CSA Week 8: Tomatoes, other favorites arrive

In their shares this week, members will receive the following vegetables:  Cucumbers, sugar snap peas, high tunnel tomatoes, scallions, green cabbage, sweet peppers, summer squash, beets, salad mix, kale and carrots (actual full-sized carrots this week!).

This newsletter includes a roundup of news from the farm as well as information and recipes. Feel free to jump to the bottom of the newsletter to find the section titled, “This week’s veggies and recipes.”

News from the farm

This week marked an important milestone at the farm. Heather-Marie marched in from the high tunnel holding the first ripe tomato of the season. She cut it into thick slices, slathered mayo on pieces of toasted bread and added the tomato with a little bit of salt and pepper. She walked into the living room with them and we took a bite. 

Midsummer. 

At the beginning of the season, we asked our CSA members: What vegetable are you most excited about? The answers vary, but by far, one of the most common answers is something that can be found in this week’s shares.

Tomatoes.

Finally, after weeks of watching the tomatoes in our high tunnel grudgingly turn pink and now red, we have enough that we can give at least one slicing tomato to members this week. 

We join our members in seeing tomatoes as signifying a marker of the change of the seasons – from early summer to mid-summer. 

But the tomato isn’t alone in marking that change. We also have green peppers and scallions and summer squash and other vegetables that are available at the grocery year round, but when they are harvested fresh from the field have a taste that just can’t be replicated. 

Each morning, John walks out to the field with his harvest bag on his shoulder, first combing through the 9-foot tall cucumber plants and before walking the length of the bed with the summer squash and zucchini. The vegetables seem to grow by the hour this time of year. 

Getting ready for company

Adding to the busyness of the season, we have been preparing for a couple of events at the farm. The first was a cameraman from WDSE’s Great Gardening program to film a feature that we are told will air on the fall harvest show. 

To help us prepare, our friends Kelly and John from Farm Sol came out to help us weed and get our field looking tidy. (We returned the favor this week by going to their farm to help them take care of some weeding and other tasks.)

In two weeks, we are hosting another event: Your farmers are getting married, right here on the farm. We are very excited and so grateful to all the family and friends who have helped us prepare for the celebration.

At one point, we had considered taking a week off from our CSA delivery, but have since rethought that. The vegetables will be ripe and ready, and we’ve got some help from friends. So, why not celebrate getting married by giving our CSA members some wonderful early August produce? 

This week, we will also be harvesting our garlic – again with some help from friends. It’s not going to be a small task. We planted 90 pounds of garlic, which, even by conservative estimates, will yield about 300 pounds. We’ll let that garlic cure in our barn for about a month before it begins to appear in CSA shares and to be sold in bulk both for eating and for planting. Stay tuned for more details. 

This week’s veggies and recipes

Recipes

Carrots, scallions, salad mix

Heather-Marie’s Homemade Ramen Noodle Soup (or Pho)

Buying ramen is a simple, and cheap meal, but we do love making our own.  Sooo much better!

• Carrots
• Dried, or fresh, mushrooms
• Fresh ginger
• Hard boiled eggs
• Bitter greens, or kale, collards
• Leeks, scallions and/or garlic scapes
• Broth- homemade or bought
• Thin Asian-style noodles (we use rice noodles) 
• Kimchi, fish sauce, soy or coconut aminos, optional toppings

For more pho flavors, make a spice bag of whole dried spices of star anise, cinnamon, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, 

Soak dried mushrooms in a bowl with boiling water until soft.  Saute carrots and leeks/scallions/scapes for a few minutes in butter, or oil.  Add broth, ginger and noodles.  Cook until noodles are cooked, adding greens in just before finished.

Sweet peppers

Curried Lentil and Pineapple Salad

“The Bean Book” cookbook by Rose Elliot

Great salad!!

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 medium-sized onion, peeled and chopped
• 6 T oil
• 1 T curry powder
• 1 heaping cup red lentils
• 1¼ cups water
• 14 oz can pineapple pieces, drained and chopped
• 1 small sweet green pepper, deseeded and chopped
• 1 T wine vinegar
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Optional: shredded coconut, lettuce leaves, slices of tomatoes, onion rings

Fry the garlic and onion in half the oil in a medium-sized saucepan for 5 minutes, then add the curry powder the washed and drained lentils.  Fry for a further 4-5 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking.  Mix in the water and let the mixture cook very gently for 20-30 minutes, after which the lentils should be tender in the texture, beige-gold in color and all the water is absorbed.  Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the pineapple, green pepper, vinegar, remaining oil, and sea salt and black pepper to taste.  Cool, and then chill.  Serve the salad as is or piled up on lettuce leaves and garnished with slices of tomato, raw onion rings and/or shredded coconut.

