IN THE BOX

• Eggplant
• Heirloom Tomatoes
• Basil
• Sweet Pepper
• Fancy French Green Beans
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Broccoli
• Tomatillos
• Cilantro
• Hot Peppers
• Scallions
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini & Patty Pans
• Purple Cauliflower (UW East)
• Cantaloupe (Dayton St.)

This morning there was a chill in the air. It feels that fall is just around the corner. But when you look inside your box, you will see summer looking back at you. We are overwhelmed with tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and patty pans. So eat lots of gazpacho, salsa, pesto and tabouli while it’s summer. Soon enough it will be time for winter squash and root crops.

These will be the last beans of the season. But the other summer crops will continue for a while yet. We also got one more harvest from our spring broccoli. Now I’m ready to mow the broccoli down and plant some more salad mix.

We did harvest the spaghetti squash at the end of last week. This week I hope to get a good start on the acorn, delicata, and red kuri squash. We also need to get the onions harvested in the next week.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES

Double Chocolate Zucchini Cake
(From Asparagus to Zucchini 3rd Edition)

¾ cup oil
1¼ cups sugar
2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini or patty pans
½ cup sour milk or buttermilk
3 tablespoons cocoa or carob powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon each cinnamon and cloves
2½ cups flour
Small bag of chocolate or carob chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees; grease a 9-by-13-inch pan. Mix all ingredients and bake 30-35 minutes. Makes 16 servings.

Panzanella
(From Asparagus to Zucchini 3rd Edition)

Croutons:
1 loaf French bread, torn into bite-size chunks
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Salad:
3 lbs heirloom tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
1 cup fresh basil leaves, torn by hand
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup good-quality balsamic vinegar
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

To make croutons: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Toss bread chunks with olive oil; season with salt. Spread on baking sheet; bake until golden, 10-15 minutes. Let cool.

To make salad: Place tomatoes and their juices in large bowl. Toss with remaining vegetables and cooled croutons. In true Italian fashion, season salad with salt and pepper to taste, then add balsamic vinegar and your best olive oil. Serve immediately or let sit 10-15 minutes to allow bread to absorb oil and tomato juices. This is best when made with a colorful array of heirloom tomatoes. Makes 6 large or up to 12 side salad servings.

Tzatziki Cucumbers
(From Asparagus to Zucchini 1st Edition)

1 medium cucumber, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
8 ounces yogurt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint or ¼ teaspoon dried

Combine ingredients, chill, and serve. Makes 2-3 servings.

News from the Farm

We are so busy on the farm. There are huge quantities of food being harvested daily. It is hard to keep up with it all. There are some tasks that are falling by the wayside. There are sections that need to be mowed down, tilled and planted to either new vegetables or to a fall cover crop. These are crops that are planted to keep the soil covered over the winter. In the spring they are plowed under to add nutrients to the soil.

But it is such a busy time that I haven’t been able to get to some of those jobs. Fortunately, there is still plenty of time.

Late August and September are always busy on the farm. We have lots of summer crops coming in. The fall crops are just beginning. And when school starts I lose part of my harvest crew. So it is a busy, crazy time. Hopefully, we will get it all done in a timely fashion and still get some sleep too.

On another note, it is time for some rain dances and prayers. It is pretty dry out here. Rain would be helpful.

Fall Farm Party

Our fall farm party is rapidly approaching. It is Saturday, September 13th. We will start at 4 pm. There will be a potluck dinner, field tour and some fun and games. Come to the farm to meet Riley and your fellow CSA members.

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In the Box

• Sweet Pepper
• Cucumbers
• Fancy French Green Beans
• Salad Mix
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Basil
• Heirloom Tomatoes
• Zucchini & Patty Pans
• Hot Peppers
• Purple Cauliflower (USDA pick-up site)
• Cantaloupe (Farm pick-up site)
• Eggplant (Toepfer Ave., Dayton St & UW East pick-up sites)

This is the 11th week of the CSA season. That means we are a little over halfway into the season. There are still many great boxes to come.

