Week #14, Is that mud??

Farm News

Have you heard about this stuff called … mud?  We rediscovered it on Monday, during the first all-day rain of the year.  We had to get the rain gear out of storage.  That’s pretty crazy; it’s August.  We are happy to get the rain – it has been a very droughty season here.

The irrigator is parked, at least for now.  

We said good-by to longterm employee Karen.  
After ten years working for us, she’s returning to school to become a registered nurse.  Karen is great, up for any challenge and friends with all her coworkers.  We will miss her energy and deep Tipi experience.  She lives across the road so this is not a formal goodbye.

Gorgeous corn.
This is a beautiful batch of sweet corn.  It’s the ‘Vision’ variety again.  You know you can eat raw corn, right?  That’s how we celebrate the end of each sweet corn harvest. It is amazing straight from the plant.

Corn smut.
Here’s a twist.  If you find large black kernels in your sweet corn, it is a naturally occurring fungus called corn smut.  Known in Mexico as huitlacoche, it’s a delicacy when young.  By the time the corn is ready to harvest, the kernels are fully black inside and not good to eat.  If you catch it younger, the corn kernels are their normal color, often veined with black.  It’s a delicacy and very delicious.  Tastes like a combo of corn and mushrooms.  Corn smut is more common at the tip of the ear but we throw away those obvious ears.  It’s harder for us to detect when under the husks, and therefore more likely to show up in your CSA box.

The rest of the ear is perfectly fine.  Snap off and throw away the black kernels, then eat the ear of corn.

Looks like I will lose a chunk of garden. That’s the risk if you plant too close to the road.

Power outage
Our power was off Tuesday afternoon.  That’s a huge problem because we need functioning coolers and plenty of wash water.  Turns out that a crew installing underground fiber optic cable severed the main electric line for our road.  What a sheepish-looking group of men standing by the side of the road.  They freely admitted it was their mistake.  And a dangerous one!  The utility got the power back in a few hours and life went back to normal.  Next step, they tear up the roadside in front of our house.

Believe it or not, Steve and I got away for a weekend.  I rented a lake house halfway to St. Paul and our kids met us there.  It was great!  It’s amazing how restorative just a few days can be.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!
Beth

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #14, Aug 17 / 18, 2023

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ green
– Sampler/ B group

Sweet corn, 9 ears
Red watermelon
Green beans, 3/4 lb
Slicing tomatoes, ~3 lb
Cherry tomatoes, 1 pint
Zucchini or yellow squash, 1 or 2
Cucumbers, 3
Silver Slicer cucumber, 1 or 2
Red bell peppers, 2
Yellow ‘Elsye’ onion
Jalapeno chile

Next week’s box will probably contain sweet corn, melon, tomatoes, peppers and more summer goodness.  It’s that time of year!

Red watermelon – These compact beauties are ‘Mini Love’.

Zucchini or yellow squash – First harvest from a new patch!

Cucumbers – Folks, enjoy these cukes as their season will end soon.  I have sent a lot of cucumbers recently, including this week.  Our second planting is on richer soil and has cranked out so many fruit.  It peaked in this week and last week but I think it’s going to crash soon.

Yellow onion – This variety is supposed to be mild, but we are finding that all the onions this year are pungent.  These will fry better than the recent Walla Walla onions.
Storage: Room temperature or refrigerate.

RECIPES by PHOEBE

Sheet Pan Gnocchi with Tomatoes and Peppers

I’ve developed a few sheet pan gnocchi recipes for Love & Lemons this year, and I think they’re such a fun, easy way to make dinner! You don’t have to boil the gnocchi—just toss it with veggies, olive oil, and flavorful seasonings, and roast until it’s tender and the veggies are browned. The red pepper flakes add a spicy kick to this recipe. Use less (or omit them) if you’re sensitive to heat.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Serves 3 to 4

1 pound store-bought gnocchi, refrigerated or shelf-stable
1 large slicing tomato, cut into thin wedges
1 bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced
½ small onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, less if sensitive to spice
Freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, torn

Preheat the oven to 450°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the gnocchi, tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, oregano, salt, red pepper flakes, and several grinds of pepper. Toss until the gnocchi and vegetables are well coated in the seasonings.

Spread evenly on the prepared baking sheet. Roast for 17 to 22 minutes, or until the gnocchi is tender and the vegetables are browned.

Remove from the oven and scatter the cheese evenly on top. Season to taste and serve.

Photo by Jack Mathews and Jeanine Donofrio

Watermelon Gazpacho

From Love & Lemons
It looks like we have a warm week ahead of us, so I thought a gazpacho recipe was in order! This recipe is a great fit for this week’s box, using watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and jalapeño. Here are a few tweaks to save you a trip to the store:

• Make sure to seed the watermelon!
• Replace the green onions with 1/8 white or Spanish onion. Add more to taste.
• Omit the basil if you don’t have any on hand.

 

Photo by A Couple Cooks

Easy Corn Fritters

From A Couple Cooks
These corn fritters really are easy, made with basic ingredients that you likely have on hand. Replace the green onion with a couple tablespoons of minced white onion.

Photo by Cookie + Kate

Cucumber Tomato Salad with Greek Dressing

From Cookie + Kate
This simple salad will pair nicely with almost any summer meal. Omit the fresh herbs if you don’t have any on hand—the tangy dressing packs this salad with plenty of flavor.

Photo by Minimalist Baker

Almond Butter Tofu Stir Fry

From Minimalist Baker
Almond butter adds rich, nutty flavor to this simple weeknight stir fry. The recipe calls for green beans and small, spicy peppers (your jalapeño would work!), but for a milder version, you can toss in a bell pepper or two.

Photo by Eva Kolenko

Zucchini Smoothie

From Love & Lemons
I thought it would be fun to feature some zucchini breakfast recipes this week. First up is this smoothie. Even though it’s made with a vegetable (and other good stuff like almond butter and dates), it tastes like a chocolate milkshake. A perfect breakfast for a hot summer day.

Photo by The First Mess

Zucchini Baked Oatmeal Cups

From The First Mess
The easiest way to take oatmeal on the go! These cute little oatmeal cups are vegan and gluten-free…and studded with chocolate chips, because who doesn’t like chocolate for breakfast?

Week #13; Seven weeks of corn

Staggered corn plantings.

This week’s sweet corn is week #3 of seven plantings.  If all goes according to plan, we will have seven straight weeks of corn for you.  You told us you want steady corn (and lots of it!) so this is it.  This is a very nice batch this week, of our favorite ‘Vision’ variety.

We have small sweet corn fields scattered around the farm.  You can see staggered plantings in the photos.  The top photo, taken July 15, shows a field with three sequential plantings, transplanted one week apart.  The youngest are the wispy ones on the right.  The bottom photo shows corn closer to maturity.  The rows on the left should be ready to harvest in three weeks.  The taller ones on the right should be ready in two weeks. 

Salsa box!

We’re sending ingredients to make a batch of salsa this week, with tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, jalapeño chile, and cilantro. For adventurous salsa makers, corn kernels are great too.

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #13, August 10/11, 2023

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ purple
– Sampler/ A group

Sweet corn, 9 ears
Yellow Doll watermelon
Slicing tomatoes, 3 lb
Cherry tomatoes, 1 pint
Green beans, about 1 lb
Bell peppers, red or purple, 2
Silver Slicer cucumbers, a handful
Cucumbers, 2 or 3
White onion
Cilantro, 1 bunch
Jalapeno chile (HOT), 1

Next week’s box will probably contain sweet corn, melons, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onion and more.

White onion – These are more pungent onions than the Walla Wallas that we’ve sent in recent weeks.  We consider them intermediate between Wallas and yellow storage onions in both pungency and ability to be fried.  In other words, these will fry better than Wallas but not as well as a yellow onion.
Storage:  These can be stored at room temperature or refrigerated.

Cilantro (small bunch, fragrant leaves) – Used in both Mexican and some Asian cuisines.  Good to season stir-fries, salad dressing, salsa, etc.
Storage:  Cover and refrigerate.

Jalapeno chile – I suspect most of you are familiar with these small green chiles.  Good flavor and medium heat.
Storage:  Refrigerate.

RECIPES by PHOEBE
Phoebe is back and sharing recipe duties with Deb, who has been a trouper while Phoebe was away. I am lucky to have these two fabulous helpers!

Creamy Tahini Chicken Salad

A Mediterranean spin on chicken salad! A creamy tahini-yogurt dressing coats tender chicken breast, juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumber, and artichoke hearts. I love it on a sandwich, with crackers, or stuffed into pita bread.

