In shares this week members will find:

Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, red fingerling potatoes, carrots, beets, scallions, sage, eggplant, sweet peppers, Korean melon and watermelon.  

First frost?

Saturday morning we woke to cool temps in the high 30s, heavy dew and a fog warning.  Heather-Marie walked out to the field at 7 a.m. to see if there had been a frost.  The sun was already up, so it was a bit late to see any evidence.  There wasn’t any damage to those fragile plants like peppers, so it appears we dodged a bullet.  The field was beautiful under such heavy dew that it looked like the dill was in fact covered in a layer of frost (but wasn’t).  

There are cool evening temps in the forecast this week again, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed for a bit longer. Including this week’s delivery, we have four deliveries left in the regular season and one fall CSA delivery remaining this year.  In some ways a frost puts an end to certain tasks that are burdensome now (harvesting tomatoes), and we sometimes welcome a frost in September.  But this September with its cooler temps and frequent rains, is making up for a rather brutal summer.  It’s futile to fret over any of it.  It’ll happen either way.

Putting up food, and visitors

This past week, John’s mom, Maxine, and stepfather, Jack, were here visiting from North Carolina.  If you were at the Member Potluck, you will have met them.  We had a great visit with them.  This was their first time seeing the farm, and we loved showing it all off to them, including frequent walks out to the “North 40” (the north part of the farm property).  They lent a hand cleaning garlic and putting up food.  Heather-Marie and Jack put up 10 quarts of stewed tomatoes.  We’ve never had the luxury of so much storage space to be able to put up so much food. 

Watermelon

You will receive a round watermelon in your shares this week.  Watermelons are tough to grow in northern regions.  We try every year.  We seem to have better luck with the yellow Korean melon that we’ve given a couple of times already.  But watermelons are tricky.  We did all the things you’re supposed to do to check on their progress.  We thumped them.  We watched for their color change and their yellow spot to disappear.  We’ve probably paid more attention to these stinkers than anyone else!  We cut one open last night and although tasty, it was a little underdone.  We were worried about the cool night temps and decided to harvest them.  We suggest letting them sit on your kitchen counter for a couple of days to ripen up a bit more.  Once you cut one up though, seed spitting contests are a must.  

Recipes

Eggplant

Eggplant Relish (Eggplant Caponata)

Heather-Marie first made this with her friend, Mary, at her farm in Dubuque, Iowa.  Heather-Marie says this about the recipe, “This is so yummy!  I skipped the tomatoes but did add the peppers and a tablespoon of dried rosemary.  I doubled the recipe and it made 5 ½ pints.  A full pint is a lot to eat at one time, so I would put relish in ½ pint jars.  They’d make great gifts!”

1 eggplant (good size)

1 zucchini

2 onions

2 garlic cloves

1 pound tomatoes, optional

4 sweet green peppers, optional

1 cup white vinegar

¼ cup sugar

optional herbs:

mustard seed

coriander seed

rosemary

Finely chop all veggies.  Sauté oil in a pan until veggies are softened.  

In a separate saucepan, bring vinegar to boil.  Add sugar and stir until dissolved.

Spoon relish into clean, hot jars up to about 1 ½ inches from the top.  Pour hot vinegar/sugar mixture to cover relish up to 1 inch from top.  Vinegar just needs to cover veggies.  Jars will seal on their own.  (Note: fill jars with veggies while vinegar is boiling so vinegar won’t cool down)  

Best in one month.  If the jars don’t set, eat right away or put in the freezer. 

Cherry tomatoes

Quick Chile Sauce

Yotam Ottolenghi for the New York Times

9 Fresno chiles (about 5 ounces) or other medium-heat chiles, preferably red, such as jalapeno or serrano, destemmed and roughly chopped

1 ¼ tsp kosher salt

3 ounces cherry tomatoes (about 12)

3 T white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar or other light vinegar

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Place the chiles and salt in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse a few times until the chiles are chopped.  (You don’t want to go too far and turn them into paste)

Add the tomatoes and vinegar, and pulse again in two or three short bursts, just enough to break down the tomatoes.  

Transfer to a lidded container and top with the olive oil.  Cover and keep in the refrigerator for up to one week.  

Potatoes and tomatoes

Potatoes and Tomatoes Cooked With Coconut

“Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking”

A-mazing!  Can be served over rice.

3 medium-sized boiling potatoes (about 1 ¼ pounds)

4 T vegetable oil (could use less)

6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 whole dried hot red pepper

1 tsp whole cumin seeds

1 ½ cups freshly grated coconut

½ tsp ground turmeric

2 tsp ground cumin seeds

1 ¼ pounds fresh, red-ripe tomatoes, peeled and diced into ½-inch pieces, or a 16 to 20 oz can of tomatoes

2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp red wine vinegar

Peel the potatoes, then cut into ¾ inch dice and put into a bowl of cold water.

Heat the oil in a heavy, 3-quart pot over a medium-high flame.  When hot, put in the minced garlic.  Stir for about 5 seconds.  Now put in the red pepper and the cumin seeds.  Stir for another 3 seconds.  The garlic should brown lightly, the red pepper should darken, and the cumin seeds should sizzle.  Lower the heat to medium, put in the grated coconut and stir it around for 10 to 15 seconds.

Drain the potatoes.  Add them as well as the turmeric, ground cumin, tomatoes (including any juice that may have accumulated or the juice in the can), the salt, and 1 ½ cups of water.  Bring to a boil.  Cover, turn heat to low, and simmer for about 45 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Stir gently every 7 to 8 minutes during this cooking period.

Put in the sugar and vinegar.  Stir again and cook, uncovered, for 1 minute.