This week’s box continues to have many great veggies. The cucumbers have finally started to produce like I expect. They are very tasty. I have been eating the rejects (I call them “farmer food”) in a simple salad of sliced cucumbers, tomatoes and vinegar with a little honey. I just keep cutting more cukes into the dressing and keep it in the fridge.

The sweet peppers are just beginning to produce. This is pretty late for them to come in, but due to the flooding, they were planted three weeks later than normal. This week you all got one sweet pepper - either a green, red or chocolate (think color, not flavor). There will be more to come in future weeks.

The hot peppers this week include a Jalapeño and a Garden Salsa. Both are dark green and pretty spicy. You also got a Hungarian Wax pepper which is a medium hot pepper.

A few other crops are starting to come in. Some of you got a taste of eggplants this week. The plants are loaded with fruit, so there will be many more to come. A very few lucky folks got the first cantaloupes of the season. Enjoy these sweet fruits.

Tomato production continues to be great. You are getting giant bags of tomatoes this week. If you are feeling overwhelmed by tomatoes, there are some easy things you can do with tomatoes. You can make spaghetti sauce by chopping and sautéing onions, peppers, and basil. Then add chopped tomatoes and cook for a while to reduce the liquid. It will be some of the best spaghetti you’ve ever eaten.

The other thing you can do with all those tomatoes is freeze them. Cut out any blemishes and the stem. Then quarter the tomatoes and put them into freezer containers. During the long winter months you can add tomatoes to stews, soups or casseroles. It’s very easy and you will enjoy it all winter long.

This Week’s Recipe

Green Bean Salad
(Sent to me by a CSA member who said it may be a Deborah Madison recipe)

1 lb. string beans, steamed
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts or walnuts
Gorgonzola cheese (to taste, optional)

Dressing:
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1-2 tablespoons honey
1-3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Steam beans and toss with cranberries. Dress and let sit for an hour. Add cheese and nuts just before serving. Serve at room temperature.

Farm Fall Frolic

The annual farm picnic will be on Saturday, September 13th. We will begin at 4 pm and go as long as folks last. There will be a potluck dinner and a farm tour. I think it is time to revive the farm Olympics, so be ready for some fun and games. We will have a campfire complete with marshmallows to toast. I hope you all can join us.

A Day on the Farm

5:45 am: Out to change the irrigation to new crops. Then I harvest sweet peppers, eggplant and cauliflower.
7:00 am: The crew arrives. There are 3 folks who will work all day and 5 who work for the morning only. We start by harvesting salad mix.
7:45: I split the crew into 2 groups. One group harvests the zucchini, patty pans, and cucumbers. The other group picks cherry tomatoes and heirlooms in the greenhouse. I wash the salad mix, cauliflower, peppers and eggplants.
8:00: The carpenters show up to begin finishing the 3rd greenhouse. I find a few things for them and return to the wash shed.
9:15: The crews finish their harvesting tasks and we wash and pack the produce.
9:45: We take a short break for food.
10:00: We unload 2 large wagons of straw. This is our mulch materials for next year. The high humidity and heat make this a very hot and sweaty job.
11:15: We all harvest green beans. We pick 119 pounds. That’s 14 5-gallon buckets of beans.
12:30: The morning crew of 5 leave. The rest go to lunch. I wash beans and then go to lunch.
1:30: We harvest 70 bunches of basil.
2:15: We harvest 53 pounds of tomatillos for sale to Willy St Co-op.
3:00: We harvest some odds and ends.
3:45: Another load of straw is delivered and we unload and stack it in the barn.
4:30: The crew leaves and I drive the wagon back to its home.
5:30: I finish in the wash shed with packing beans and sorting tomatoes.
7:00: After a quick shower, I start the newsletter.
10:00: I hope to be dreaming.