Serves 2 to 4
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 20 min

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 slicing tomato (8 ounces), cut in a ½-inch dice
½ large cucumber (6 ounces), peeled if skin is thick, seeded, and cut in a ½-inch dice
4 canned artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed, cut in a ½-inch dice
¼ cup kalamata olives, pitted and torn
Pita bread, optional, for serving

Creamy Tahini Dressing
¼ cup tahini
¼ cup whole milk Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, grated
½ teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons water, plus more as needed

At the bottom of an 8×8-inch baking pan or other shallow dish, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Add the chicken and flip to coat in the marinade. Set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450°F and line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Transfer the chicken to the baking sheet and bake for 15 to 25 minutes, or until the internal temperature reads 165°F when pierced with an instant read thermometer in the thickest part of the breast. Remove from the oven and let rest for at least 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the tahini, yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and water. The dressing should have a creamy but pourable consistency. If it is too thick, add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it reaches your desired consistency.

Cut the cooked chicken breast into a ½-inch dice. Place it in a large bowl and add the tomato, cucumber, artichokes, and olives. Pour in the dressing and fold to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately with pita bread, if desired.

Photo by Jeanine Donofrio

Homemade Salsa

From Love & Lemons
If you’ve never made homemade salsa before, this is the week to try it! It’s easy to make in the food processor, and it has a fresher, brighter taste than typical jarred salsa. Great on your favorite Mexican dishes or with tortilla chips.

Photo by Eva Kolenko

Elote

From Love & Lemons
One of the most delicious ways to eat grilled corn on the cob! Slather the ears with mayo and sprinkle them with Cotija cheese, chili powder, cilantro, and lime for a flavorful side dish or snack.

Photo by A Beautiful Plate

Charred Green Beans with Cilantro Vinaigrette

From A Beautiful Plate
Char this week’s green beans in a hot oven or on the grill. Then, toss them with a simple cilantro dressing for a zesty side dish!

Photo by Spoon Fork Bacon

Best Corn Salad

From Spoon Fork Bacon
If you’re looking for an out-of-the-box corn salad recipe, this one might be for you. It has a few unique elements:

1) Charred halloumi cheese offers a rich, salty contrast to the sweet corn kernels.
2) It has a brown butter dressing, which gives it nutty depth of flavor.

The recipe calls for chives, but you could sub in a little diced white onion for a similar savory kick.

Photo by Andrea Bemis

Summer Crunch Salad

From Dishing Up The Dirt
This salad recipe was made for this week’s box! It features sweet corn, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and bell peppers, all tossed in a tangy vinegar dressing with some creamy goat cheese. Swap out the parsley for cilantro.

Photo by What’s Gaby Cooking

Castelvetrano Greek Pasta Salad

From What’s Gaby Cooking
This pasta salad recipe would be great for a simple dinner, packed lunch, or picnic. It’s filled with chewy pasta, briny olives, tangy feta, and lots of veggies—you’ll use some cucumber, cherry tomatoes, peppers, and onion from this week’s box.

Week #12; Abundance

We are wealthy in watermelons.

Wow, the farm is incredibly productive right now.  This is common in a drought year on a vegetable farm IF you have irrigation.  Everything is growing strongly, probably because diseases are low during the dry weather.  Insect populations can go either way in a drought but seem to be at normal levels right now.  It was great to get rain over the weekend but it soaked in quickly and we are irrigating again already.  

I’ll be honest.  We’re pretty whipped by the extra work, so I don’t have much to share tonight except a beautiful evening sky over the barn and silo.  The farm is absorbing all our attention and energy right now.
Take care,
Beth

Tomato Care

Ripe (top) and less ripe tomatoes (bottom).

We are heading into peak tomato season.  Yeah!  Ripe tomatoes are delicious but highly perishable so let’s talk about their care.

Ripeness:  Each delivery, we pack a mix of ripe and less-ripe tomatoes so you can stretch them through the week.  In the photo above, the top two tomatoes are ready to eat.  The bottom two tomatoes can ripen at room temperature for a few days.

Storage:  Tomatoes retain their best flavor and texture when stored at room temperature, no lower than 55 F.  I encourage you to spread your tomatoes on plates so you can watch them.  Eat the ripest ones first, or any showing flaws.  
However, you should refrigerate your tomatoes if they are fully ripe and you don’t expect to eat them right away.  It is better to sacrifice a little flavor and texture than to let your tomatoes spoil.  Also, fully ripe tomatoes are less sensitive to chilling injury.

They might need washing:  We handle the ripe tomatoes as little as possible to avoid bruising.

(Left)  The yellow arrow shows small inconsequential flaws that will grow with time.  Eat now!
(Right) The purple arrows show leaf residue bits stuck to the tomato.  Wet the tomato and the residue will come right off.

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #12, August 3/4, 2o23

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ green
– Sampler/ D group

Sweet corn, 9 ears
Carrots, 2 lb
Slicing tomatoes, ~2.5 lb
Cherry tomatoes, 1 pint
Green beans, 0.8 lb
Cucumbers, ~2
Silver Slicer cucumbers, 2 or 3
Green bell pepper, 1 large
Zucchini &/or yellow squash, ~1 squash
Walla Walla onion
BY SITE: muskmelon OR Yellow Doll watermelon

Next week’s box will probably contain sweet corn, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, melons, onions and more.

Sweet corn – There are far fewer caterpillars than last week.  This is good news.  If you see browning at the tip, cut off the tip before shucking the corn.

Green beans – Storage: Store in the warmest part of your refrigerator.

Cucumbers – We’ve begun harvests from our second cucumber field.  These are beautiful, beautiful cukes.  You’ll notice less scarring now, which is typical as we move from an older to younger planting.  We are sending both green slicing cukes plus a special variety called Silver Slicer.  These smaller cucumbers are thin-skinned, like pickling cucumbers, and have delicious flavor.  No need to peel these ones.  For that matter, there’s no need to peel the green cucumbers either, unless you receive an unusually large one.  We will distribute the green and Silver cucumbers by site over the coming weeks, as we harvest them.

Walla Walla onion – Please refrigerate your Walla Walla this week.  They are not storage onions, and the recent hot weather is not good for them.  Keeping them cold is your best option.

Muskmelons (some sites) – Refrigerate or let ripen at room temperature for up to two days, max.

Yellow Doll watermelon (some sites) – Watermelons can be refrigerated or stored at room temperature until they are cut.  Once cut, they need to be refrigerated.

You’ll get a mix of slicing cucumbers (green) and Silver Slicer cukes (white) over the coming weeks.

RECIPES by DEB

Photo by DebsLunch

Summer vegetable stir fry with peanut sauce

You can adapt this recipe using what you like and have on hand. You need about 8 ounces of protein, plus 4-6 cups chopped vegetables (not counting onions and garlic!) to serve four. I used ground turkey, but you can sub ground pork or chicken or tofu. My stir fry has green beans, carrots, yellow summer squash, and bell pepper, but again use what you have. The peanut sauce recipe makes about 2 cups and you’ll only need one so will have extra for another purpose. This is a plain & simple peanut sauce that you can jazz up by adding Siracha or other hot sauce, and is great as a dip with cucumbers or steamed broccoli, and on sauteed chicken, or to make cold noodle salad. You can also top your stir fry with marinated cucumbers – here’s a pic; method in the week 11 newsletter (in the headnote for the Spicy Peanut Noodles with Cucumber recipe).

Serves 4-5
Takes about 45 mins. to 1 hour

Peanut sauce:
1 cup peanut butter, natural smooth or crunchy or commercial will all work fine
3 tablespoons lime juice or rice or cider vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey
approximately 1/2 cup coconut milk or hot water or a combination to thin

Stir fry:
1 cup white or brown rice
kosher salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
8 ounces ground turkey or pork, or firm tofu, crumbled
2-4 cloves garlic, minced or put through a press
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sliced onion
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 to 1 1/2 cups green beans, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces – measure after cutting
1 medium yellow squash or zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into chunks
1 green or red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup of the peanut sauce
1 tablespoon Siracha or other Asian hot sauce, optional
Optional toppings: salted roasted peanuts, more hot sauce, cucumbers tossed with a little rice vinegar and salt, as discussed last week under Spicy Peanut Noodles with Cucumber.

1. If using brown rice, start cooking that first. Start white rice after you make the peanut sauce. Combine the rice and two cups water in a sauce pan with a lid. Bring to a boil, uncovered, add a pinch or two of kosher salt, then cover and turn the heat way down. Check after about 45 minutes to see if the water is absorbed and there are steam holes through the rice indicating it’s done.
2. Make the peanut sauce: Combine all the ingredients except the coconut milk or hot water in blender or a bowl, and either blend or whisk to combine. Add coconut milk and/or hot water until you get a good pourable consistency.
3. Cook the stir fry: Pour the oil into a deep wide skillet with a lid and heat over medium. Add the turkey or other meat, or tofu crumbles, and cook stirring, and if using meat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and salt and pepper, and stir until fragrant. Add the onions. At this point add the veggies in order of the length of time they take to cook, and cover the pan for a few minutes to steam the veggies a bit – add a few tablespoons of water if things start sticking. In this version, start with the carrots, then green beans, and finally squash and bell pepper. Total cooking time will be about 15 minutes.
4. When all the veggies are cooked to your liking, add the peanut sauce and Siracha. Mix to coat everything with the sauce and once it’s bubbling, cook for a few minutes uncovered to meld. Taste to see if it needs more salt, peanut sauce, or Siracha, and serve over rice with optional toppings.

