Week 13

I already regret complaining about last week's heat.  It is just that I got a little too hot but now I am not hot enough.  I need help.  Really though, I do.  Kelly's family arrives on Wednesday…11 of them!  They are only here for a couple days and they are staying in a hotel so it really shouldn't be a big deal.  The rub is that we like things to be perfect and it is hard to ever be perfect but it is particularly challenging for us in August.  It is hard to explain August but it is not the easiest month to get through.  

I am looking forward to cooking a nice meal and sharing with them the food we grow.  I am also afraid that they won't understand how much that food and what we do with our lives means to us.  It isn't that they aren't great people.  I feel incredibly lucky to genuinely like my in-laws.  It is just that our life is so different than theirs and I am not sure they will appreciate the things that we value about our life.  I am fine with people thinking we are little crazy and in the case of my parents that we work to hard as long as they enjoy the food.  The other day my dad told Kelly that the watermelon he gave him was the best watermelon he had ever eaten.  It made my day.  

I know that the veggies in your box aren't always perfect (although we try) but I hope you are enjoying them and sharing food and meals with people you care about.  Knowing that people are enjoying meals together with food that we grew (along with a lot of help) is one of the things that makes my job great.  I love it when people send me photos of their kids eating veggies or tell me about what they cooked.  Don't worry, I become much less emotional once September arrives…more sleep, less sentimental!  

Enjoy your veggies.  

Arugula 

Rainbow Peppers - you choose, there will be a basket full on the stand.

Kale - Hopefully mixed bunches If you have ever wanted to eat a kale salad but been afraid that it will be all chewy and tough this is your best chance.  The last few years we have given the farm share our first picking off the fall kale.  It has been living under row cover for bug protection and it is very tender.  I will put a couple kale salad recipes at the end but I have a couple general suggestions.  I like to remove most of the rib and slice it thin or chop it and I either massage it or let the dressing sit on it for a little while (it is the first thing I make if I am having it for dinner). 

Cherry Tomato

Slicing Tomato

Cucumber

Melon - I am not sure what awaits us in the melon patch tomorrow.  The Tuscan melons and piel de sapos are close.  

Eggplant - Large Only

Little Gem Lettuce - Large Only
Shiso - Add On Only - This will start on Wednesday and then continue next Monday.  Shiso is a Japanese herb that is in the mint family.  It is sometimes called Japanese basil.  It has an amazing aroma and a distinct flavor that is hard to describe.  You will have green shiso.  It is often served wrapped around sushi and can sometimes be found in rolls.  You can use the leaves like little wraps around rice, grilled chicken skewers or veggies.   When I asked a friend born if Japan if the shiso looked okay she became very excited, laid it on her palm and than clapped her other hand down on it to release the aroma.   Here a few things to look at:  Ume pasta with shiso and nori, shiso wrapped chicken, shiso cocktail, sushi roll with plum and shiso

Kale Salads

Sesame Kale Salad

The following two recipes are similar.  Both have a lemony dressing, bread crumbs and grated cheese.  The second is basically a slightly different rendition of the first with the addition of raisons and walnuts.  Both ways are great, but the first is the simplest.  They both call for Tuscan kale or Lacinato kale but any kale will be fine.

Kale Salad with Bread Crumbs
Kale Salad with Bread Crumbs, Walnuts and Raisons

Week 3

I've noticed in the past few years that food magazines have become much better at focusing on recipes that use vegetables that are in season.  As someone who grows food I really appreciate that.  I looked through a few pages of the new Food & Wine and there were recipes for both kale and snap peas that caught my eye.  A customer asked what I like to do with snap peas on Saturday and I had nothing to say.  I said " I don't know, I usually just eat them raw".  Sure I throw them in salads and spring rolls and maybe chop a few up for a curry or stir fry but I don't have a go to snap pea dish.  In general, the idea of cooking them doesn't really appeal to me.  They just seem so good as they are.  The truth is I hardly even ever take any home - they mostly just serve as farm snacks.  That isn't to say I don't eat my fair share.  I eat a lot them.  There are often a few peas in my pocket!   I am attaching links to the recipes that caught my eye in the magazine.  The kale one is a grilled pesto.  Kale pesto is a winter staple in our house but I imagine blanching the kale and then grilling it (which sounds kind hard) gives it a completely different flavor.  It includes a pasta recipe that I will not be making anytime soon but the way time flies, winter and hours spent cooking are just around the corner.  The other is a snap pea salad that will involve a little adaptation of the recipe as we are done with green garlic.  However, the garlic that is in your boxes today isn't cured down and while it doesn't have the same flavor of green garlic it still has a nice fresh taste and would be a fine substitute.  If you still have your garlic scapes you could do a mix of the two.  I like that it uses dill and mint and raw snap peas.

Last week you had garlic scapes off of our last garlic to send out a scape and the last to mature, Chesnook.  This week you have recently harvested garlic(some last Friday, some Monday) off the the variety that was the first to scape for us, Bangkok Red.  It is one of the prettiest garlics we grow.  There is still a lot of moisture in the head so don't store it in a plastic bag/container.  It will do best just sitting on your counter.

You may have or may not have noticed that this is your second week without head lettuce.  That is pretty unusual.  Lettuce usually falls into an almost every week category when we plan what goes in your box.  The hot weather we had a couple weeks ago caused two lettuce plantings to bolt.  Lettuce doesn't like heat but usually we only see mature lettuce bolt.  I don't know if the plants were a little stressed to begin with but I was surprised to see not just the oldest planting bolt but also a newer planting.   All in all though things look good the fields and we should be back into head lettuce next week.

Carrots
Cilantro
Cabbage
Snap Peas
Kale
Garlic
Salad Mix- Large Only

Grilled Kale Pesto
Snap Pea Salad

Next week we will fully embrace summer with zukes and cukes!

Week 9

We hope you all are enjoying this amazing weather.  I will admit it got a bit hot for us yesterday but having some heat in the evening for a change was fantastic.  It is perfect weather for outdoor dining and for ripening tomatoes.  Bring on the heat!

Tomatoes - There are cherries for everyone and hopefully some some slicers for the large shares and trade table.
Peppers - purple and green
Red Leaf Lettuce
Carrots
Cabbage
Kale or Chard - This week the small share receives kale and the large share receives chard.  Next week it will be the reverse.
Garlic
Potatoes - Purple on the outside and the inside these potatoes are extra high in antioxidants.
Arugula - Large Only

Every year I want to give squash blossoms but there are not enough to go around.  This year we are going to split it into two weeks.  Next week, all larges and all our members who have sailed on Showtime will receive them.  The following week everyone else will get some.   I will include some recipes next week.

Chard and kale are interchangeable in the recipe below but for some reason we really love the poached egg with the kale.  It might be that we just like kale a little more than chard.  Both chard and kale make excellent additions to scrambled eggs, frittatas and quiches.

Kale or Chard with Poached Eggs

This is just as good for dinner as it is for breakfast.  I usually serve it over polenta, grits or roasted potatoes.  If you can part with any of your cherry tomatoes they would be awesome in this dish but I know they fall into the you can't eat just one category and they may be all gone by the time you go to cook a meal.  A little chorizo is an excellent addition as well.  Garlic and onion are just a starting point.

1-2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 onion chopped
1 bunch kale or chard with stems removed if they are though or you don't care for them and roughly chopped
poached eggs

Saute the garlic and onion until soft.  Add the kale or chard and cook until tender.  Kale is sometimes a bit tougher than chard but your kale is tender and mild and this won't take long.  Top with poached eggs and enjoy an easy tasty meal.