CSA Share Notes

This heat is just killin’ us! The garden won’t hold out for much longer but we are glad to have just enough produce to eek out a box for you, and with a special treat this week!

Here’s your vegetable line up:

• Peppers— We’re so happy some are finally ready.  Our pretty purple and green bells are great. This week they went to the regular and mini shares. Long slender Italian peppers went to the Large shares. These look like a hot pepper, but they’re not! They’re totally sweet and mild like a bell.
• Eggplant—  The large shares received several nice large Italian eggplant. The mini’s received our petite Fairytale eggplant. My favorite one of all.  The Regular shares received an Italian and a long Japanese. Eggplant is excellent cooked in high heat, but no need to heat up your kitchen if you have a grill. Grilled eggplant is my favorite way to eat it.  Or you can take the large ones and roast them, then scoop out the softened flesh and make my favorite summer dip- Baba Ganoush!
• Potatoes— White Kennebec this week. Enjoy them wedged and roasted or grilled into big chunky fries, or cube and hash brown them for the yummiest breakfast tacos with egg, potato, and cheese.  Did you know that potatoes, when cooked and then cooled, contain something called Resistant Starch that is excellent for blood sugar regulation as well as intestinal health? (and then you can reheat them for serving, without reducing the level of resistant starch) Google it! It’s awesome.
• Garlic— We’ve been getting a lot of compliments about our garlic this year! We’re pretty proud of it, too and so glad you’re enjoying it.  We grow a whole bunch of Red Creole types, although, we’ve saved seed on them for so many years now, this has really become our own variety. It’s a great garlic.
• Onions— 3 for the Large, 2 for the regular, and 1 for the mini.  If you notice a bit of black dust under the onion skin, that’s aspergillus niger, a mold that is totally harmless and grows on storage onions in our humid ETX climate. Just rinse it off, or remove that first layer of the onion and you’re good to go.
• Basil— Lovely bunches. Remember not to refrigerate your basil, or it will turn black! Store it on the counter in a glass of cool water. If wilted, you can often revive it by trimming the stem and submerging it in a sink of cold water for a couple of hours.
• Cherry tomatoes— Apple Yellow for the Large, and mini. Sweet and fresh.
• Tomatillos— For regular shares. This wonderful crop is excellent in any latin fare. Try roasting it and then blending it with jalapenos, fresh onion, garlic, cilantro, and lime to make a killer green salsa. The heat will be determined by how hot your jalapenos are. Just like tomatoes, don’t refrigerate this crop.
• Squash— Still had enough for everyone this week!
• Zucchini—Just enough for the large shares this week
• Cucumbers—Everyone received crunchy cukes. We have a few longer/bigger varieties that are slicing types, and shorter, squatty varieties that are pickling types. Both can be used interchangeably in any salad or for fresh, crunchy snacking. If you received any really big ones, you can scoop out the seeds, or slice and use for refreshing cucumber water
• Peaches!—These beauties were grown by our friends down the road at Winona Orchards. And while they are not grown organically, the Sattlers are very intentional to spray as infrequently and with the lightest application possible to achieve their goal of high quality, unblemished fruits. They observe withdrawal times and spray long before harvest dates.

Veggie Storage tips:

Tomatoes and tomatillos want to stay above 55 degrees, so keep them away from the fridge! Same with Basil. On the counter in a glass of water is their preferred storage set-up. Potatoes, garlic, and onions prefer room temperature, with good air ventilation. If stored in the dark, the potatoes will begin to sprout, but don’t give them *too* much light, either, or their skin will begin to green. Everything else (squash, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers) wants to be in your refrigerator, sealed up in bags of containers to prevent drying out. Everything will need a gentle 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:  Peaches, tomatillos, white kennebec potatoes, (2nd row) garlic, cukes, peppers (bottom row) onions, squash, Japanese eggplant, Italian eggplant, basil.

Large Share

Large Share top left to right:  Peaches, white kennebec potatoes, cherry toms, garlic, Italian peppers. (2nd row) zucchini, cukes, onions. (bottom row) squash, Italian eggplant, basil

Mini Share

 Mini share: top left to right: peaches, cherry toms, white kennebec potatoes (2nd row) squash, garlic, onion, peppers (bottom row) cuke, Fairytale eggplant, basil.