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Photo by DebsLunch

Corn and green bean salad with cherry tomatoes and nuts

You can cook the corn for this salad using any method you like: steaming, as Beth suggests (Veggie Notes/ Sweet corn), boiling, or even roasting, on the grill or in the oven (see this link for oven roasting in the husks) or on the stove in a grill pan. You’ll need about 4 ears of corn, so if you cook up a bunch of corn to eat on the cob, you can use the leftovers!

Dressing:
1 large clove garlic, minced or put through a press
2 tablespoons white wine or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar, plus more to taste
2 teaspoons grainy or Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Salad:
3-4 cups corn kernels, cut from about 4 ears of corn
2/3 to one pound green beans, cooked and cut into 2 inch lengths
3/4 cup toasted nuts, coarsely chopped – I used whole almonds but walnuts or pecans would also be good
9-10 cherry tomatoes cut in half

1. Make the dressing: Combine the garlic, vinegar, sugar, and mustard in a small bowl or spouted glass measuring cup. Whisk in the oil until emulsified. Season with salt & pepper. Alternatively, combine everything in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake to combine.
2. Add the corn and green beans to a large mixing bowl, and toss with most of the dressing. Add the nuts and cherry tomatoes, toss again, and taste to see if it need more dressing or seasoning. This salad is good right away, but can also be chilled overnight – bring to room temperature and add the nuts right before serving.

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Photo by Christy Denney

Corn Salsa Recipe | The Girl Who Ate Everything

From The Girl who Ate Everything
This corn salsa recipe also provides a few more suggestions for how to cook your corn. I suggest saving the cobs for veggie stock; see this 2020 Tipi newsletter for tips on corn cob stock, under ‘Sweet Corn Risotto with Corn Cob Broth & Cherry Tomatoes’.  Feel free to omit cilantro, and sub Walla Walla onion for the purple onion – place the chopped onion in a strainer and rinse with cold water if it seems strong, then drain and add to salsa. You can also omit the jalapeño or use jarred or canned chiles, or a few dashes of red pepper flakes if you don’t have fresh.
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Roasted Carrot Hummus | Foolproof Living

From Foolproof Living
There are plenty of versions of dips with roasted carrots out there; this hummus from Foolproof Living is gluten free (if served with gluten free dippers) and vegan – and will surely appeal to any hummus lovers.
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Photo by DOTDASH Meredith Food Studios

Marinated Cucumber, Onion, and Tomato Salad | Allrecipes.com

Recipe by BogeyBill from Allrecipes.com
This marinated salad only takes a few minutes of chopping, and because it’s marinated, it’s actually better made ahead.
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Roasted Tomato Cream Sauce | Midwest Foodie

From Midwest Foodie
As this recipe says, you can use whatever kind of tomatoes you have for this sauce – the roasting process concentrates even the juicier slicers. It calls for 3 pounds of tomatoes, which is about what we got this week, but it makes 5 cups of sauce, and that’s more than you need for a pound of pasta. So, if you don’t want to devote all of this week’s tomatoes to sauce, you could halve it and still have enough for a pasta dinner. You can simply omit the fresh basil if you don’t have any, or substitute dried.
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Photo by Tieghan Gerard

Smashed Cucumber and Watermelon Feta Salad | Half Baked Harvest

From Half Baked Harvest
This recipe from Half Baked Harvest combines the watermelon & feta salad that’s been popular for years, with the smashed cucumber technique that’s we’ve been hearing about much more recently. Muskmelon can sub for watermelon if that’s what you get in your box – or try this cantaloupe and feta salad, with fresh mint. The salad will taste good without the fresh herbs, or you can sub small amounts of dried – about half a teaspoon of dill or basil. Like all Half Baked Harvest recipes it calls for avocado, which you can omit. Persian cucumbers are small and seedless, and a combination of 2-3 of our silver slicer and regular cucumbers will work fine here, and you can seed the green cucumbers if you wish.

Week #11; Sweet corn begins.

Our garlic crop is harvested and safely drying.  It was a sweaty, grimy harvest but very, very satisfying.  It does not matter how many showers I take; I will smell of garlic for days.  We were glad to get rain last night and doubly glad that the garlic was safe before it started.

Once the bulbs are dry enough, we’ll start packing them in the boxes.  
Beth

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #11
July 27/28, 2023 (Th/Fri sites)

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ purple
– Sampler/ C group

Sweet corn, 7 ears
Muskmelon
Broccoli, ~2 lb
Cherry tomatoes, 1 pint
Slicing tomatoes, a few
Carrots, 2 lb
Globe eggplant, 1
Zucchini &/or yellow squash, ~2.5 lb
Cucumbers, 2 or 3
Walla Walla onion

Next week’s box will probably contain melons, tomatoes, carrots and more.

Sweet corn – Now it’s summer!  
Advice about bugs.  This is organic sweet corn.  Many ears have caterpillars or bug damage at the tip.  I suggest cutting off the tips before shucking the corn.  Sweep the trimmed tips into the compost and you will never see the bugs.  Going forward, not every harvest (nor every ear) will have the caterpillars.  They come and go as the moths fly in from the south.  I’ll give you an update here in the newsletter each week.
Storage. Sweet corn is best when fresh, so we encourage you to eat it asap. Store in the refrigerator, in the husks if you have the room, or husked and placed in a container or plastic bag.
Cooking.  It is quicker to steam sweet corn than to boil it.
1.) Stand ears of corn upright in a tall pot. Put one inch of water in the pot.
2.) Bring the water to a boil. If the corn is cold when you begin cooking, steam for 5 – 6 minutes. If the corn starts at room temperature, steam for 4 – 5 minutes. The cooking time will vary somewhat depending on how many ears are in the pot. Pay attention to how the corn smells. The scent changes once the corn is ready. Another clue: water will bead on the corn until it is cooked. Don’t overcook it.

Muskmelon – Most are ripe and ready to eat.  Some need to ripen a day or two on your kitchen counter.  Refrigerate within 2 days.

Broccoli – Some of the broccoli is loose because of the warm weather but it all tastes great.  Refrigerate.

Carrots – Refrigerate in the bag.

Tomatoes – Store your slicing tomatoes at room temperature.  It’s only a few so you’ll eat them quickly.  Cherry tomatoes can be refrigerated.

Eggplant – For best flavor, store eggplants at room temperature for 2 – 3 days.  If holding for longer than three days, store in the warmest part of your refrigerator.  Eggplants do not store well for long periods of time.  

RECIPES by DEB

Photo by debslunch

Zucchini & Pinto Bean Enchiladas

This recipe for enchiladas and homemade enchilada sauce is very versatile! You can keep it strictly vegetarian or add meat, or do a vegan version using vegan cheese. Here I’ve used zucchini and pinto beans, but you could sub in corn or summer squash, and use purchased enchilada sauce if you don’t have time to make the sauce. Both the sauce and the enchiladas freeze really well, and if you want to add meat, I suggest 1/2 pound of ground beef, pork, turkey, or bulk chorizo. Brown the meat with the onions and then add any other vegetables you wish to use.

Serves 6-8
Takes about an hour and 15 minutes including baking

For the sauce:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup flour
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth, preferably home made OR one 14.5 oz. can of broth plus enough water to make 2 cups (about 2-3 tablespoons)
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder (You can control the heat of the sauce by using mild or hot chili powder. I often use part chili powder and part ground Ancho chile. Penzey’s is a good source.)
Optional, if you like heat: 1 chile from a can of chipotle chiles in Adobo sauce, finely chopped, plus a few spoons of the sauce
1-3 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 tablespoon brown sugar
salt and black pepper to taste

For the filling:
1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
3/4 to 1 pound of zucchini or summer squash or a mixture, cut into bite-size chunks
1 cup of pinto beans or corn
3/4 to 1 cup finely chopped onions
salt and black pepper to taste

For assembly:
8-10 flour tortillas
1/2 pound cheddar cheese, shredded

1. Make the sauce: measure the oil and flour into a sauce pan and whisk to combine. Heat the broth in the microwave – a spouted glass measuring cup works well for this – and pour it into the pan while whisking until smooth and thickened. Add the chili powder, Adobo chile and sauce, tomato paste, and brown sugar and whisk until smooth. Simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Make the filling: Heat the oil over medium heat in a skillet. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until the onion is translucent. Add the zucchini and cook until it is just tender, about 5-10 minutes. Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper, and stir in the beans (or corn if using).
3. Assemble the enchiladas: Heat the oven to 375°. Microwave the tortillas briefly (45 seconds to a minute, depending on your microwave) to make them flexible. Pour a thin layer of sauce into the bottom of a 13 x 9 baking dish. Fill each tortilla with 1/3 cup of filling, top with about 2 tablespoons of grated cheese (reserving about 1/4 cup of cheese for topping), tuck the sides in, and roll neatly. Place the enchiladas in the baking dish as they’re rolled.
4. Pour the rest of the sauce over the enchiladas. Place the baking dish in the oven and cook for about 20 minutes until bubbling. Top with the reserved grated cheese and return to the oven for about 5 minutes to melt the cheese. Serve the enchiladas with sour cream, chips, and salsa of your choice.

