Week 6

I saw my friend Melissa at Newaukum Valley Farm posted a picture of their first ripe slicing tomato and I also noticed that Puddleton Farm is selling tomatoes to the Co-op.  Dang, I am jealous.  I spent way too much time yesterday looking for a tomato at our place.  We have a few handfuls of ripe cherries and few big tomatoes that are blushing.  The good news is we have tomato ripening weather forecasted for the week.  Hopefully there is a tomato sandwich in all our futures soon.

I am including a recipe for swiss chard fritters from the cookbook Jerusalum.  I don't often make it to the library in the summer but since I had been on the waiting list for the book for a couple months I made an exception.  It is a beautiful cookbook and I loved the stuff I made out it.  We had the fritters with some home made falafel and grilled zucchini a couple weeks ago.  I told Kelly that I had finally found a way to love swiss chard and he told me not to fool myself.  He responded that what I really like is feta cheese.  Perhaps, but I do think I made a discovery.  The recipe has you boil the chard and while I don't normally boil vegetables it made the chard a lot milder and more spinach like which I preferred.

One thing you will notice you don't have in your box is garlic and unfortunately you will be noticing that all season.  We lost our entire crop to a grey mold.  Usually when we have a crop failure it isn't that noticeable because it may not affect all varieties or we have another planting that makes up for it.  We only plant garlic once and we are always paranoid about disease.  This year our paranoia was actually warranted.  In addition to not having garlic and loosing money to labor it also means that we need to buy garlic seed this year.  We try our hardest to insure success in the garden but if there is one thing I have learned is that there will always be good and bad in the garden no matter how hard we try.  There are just too many factors we can't control.  The first summer I farmed with Kelly I went home twice because I was so distraught that things weren't perfect.  I have learned to live with a little imperfection and while both Kelly and I were very upset about the garlic we realized that all we can do is try to learn from it and focus on the rest of the garden and the rest of the garden looks good!  We both apologize that your boxes will be garlic free this season.

However you choose to cook your vegetables I hope you have many delicious meals this week.

Lettuce - We are back to regular head lettuce this week.  I am curious to know if you enjoyed the mini heads you had last week.
Carrots
Zucchini/Summer Squash Mix
Mixed Herb Bunch
Swiss Chard
Potatoes
Raspberries
Napa Cabbage - Small Only
Green Beans - Large Only - the first picking
Scallions - Large Only

Swiss Chard Fritters adapted from the cookbook Jerusalum 

I considered not blending all the ingredients and adding a few chopped stems for texture but in the end I decided to just trust the authors.  The one thing I did omit was grated nutmeg.  Kelly and I both liked the herby green flavor these had.

1 bunch swiss chard leaves, stalks removed

Flat leaf parsley

Cilantro

Dill

1/2 tsp sugar

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 eggs

3oz feta, crumbled

olive oil

Lemon wedges, for serving

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add chard and simmer for 5 minutes.  Drain, let cool and then squeeze excess liquid from the chard.  

Place chard and all other ingredients except the feta, olive oil and lemon in a food processor or immersion blender cup and blend.  Fold the feta into the mixture. 

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of the batter for each fritter. Press down gently on the fritter to flatten it. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes per side, until golden brown.  Remove & keep warm while you fry the rest of the fritters in batches. 

Serve warm, with lemon wedges.

Don't feel like making fritters.  Any of your herbs would be good in the below salad. 

Warm Grilled Zucchini/Summer Squash Salad

Heat grill.

Slice the squash long ways into 1/4 inch slices.

Brush with oil and season with salt and pepper.

Grill until each piece has nice grill marks and is tender when pierced with a fork.

Remove from grill and cut into smaller pieces.

Toss with vinaigrette made from 2 parts olive oil, 1 part lemon juice and just a touch of dijon mustard.  Garnish with some freshly chopped parsley, mint, dill or cilantro or a mix of herbs.  A little feta cheese won't hurt this recipe either!  Serve warm or at room temperature.