CSA Share Notes:

Welcome to a soft-opening of our Summer season! We’re only delivering to about 40% of our members this week as the garden gradually comes into its’ full readiness. Early in the week we saw there were quite a few things ready for you out there in the garden, just not enough for the entire lot of members. So if you’re getting a share this week, consider yourself super lucky, and if you’re not, your turn is a-coming!

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.
• Cherry Tomatoes — sungolds! Large and Regular shares this week (lots more coming!) These golden drops of sunshine are my favorite part of summer. They are so tasty I rarely cook with them, because they always get into my mouth before I have the chance to start chopping. But they are excellent in a fresh summer pasta, on salads, etc.
• Tomatoes — Large and Regular shares each received two slicing tomatoes. We tried to give you varrying degrees of ripeness so you can use one soon, and one in a few days.  Allow them to ripen upside down on a sunny windowsill. Mini 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.
• Peppers — Everyone is receiving a couple of green bell peppers this week. 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.
• Specialty Peppers — The large shares and Mini shares each received a few of our Italian sweet peppers, long and slender. They’ll cook up great in a saute, and are wonderful in a salad or on a pizza.  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 couple of squash! The Large and Mini shares both got some of our Zephyr squash, which are mostly green with yellow tips. The Regular shares received most of our yellow straight neck squash
• Zucchini — Tasty and tender. 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  —  A yellow and/or red onion for everyone.
• Garlic  — Good quality garlic is impossible to find in stores and we’re elated to have this back in our kitchen this week! 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.
• Blueberries! — These little sweeties were grown right down the road by our friends at Winona Orchards. While they’re not organic, they limit their spraying to well before harvest time, and deliver with exceptional quality.   You’ll find a few soft ones in there: the effects of a month of near daily drenching rain followed by 3 weeks of straight dry weather (so some of them swelled, then shrank!)  But their flavor is unmatched. Wash in a baking soda bath, rinse, and enjoy! Why baking soda, you ask?? Read this article!

 

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, potatoes, garlic, and onions prefer room temperature, dry conditions.
• Blueberries, peppers, 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 HUGE.  This probably will not be the usual size, we’ve just got more flowers this week than we know what to do with, so I loaded you down as much as my hands could hols while building your bouquets.

Most bouquets are a pink and yellow mix, and a few are an orange and magenta mix. We’re starting to get some bold, bright reds, oranges, and yellows coming from the garden so that’ll be a fun change for some of the bouquets next week! I’m mostly going to focus on bold bright colors in the bouquets subscriptions next week to compliment any festive Independence Day events you’ll be hosting or attending. (Share my flowers with others to spread the joy!!)  But I will also still have plenty of the vintage-toned pastels for a little bit longer, so those I may offer as optional add-on bouquets in the web store if you want to add on a pastel bouquet, while I try to put most of the bold colors in the bouquet subscriptions.

 

Today’s flowers:

• Giant Yellow/Orange marigolds
• delicate Cosmos, assorted shades of pink
• Lots of Lisianthus in Champange and light pink
• Double Gloriosa rudbeckia
• A few zennias, all different colors
• Some pretty little Gomphrena in pale pink or bright magenta
• a little bit of purple Veronica spikes in most bouquets
• Mrs. Burn’s Lemon Basil for greenery