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Roasted Eggplant Spread Recipe | Ina Garten

From Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa Family Style
This quick and easy spread from Ina Garten, the doyenne of upscale comfort food, can be served as an appetizer or as the centerpiece of a light summer meal if accompanied by some protein. It also makes a tasty omelette filling. If you don’t have red bell peppers to roast along with the eggplant, you can use jarred roasted red peppers – just add them to the food processor with the other vegetables – no roasting required!

Since we have two pounds of broccoli this week, I’m including two cheesy main dishes that both feature broccoli.

Photo by Deb Perelman

Broccoli, Cheddar and Wild Rice Casserole | smitten kitchen

From smitten kitchen
With this recipe, Deb at smitten kitchen “saves” a traditional Midwestern hotdish, typically made with canned cream soup and frozen broccoli. Deb says as a child she envied friends who ate things like this regularly, since they were never served in her home, and when she decided to research and develop the recipe she was warned by other foodies it would be awful. Her recipe definitely meets the challenge!
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Photo by Diana Chistruga

Easy One-Pan Broccoli Macaroni and Cheese

From The Spruce Eats
I chose this stove top mac & cheese since I think it has the best macaroni to broccoli ratio: 8 oz. noodles to 12 oz. broccoli. It calls for frozen broccoli, but you can use fresh by simply adding the chopped broccoli to the macaroni cooking water when the pasta has about 5 minutes to go rather than the one minute suggested for the frozen.
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Photo by Laura Davidson

Spicy Peanut Noodles with Cucumber | A Beautiful Plate

From A Beautiful Plate
One inspiration for any one running out of cucumber ideas is to use the cucumbers in or as a topping for one of the spicy noodle salads that’re so good in the summer, or a stir fry. This recipe is an example of cucumbers in; looking back on some past Tipi recipes, you could try lightly marinated cucumbers in place of the asparagus on top of this tofu dish from Week 3, or this stir fry from October of 2021. To marinate the cucumbers, slice and place them in a bowl. Drizzle with a few tablespoons of rice vinegar, a pinch or two of salt, and optionally a little sugar. Leave them to marinate while you prepare the rest of the dish and then top individual servings with the cucumbers. I also found, but did not test, this recipe for cucumber noodles, where the cucumber is “zoodle-ized” to be the noodle. It strikes me that it would be tasty the first day and then potentially get kind of watery. If anyone tries it, how about posting to the Facebook group and let everyone know how it turned out! The recipe calls for seedless cucumbers – one way to adapt for seeded cucumbers is to cut your cucumbers into thin planks with a Y-shaped peeler then julienne the slices with a knife leaving out the seedy middles. And of course, if you have more zucchini than cucumbers, you could make this salad with actual zoodles.
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Roasted Zucchini, Thomas Keller’s Viral “Life-Changing” Method | The Delicious Life

From The Delicious Life
This recipe is all over the Internet this summer, and there are lots of videos illustrating how to prepare it if you like that kind of thing. Chef Thomas Keller’s method is to cut the zucchini in half, score it in a crosshatch pattern, and then salt and drain it, before pan frying it to brown the cut sides and finally roasting until tender. This free, non-video version of the recipe mentions the topping that’s in Keller’s original, a sauce vierge but doesn’t provide the recipe. Sauce vierge is simply chopped fresh tomatoes tossed with a little olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, and whatever herbs you have. If you don’t eat all of our cherry tomatoes on the way home from box pickup, you could chop them up to top your zucchini!
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Photo by Goydenko Liudmila / Getty Images

Flavored Butter Recipes | The Spruce Eats

From The Spruce Eats
Since this is the first time we’re getting corn, everyone’s most likely to eat it on the cob. Here’s a top ten list of flavored butters you might want to try to jazz up your corn. Numbers 1-5 are savory butters that pair well with corn, but I think some of the sweet ones would work too, like #7, Cranberry Butter.

Week #10; Let me help you with eggplant.

Don’t worry about funky eggplant shapes.  They were shaped by growing quickly among the plant’s branches.

Team Eggplant brings in the harvest. The plants are very healthy, which makes a fun harvest.  From left, Aly, Raul, Katie and Mary Ann.

If you are intimidated by eggplant, I can help

Storage
For best flavor, store eggplants at room temperature for 2 – 3 days.  If holding for longer than three days, store in the warmest part of your refrigerator.  Eggplants do not store well for long periods of time.  

Hints for easy preparation.
Eggplant does not have to be time-consuming to prepare.  Here are a few suggestions.
– Many recipes instruct you to salt and drain eggplant “to remove bitter flavors.”  You do not need to salt this eggplant.  We are sending you fresh eggplant and it will not be bitter.  
– Try microwaving your eggplant, to speed preparation and reduce the amount of oil used.  Microwaving is quick and eliminates the need to peel the eggplant; the skin ends up soft and edible.  Unlike pan-frying, you need little oil when cooking in the microwave.  The “Microwave Eggplant with Scallion-Chile Crisp Oil” recipe below uses this technique.  The recipe is quick and absolutely delicious.

Eggplants are versatile.  Here are other ideas:
– Roast in the oven or over coals to cook and smoke your eggplant, then transform into baba ganouj with lemon, tahini, salt and garlic.
– Cut in 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices, peel, and rub with a little salad dressing (I use Newman’s balsamic dressing), then grill slowly until soft and smoky.  At this point, you can cut into cubes to make eggplant caponata with chopped tomatoes, onion, garlic, olives, capers, olive oil and red wine vinegar. 
– Use the grilled cubes in casseroles or to top pizza.  
– Add thin, grilled eggplant slices to grilled cheese sandwiches.  Use hearty bread – this doesn’t work well with soft sandwich bread.

How to prep fresh garlic

Steve was baffled about how to prep last week’s fresh garlic. He muttered something about needing power tools, which I felt was overly dramatic.  But perhaps some of you resorted to power tools last week, and I should show you the simple way to peel your fresh garlic.  The only tricks are to peel (not cut) the outer layers, and to crush each clove to release it from its wrapper.

From left; Peel down the outer layers, one or two layers at a time.  When the cloves are freed from the outer wrapper leaves, break them loose from the base.  Crush each clove between two cutting boards to free it from its clove wrapper. 

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #10
July 20/21, 2023 (Th/Fri sites)

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ green
– Sampler/ B group

Green cabbage
Broccoli, about 2 medium heads
Globe eggplant, 1
Green leaf lettuce
Green bell pepper, 1
Zucchini &/or yellow squash, ~2.5 lb
Cucumbers, 3
Walla Walla onion
Basil, 1 stalk
Fresh garlic
By site: Muskmelon OR cherry tomatoes.  I will distribute melons and cherry tomatoes to each pickup site over the coming weeks, to be sure we reach all sites.  Please don’t open boxes at your site looking for variety – all boxes at each site are identical.

Next week’s box will probably contain sweet corn, melon, broccoli, zucchini and more.

Broccoli – Our second planting has done very nicely, much better than usual, considering the weather.  
Storage: Refrigerate.

Cabbage – You will receive either Caraflex (pointy) or Farao (round).  Both are intended as salad/slaw cabbages but can be lightly cooked too.
Storage:  Refrigerate.

Muskmelons (some sites) – These are ripe and ready to eat.  Refrigerate.

RECIPES by BETH

Deb is busy with family so I am on recipe duty. Let’s share a few of our favorite dishes and strategies.

Make a pot of rice

It’s not a joke!  It’s a cooking strategy.  We’re busy, you’re busy.  For us, strategy #1 is to cook a big pot of brown rice once per week. Sometimes I’ll come down in the morning and find Steve cooking rice at 6:00am, while he’s still in the house for an hour.  Then we prep dishes to accompany the rice through the next days.  
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Top: From Food & Wine, Photo by Antonis Achilleos, Prop styling by Christina Daley, Food styling by Ali Ramee.
Bottom:  My cooked dish.  It was delicious.

Microwave Eggplant with Scallion-Chile Crisp Oil

By Andrea Nguyen, in Food & Wine:
“This microwave eggplant recipe from Andrea Nguyen requires none of the usual fuss of salting and straining the nightshade beforehand. Cooking a whole eggplant in the microwave effortlessly, evenly, and quickly cooks its flesh to soft, silky tenderness while preserving its antioxidant-rich skin. Cut into thick slices and drizzled with generous spoonfuls of flavorful sauce, microwave eggplant is an easy and delicious side dish that comes together in 20 minutes flat.”

