CSA for August 30, 2011

Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomato

The end of August - the last long weekend of Summer, hard to believe!  The field tomatoes are coming on beautifully, and everyone is getting a variety this week.  Everyone is getting an heirloom: either green Aunt Ruby's or pink Brandywine.  Aunt Ruby's German Green is a neat tomato that stays green, but has all the juiciness of a slicing tomato, and an interesting sweet/tart flavor.  Brandywine is probably the best known of the heirlooms; meaty but juicy with great flavor.  Both heirlooms are never the classic, perfect round tomato - they have 'character'.  Everyone is also getting some slicers: a mix of Celebrity, Manitoba and Stupice.  The Full Shares also have a small bag of Black Plum, a heirloom that's a cross between a grape and a Roma type, with dark colouring and a smoky, tart flavor.  One of our favorite summer salads is Italian, here's a recipe for  tomato and bocconcini salad (but we also like a dash or two of balsamic vinegar with  extra virgin olive oil).  Bocconcini is a soft, mild white cheese related to mozzarella and is available in the specialty cheese sections of Sobeys and Safeway, I know.  You could substitute any cheese you like: Farmers White, mozzarella, white Brick would all work well.  Everyone is getting fresh basil, to complete the salad.

With the abundance of potatoes coming your way, here's a great Facebook post from 'Sharing Recipes' (well worth following for canning/cooking info) for homemade potato chips.  These are the classic fried chips, all you need is a big stock pot, potatoes, vegetable oil and salt.  If you're cutting down on frying, here's a recipe for baked potato chips, which is also excellent for winter squash chips, as well.  And you will get winter squash, yes you will!  We've picked a very special potato for everybody today: Pink Fir Apple.  These is a rather rare potato, in the fingerling family, with a waxy, smooth texture and great flavor.  It gets its name because of its habit of growing little apple-like 'knobs' off larger potatoes.  Very tasty, even if it's not that pretty!

Amanda and Ed kicked in today with the gorgeous onions for everybody, the corn for all the shares and a lovely pick of cauliflower - but just enough for the Full Shares today!  Their stuff is looking sooo good!  Many thanks to Amanda and Ed!

So, for the FULL SHARES:  3 lbs. Pink Fir Apple potato, 2 lbs. Roko Red potatoes, 1 lb. of either Brandywine or Aunt Ruby's tomato, 1 lb. slicer tomato, 1 lb. Black Plum tomato, 3 bags of beans, white and red onions, cauliflower, zucchini, Italian Largo and papaya pear summer squash, cucumbers, Hungarian Hot peppers, corn, carrots, beets, Swiss chard and basil.

For the PART SHARES:  2 lbs. Pink Fir Apple potato, 1 lb. either Brandywine or Aunt Ruby's heirloom tomato, 1 lb. slicer tomato, white and red onions, ground cherries, zucchini and papaya pear summer squash, corn, Hungarian Hot peppers, carrots, chard, 2 bags of beans, cucumbers, beets and basil.

Don't forget: the 'help yourself' bin of zucchini is still available today!  Do help yourself if you can make use of more!  Enjoy!