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• Tomatillos
• Cilantro
• Walla Walla Onions
• Hot Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Salad Mix
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Fennel
• Zucchini & Patty Pans
• Purple Cauliflower (Farm Pick-up Only)
• Eggplant (USDA site only)

I know I am somewhat biased, but I think this is a great box. There are so many great combinations that can be made with these veggies. You have all the ingredients to make the Salsa Verde recipe that was in the newsletter 2 weeks ago. Or try the Tomatillo soup recipe in this newsletter. You can use the Walla Walla onions in place of the red onions. You can also use the greens of the onions as a garnish for the soup.

I hope you enjoyed the Heirloom Tomatoes in last week’s box. There are more this week. Remember to never put the tomatoes in the refrigerator. The cool temperatures reduce their flavor. If you have a hard time telling when a tomato is ripe, remember it needs to be getting soft. At the Farmers Market recently a customer told me that tomatoes should be hard like apples. Her only experience was with grocery store tomatoes. I felt so bad for her that I wanted to fill her bag with good tomatoes that actually have flavor.

This week’s hot peppers include a big green chile which is mildly hot, a small green Serrano which is hot, and a yellow Hungarian Wax which is a medium hot pepper. The salad mix is absolutely wonderful. Most summer lettuce has a little ‘tang’ from growing during the heat. This salad mix has remained sweet. It is almost like lettuce grown in May instead of August.

Cherry tomatoes are exploding. You have a quart of the Sungolds this week. In case you are tired of eating them raw, I have included a fantastic recipe for a cooked Sungold sauce. The fennel has not been sizing up, so I decided to harvest it all and give you a taste. Fennel can be added to soups and stews. It is also great in tomato sauce. You can grate it up and freeze it to use at a later date.

This Week’s Recipes

Tomatillo Soup with Corn and Cilantro
(Asparagus to Zucchini, 1st Edition)

1¼ pound whole tomatillos, husked
2 large ears fresh corn
1½ cups chopped red onions
¼ cup plus 2 teaspoons dry white wine
1½ teaspoons freshly minced garlic
1 cup finely diced red bell pepper
1 cup vegetable stock
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
Salt
Cilantro sprigs, green onions & tortilla chips, for garnish

Rinse tomatillos and blanch in boiling water until they turn olive green. Drain, then puree in blender or food processor. Shave kernels off the ears of corn. Rub the back of the knife up and down against each ear to remove any remaining corn and juice. There should be 2 cups. Braise onions and garlic in white wine until translucent. Add corn and red pepper; cook until tender. Add vegetable stock, pureed tomatillos, cayenne, and black pepper. Simmer 15 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Stir in cilantro and salt to taste. Garnish with cilantro, chopped onions or tortilla chips.

Makes 4 cups.

Sungold Sauce with Bow Ties
(Asparagus to Zucchini, 3rd Edition)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 quart whole Sungold cherry tomatoes
1 large clove garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon sugar
Salt to taste
10 ounces bow tie pasta
Fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips

Heat olive oil in large skillet until quite hot but not smoking. Add tomatoes and let them sizzle for a minute or two, shaking pan occasionally. Add garlic and salt, stir and cover. Cook over medium-high heat until the Sungolds can be easily flattened with a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of salted boiling water; drain and keep warm until sauce is done. Uncover the cherry tomatoes and flatten them with wooden spoon to release all the juices. Continue to cook uncovered over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened and juices are reduced by half, about 15 minutes. Add the sugar and additional salt to taste. Place cooked pasta in individual bowls and spoon some sauce over each bowl (a little goes a long way). Sprinkle some basil over each bowl and serve hot.

Riley Writes

The last week has been great. I’m glad it has cooled down a little. It’s hard for a long-haired black dog when the weather is hot. It means I have to spend more time in my wading pool and sleeping in the shade. Then I miss being out in the field supervising everyone and getting bites of broccoli or cucumbers. Today I tried to steal an eggplant, but Mom caught me. Soon there will be more so I can have one. And best of all, the watermelons and cantaloupes will be ripening soon. I can’t wait.