Here is a great, flavorful recipe that uses your microwave for eggplant prep.  I’ll bet that some of you still have a few scallions in your fridge.  Otherwise, sliced Walla Walla should make a good substitute.  I followed the cooking times in the recipe for my 1 lb eggplant, adding the suggested extra 60 seconds, and the eggplant was beautiful: plush, with edible skin.  Give the recipe a try – I think you’ll like it.
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Photo by The Woks of Life

Smashed Asian Cucumber Salad

From The Woks of Life
We rotate among a variety of cucumber salads while they are in season.  This smashed salad is Ari’s favorite.  The rough surfaces hold the dressing well.  We use a recipe from the New York Times (Chinese Smashed Cucumbers With Sesame Oil and Garlic) but that recipe is behind a paywall and this one from Woks of Life is virtually identical.  We skip the cilantro and use Korean pepper flakes instead of chili oil.

Cucumber salad is surprisingly good with rice, especially if you add cooked salmon or tofu.  It’s reminiscent of nori rolls.  You can always sprinkle toasted nori sheets on top.
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Grilled vegetables

I often grill a batch of marinated vegetables and tofu at the beginning of the week, without a clear plan how we’ll use them.  They always get eaten, whether with rice or pasta, or as a side dish.  In this week’s box, zucchini, Walla Walla onions and eggplant are all suitable for grilling.  
Zucchini or Zephyr squash – Slice about 1/3 inch thick.  Douse in a simple marinade.  We use a mix of rice vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce.  Bottled salad dressing works great too.  If your marinade does not have oil, spray or brush lightly with oil.  Grill over low heat until tender, turning once.  Slice into ribbons and mix with the marinade again.
Walla Walla onion – Slice into chunks and thread onto skewers.   Grill over low heat until tender and nicely charred.  Flip at least once.
Eggplant – Cut in 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices, peel, and rub with a little salad dressing (I use Newman’s balsamic dressing), then grill slowly until soft and smoky.
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Photo by Love & Lemons

Broccoli Slaw

From Love & Lemons
The dressing for this mixed broccoli and cabbage slaw is traditional but nicely balanced, with mayo, cider vinegar, dijon mustard, and maple syrup.  

Week #9; A bit of rain; Purple + A

Irrigation by day, irrigation by night.

We got 0.9 inch of rain today.  That is the largest rain since mid-May.  After nine long weeks, the farm is very dry and that 0.9 inch will disappear quickly.  We won’t irrigate tonight and will watch the weather forecast for the next few days.  Perhaps we will get some more.

Refrigerator Pickles

Let’s talk quick pickles, since we are sending four cucumbers this week.  Here is the recipe that I use.  (Deb gave us a different refrigerator pickle recipe two weeks ago, plus new ideas below.)  I usually prepare and store extra brine so I am ready to pickle another batch or other vegetables.  I make simple pickles (cucumbers, dill, garlic) but you can dress them up with other aromatics.  

Brine (enough for 2.5 to 3 packed quart jars)
4 cups water
1 cup vinegar
3 Tbsp pickling salt

Combine and stir to dissolve.

Pickles, 1 quart
Washed cucumbers, cut into spears
1 small or 1/2 large dill umbel
1 garlic clove, crushed

Pack a clean one-quart jar with the cucumber spears, garlic and dill.  Fill with brine to the top, seal with a lid and put in the fridge.  Ready to eat the next day and really good on the second day.  

After eating your pickles, you can re-use the brine by adding fresh cucumber spears.  You will not need to add more garlic or dill.  After the second batch, I throw away the brine.

Extra brine ready for the next batch of pickled cucumbers, red peppers, etc.

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #9
July 13/14, 2023 (Th/Fri sites)

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ purple
– Sampler/ A group

Beets, ~2 lb
Broccoli, 1 – 2 medium heads
Collards, 1 bunch
Green bell pepper
Walla Walla onion
Zucchini &/or yellow squash
Cucumbers, 4
Fresh garlic, 1 bulb
Basil, 1 bunch
Dill, 1 umbel

Next week’s box will probably contain cabbage, Walla Walla onion, zucchini, cucumbers, fresh garlic and more.

Beets – Storage:  Cover and refrigerate.  Beet roots store quite well when refrigerated.  Wash well to remove leaf fragments.  For all the cooking methods below, wash and scrub the beets but do not peel.  The skins slip off readily once the beets are cooked and cooled.
Cooking beet roots on the stovetop:  Slice or quarter, cover with water in a pot, and simmer until tender.  This will take from 25 to 45 minutes depending on how large the beet pieces are.  Drain.
Roasting beets in oven:  Wash beets, but do not peel.  On a sheet of aluminum foil, put beets (halved or quartered if large), salt, pepper and a few sprinklings of water.  Seal the foil packet, and roast at 400 oF until tender, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Slip off skins once cool.
Microwave:  Slice beets in half and place in a large microwave-proof bowl.  Add ¾ inch water and cover with a plate.  Microwave on high until tender, about 9-20 minutes, depending on your microwave’s power.  Drain and slip off skins.
Uses:  Use cooked beets in cold salads, or dress simply with vinaigrette, onions, salt and pepper.  Beets are also good tossed with sour cream, minced onion, fresh herbs and walnuts.

Broccoli – Storage: cover and refrigerate.  Broccoli is sensitive to warm temperatures so do your best to keep it cold. If your broccoli seems wilted, soak in cold water for fifteen minutes and it will plump back up.

Collards – Collards grow nicely and keep their quality in summer, when other greens are not at their best.  Handle collards like kale.  They are interchangeable in recipes.
Storage: Refrigerate.

Green bell pepper – Refrigerate.

Walla Walla onion – This batch of Walla Walla onions is a bit different.  As usual, the are sweet and crisp but more pungent than we usually see.  They remain less pungent that yellow storage onions.  Wallas are sonderful raw or lightly cooked.  Try cutting into wedges, threading on a skewer and grilling.  Do not try to fry these onions – it doesn’t work because of their high water content.  
U:  It’s OK to store at room temperature for up to one week.  Otherwise, refrigerate.

Fresh garlic – These plump bulbs are the Korean Red variety.  Fresh garlic is special; crunchy, juicy and incredibly pungent.  We pull these bulbs a week or so before we begin the big garlic harvest.  The outer papers on the bulb and individual cloves are still succulent, not dried.  After you separate a clove from the bulb, try lightly crushing the clove between two cutting boards to release it from its wrapper.  
Storage:  I suggest that you refrigerate this bulb of garlic, so it remains easy to peel.  The garlic is fine if you leave it at room temperature but the cloves will become difficult to peel as the bulb dries.

Basil – Store at room temperature, in a glass of water.  This week’s harvest is bunched, smaller stems.  See last week’s newsletter for detailed storage instructions.

Dill – I am sending one umbel so you can make refrigerator pickles.  What you receive could be either a flower head or young seeds.  Either is great for pickles.  These are large umbels, big enough for two jars.  Slice in half down the stem with a paring knife.
Storage:  Trim the stem ends and store in a glass of water at room temperature.  I encourage you to store your dill and basil in separate glasses.

Everyone gets one dill umbel.  Could be a head of young seeds (left) or flowers (right).

RECIPES by DEB

Beet and Cucumber Salad

Photo by debslunch
With a hat tip to Julia Turshen, here’s a summer-y salad with cooked beets and lightly pickled cucumbers. I used fresh dill since that’s what I had, but the basil in this week’s box would also be tasty. The dressing can be made with plain yogurt – whole milk or Greek style works best, or sour cream, or crème fraîche, the last of which can be purchased, but you can make it yourself by whisking equal amounts of heavy cream and sour cream together. This works best with cream that is not ultra-pasteurized – a local brand is Sassy Cow. Leave to sit at room temperature overnight or until thickened then refrigerate where it will keep for 4-5 days.

Serves 4-6.
Takes about 30 mins. active time, plus 40 minutes or so to cook the beets

1 pound beets
1 large cucumber
1/2 cup Walla Walla onion slices
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons white wine, cider, or rice vinegar
pinch of kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/3 cup plain Greek or whole milk yogurt, sour cream, or crème fraîche
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh herbs, such as basil, dill, or parsley

1. Preheat the oven to 350° if roasting the beets. Trim and scrub the beets. If roasting, place them in a baking dish that holds them fairly snugly – preferably glass; it’s easier to clean! – and cover tightly with foil. Place in the oven and roast until fork tender. Cooking time will vary based on the age and size of the beets, so start checking after 30 mins. If you want to cook the beets on the stove, place the cleaned beets in a large pot, and add cold water to cover. Remove the beets, and bring the pot of water to a boil on the stove. When it’s boiling add salt and the beets, and adjust the heat to keep them a quiet simmer. Same as roasting, start checking for tenderness after about 30 mins.
2. Peel the cucumber if you like, and seed it by cutting it in half lengthwise and scooping out the seeds with a spoon. Slice fairly thinly. Place the cucumber slices and the onion slices in a bowl, and add the sugar and pinch of kosher salt. Pour the vinegar over, toss, and set aside to marinate.
3. When the beets are tender, remove from the oven and drain and cool just until they can be handled. Skin the beets – some people do this by rubbing the skins off with paper towel. I like to do it under cool running water, which also reduces the cooling time. If the skin sticks in spots just peel that off with a small knife. Slice the beets, place in a mixing bowl, and toss with the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Arrange the beets on a serving platter or individual plates. Remove the cucumbers and onions from the vinegar with a slotted spoon or your hands and place on top of the beets. Blob the dressing on top and serve right away. The salad still tastes good the next day but all the components will be dyed beet color.

