Week 9 newsletter: Celebrating harvest with family, friends

In their shares this week, members will receive the following vegetables: carrots, French fingerling potatoes, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, sweet onions, salad mix, sage, green beans, summer squash and green sweet peppers.

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 was about family and community at the farm. Finally, after a season of working and working we did our best to set aside some time to spend with people who are important to us.  Each month Heather-Marie organizes a brunch with our friends that live out near the farm.  This month’s brunch was made special by the fact that we also had both John’s family and Heather-Marie‘s family at the brunch. In fact, we spent most of the week and weekend enjoying produce from our fields with family and friends. For dinner one night we sat at our 8-foot picnic table in the Grove and enjoyed a pasta dish that was a medley of flavors from the field. There was summer squash and onions and a pesto made of onions. 

On Sunday we had a brunch that left us all very sleepy. The star of the show was biscuits and gravy made by John’s stepfather Jack Dalton. A Southerner, Jack has been making cathead biscuits and sawmill gravy for decades. Part of that experience is that each grandchild and now the great grandchild gets to make biscuits with Grandpa Jack. This time it was great granddaughter Bee who got the honor.

The breakfast also consisted of our oven-roasted French fingerling potatoes and onions and all kinds of other dishes brought by guests, including some pork from our friends at The Road’s End Ranch and vegetables from FarmSol.

Drought conditions continue to worsen across the state of Minnesota. Some places are now classified as experiencing extreme drought. Where our farm is located it is still called a severe drought. We run our irrigation system almost nonstop and some plants continue to thrive. In fact, we are amazed at how well our plans are doing. Of course there have been some losses. We have now lost nearly all of the cucumber plants and may not be able to enjoy cucumbers for much longe. We have harvested and set aside all the cucumbers grown in the past week specifically for the CSA. We have also started new cucumber plants and will put those in the ground when they are ready.

In the high tunnel, the tomatoes are starting to ripen, and we have enjoyed a couple. We are hopeful that they will be in CSA boxes soon. Field tomatoes are growing very slowly, but we have seen a few cherry tomatoes start to ripen. So, we are hopeful about that as well.

This week members will receive their first potatoes from us. These French fingerling potatoes are really wonderful with their soft and delicate skin. Those will be followed by Yukon Gold potatoes and russet potatoes.

Our onions are also coming along nicely. This week‘s sweet onions may be our favorite onions of the season. They are wonderful raw or however else you’d like to cook them.

Outside the fence of our farm, the fields are brown and parched and the ground is as hard as concrete. Sunday, there was a forecast of rain all week. Saturday evening that forecast dropped completely and we watched as a low pressure system moved south.

Our Friday farmstand has become kind of a social event with friends all converging to buy vegetables and also just visit. It’s very busy but so much fun. When our neighbors Sara and Jon heard about our loss of cucumbers, they said they were sorry as they left. About 20 minutes later, Sarah returned and we wondered if she had forgotten something. Nope, she has harvested some gorgeous English cucumbers from their own garden to share with us.

As Granpda Jack likes to say, “We have a rich life.”

Images from the week

This week’s veggies and recipes

This week’s veggies include a few new arrivals: green peppers, sweet onions and sage. The bag of salad mix was harvested unwashed and should be rinsed off to get any grit off. These will likely be the last cucumbers for some time. Sadly, a bacterial wilt, carried by cucumber beetles has wiped out all 50 plants we put in the ground. We have started new plants but don’t know if there is enough time in the season for them to reach maturity.

Summer squash

We grow four different types of summer squash: crooked neck yellow squash, zucchini, patty pan and a light green zucchini called Magda.  Summer squash are very versatile.  Yes, they can go in zucchini bread but they deserve so much more!  

Sweet onions
Sweet onions are onions that can be eaten raw and do not store well. We use them in all sorts of dishes and have really enjoyed this salad dressing.

Sweet Onion Salad Dressing based loosely on a recipe from The Spruce Eats
Heather-Marie made this dressing this weekend with the first of the sweet onions. The ratio of vinegar, oil and sugar wasn’t to her tastes, so she came up with this instead.

• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp mustard
• ½ medium sweet onion, minced
• ¼-½ cup olive oil
• ¼ vinegar (Heather-Marie used red wine vinegar)

Add all ingredients into a Pyrex measuring cup. Pour everything into a recycled dressing jar to make pouring and storing easier.

Baked zucchini fries

from the website Damn Delicious

• 1 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 4 zucchini, quartered lengthwise
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Coat a cooling rack with nonstick spray and place on a baking sheet; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine Panko, Parmesan and Italian seasoning; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside.

Working in batches, dredge zucchini in flour, dip into eggs, then dredge in Panko mixture, pressing to coat.

Place zucchini onto the prepared baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp.

Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.

Sage 

We have the goal of including in every box three things: greens, onions (can be garlic, scallions, chives, etc) and an herb.  We’ve had a rough start with the herbs and scallions but things are slowly catching up.  So far we’ve had parsley, basil and Thai basil.  This week we have sage and it seems to pair well with pasta.  Whatever you don’t use, hang the bunch of herbs in a cool, dark place and use in the winter. 

Pasta with Butter, Sage and Parmesan                

 by Mark Bittman for NYT

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound cut pasta, like ziti
• 2 T butter
• 30 fresh sage leaves
• 1 cup or more freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Bring a large pot of water to a boil; salt it.  Cook pasta until it is tender but not quite done.

Meanwhile, place the butter in a skillet or saucepan large enough to hold the cooked pasta; turn heat to medium, and add sage.  Cook until butter turns nut-brown and sage shrivels, then turn the heat to a minimum.

When the pasta is just about done, scoop out a cup of the cooking water.  Drain the pasta.  Immediately add it to the butter-sage mixture, and raise heat to medium.  Add ¾ cup of the water, and stir; the mixture will be loose and a little soupy.  Cook for about 30 seconds, or until some of the water is absorbed and the pasta is perfectly done.

Stir in the cheese; the sauce will become creamy.  Thin it with a little more water if necessary.  Season liberally with pepper and salt to taste, and serve immediately, passing more cheese at the table if you like.