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In the Box

• Tomatoes
• Walla Walla Onions
• Sweet Basil
• Cucumber
• Hot Peppers
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Garlic
• Red Russian Kale
• Petite Lettuce
• Zucchini & Patty Pan
• Purple Cauliflower (Portage pick up site only)

This box contains many of my favorite foods - heirloom tomatoes, basil, onions, garlic, and hot peppers. I don’t know where to begin. I look forward to the first tomatoes all season. This year I have some heirloom tomatoes in the new greenhouse, so they are a little earlier than the field tomatoes. You have several different tomatoes. Here’s a guide:

• Red: Nepal, Better Boy or First Lady
• Brown: Paul Robeson or Black Prince
• Pink: Eva Purple Ball
• Orange: Persimmon
• Green with yellow stripes: Green Zebra
• Red with yellow speckles: Speckled Roman
• Paste: Roma or Viva Italia

All of the tomatoes have different flavors. The mahogany brown ones are some of my favorites. It can be challenging to tell when they are ripe. Use them when they are starting to soften.

The Walla Walla onions are incredibly sweet and tasty. You can slice them up and grill or sauté them with zucchini and basil. The onions are good raw as well. Chop them up with garlic, basil, and tomatoes.

The first cucumbers are in your box this week. They are rather late. The first planting was pounded rather hard by the June flooding. It has limped along producing a few cukes, but not enough. Now the second planting is beginning to produce. This week is just a taste. There will be more to come.

Bulb garlic makes its first appearance this week. We plant garlic in the fall, mulch it and wait for it to appear in the spring. Finally it is time to take lots of crates to the field and dig it all up. It was a challenge to dig it up in this dry soil, but we got about 2/3 of it harvested this last week.

I sort the garlic into sizes. This week you got the small heads of garlic as they need to be used up. You can use the cloves like normal, but the cloves are small. I recommend roasting the garlic. Cut the bottoms off of each head and coat in olive oil. Bake at 300 degrees until the cloves are soft. You should be able to squeeze the garlic out of its skin through the cut off bottom. Spread it on good sourdough bread.

This Week’s Recipe

Pesto
(Simply in Season)

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1-3 cloves garlic
1/3 cup pine nuts, walnuts, or hazelnuts toasted
3-6 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
2 sprigs flat parsley (optional)
1/3-1/2 cup olive oil

Finely chop all ingredients except olive oil in food processor. Gradually add olive oil while food processor runs to make a thick paste. Serve at room temperature with any kind of pasta.

Tricia’s pesto tips: This pesto recipe is a guideline. You don’t need to follow it exactly. Try different kinds of nuts or seeds. I often use sunflower seeds as they are more budget friendly than pine nuts. I’ve also used sesame seeds.

Pesto freezes well. Make it up and put it into small glass jars and freeze it for winter use.

This recipe works well with other herbs as well. I really enjoy cilantro pesto. Last fall, an early frost took out the basil way too early and I had not put any basil pesto into the freezer. I made pesto with parsley and really loved it. Pesto also works well as a sandwich spread. Mix a spoonful with a little mayo and use it in sandwiches.

News from the Farm

This morning I woke to the wonderful sound of rain. Actually the thunder and wind woke me and after getting up to shut all the windows, I was able to lie in bed and listen to the rain. We got about ½ an inch of rain before the crew showed up to harvest the food for your boxes. All the harvesting was finished and then it began to rain again.

The birds are singing away as they take baths in the puddles. The soil is singing as well. This is the first rain we have had since the 12th of July, so everything is happier now. The irrigation helps, but there is nothing like a good rain to wash the dust off the leaves. And it helps wash the stress out of me as well. It’s a little ironic to see drought damage in a season that began with torrential rains. Let’s hope that the rain continues to be timely and sufficient, but not excessive.

Important Date

Remember to save Saturday, September 13th as a day to visit the farm. The annual farm picnic will start at 4pm and go as long as folks stay. We will have a potluck supper, farm tour, and a campfire. There will be fun and games, good food and lots of good conversation. I hope you all can join us.

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