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Bryant Terry’s Jerk Tofu Wrapped in Collard Leaves | Penguin Random House Canada

From Penguin Random House Canada
This recipe was created by chef and activist Bryant Terry, and is the cover image of Terry’s 2020 book, Vegetable Kingdom. Bryant Terry specializes in vegan versions of Black American foods. You’ll find other online versions of the recipe, such as at Epicurious, but might run into a pay wall there. The recipe produces an impressive, knife & fork vegan entree and there’re a lot of steps to make all the components, but you can marinate the tofu in bottled barbecue sauce in place of making the jerk marinade, and I have omitted the cilantro sauce and it’s still tasty. I believe Chef Terry uses arrowroot instead of cornstarch because cornstarch is a product of industrial agriculture, but I have also subbed more readily available cornstarch for the arrowroot with success.
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Photo by debslunch
I think my favorite way to eat beets is pickled, preferably with eggs and a dab of mayo. This isn’t really a recipe; more of a formula. I like to roast the beets (see instructions in the salad above) but you can also boil the beets if you don’t want to turn on your oven on a hot day. In the picture, the eggs on the right were in the beet juice for about 5 days.

Pickled Beets & Eggs

1 pound of beets
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1/2 cup or more water
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt or more to taste
About a teaspoon whole spices such as allspice, cloves, or 1-inch piece of cinnamon stick; some people like a clove or two or garlic as well
4 warm hard-boiled eggs

Boil or roast your beets, peel them, slice them, and place in a container or bowl with a lid that’s large enough to hold the brine and the eggs. Add the whole spices. Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a pot or glass measuring pitcher, then either heat on the stove or microwave the glass pitcher long enough to melt the sugar. Pour over the beets. Hard boil the eggs – there are a zillion methods but this is mine: place cold eggs in a pot and add cold water to cover. Place over high heat and bring to a boil, and soon as the sides of the pot have a few bubbles, set a timer for 13 minutes. Lower the heat as necessary to keep the eggs at a nice boil, but not boiling over. When the timer goes off, remove the eggs from the heat and flood the pot with cold water in the sink. Peel the eggs and add to the beets and brine, adding more hot water or vinegar if needed to cover. Place the container in the fridge and allow to pickle at least overnight before serving.
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Broccoli Pesto Pasta Salad | The Healthy Epicurean

From The Healthy Epicurean
This pasta pesto salad includes both broccoli and basil in the pesto. The recipe provides a number of substitutions, and if you don’t have quite enough broccoli, slip in a few blanched kale or collard leaves and increase the basil.
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Zucchini Lasagna Recipe | Love and Lemons

From Love and Lemons
This recipe uses zucchini two ways: in the tofu filling and as planks replacing some of the noodle. You could sub about 8 ounces ricotta cheese and an egg for the tofu and walnuts in the filling, and the dish would still be lower carb and lower fat then a typical lasagna.
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Cucumber Zucchini Salad — Nikki Dinki Cooking

From Nikki Dinki Cooking
It looks like the author of this blog has moved their newer content over to Instagram, but regardless, this recipe provides a great idea for using cucumbers and zucchini for this time of the summer when we have a lot of both – treat them the same and make a refreshing marinated salad. Of course you could make this salad with all cucumber or all zucchini! The Walla Walla onion in the box can be subbed in place of red onion. Beth says the Walla Wallas are unusually strong, and if they seem so to you, I recommend soaking the slices in cold water for a few minutes and draining before proceeding with the recipe. And for another way to use our cucumber bounty, see this July 2021 newsletter for small batch refrigerator pickle relish.
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Beet Relish | Culinary Ginger

photo by Janette
From Culinary Ginger
This blog’s title Culinary Ginger refers to the color of the author’s hair. They’re a redhead, called a ginger in the UK. Beet or beetroot relish also has UK origins, and the recipe provides suggestions for serving it – I think I’d go for on a cheese sandwich. It’s a refrigerator pickle, but there are instructions for canning the relish for longer storage as well. This author suggests another method of roasting the beets: peel first and wrap them in foil before roasting.
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photo by Tieghan

Garden Greens Goddess Pizza | Half Baked Harvest

From Half Baked Harvest
You can use kale or collards as the greens in this no-tomato-sauce pizza from Half Baked Harvest. The pesto recipe uses pistachios, and you could easily sub any other type of nuts, and either increase the basil in place of the dill or mint, or use a few leaves of your greens. The recipe also suggest homemade or store bought pizza dough; here’s a link to 101 Cookbooks overnight yeasted pizza dough (with lenghty discussion!), and also a quick dough from Jamie Oliver. Jamie’s Cheat’s pizza dough calls for self-rising flour and here’s how to make that.

Week #8; Happy July 4th and Berry Wrap-up

Happy 4th of July!

Little Evansville puts on a great July 4 celebration.  This year, it was a five day party.  They’ve got the best parade in the area, fishing and arm wrestling tournaments, music in the beer tent every night, including the middle-school art teacher’s popular band.  Lunker lob, ice cream social, euchre tournament, 5K and 10K runs, grilled brats and burgers from the FFA kids.  Chicken BBQ, a pie sale, duck derby, baseball and a great fireworks show.  Come check us out some year!

Berry Wrap-Up

We’ve got cute 3/4 pint containers for you this week.  The berries are ripe, ripe, ripe so eat them promptly.  We are pretty excited to deliver berries for a fourth week.  Three weeks is a typical season.

Even more unusual is the berry size.  Most, years they are quite small by this point in the season.  This year, they have stayed large, even this week.  We lost early berries to an unexpected frost in late May but our main variety ‘Jewel’ seems able to compensate by plumping up the later ones.  

Larger berries mean faster harvests.  This is Katie, harvesting this week.

But here are Karen and Mary Ann harvesting last week on one of the worst air quality days.  Many of you asked me how we handled the smoke.  As you see, many of us wore N95s outside.  That was not fun.  We closed up the barn with air filters running, and rotated people between indoor and outdoor jobs.  Finally, we just sent everyone home early on the worst days.  

Happy berry pickers!

The second strawberry u-pick went smoothly; smaller and quieter than the first one.  We hope that everyone who wanted to pick berries was able to get a reservation.  We have to limit the picking reservations to how many berries have ripened.  With luck, we will have abundant berries next year.  We plan to have two fields ready to harvest in 2024 (instead of one field) so there should be berries for all.  You might even be able to bring your friends.

Thanks for reading.
Beth

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #8, July 6/7, 2023

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ green
– Sampler/ D group

Strawberries, 3/4 pint
Broccoli, 1.5 – 2 lb
Snap peas, and 
Snow peas, 3/4 lb total
(Both types of peas are in one bag.)
Swiss chard, 1 bunch
Cucumbers, 1 or 2
Zucchini &/or Zephyr squash, ~3 lb
Scallions, 1 bunch
Basil, 1 husky sprig

Next week’s box will probably contain broccoli, greens, cucumbers, zucchini, Walla Walla onions, basil and more.

Strawberries – These are the final berries of the season!  Eat immediately or refrigerate.

Broccoli – The broccoli plants did great this spring despite the bewildering weather.  It’s one of our nicest spring broccoli harvests in a few years.
Storage: Cover and refrigerate.

Snap and snow peas, together in one bag – As usual, both types are in one bag.  We really like this new snap pea variety, SS141.  How’s that for a romantic name?  Long pods, sturdy plants and good flavor despite the heat.  Hot weather is always a challenge for peas.  Enjoy this batch.  Both snap and snow peas have strings this week.
Storage: Refrigerate.

Swiss chard – Now that spinach is done for the year, it’s time to re-purpose your spinach recipes to Swiss chard.  They are closely related.  Chard has a thicker leaf and requires a few minutes more cooking to achieve tenderness, unlike spinach which wilts quickly.
Storage: Cover and refrigerate.

Scallions – These are the last scallions until fall.  It’s been a good run.  We will have sweet Walla Walla onions ready next week.

Basil (branched, leafy stalk) – Everyone gets a husky stalk, the first cutting of the season.
Storage:  Basil deteriorates if stored in the refrigerator.  It is best stored at room temperature with the cut ends in water, for example in a jar or vase.  Treat it like a flower.  Give the stem a fresh trim and change the water every day or two.  You will receive a large branched stalk that I encourage you to cut down to the smaller individual stems.  The smaller stems take up water better and stay fresh longer.  See photo.

