, you can do what Joe from Sen Yai Sen Lek is doing with some of our unripe melons. He is using them as a local replacement for papaya in his Som Tum (green papaya salad). We made it here at home and it was great! We used regular green beans and our own hot peppers. Here’s a recipe from the NY times.
Green beans might get big enough for us to have them in the boxes again next week, but everything is slowing down its growth with the cooler temps that are setting in. We recorded a 39 degree night out here 2 nights ago. Just 2 more weeks until the official start of fall.
This is the last week of sweet corn. Enjoy it!
If you are having trouble getting through your bell peppers, chop them up and put them in a freezer bag and freeze them. Then you can add to soups and things later. Never let a pepper go bad!
Broccoli, again, may have a looper or two. The broccoli that I cooked last week had only a couple that fell out when I soaked it. Again, just soak it in some cold salted water before chopping. Swish it around in the water after it’s soaked. Any stragglers will let go. The loopers are BAD this season. The worst ever. There are some organic approved sprays that we can use, but often times they kill the benificial insects as well which disrupts the balance on the farm. Because of this, we avoid using even the organic approved sprays. We have found an organic approved spray that is specific to the loopers, so we will be using that on the rest of our crops that they are attacking. However, we cannot ever guarantee that your produce will be 100% bug free. If you are particularly bug-phobic, let us know and we can leave out broccoli from your box.
If you find yourself overrun with tomatoes that are getting too ripe before you can eat them, try this trick that one of our long time CSA members passed on… Score the tomatoes with an x shape on the bottom. Remove the core by cutting in a cone shape around it. Put the whole tomatos in a freezer bag. Put them in the freezer. When you want to use them in a soup or stew or sauce later in the season, simply pull the bag out, let them defrost. The skin will peel off easily when you run the tomato under some hot tap water.
For everything else, see the notes from last week, please.
Recipes…..
Corn Pudding
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 or 6 ears of corn, husked
1/4 cup granulated sugar (optional)
1/2 cup heavy cream or whole milk
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
1 minced hot pepper (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the butter in a baking dish ( or iron skillet works well) and slide into the oven so the butter melts while the oven is preheating.
Using a box grater, coarsely grate the kernels off four ears of corn. Use a sharp knife to cut the kernels from the remaining ears. Combine the corn kernels, sugar, cream or milk, flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Lightly beat the five eggs and add to the mixture.
When the oven has preheated and the butter in the baking dish has melted, carefully tilt the melted butter from the baking dish into the corn mixture and combine with a few swift strokes. Then tilt the buttered corn mixture back into the baking dish.
Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, until a golden crust has formed and the interior has set.
A nice recipe that is for breakfast or dinner Grits with tomatoes and goat cheese! Recipe calls for cherry tomatoes, but you can slice and roast any type of tomato.
Corn Relish can be made and kept in a jar in the fridge for a long time. Really nice to have on hand to add color or use as an edible garnish. If you want to use it all at once, make some quinoua (black or red makes it extra beautiful) and mix the relish in with the quinoua for a last minute side. Adjust the amount of corn, peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers to your liking. Cut kernals of 6 ears of corn off the cob. Finely chop a few green and red bell peppers, some onion, unpeeled but seeded cucumber, and some ripe tomatoes. Mix it all up. Bring 2 cups of vinegar, 1/2 – 1/4 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of salt, 1 tsp of tumeric, and 1 tsp mustard seed to a boil. Pour over the veggies and let them sit at least overnight before serving. If you like less crunch and more tender relish, you can simmer the veggies in the vinegar mixture for about 15 min. Store in a jar in your fridge.
On the farm….
Otto and Calliope doing quality control on the sunshine melon
This dinner bell used to be on Josh's great grandpa's farm. Now it's on our farm!
next week….
pie pumpkins
carrots
tomatoes
peppers
cucumbers
potatoes
pesto basil bunches
broccoli
onions
