~~This week will be your fourth week for having non-refrigerated
items in your CSA. We will have these set out separate from your box
at CSA pickup with a clearly marked sign. “Take One Bag of
Tomatoes and One bag of Potatoes”. Don’t
forget your Potatoes and Tomatoes! ~~~
Even with slightly warmer than average days for late August, we
definitely are feeling the shift of the season to late summer. The
days are getting noticeably shorter and the mornings are cool and
crisp.
This last week we pulled our storage onions for the year and have
them curing in our prop house. We had a great turnout for our farm
tour. And we received the giant project of our new high-tunnel. All
the parts are now sitting out in the field ready to start
construction on Monday.
The warm weather this year has turned into a great growing season for
our farm. We are growing so much food and learning to much this year
about how to run the farm better and more efficiently. It’s
definitely a work in progress, but with our growing season more than
half way over we are really happy with how production has gone on the
farm so far this year.
It’s been a while since we had a “Love it or Hate it” vegetable
in the share. I know many people find eggplant to be “not their
favorite”. We had multiple people last year say that previously
they had not liked eggplant but had only ever had it from the store
and never fresh from the garden or market and after giving our a
try...they changed their minds and now love eggplant.
Because many people strongly dislike eggplant we only include it in
the shares 2-3 times a year. I am really excited about the
eggplants. The plants are looking healthy and beautiful and I love
the diversity of cooking with eggplant. It really takes on whatever
flavor you are cooking with, be it Thai, Indian, or Mediterranean.
We really want you to enjoy your eggplant, so here are a bunch of
recipe ideas and links:
A
great intro to how to cook eggplant:
A
simple recipe for the classic Eggplant Parmesan
As
this recipe notes in the intro, making Baba Ghanoush is
a great way to wade cautiously into the uncertain waters of cooking
with eggplant. It’s very much like making humus, but with roasted
eggplant instead of chick peas. What’s great is that it’s a dip.
If something goes horribly awry, you’re not out a main dish.
This recipe for eggplant fries calls for breading eggplant
spears. If you want to bread things, but don’t want to use
breadcrumbs or don’t have them on hand, we often substitute rolled
oats for bread crumbs. Gently zap the oats in a food processor or
blender to crumb them up a bit. Be cautious with this process or
you’ll end up with oat flour. (Which isn’t necessarily a bad
thing.)
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-bake-eggplant-fries-233537
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-bake-eggplant-fries-233537
Another
lifetime ago, we lived in Philadelphia four blocks from the Indian
restaurant Ekta, which is arguably the best Indian food in Philly.
Far too often, we’d bring home giant containers of Baingan
Bharta. Before Bayliss could
talk, he’d sit in his high chair at the table and we’d spoon feed
him little bits of this smokey
Indian delicacy. He’d take a bite, make a squishy-spicy
face, recover, then frantically make the baby hand motions for
“more!” If
you’re feeling adventurous, here’s a recipe for basic Baingan
Bharta:
This
dish is basically made of tomatoes, onions, and extremely
fussily roasted eggplant,
with just a few
spices. The Red Long onions
in your share will be particularly great in this. The Red Longs are
best grilled, sauted, or
roasted.
CSA week
15
Partial
Chioggio
Beets - partial bundle
Green Bell Pepper - 1
each
Zucchini/Patty
Pan - 1-2 each
Cucumber - 1
each
Red Long
Onion - Partial bundle
Arugula - Partial
bag
Tomatoes - 3/4# mini
slicers or 1/2#
cherries
Huckleberry Gold
Potatoes - Partial bag
Green/Purple
Beans - Partial bag
Full
Romanesco - head
Chioggio Beets - bundle
Green Bell Pepper - 2 each
Zucchini/Patty Pan - 2-3 each
Cucumber - 2 each
Red Long Onion - bundle
Arugula - bag
Tomatoes - 1# mini slicers or ¾# cherries
Huckleberry Gold Potatoes - Full bag
Green/Purple Beans - Full bag
This is our first
week of the season not including something in the partial shares.
You may think planting 150 Romanesco would mean you would have 100
Romanesco for CSA...but apparently out of these 150 Romanesco we got
50! So...just for full shares this week. There was a week in late
spring when we had Romanesco for partial and Cauliflower for Full so
we are glad everyone is getting them once this year.
Romanesco is an
Italian heirloom cauliflower. We think it tastes like a nutty
cauliflower. We like to cut it into bite sized pieces, grill it, and
top it on pizza. It is great as a side dish or as a beautiful
topping for pasta/pizza or a unique addition to stir fry.
Huckleberry Gold
Potatoes are a purple potato. Beautiful and Delish!
Also….looks like
we’ll have sweet corn next week! Have a great week,
Jay and Mandy