Large basil stalk.  The arrows show where to cut into smaller stems.

RECIPES by DEB

Photo by DebsLunch

Calabacitas Quiche

Calabacitas is a vegetable dish served in New Mexico and Texas and other parts of the US Southwest that usually consists of zucchini or summer squash, corn, onion, often cheese, and especially in New Mexico, roasted green chiles or poblanos.  Calabacitas can also be used as a quesadilla filling – and in quiche!  I’m including it this week because you can make it with zucchini and/or yellow squash, and frozen or canned corn and canned chiles until we get fresh corn and chiles in our boxes.

Serves: 6-8
Takes: about 40 mins. active time, plus an hour to chill the crust.

Crust ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
nice pinch of kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Filling ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
One bunch of scallions, sliced, including white and green OR 3/4 cup chopped onion
1 large zucchini or 2 small, or a mix of zucchini and yellow squash, quartered longwise, and sliced
1 large or 2 small poblano chiles, roasted, skinned, seeded, and chopped OR one 4 oz. can mild green chlies
3/4 – 1 cup corn kernels, fresh cut from 1-2 ears, frozen, canned, or whatever you’ve got
salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups half & half

1. Make the crust: Measure the flour into a bowl and add the sugar and salt. Cut the shortening and butter into cubes over the salt and flour. Cut the fats into the flour with your fingers, a pastry blender, or paddle attachment of your stand mixer, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Drizzle in about 1/3 cup cold water, while stirring, until you’ve got a bunch of small clumps of dough. Dump out onto a floured surface, knead lightly to bring it together, and then flatten the dough into a disk and wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap and chill for about an hour.
2. Make the filling: melt the butter in a large skillet, and add the scallions or onion. Sauté over medium heat until the onion looks translucent, then add the zucchini. Cook until the zucchini is starting to soften, and then add the poblanos or chiles, corn, and salt & pepper. Cook until the squash is just tender, and then set aside to cool.
3. Assemble the quiche: Heat the oven to 375° with a rack near the bottom and another near the middle of your oven. Roll out the crust and fit it into a 9-10 inch pie dish. Put 2/3 of a cup of the grated cheese in the bottom, then add the zucchini filling. You’ll find some images of rolling out crust and fitting it into a pie dish here.
4. Beat the eggs, add the half & half, and pour this custard into the crust.
5. Place the quiche on the bottom rack and bake for 10 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 cup of cheese over the top of the quiche, and bake for another 10 minutes. Move the quiche up to the middle rack and continue baking until it is puffed and golden brown in spots, about 20 minutes more. Cool for 15 minutes before serving either hot or warm.

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Photo by Deb Perelman

Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Garlic Chips | smitten kitchen

From smitten kitchen
Deb Perelman adapted this recipe for Swiss chard pasta from the dearly departed Gourmet magazine; the orginal included currents that she omitted, so feel free to omit them yourself. The combination of chard and garlic chips is maybe a bit autumnal, but you can make it more summer-y by subbing in our scallions for the onion, and a garnish of sliced basil leaves wouldn’t be amiss here.
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Snap Pea Salad with Zesty Lemon Vinaigrette | Minimalist Baker

From Minimalist Baker
This quick pea salad from Minimalist Baker can be made with the combo of snow and snap peas in this week’s box – all you need to do is rinse and string both types of peas and cut them all on the diagonal, about the same size. The recipe called for four cups of sliced peas for 4 generous servings of salad, and the 3/4 pound of peas in the box will not yield that much sliced up. I suggest either adding chopped broccoli to get to four cups, or you could also halve the recipe.
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Caesar Roasted Broccoli | The Kitchn

From The Kitchn
This version of roasted broccoli is somewhere between a salad and a side dish, but is right on delicious. As the recipe points out, if you are nervous about using raw egg yolk to make a classic Caesar dressing, you can sub a tablespoon of mayonnaise. Beth also provided a link to a method for pasteurizing eggs in the microwave in last week’s newsletter. And personally, I do not care for anchovies, and I sub a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce, a teaspoon or so, in place of the anchovies.
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Vegetarian Chard Enchiladas | Letty’s Kitchen

From Letty’s Kitchen
Create this vegetarian main course with the chard and scallions in this week’s box. You can use purchased or homemade enchilada sauce and Letty’s Kitchen provides links to both a recipe that uses soaked and pureed whole dried chiles, and a quick version with chili powder, although I’d suggest using ground red Ancho chile in the quick sauce – you can find it at Penzey’s and Willy Street Co-op.
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Photo by Kelly Senyei

Zucchini Noodle Stir-Fry with Shrimp | Just a Taste

From Just a Taste
Probably the best part of this recipe is that it gives you several methods for creating the zucchini noodles, zoodles, even if do not own a spiralizer or mandoline. It also provides an easy stir fry sauce made with common pantry ingredients like soy sauce and cornstarch. You can sub in sliced chard leaves and stems and broccoli for the carrots and bell pepper.
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Photo by Heidi Swanson

Spicy Tahini Noodles with Roasted Vegetables | 101 Cookbooks

From 101 Cookbooks
This recipe is really a formula for sesame noodles with roasted vegetables. The author, Heidi Swanson, invites you to raid your vegetable crisper to come up with about a pound of roast-able vegetables, and that means you can use a combination of the broccoli, zucchini, and summer squash from this week’s box, and you can also throw in a handful or two of the snap and snow peas. And if you don’t happen to have tahini, you could use peanut butter or almond butter in the sauce, although they’d be peanut or almond noddles in that case.

Week #7; Excellent berry u-pick

We were happy to open the farm for a strawberry u-pick last weekend. It was hot but everyone did great!  The picking was easy and the flavor intense.  I must tell you – these are the best-tasting berries we have ever grown.  It’s mostly because it’s rained so little.  We irrigate every five days or so, but can still avoid the disease problems that come with rain.  With all the sunshine, the berries have intensely concentrated flavor.  So, we’re pretty proud of them and were glad people could experience that themselves directly in the berry patch.  Enjoy this week’s berries in your box.
Beth

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #7, June 29/30, 2023

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ purple
– Sampler/ C group

Beth’s produce notes;  
– We are sending dill to accompany the first batch of cucumbers, for quick pickles of course.  Dill is wonderful with cabbage too and Deb found us a nice recipe for yogurt-dill sauce.  That kind of sauce is great on salmon.  I’ve seen recipes for lemon-dill aioli that I might try this weekend.  FYI, this approach is useful for pasteurizing egg yolks in the microwave when making aioli or Caesar salad dressing.
– Reminder; I gathered lots of scallion recipes from previous years in last week’s newsletter. Personally, I add scallions to everything I cook. Maybe not baked goods.

Strawberries, 1 pint
Caraflex cabbage
Fennel, 1 – 2 bulbs with fronds
Snap peas, and 
Snow peas
(The peas are together in one bag, with total weight 3/4 lb)
Zucchini &/or yellow squash, ~2.5 lb
Cucumbers, ~3
Lettuce, red bibb OR iceberg
Scallions, 1 bunch
Dill, 1 bunch
Garlic scapes, a handful

Next week’s box will probably contain cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, scallions, basil, and more.

Strawberries – Refrigerate and eat soon!  This week’s berries are excellent again; great quality and so full of flavor.

‘Caraflex’ cabbage (pointy cabbage) – These are nice salad-types that we grow in summer.  Don’t you love the pointy shape?  They have thinner, more tender leaves than typical green cabbage.  Great in salads and slaws but can also be cooked.  Here’s the Caraflex description from the seed catalogue: “Inner leaves are tender, crunchy, and have an excellent, sweet and mild cabbage flavor.  Perfect for summer salads, slaws, or cooked dishes.”  

Fennel (bulbs and lacy fronds) – Fennel is a ‘swing vegetable’; it can be used raw or cooked.  Clean well and slice as thinly as possible for use in raw salads.  It is good simply prepared with olive oil, lime or lemon juice, salt and shaved parmesan cheese.  Cooking softens and sweetens fennel, and mellows its anise flavor.  Both the bulb and leaves are edible.  Here are ideas from Alice Water of Chez Panisse about how to use fennel:  ‘It’s strong anise characteristic seems to suit fish particularly well.  … We use fennel all the time.  We add the feathery leaves to marinades for fish and to numerous salads, sauces and soups and we use them as a garnish, too. … The bulbs are sliced and served raw in salads in various combinations with other vegetables, parboiled for pastas; caramelized and served as a side dish; braised whole; or cooked in vegetable broths & fish stocks.”

Snap peas and snow peas.   You only have to remove strings from the snow peas this week.
– Snap peas (plump pea pods) – These peas should be eaten pod and all.  They are delicious raw, or very lightly cooked or stir-fried.
Preparation: They will need a quick rinse to remove faded gray blossoms. This week’s snap pea variety does not have strings to remove, although you’ll want to snap off the stem ends.
Storage: Refrigerate.
– Snow peas (larger, flatter pea pods) – These are excellent stir fried or in raw salads.
Preparation: The snow peas do have strings to remove.  Snap off the stem end and pull the string down the concave side of the pod (the inward-curing side).  Throw away the string and eat the pod.  The thicker pea pods will usually have a string along both edges.  Remove them when you snap off the stem.

