CSA Share Week 11: From our farm to your table this week …

~WEEK 11~

Wow! We’re half way through the CSA season!  You’ve been eating fresh, organic produce from Sustainable Harvest Farm for 11 weeks now and you have 11 more to go!  Thank you so much for your dedication to local, sustainable agriculture and for investing in Sustainable Harvest Farm.

Please make plans to celebrate the end of the harvest season with us here on the farm with a potluck and farm tour on the final CSA pickup day, Saturday September 29.  More details are forthcoming, but for now, please

SAVE THE DATE

Saturday, September 29.

Cabbage
Cucumbers
Red Tomatoes
Green onions
Green peppers
Squash & Zucchini
SWEET Corn
Watermelon

Tips for using and/or preserving your produce…

Cabbage
Fresh, tender cabbage is wonderful as a base for salads.  Just last week I mixed a bit of mayonnaise with shredded green & purple cabbage to create a flavorful bed for a Cobb salad.  It made the Cobb salad a bit more interesting. 

   
Cucumbers

You’ve probably been trying all sorts of interesting cucumber recipes.  I really like pickles & plain cucumbers so I use most of ours one of those two ways.  Another fun idea you can try is to use a veggie peeler or cheese slicer to create long, thin ribbons of cucumbers.  This makes for a really pretty, impressive summer salad without a lot of effort.  So, if you feel like getting artistic with your salads, try slicing long ribbons of cucumber & yellow squash with shredded carrots, onions & your favorite oil & vinegar dressing!

Green Onions 
The green onions you’ll find in the share this week are a bit larger than the ones you received earlier in the year.  The taste is similar & you’ll find that you can use them like a typical, small green onion, or as a replacement for regular white or yellow onions.  However you use them, you’ll find them to be more fresh & crisp than storage onions.  Because they have not been dried & are not suitable for long term storage, you’ll want to keep them in the fridge & use them within a week or two.  Both the white bulb & the lower portions of the hollow green leaves are edible.  My dad says that he use to use those long green leaves like drinking straws when he was a boy.  It sounds like fun but I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who wouldn’t like the flavor of onion in whatever they’re drinking!

Green Peppers

For the second year we’ve grown traditional green peppers along with a lighter variety known as Flavor Burst.  Both are delicious, sweet, green peppers that can be used interchangeably.  I love using sliced green peppers to dip into hummus or mix in with salads but my favorite way to cook green peppers is to stuff them with polenta.  Check out this recipe by Nicole Aloni for a rich, creamy version of polenta stuffed peppers.

Tomatoes

They’re back!!  That’s right, you’ll be seeing lots of beautiful, red tomatoes from the field (rather than the greenhouse) from now through the end of the CSA season.  This week you will receive one large heirloom tomato.  Ford tells me that heirlooms don't ripen all at once like commercially-grown tomatoes, & are known for their odd shapes & colors. We will have some commercial hybrid tomatoes available for purchase if you think your heirloom tomato won’t get you through the week.  You will receive a few different varieties throughout the summer but I think you’ll find that all of them have even more delicious tomato flavor than the tomatoes grown in the greenhouse.  Slice them, dice them, put them in salsas & salads & enjoy your fresh field tomatoes.  As the season progresses I’ll share some easy preservation tips with you to help you hold on to that wonderful tomato flavor well into cool weather days.  Finley gets VERY excited about finding & picking ripe tomatoes.  Here he is in his favorite hat plucking a ripe heirloom tomato in the raised beds near our house.

Squash & Zucchini
A good friend of mine gave me a great cookbook full of recipes that combine fresh summer vegetables with fresh herbs for dishes that bring out the best of both – Herbs Love Tomatoes, Peppers, Onions & Zucchini by Ruth Bass.  The recipe below features yellow squash (or zucchini, or both), tomatoes, onions, cilantro & parsley.  

Spicy Squash with Cilantro
-adapted from Herbs Love Tomatoes, Peppers, Onions & Zucchini by Ruth Bass

- 3-4 cups yellow squash, zucchini, or a combination of
   the two, washed & cut into 1/4 –inch slices

- 1 firm, red tomato, peeled & diced

-1 large white onion, finely chopped

- 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

-1 clove garlic, minced

-1/4 cup chopped green chili peppers

-1/2 cup white wine

-1/2 cup water

-¼ cup pitted, chopped black olives

-1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- salt and pepper to taste

In a large, deep skillet, saucepan or Dutch oven, bring about 2 cups of water to boil.

Add the zucchini, tomato, onion, garlic, & chili peppers & cook over medium heat for 30 minutes or until the zucchini is tender.

Drain off excess water but leave enough to maintain a soupy consistency then stir in the cilantro, parsley, & wine & continue to cook an additional 10 minutes over medium heat.
Remove from heat and stir in olives, cheese, salt and pepper.  Serve immediately along with fresh slices of your favorite bread.

Sweet Corn
Isn’t it funny how familiar things can seem boring or undesirable until someone gives us a new perspective?  That’s how my parents & I felt about raw sweet corn until Ford came along.  We were all aghast when Ford munched on fresh, raw corn right out in the field!  My dad was sure it was damaging Ford’s GI tract & I assumed it would be bitter & fibrous.  Eventually Ford’s enthusiasm for munching on raw corn led us to try it for ourselves & I can honestly say that we were missing out on some great flavor!  If you’ve never tried it, go ahead, peel back the husk & take a bite.  You’ll be surprised by sweetness & crunch of those juicy yellow kernels.  For an excellent addition to summer salads, remove the husks, wash the corn in cold water & remove the silks then slice it right off the cob.  Fresh or cooked corn pairs beautifully with raw tomatoes & onions.  This week you’re receiving the second harvest form the first corn we planted.  Some of the ears will be perfect, but some will not have full kernels on the outer tip.  You probably won’t see any more sweet corn for another two weeks.  Ford tells me we had some trouble with germination.

Watermelon
As a lover of watermelon, I once turned my nose up at savory watermelon dishes & salads that combined watermelon, herbs, vegetables & cheese. Watermelon, so I thought, was perfect on its own & would only be diminished if combined with other, less-than-perfect foods. The abundance of watermelon coming in from the fields now gave me the courage to experiment with our melon &, once, again, I found that trying something new turned out to be quite a treat. Today I tossed fresh watermelon slices with arugula & feta cheese. The peppery arugula & sweet melon were a nice contrast & the zesty, salty zing of feta cheese was especially tasty with the sweet melon. Here’s a good recipe for a very similar salad that I adapted from the original version posted on the Tasty Kitchen blog. …oh, & by the way, if that fennel bulb is still in your fridge from last week, I think that would a GREAT addition to the watermelon salad.

Savory Watermelon Salad

-4 cups fresh greens torn into bite size pieces (arugula is nice and spicy but I think it’s best when combined with other, more mild greens like lettuce and spinach)
-1/4 of a large watermelon or ½ small watermelon,  
  seeded and cubed
-1/2 cup lemon juice
-1/2 cup olive oil
-1/4 cup sweet onion, very thinly sliced
-1 tsp. salt
-1/2 tsp. pepper
-Toppings: ½ cup crumbled feta cheese & ½ cup mint leaves, finely chopped or julienned

Combine greens and watermelon, set aside.

Whisk together lemon juice, oil, minced onion, salt & pepper.  Pour over melon and greens.
Top with crumbled feta and mint leaves.

Serve immediately.

As always, please feel free to contact me for clarification, further information, or to share your own adventures in cooking local, USDA certified organic produce. amanda.waterstrat@gmail.com