Share Notes 8-4-16
CSA Share Notes:
Welcome to this week’s CSA share. Here’s your vegetable line up:
- Japanese Eggplant— Small shares received pale purple Japanese eggplant variety, and Large shares all received a the dark purple (it’s almost black!) Japanese eggplant. These eggplant are tender and soft and don’t store for long. This week we pan seared them in a heavy enameled cast iron, and topped them with our fabulous summer green curry sauce. Visit Kabayan or Fresh, for the more obscure ingredients like lemongrass and fish sauce. At World Market the other day I actually found a small jar of pureed lemongrass, all ready to go. So easy!
- Bell peppers—Each share received a whole bunch of our colorful bell peppers. This with our wonderful Japanese eggplant gives you the base ingredients for one of my favorite dishes: Summer Veggie Green Curry I mentioned above.
- Jalapenos—Each share received a handful of bright, juicy jalapenos.
- Poblanos—Each share received our spicy, dark poblanos. Try stuffing them!
- Fairytale Eggplant— Small shares received a container of our cute and beautiful Fairytale Eggplant. If you haven’t tried these yet, you’re in for a treat. Cook them on high heat on the stove-top or on the grill. Season with soy sauce and herbs, or just with salt, pepper, and olive oil.
- Squash or Zucchini—The plants are just about done, but they still had a little more to give this week!All small shares received a handful of either squash or zucchini.
- Cucumbers—Large shares received a few of our small slicing cucumbers.
- Sungold tomatoes—Large shares received a pint of our little jewels of summer!
- Onions—Each share received a few nice-sized yellow onions
- Tomatoes—Each share received 4-6 of our finally ready tomatoes. Seriously, we can’t believe that this late into summer we are just now getting a harvest of tomatoes, and it’s a small one! But boy are we thankful to be getting some now. The varieties you will see are our round, red slicing varieties like Better Boy and Celebrity. The small oval shaped tomatoes are San Marzanos, which are an heirloom Roma type. The mauve or blush colored tomatoes are our heirloom slicers. These only went out to the large shares. If any of your tomatoes are under-ripe just yet, leave them out on the counter to finish ripening before you dig in. Split or cracked tomatoes will spoil faster, (so don’t wait too long!) and a good number of the tomatoes do have small splits in them. Just cut out the cracked part and enjoy the rest. Important storage notes are below.
- Basil—Each share received a small bunch of our healthy Genovese basil. This crop doesn’t wanna quit in the heat! It may arrive to you wilted from its journey. Follow our storage notes below and perk it back up.
Veggie Storage tips:
As a general rule, wait to wash any veggies until you’re ready to use them to help retain nutrients and prevent spoilage from excess moisture.
Tomatoes prefer to be kept at room temperature. The warmer the room, the faster the tomatoes will ripen (or decompose). Ideally they are stored around 70 degrees. So if you have received some very ripe tomatoes but won’t get to eating them right away, they can go in the fridge to slow down their ripening but they really don’t prefer to be below 50 degrees.
Bell peppers, and jalapenos can be at room temp as well, especially if you’re going to use them up within a couple of days. If it will take you longer than a week to use them up, we suggest storing them in the fridge sealed up, along with your cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and eggplant.
Onions like room temp, in a cool dark place.
Basil should not be refrigerated, as it will turn black below 50 degrees. Trim the stems daily and place in a glass of cool water on your counter to perk it back up and keep it fresh.
Thank you so much for being a part of our Summer CSA!
Your farmers,
Jess & Justin
