CSA Share Notes:

The full abundance of summer is still on its’ way! We’re delivering to about 60% of our members this week as the garden continues to mature into full production. Next week we will likely be ready to feed the whole crowd.

 

Note: Bouquet Subscribers! You’ve got a special share notes section down at the very bottom of this page, so scroll all the way down for info on today’s bouquet and notes on what’s coming soon from our flower field.

Now here’s your vegetable line-up:

• Basil — Important note! DO NOT REFRIGERATE your basil. Basil can’t tolerate temperatures below 50 degrees. If you refrigerate it, you’ll have black, nasty leaves, only fit for compost.  Store it bouquet style, in a glass of cool water on the counter. In fact, if you treat it just like you would a fresh, locally grown bouquet (trim the stems often and change the water every day), you can get incredible vase life out of it. I see pesto pasta or margarita pizza in your future! You’re going to get a lot of basil over the next month. Plan on hanging some to dry for use later in the year.
• Eggplant — Large shares received our long Japanese eggplant, Regular received an Italian and a few Fairy Tale, Mini received an Italian eggplant. My best eggplant tip is cook it HOT and FAST. You want a good browning on them, maybe even a hint of char. This really brings out the sweetness. You can grill them, roast them in a hot oven, or blister them in a cast iron.  I love to then toss them into any Italian dish or a Southeast Asian curry, or top them with a delicious umami sauce. I’ve made Korean marinated eggplant several times and it’s heavenly on the side of an asian beef or pork recipe.
• Cherry Tomatoes — sungolds! Large and Mini shares this week.  These golden drops of sunshine are my favorite part of summer. They are so tasty I rarely cook with them, because they always get eaten too quickly.. But they are excellent in a fresh summer pasta, on salads, etc.
• San Marzanos — Regular shares received a few of our San Marzano tomatoes, as well. These are a sauce tomato, meaning they have less water content and are excellent for a salsa or pico.
• Slicing Tomatoes — Finally we’re having a decent tomato year after 4 crummy tomato years!  We’re so excited to be able to send you a whole bunch this week. We tried to give you varying degrees of ripeness so you can use some soon, and some in a few days.  Allow them to ripen upside down on a sunny windowsill.
• Peppers — Everyone is receiving a couple of green bell peppers, and a purple bell, too. These are being grown this year in our greenhouse covered with a gentle shade cloth, and they are so happy in there! And they’re beautiful. We hope we get loads more in the weeks to come. We love to make stuffed peppers as an entree, and we also love a good red or green Thai curry with lots of peppers, eggplant, squash garlic, and onion, and big handfuls of basil (it’s a great way to use up a TON of your box contents). I don’t have time for home made green curry sauce, so I buy good quality jarred curry paste and it does the trick for a quick, delicious meal.
• Specialty Peppers — The Regular shares received our Shishito peppers, a very mildly spicy pepper, that is all the rage in the culinary world these days.  Blister them in a hot skillet then dip them in any number of different delicious sauces. Try a Barcelonian romesco sauce, an Italian pesto, a garlic lemon dip, an Asian sesame and fish sauce…you name it. They’re wonderful. A quick google search will give you a million and one ideas.
• Squash — Everyone received a few squash. The Large received our Zephyr squash, which are green with yellow tips. The Regular and mini shares received most of our yellow straight neck squash
• Zucchini — Large and Regular’s received our green zucchini, Mini shares received the Italian Romanesco zucchini. My FAVORITE zucchini. It’s so nutty and delicious.Enjoy!
• Potato —  Ready to boil into a delicious potato salad. Or try Smashed Potatoes: parboil and drain, then lightly oil a baking sheet and place boiled potatoes on it. Smash each one with the bottom of a coffee mug into a flattened disk (the potato will crack, deeply. This is fine) Brush all sides heavily with olive oil, salt generously, and bake at 450 till crispy and golden, about 30 min. (We actually use a small counter top oven which we plug in outside on the porch to not heat up the kitchen this time of year). This will be your new favorite way to enjoy potatoes.
  • I have an important note about your potatoes!  The last 3 weeks of their growth, they sat in super saturated soil while we received downpour, after downpour and couldn’t get them harvested. Those conditions are causing a significant amount of post-harvest loss. We have sorted them multiple times to try and ensure you’re receiving best quality but some bad ones inevitably get missed.  Be sure to sort through yours carefully. 
• Onion  —  DELICIOUS sweet red and yellow onions for everyone.
• Garlic  — Good quality garlic is impossible to find in stores, so we’re elated to have this back in our kitchen! This year’s garlic harvest is one of the best we’ve had and we’re so excited to share it with you. These are a red Creole type, bred for hot, humid Louisiana conditions, and this helps it perform well here in East Texas, too. It consistently produces large bulbs with a smaller number of nice big cloves with a wonderful, pungent flavor.
• Red Moon Farm Peaches! — These poor spotty peaches require an explanation: the record breaking rains of this spring have caused near total loss of our first peach harvest to black spot and mildew. And now that it’s dry as a bone, birds are attacking them with a vengeance, so we have to pick them a little under ripe before they peck them, otherwise we’d face 100% crop loss (rather than the 70-80% we’re already facing from the spring rains).  But we felt like a *few* of them are good enough to send, so long as they only have surface blemishes.  So set yours in a sunny window, wait 4-5 days for full ripeness, and chow down, knowing these peaches have ZERO chemicals sprayed on them!  The ripe ones we’ve eaten have been very delicious. We have holiday plans for a basil, tomato, peach, red onion side dish. We can’t wait to share it with the family.

 

Veggie Storage tips:

• Everything wants to be washed well before cooking, but keep the dirt on till then, to prevent faster spoilage.
• Basil must not be stored in the fridge. Keep it in a glass of water in a cool place, and out of direct light.
• Tomatoes, peaches, potatoes, garlic, and onions prefer room temperature, dry conditions.
• Peppers, eggplant, and squash want to be in your fridge, sealed up to retain moisture.

 

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

 

Regular Share

 

 

Today’s Regular Share:
Top Left to Rt: Romanesco zucchini, Noche zucchini, yellow squash, sungolds, a couple of slicers, bell peppers, Shishito peppers (2nd row) red and sweet yellow onion, garlic, red potatoes, Winona blueberries, and Genovese basil

Large Share

 

 

Today’s Large Share:
Top Left to Rt: Romanesco zucchini, Noche zucchini, yellow squash, zephyr squash, sungolds, a couple of slicers, bell peppers, Italian sweet peppers (2nd row) red and sweet yellow onion, garlic, red potatoes, Winona blueberries, and Genovese basil

 Mini Share

 

 

Today’s Mini Share:
Top Left to Rt: Noche zucchini, Zephyr squash, bell peppers, a couple of small slicers, a few San Marzano tomatoes, sweet Italian peppers (2nd row) red and sweet yellow onion, garlic, red potatoes, Winona blueberries, and Genovese basil

 

Today’s Bouquet Share:

 

Today’s Bouquet Share notes:

This week’s bouquets are very bright and festive.  We hope you enjoy them this holiday week!

Today’s flowers: Each bouquet has:

• Mostly Red and white zinnias, a few have magenta.
• Giant Yellow zinnias, or Sunflowers, or Double Gloriosa rudbeckia
• delicate white Cosmos
• Bright purple Lisianthus
• purple Veronica spikes
• Purple Verbena Bonariensis
• Mrs. Burn’s Lemon Basil for greenery