Zucchini & summer squash –  Zucchini and summer squash need refrigeration but do not do well at very cold temperatures, as they will soften and form pits in their surface. Refrigerate these squash but in the warmest part of your fridge.  

Cucumbers – We have been waiting for these!
Storage: Store at room temperature for a few days or refrigerate in the warmest part of your fridge.  Cucumbers get chilling injury if stored too cold.

Dill (bundle of lacy leaves and flowers) – The dill bunches contain a mix of leaves and flowers, and even clusters of young seeds.  If you make refrigerator pickles, try the flowers or young seeds.  Minced dillweed leaves are great in cabbage dishes, soups, sauces, breads.

Garlic scapes (curly green things) – Garlic scapes grow at the top of garlic plants.  We snap off the young scapes to direct the plants’ energy into forming garlic bulbs underground.  Use scapes as a substitute for garlic cloves.  They can be minced, mixed with olive oil, and added to stir fries or simple pasta dishes.  The scapes can be sautéed, but will not brown like garlic cloves.  Expect them to retain their crunch even when cooked, and to be milder than garlic cloves, closer in pungency to the green garlic we’ve sent.

RECIPES by DEB

Fresh Fennel & Sausage Pasta with Fennel Frond Gremolata

Fresh fennel and sausage are a natural together – the seasoning for Italian sausage typically includes fennel seed. You could make this pasta vegetarian by simply omitting the meat – start by cooking the onions, garlic, and fennel in olive oil, and then add the tomatoes. I’ve used canned tomatoes here but when fresh tomatoes are available, 2 cups of fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped, would be even better than canned!

Serves: 4-6
Takes: about 45 minutes

Sauce Ingredients:
1/2 pound pork or turkey sausage, removed from casings if links
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2-4 cloves garlic
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
optional (depending on how spicy your sausage is) 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, a few shakes of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup white wine
2 cups thinly sliced fennel bulb
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2-4 tablespoons tomato paste, dissolved in about 1/3 cup water

Gremolata:
1/4-1/3 cup fennel fronds, finely minced
zest of one large lemon
1 small garlic clove (half of a larger clove)
pinch of salt

Pasta:
1/2 pound pasta, short shapes such as orecchiette, penne, or bow ties recommended
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, plus more for passing

1. Brown the sausage in a wide deep skillet with a lid, crumbling it with a wooden spoon. If you are using turkey sausage, add the olive oil to the pan first! When there’s almost no pink left and the sausage is starting to brown, if using pork, drizzle in the olive oil (omit this step if your sausage has given off a lot of fat already) and add the onion, garlic, salt and pepper, and optional fennel seed and red pepper. Add the wine and let it boil off. Reduce the heat and cook gently while you slice the fennel.
2. Separate the stalks and fronds from the fennel bulb. Slice off the bottom of the bulb, remove any damaged leaves, and rinse. Cut the bulb in half and optionally remove the core – the core is entirely edible, but will take longer to tenderize than the rest. Slice the bulb halves lengthwise into slices as thin as you can get them. If you leave the core in you will have bigger slices of fennel held together by the core. Add the fennel to the pan with the sausage and onion, stir, and cover. Cook for about 15 minutes over low heat, checking the fennel for tenderness with a fork.
3. When the fennel is tender, uncover and add the tomatoes. Put the water into the empty can and stir in the tomato paste. Add to the sauce, rinsing the can with a little more water. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, until the tomatoes are starting to break down and the sauce is thickened.
4. Make the gemolata: placed the minced fennel frond in a small bowl. If you have a microplane grater, set it on top of the bowl and grate in the lemon zest and garlic. If you don’t have a microplane grater, peel off the lemon zest with a peeler and dice finely, and either mince or put the garlic through a press. Add a pinch of salt and mix – taste to make sure none of the flavors is overpowering the others.
5. Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water. Drain and add sauce – you might not use it all. Top with gremolata and Paremesan cheese and serve right away with baguette slices and more Parmesan.

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Fresh Cabbage and Herb Slaw | Taproot Farm

By Katie Darlington
From Taproot Farm
Here’s a recipe for the Caraflex cabbage and dill in this week’s box, from a Pennsylvania CSA, Taproot Farm, in Berks County PA. They suggest serving this slaw on top of pulled pork sandwiches or stuffing it into a pita for a vegetarian sandwich – I suggest a little cheese in the pita too.
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by Sula

Zucchini Casserole with Ground Beef | Sula and Spice

From Sula and Spice
I’d like to try this quick zucchini casserole with with a cornbread topping. Any cornbread recipe that fills an 8×8 pan would be the right amount – or one box of Jiffy cornbread mix! You can sub ground turkey of plant-based meat for the beef.
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Photo by Heidi Swanson

Shaved Fennel Salad – 101 Cookbooks

From 101 Cookbooks
Food blogger, vegetarian chef, and photographer Heidi Swanson included this recipe in her book, Super Natural Every Day, but in the book it doesn’t have a picture so she is remedying that here on her blog. Heidi serves this salad on arugula, but you could easily use the red leaf lettuce in this week’s box as a bed for the salad.
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by Rachel Ray

Quick Pickles Recipe | Rachael Ray | Food Network

From Food Network
This recipe for quick refrigerator pickles calls for Kirby (pickling) cucumbers, but can be made with the cukes in our box – and you can use the same brine to pickle zucchini, summer squash, and even fennel stalks! At a restaurant in Chicago, I was recently served an arugula salad that was topped with pickled fennel stalks and red onion that was super tasty.
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Photo by Géraldine

Roasted Pointed Cabbage with Tahini Sauce | La Cuisine de Géraldine

From La Cuisine de Géraldine
Caraflex cabbage is also called hipsi cabbage, or simply pointed cabbage, and while it is so tender it’s very good raw, here it’s roasted to serve as an elegant first course. The 100g of Greek yogurt is about 1/4 cup, and 50ml olive oil is about 3 tablespoons.
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Roasted Zucchini with Yogurt Dill Sauce | The Toasted Pine Nut

From The Toasted Pine Nut
Roast your zucchini and serve with a dill yogurt sauce for a quick, summery side dish. You could roast the zucchini in the morning when it’s cool.
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By Frankie Gaw

Scallion Buns Recipe | King Arthur Baking

From King Arthur Baking
Blogger and cookbook author Frankie Gaw contributed this steamed scallion buns recipe to King Arthur Flour. It make A LOT of buns, but leftovers can be frozen.
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Cold Green Pea and Cucumber Soup | The Vegan Atlas

From The Vegan Atlas
This vegan soup calls for English cucumbers which are seedless; I recommend that you seed our cukes. To seed cucumbers, cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Peeling is optional and the recipe provides a note on the question of to peel or not to peel. You will have a smoother soup if you peel. Garnish with the snow & snap peas from our box, and add extra dill if you do not have the other fresh herbs.

Week #6; Big family week on the farm

Maggie and daughter Ida

Once again, the next generation has joined the farm.  Maggie Schley has worked for us 26 or 27 years.  We’ve lost track of the exact number.  Now, her daughter Ida (age 13) joins the farm crew one day per week.  We are so thrilled to have her here.  This is a big deal for us and Maggie and our entire crew.  Ida is a natural!  Of course!

Our kids Sophie and Ari began steady farm work around that age.  Of course, they helped in small ways since they were young, standing on a stool to put garlic bulbs in the CSA boxes or washing melons in a giant tub on hot days.  Ari was twelve when he was strong enough to catch watermelons tossed from the field.  Sophie was about that age when she took over cash payments during farm u-picks.  Gradually they joined the farm crew full-time in the summer.  Now both of our kids are out of the house and living in the Twin Cities!

Sophie came home this weekend with five friends in tow, expecting to help with a strawberry u-pick.  Strawberries were always her favorite crop and she wanted her friends to experience that and other childhood fun.  The berries were not ready for a u-pick so they found other amusements; berry picking, kayaking, hiking, farm walks, volleyball in the yard, a bonfire, and eating lots of just-picked produce.  I wondered what they were doing when they wandered the farm after dark.  Turns out they were grazing in the berry field, by flashlight.

One of Sophie’s visiting friends helps Steve plant beans.

Slumber party in the living room this weekend.

Let’s not forget neighbors Karen, Caitlyn and Chance.  Karen’s worked for us ten years.  Her children Caitlyn and Chance joined our crew as teenagers for a few years before moving on.  It’s been great to see all of these kids grow up.

Berries!

The berries are gorgeous this week.   All your berries are ripe, even if one side is white and the other colored.  This is normal for some varieties.  Just eat one and you’ll understand that they are ripe.

Tipi members, watch for emails from us in the next few days about a members-only berry u-pick!

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #6, June 22/23, 2023

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ green
– