Share Notes July 15 & 17
CSA Share Notes:
Though the crops are coming in late (you remember that huge winter storm and the entire month of May that was rainy almost every darn day?), they’re coming in really well.
The many days of mid-80s temps we’ve been getting the past couple of weeks have done our garden a lot of favors. If this keeps up, we could have crops into late August, fingers crossed.
This week we are adding our very first harvest of poblanos, slicing tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes to the boxes. Just a little bit, and only for a few of the shares, but this means there’s a lot more coming over the next few weeks. We also had a few good quality baby cabbages in the field left from the spring garden that we know you’ll put to good use.
Here’s this week’s vegetable line up:
- Slicing Tomatoes — For the regular shares. Some of these will need a few days on the counter to complete ripening. They’ll be delicious once they’re ready! We hope to be loading you down with tomatoes soon.
- Cherry Tomatoes — The famous, long-awaited for sungold cherry tomato. These are so sweet and unique and we’re delighted to share them with you. We only had a few to spread around amongst the Large shares, but we think we’ll have loads of them very soon.
- Baby purple cabbage— For the Large shares and Mini shares. This would make the perfect summer slaw, or topping for yummy chicken tacos
- Bell Peppers— For the Large shares and Regular shares, a bit of purple and a bit of green.
- Italian Peppers— For the Mini shares. These ultra long slender peppers are sweet, like a bell, though they resemble certain spicy pepper types. We cooked ours into a Jambalaya with the onions, garlic, and some grocery store celery this past week. The bells would work well for this too.
- Jalapenos— A few for everyone!
- Poblanos— enough for the mini shares this week. We never can tell if they’re going to be really spicy until we cut into them, so let us know what you think.
- Zucchini— Just enough for the Regular shares this week. The zucchini declined over the past 2 weeks so we’ve just sprayed it with a natural peroxide solution to combat fungus, fertilized and weeded it, and are hoping it bounces back well. If not, we’re planting more tomorrow which will be ready in the early Fall CSA.
- Summer Squash— There are three different types, crook neck, straight neck, and Zephyr, which is half lime green, half yellow.
- Cucumbers— plenty for everyone. There were a few jumbo, slightly overripe cukes we gave out to some of the large shares. If any of your cukes are too large for slicing and eating, don’t toss them! They’ll make a delicious pitcher of refreshing cucumber water to help you hydrate in this heat.
- Basil—A few leafy stems of Italian Genovese basil for everyone. **READ BASIL STORAGE TIPS BELOW** We’ve been enjoying salads of cucumber, red onion, tomato, and basil with a bit of balsamic. It’s so refreshing.
- Potatoes—A mix of Red skinned potatoes and White Kennebec. We’ve been loading you down with potatoes while we’ve been waiting on all the summer crops to come in. We’ll take a break next week.
- Onions— Yellow and reds for the Large and Regular, Just reds for the mini shares.
Veggie Storage tips:
Basil should never be below 50 degrees or it will turn black so *do not store it in the fridge.* It prefers to be in a nice cool spot in your kitchen, away from the sun, stem down in a fresh glass of water. Trim the stems and refresh the water every other day or so, and your basil will last at least a week or more. If it’s wilty when you receive it, fully submerge it in a sink of cold water for an hour or two to help it perk up, then trim the stem before putting it in a glass of water.
All your peppers, squash, zucchini, and cukes will keep longest stored in the fridge sealed up in produce bags. Potatoes, tomatoes, and onions prefer a dry, room temperature spot, away from direct light (but don’t put your potatoes in the complete dark or they’ll sprout!). Everything will need a thorough washing before cooking, but leave the dirt on until you’re ready to use them to prevent 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
Regular Share
Regular Share top left to right: Jalapenos, bell peppers, basil, (2nd row) tomato, mixed cucumbers, (3rd row) mixed potatoes, onions, squash, and zucchini.
