In this week’s share, members will find slicing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow and green beans, Asian melon (yellow skin, white flesh), beets, Yukon gold potatoes, Swiss chard, zucchini and summer squash, cabbage, sweet peppers, jalapeno peppers, dill, bunching onions, carrots, eggplant and a small bouquet of flowers.

News from the farm

Holidays and days off don’t mean much to farmers.  There’s really no such thing.  We worked Saturday and most of Monday and managed to not do a thing on Sunday.  We sat in our hammocks, read books and stayed in the tinyhouse.  It was a great day.

We woke with the sunrise on Monday morning and the alarm. We didn’t rise easy. We didn’t want to get up at all. At the peak of summer, the sun rose around 4:30. Now, first light is around 6 and “sunrise” about 6:30. 

We crawled out of bed and made it out to the field with our cameras, a ladder and a pretty bad cup of coffee for John. 

It was photo day.

For weeks, we’d been meaning to snap a photo of the field in all its glory. As the sun crested the horizon, took turns climbing up on the ladder and snapping photos. We hoped to get a sense of the field and all that we’d grown this year. 

What we didn’t realize in taking those photos was that the day was also the anniversary of our last day at the previous farm. A year before, we had made one last trip over to the farm where Heather-Marie had last leased for several years to finish moving everything over to our new home.

The landowners had insisted that we bury all the waste from our composting toilets, so we dug a grave for our poop. Finally, we dug up the perennial plants from the field and said our farewells to that farm and drove back to our own home in Barnum. 

Now, a year later, we walked out to the edge of the field with our cameras and a ladder and did our best to snap a few images of the field in the morning light that would capture all that we’d done in less than one year. 

Then, we headed back to the house to get ready for yet another harvest day.

Recipes for this week’s vegetables

Melon

Rising Phoenix grows two types of melons: Torpedo, a Korean melon, which has a deep yellow skin and sweet, white flesh, and Sugar Baby, a standard small watermelon.

In order to harvest for shares, melon may be harvested just before ripe.  Let the melon sit on the counter for a day or two before eating.  Torpedo is prepared by slicing lengthwise and scraping out seeds.  Eat and enjoy!  Sugar Baby can be cut in half and further into wedges. 

Eggplant

The most famous eggplant recipe is ratatouille, but this versatile plant can be the star of many vegetable dishes.  It is excellent sauteed or baked.

Many cooks insist on salting and pressing (or just draining) the air and water out before cooking. Getting rid of the air means it will absorb less oil during cooking. Salting also reduces the water content which reduces the amount of water leeched out into the dish. If you salt prior to cooking, rinse and pat dry to prevent excessive salt in the end product. Adjust the seasoning in the recipe to compensate for the salt remaining on the eggplant.

Ratatouille

“Moosewood” Cookbook

Ratatouille is one of the best things in the world.  Period.

3 Tbs olive oil

4 medium cloves garlic

2 cups chopped onion

1 bay leaf

1 medium eggplant (7 to 8 in long; 4 to 5 in diameter), cubed 1 ½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp basil

1 tsp marjoram or oregano

½ tsp rosemary

½ tsp thyme

1 medium (6 to 7 in) zucchini, cubed

2 medium bell peppers, in strips

fresh black pepper

1 14 ½ oz can tomatoes

freshly minced parsley, optional

minced olives, optional

For spicy variation:

omit bay leaf, marjoram, rosemary,

Add in their place: 1 ½ tsp cumin, 2 tsp chili powder, cayenne, to taste

Add 1 cup pitted olives, optional

1. Heat olive oil in a deep skillet or Dutch oven.  Add garlic, onion, and bay leaf, and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

2. Add eggplant, salt, and herbs, and stir.  Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the eggplant is soft.

3. Add zucchini, bell peppers, black pepper, and tomatoes. (Break the tomatoes into smaller pieces with a spoon.)  Cover and simmer for about 10 more minutes, or until the zucchini and bell peppers are tender.  

4. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature- plain or topped with parsley and or olives. 

Dilly Beans          

from “Keeping the Harvest” 

Heather-Marie has been making these beans for years.  They taste best in the middle of winter.

2 pounds green beans, trimmed

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, divided

4 cloves garlic

4 heads dill*

¼ cup canning salt

2 ½ cups vinegar 

2 ½ cups water

Packs beans lengthwise into hot, sterilized pint jars, leaving ½ inch headspace.  To each pint jar, add ¼ tsp cayenne pepper, 1 clove garlic, and 1 head dill.  Combine salt, vinegar, and water in a kettle and bring to a boil.  Pour boiling hot liquid over beans, leaving ½ headspace.  Adjust caps.  Process pints in a boiling-water bath for 5 minutes, up to 1,000 feet altitude.  

For best flavor, let the canned beans stand for at least 2 weeks before serving.  This allows the flavor to develop.  And don’t worry if they look shriveled right after processing- they’ll plump up in a few weeks.

Yields four pints.

*If you don’t have enough heads of dill, you can sub 1 Tb dill seed equals one head of dill.

Beets, Potatoes

Sautéed Beet and Potato Hash with Onion and Thyme    

“Farmer John Cookbook”

3 Tb vegetable oil

2 small onions, diced

4 medium red or white potatoes, peeled, grated

2 medium beets, peeled, grated (2-3 cups)

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves or

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp minced garlic (about 2 medium cloves

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onions; cook and stir until soft and translucent, 5 to 7 minutes.  Stir in the potatoes, beets, thyme, and garlic.  Season with salt to taste.  Cook, turning it occasionally, until the potatoes and beets are tender and slightly crispy, 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove the skillet from the heat.  Season generously with pepper and more salt if desired, to taste.