Share Notes July 17, 2025

Here’s your vegetable line-up:

• Slicing Tomatoes – Lycopene time!  This crop is at its’ peak. If you haven’t been making fresh salsa and pico, and scarfing up Caprese salads and greek tomato cucumber salads, on the daily, GET ON IT!  If you cannot get through all of these tomatoes fast enough, you can freeze them whole once fully ripe, and then make a batch of pasta sauce from them once you have enough or when you find the time.  These amazing yields will wind down soon and when they do, it’s wind down fast so enjoy this abundance while we have it! Store them on the counter, upside down, and allow to fully ripen. Remember to never refrigerate your tomatoes! They become mealy below 55 degrees.
• Squash –  one or two for all shares.   We’ve got a yellow straight neck for you as well as a really cool green and yellow striped squash called zephyr. It’s tender and delicious.
• Zucchini – Enough for the Regular and Large this week. You might have our Romanesco zucchini or our Black Beauty. We’ve been making great sheet-pan dinners with zucchini, okra, eggplant and more. It’s been heavenly with a pork chop or chicken breast on the side. And a side of sliced tomatoes. Always.
• Basil – A sprig of Italian Genovese Basil for everyone.  Important Storage Tip: Don’t refrigerate your basil or it will ruin and turn black! It needs to be stored in a glass of water on the counter and it’ll be fresh for several days. If wilty when you receive it, trim the stem and place in a glass of cold water and see if it perks up. If not, hang to dry to enjoy dried basil after basil season is over!
• Cucumbers – A couple for everyone!  I LOVE a fresh cucumber salad. Enjoy, friends!
• Potatoes – White kennebec. These are excellent for boiling, roasting, home fries, or potato salad. We’ve nearly given out all of this storage crop. It grows from February till early June, and then is harvested all at once and doled out as long as it lasts. When it’s gone, it’s gone, till next year!
• Onions – each color for everyone. The onion harvest for this year was small, (exceedingly wet conditions) so we’ll only have onions for you for a couple more weeks before we run through the whole crop. Enjoy them while we’ve got them!
• Garlic – A few for everyone. This garlic has got such a wonderful flavor, we hope you love it!
• Okra – Enough for the Large and Mini shares this week. This is a Texas Heirloom called Hill Country Red and it stays tender and delicious even when it gets fairly large. It’s perfect when prepared at high heat: oven roasted, grilled, or blistered in a cast iron.
• Hot peppers – Jalapenos for the Large and Regular shares this week. Mini shares received Shishito peppers, which are often quite mild, but every once in a while, you’ll get a spicy one. Search online for amazing Shishito pepper recipes. They’re amazing blistered in a hot cast iron.
• Sweet Peppers – Large Shares received our long slender Italian Sweet peppers. Regular shares received either a single tasty Bell pepper, or a couple of dark green poblanos (which are not mild, so watch out!) The peppers suffered significant deer damage this week so they’ll take a couple weeks to recover but we hope, in time, we’ll have a nice pepper harvest for you.
• Eggplant – The Large shares received 2 Italian eggplant, some of you got our heirloom Barbarella which is simply beautiful. Our Regular shares received a Japanese eggplant and a few Fairty Tale eggplant, and the Mini shares received a Japanese eggplant.  Eggplant wants fast, high heat cooking, just like okra, to prevent a funky texture. If used super fresh, theres no need to sweat them, but if you store them for a couple of days, you’ll want to slice and salt them to let any bitterness sweat out before cooking.
• FIGS! – Our friendly neighbor farm, Zillmer Farm in Lindale, TX grows wonderful fruit. He had a surplus of figs this week and we swooped in to get them for you. We had enough to give them to the Large and Regular shares. He grown is fruit with no chemicals, so they can absolutely be considered clean!

Veggie Storage tips:

• Everything wants to be washed well before cooking, but keep the dirt on till then, to prevent faster spoilage.
• Fridge storage this week: figs, squash, zucchini, eggplant, cucumber, pepper, okra, all sealed up in a container or plastic bag.
• Counter storage:  Don’t refrigerate your basil, tomatoes, garlic, or onions.
• Dark cabinet storage: Potatoes keep best away from the light, but in the open air. Don’t keep them in the plastic bag, switch to a paper bag or in an open-air basket in your cupboard.

Regular Share

Regular Share – top row left to right: Basil, Fairy Tale Eggplant, Japanese Eggplant, zucchini and squash, Bell pepper and a jalapeno, cucumbers, (2nd row) onions, garlic, figs, potatoes, and across the bottom, a buuuuunch of tomatoes!

Large Share

Large shares – top row left to right: Italian Sweet peppers across the top, plus a couple of jalapenos. (2nd row) Basil, 2 Italian Eggplant, zucchini and squash, cucumbers, (3rd row) onions, garlic, okra, figs, potatoes, and across the bottom a buuuuunch of tomatoes!

Mini Share

Mini shares – top row left to right:  Basil, Japanese Eggplant, zucchini and squash, shishito peppers, cucumbers, (2nd row) onions, garlic, okra, potatoes, and across the bottom a buuuuunch of tomatoes!

Flower Shares:

Lovely color mixes this week. Loads and loads of zinnias, basil, Purple Kisses ammi, cockscomb celosia, and a bit of trailing amaranth and cupcakes cosmos, and just a few rudbeckia. I hope you love the color scheme you received this week! Snap a picture of yours and show us on instagram!

We’d love to hear stories and recipes of your culinary adventures this week. Tag us on Instagram or Facebook, showing us how you’ve used your CSA share.

Your farmers, Jess & Justin