Week 9

When I picked zucchini this morning for a co-op order I noticed that it is about time to call it quits on the first round of cukes and zukes.  The plants are starting to look a little tired and the plants are producing some funny shaped fruits.  We also pulled down all the peas last week and got a lot of the trellising removed.  Although we are still planting things we have turned a corner.  The stand looked beautiful this weekend with some tomatoes, peppers and lots of flowers on it but the fields are giving us a glimpse into the future…summer is fading in some ways.

 As far as your boxes go, we have a lot of summer ahead of us so don't let me get you down!

Carrots
Lettuce - Lovelock, it is a nice Batavian style mild lettuce with a good crunch.
Cherry Tomatoes
Japanese Cucumbers - When we first started growing these we didn't know how pick them.  We just came up with our own opinion and went with it.  Then, Hiroko, a customer originally from Japan, set us straight.  For a while we continued to pick them our own way, always picking a few slimmer ones for her.  Then this year we started picking them smaller and then we started to waffle back and forth which is kind of where we are now.  In Japan and Korea they are picked more slender than the ones in your box today.  The problem is they are fairly perishable and the slender ones go soft even quicker than the larger ones do.  I think they taste great at the size we started picking them or we wouldn't have decided on that size but I feel like it is a little bit like when your neighbor gives you that giant zucchini and you think to yourself  - don't you know better.  Someone knows better than we do and we can't decide if we should give in or just do it our own way.  They do taste great skinnier but they go soft in a New York minute.
Potatoes - Satina, gold skin, gold flesh
Walla Walla Onion- love these sliced and grilled on a burger or a sandwich
Cauliflower or Poblano Pepper - We were not sure if we would get heads of cauliflower this week for everybody so we are going to save ourselves some stress and split it into two weeks.  Some of you will get cauli this week and some next.  The week you don't have cauliflower you will have poblano peppers.  They aren't a bit like cauliflower but they are yummy.
Salad Mix - Large Only
Pursalane - Add on Veggie Only


Here is an easy traditional way to use your not so traditionally picked cucumber.  Sunonono Salad is great served nice an cold and garnished with sesame seeds.

What to do with your poblano peppers other than make chile rellenos. 
The pobalnos we have eaten have been on the spicy end of the poblano spice range.

Rick Bayless has a great potato salad recipe with a poblano mayonnaise.  What the blogger doesn't mention is that your olive oil should be mild or use veggie oil and that it is best eaten before you refrigerate it.  The blogger likes it with bacon which I am sure is awesome.  I love it with grilled salmon and a salad.   If you don't want to make your own mayo you could just jazz up some regular mayo with some roasted poblanos.

Ian, who some of you see on Wednesday, mentioned that he and his partner made a poblano cream sauce.  Sounds good - I think you could make really rich with just heavy cream or a little lighter with a mix of stock and cream or even stock and milk if you thickened it a bit.  I need to experiment.

Roasted pobalnos are great on both chicken and steak tacos or in a breakfast burrito.  They add a little smokiness, a little heat and a lot of flavor

Add on Veggie - Pursalne
Yes, we are giving you a weed but not just any weed.  It is high in Omega-3 fatty acids and many people extol it as a super food.  I am kind of sick of that word and I mainly like it because I think it tastes good.  Of course things that taste good and are good for you are hard to beat.  It grows almost anywhere which is probably why I found recipes and traditional food lore about it from countries all around the world.

You have two kinds of pursalne.  One is a cultivated variety that I ordered seed for and planted in tidy rows.  It is the lighter of the two, has bigger leaves and grows more upright making it easier to harvest.  I am not sure it tastes better.   I kind of think the leaves of the weed taste better but the stems of the cultivated variety taste better.  I thought it would be fun to give you both.    What I like about pursalane is that it has a great texture and a lemony flavor.

Up until today I always ate it raw and almost always as a little snack as I was walking around the field or weeding something.  Lots of weeds are edible but pursalane is the only one I bother with.  I knew that it was used in Mexican cooking (called Verdolagos) and have wanted to try a pork dish I came across in a magazine a long time ago.  The flavor reminds me a little of nopales, the cactus eaten in Mexico and often served with tomatoes.  I quickly grilled some whole - just a a little oil and a minute on a hot grill.  I then chopped it up, minus the bottom stem, with some grilled onions, tomatoes and garlic and a drizzle of olive oil.  I think it could make a great salad or a great salsa this way with a little hot pepper added.  I also made the pork dish I had once read about with from a recipe I got from Rick Bayless. You can find a very similar version here  that is adapted just slightly from the original recipe.  Bayless also suggests making it with out the pork.  We really enjoyed it.

I haven't made either of the salad recipes below but they are both very easy and both similar to the salad I made with tomatoes and onions.

Pursalane Salad with Parsley
Pursalane Salad with Cucumber

I realize that I send this post out very close to when you actually receive the unusual item and if you prefer to plan in advance or don't like to make do and improvise in recipes this is probably inconvenient.  I thought it might be helpful if I tell you that the next two add on vegetables you will receive will both be herbs.  One is papalo, a mexican herb and the other is shiso, an herb used in Japan.  

Happy Eating.