Tuesday, August 9, 2011

CSA for August 9, 2011

A beautiful day to be harvesting for all our CSA families!  Not too hot, not too windy and we're getting quite a few chuckles as our young Ameraucana rooster learns to crow!  It's a day of 'firsts' and 'lasts:  the first pick on our field tomatoes and the first good haul of peppers from the hoop house!  As well, probably the last time our families will get raspberries as the crop is waning and it becomes less viable for us to spend the time to search out the berries in the midst of all the new growth.

As always on CSA day, a little tricky figuring out how to split the harvest.  There's enough tomatoes to get a pound for the Full Shares, and there will be a few extra bags on the Farmers Market table to purchase or trade.  The Full Shares are getting our first little pick of purple and yellow sweet bell peppers and everyone is getting some Hungarian Hot peppers.  The little, pointy yellow guys have some kick: unless you like hot don't just grab one and munch! (Norma!)  Hungarians are not as hot as jalapenos, without the seeds they are very mild.  Great for pizza with the seeds!  We also harvested two lovely Anaheims, perfect for stuffing, with a little heat.  They'll be on the Farmers Market table if you love Chile Relleno!

Summer squash season is hitting hard now; some of are new families will find there is much more than zucchini in the summer squash family!  Unfortunately, in this weird growing year, a few of our favorites failed to germinate, so there will be no Crookneck and a smaller supply of Patty Pans (or Scallopinis).  As always, we're looking for interesting things to do with zucchini, here's an interesting blog post about a dessert cobbler made with zucchini instead of fruit!  If you've got any great recipes for zucchini, please add them to the comments after this blog post. Of course, zucchini chocolate cake is always a winner, this one is quite 'fudgy'!  Summer squash is the early, tender squash which has edible skin (as opposed to an acorn or butternut winter squash which has hard skin).  All of them are great raw, in stir fries or sautees.  How about coating in bread crumbs or Panko and frying?  The yellow, long squash in some boxes is the golden zucchini, a tender and buttery form of zucchini.  The yellow ovalish squash in your boxes is Papaya Pear, an awesome, dense summer squash that is the best for barbecuing!  We tend to cut it into slices, soak it at least twenty minutes in balsamic vinegar and olive oil and then on to the grill!  The netted green squash is Moroccan or Cousa, also a little firmer than zucchini and excellent stuffed!  It's also a fav of some people for zucchini muffins or cake because there isn't as much water content.   The ribbed, dark green squash is Italian Largo, a tender Italian squash with a mild herbal flavor!  It's a little more 'watery' like zucchini, so careful in stir fries!

Our growing partners Amanda and Ed stepped in this week with some gorgeous carrots.  Ours our taking their time and are still quite small.  We made sure there were some for everyone, so the bundles are small but it's time for some lovely, young carrots!  We've dug one of our favorite potatoes for everyone today.  It's a fingerling type called 'Linzer Delicatise'.  It's a beautiful, waxy potato, great on the barbecue because it will cook up smooth as butter but not get mush/crumbly like the reds.  Also fabulous in roasts, and of course, steamed up on its own.  Great flavor.  They're too young to be completely showing their fingerling characteristic of a long, skinny shape.

So, for the FULL SHARES:  3 lbs. fingerling potato, 2 lbs. dragons tongue bean, 1 lb. yellow beans. bell and Hungarian Hot peppers, bag of assorted tomatoes, carrots, zucchini,  Moroccan or Italian Largo summer squash, papaya pear summer squash, 2 pints raspberries, Long English cucumber, head of garlic.

For the PART SHARES:  2 lbs. fingerling potatoes, 2 lbs. Dragon Tongue beans, 1 lb. mixed beans, Hungarian Hot peppers, bundle of carrots, zucchini, Moroccan or Italian Largo summer squash, papaya pear summer squash, Long English cucumber, 2 pints raspberries, head of garlic.

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