Share Notes 7-13-17
CSA Share Notes:
Welcome to another abundant CSA share! Here’s this week’s vegetable line-up:
- Eggplant—Large shares received a few tasty eggplant (unless you received an eggplant monstrosity, in which case, we only gave you one!): Most of you are going to get to try both our black beauty eggplant as well as our Listada di Gandia which is purple and white striped Italian eggplant and so fantastic. There are a handful of really great eggplant recipes in the kitchen blog.
- Cucumbers—Some received slicing variety and a few received a pickling variety
- Zucchini—Large shares only received this item
- Yellow squash—Small shares only received this item (Most of the shares, anyway! The few who did not receive yellow squash are getting to sample our Japanese eggplant, my favorite eggplant variety.)
- Onion—our crisp, sweet yellow onions for everyone.
- Sungold cherry tomatoes—This crop is really growing strong. We had enough for all small shares to receive a pint and all large shares, a quart!
- Sweet bell peppers—Have you eaten bell peppers on the grill? They’re fantastic with little bit of char on them. We enjoyed ours in a fresh thai coconut milk curry this week.
- Italian Frying Peppers—These are crisp and sweet, similar to a bell pepper. They’ll be great sautéed, or blistered and roasted in the oven, but I really like them raw.
- Cayenne Peppers—Small shares only. These long skinny peppers have a wonderful flavor and nice amount of heat, though surprisingly not any more spicy than a jalapeño. Enjoy in any dish you need to spice up.
- Slicing tomatoes—The slicers this week are all from our Big Beef variety. We tried to not give out very many green tomatoes, but we did try to give everyone a variant of ripenesses. You likely received a couple that are still orange or have green shoulders. Just set them on the counter, shoulders down, and they’ll be ready in a few days.
- Roma tomatoes—Small shares only. This variety is an heirloom hybrid, San Marzano type, known for it’s fantastic flavor and low moisture content. These would be great for stuffed tomatoes, for roasting and putting on a pizza, or for making into salsa.
Veggie Storage tips:
Onions and tomatoes will all prefer to stay at room temp. Tomatoes especially will begin to get mealy if stored any colder than 55 degrees. The squash, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, and peppers like to be cool but not cold. They can be stored at room temp if you’ll be eating them fairly soon, otherwise put them sealed up in the fridge if you won’t be getting to them for a few days.
Everything will need a gentle washing before cooking, but leave the dirt on until you’re ready to use them to prevent faster spoilage.
We’d love to hear stories and recipes of your culinary adventures this week. Send us a note or post a comment of how you’ve used your CSA share.
Your farmers,
Jess & Justin
Large Share