Kale

Kale Ceasar Salad with Garlicy Chickpea Croutons

from RoastedRoot.net

Other members have told us that they’ve made kale Ceasar salads, so we thought we’d try one.  We found this online. It’s pretty good.  The chickpea croutons were awesome!

For the Salad: 

• 1 large bunch of kale, tough stems removed and torn into bite sized pieces 
• 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (if from a can rinsed, drained and patted dry) 
• 1/4 cup diced red onion 
• 2 tsp garlic powder 
• 1 T extra virgin olive oil 
• pinch of fine sea salt 
• Fresh black pepper to taste 

For the Dressing: 

• 1/4 cup tahini 
• 1/4 cup water 
• 1 garlic clove, minced 
• 1 T lemon juice 
• 2 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast 
• 2 tsp Dijon style mustard 
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (a pinch more if you like more heat!) 
• pinch of fine sea salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl toss the chickpeas with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder. Place in a single layer on a prepared baking sheet and bake until golden and crisp. About 25-30 minutes. Tossing chickpeas halfway through cooking time. Keep a close eye on them to make sure they don’t burn! 

Meanwhile, prepare the dressing by combining all the ingredients and whisking until smooth. This works best with an emersion blender or food processor (but a hand whisk will work too!) Taste test and adjust seasonings if need be. 

Place kale in a large salad bowl. Drizzle with half the cesar dressing and lightly massage the dressing into the leaves (this helps the leaves become more tender.) Add red onion and cooked chickpeas. Drizzle with the remainder of the dressing and season with fresh black pepper. 

Summer squash, snap peas

Summer Pasta with Zucchini and Sugar Snap Peas

By Chef Darina Allen from “The Victory Garden”

Obviously, this recipe is for a crowd but could be scaled down for 2-4 people.

Makes 10 servings

Ingredients

• 1 pound penne or spaghetti
• 1 pound green and golden zucchini, 5 to 6 inches in length
• 1 pound sugar snap peas
• 2 ounces butter
• 5 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons chopped parsley
• 2 ounces fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 4 ounces freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• A few zucchini blossoms if available

Directions

Top and tail the zucchini and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices at an angle. String the sugar snap peas if necessary.

Bring 12 pints of water to the boil in a large deep saucepan, add 2 tablespoons salt, add the pasta, and cook until al dente.

Meanwhile shoot the sugar snap peas into 2 pints of boiling water with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and cook uncovered for 3 to 4 minutes or until crisp and al dente. Drain.

Pop a pasta bowl into the oven to heat or better still put it sitting on top of the pasta saucepan.

Heat the butter and olive oil in a sauté pan, toss in the zucchini, increase the heat, and continue to toss for 3 or 4 minutes. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, cover, and reduce heat to medium for another few minutes by which time the zucchini should be tender but still al dente. Draw off the heat.

By now, if your timing is good, the pasta should be al dente, so drain it quickly.

Add the sugar snap peas, chopped parsley, and torn basil to the zucchini. Pour in the steaming hot pasta, sprinkle on the freshly grated Parmesan and toss well.

Turn into the hot pasta bowl. Sprinkle a few zucchini blossoms and basil leaves over the top if available. Rush to the table. Serve on hot plates with extra Parmesan and freshly ground pepper.

Tangy Shredded Cabbage Salad

from the blog “Smitten Kitchen”

This is THE BEST slaw ever.  

• 2 c tightly packed, shredded green or red cabbage
• 1 small Serrano chili, seeded and minced
• 2 T fresh lemon juice, or more as needed
• ¼- ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp sugar
• 1 T canola oil
• ½ tsp mustard seeds

In a medium bowl, toss together the cabbage, chili, lemon juice, salt and sugar.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  (Look for balanced sweet/sour)

Heat the oil in a small skillet over high heat.  When oil begins to smoke, add the mustard seeds, covering the pan with a lid.  When seeds stop popping, immediately pour the oil over the cabbage salad and toss well.  Let the salad sit for at least 15 minutes before serving.