- Beet Roots
- Carrots
- Garlic
- Onion
- Sweet Peppers: Stuffed Bell Peppers
- Cucumber: Japanese Cucumber Salad
- Zucchini
- Yellow Summer Squash: Zucchini Bread (or summer squash works too!)
- Tomatoes 4#+ (full share)/ 2#+ (half share): Disappearing Salsa
- Melon- Winona site only as other sites received them last week. There’s more melons to come though…
- Purple Green Beans 2# (full share) /1# (half share): Purple Bean Salad II
- Arugula: Arugula Pesto or Arugula Pasta Dish
Herb Share Subscribers:
- dill
- basil
- cilantro
- thyme
- chives
The newcomer this week is Arugula which can be considered an herb, vegetable or salad green depending on the recipe. Try it torn up as a salad on it’s own with chopped apples and blue cheese, or as a zippier salad mixed with lettuce greens, vinaigrette, tomatoes, and sliced cucumbers. Or use as a lettuce-replacement on sandwiches, pitas, or even BLTs. It can also replace spinach in many cooked spinach recipes if the zip is a bit too much for you palette.
The melons are fragrant and ready to be eaten now. Smell it if you’re not sure. If you don’t smell the sweet fragrance, you could leave it on the counter for a day or so and it’ll sweeten just a bit more and soften.
The sweet corn will return next week as it was a bit too mature today, but the next planting will be ready beginning this weekend. This will also be the same variety, Ambrosia, which was a nice full size ear and sweet.
A nice harvest of purple beans was picked this week. Remember, they do turn green when cooked just like a “normal” green bean. So if you want their color to stay, you have to have them raw.
Life is busy at the farm. We’re busy harvesting the full array of veggies you see this time of year and weeding the fall plantings of greens, radishes, turnips, and broccoli. But August seems to be mainly about food preservation. We find lots of ways to put away the plentiful harvests from the fields. We’ve been roasting LOTS of tomatoes with garlic in the wood-fired oven and have nearly finished our tomato based soups for the winter. Ethan approved of the roasted tomato soup with a slurp, mmm, and enthusiasm to have the rest of the bowl for supper. That’s always a good sign! The roasted tomatoes will now start to turn into spaghetti sauce which is one of our favorites around here. Our family uses almost 30 quarts during the year which takes us from fall to the next ripening of tomatoes. And in an abundant year, I try to put away more just in case the next season is not as productive (which was the case last year and I was thankful for my abundant canning pantry stocks). Freezer corn using my grandma’s recipe is also nearing completion. We’re now starting to season and soak roma tomatoes before they are dehydrated to make them an even greater treat in the off-season. Oh, the days of summer!
On Labor Day weekend, we plan to have another wedding here at the farm so attention to food and yard preparations will fill my spare thoughts throughout the next week.
But don’t forget, our wood-fired pizza is still happening this Thursday and Friday evening. Joe and Vicki Price will be serenading us with their award winning Blues sound on Friday from 6-9pm. This will be some great entertainment and we’re lucky to have them play here at the farm as they travel throughout the Mississippi River Valley. In September, we’ll be cooking pizzas only on Fridays.
Until next time…
Eat Well. Smile Often.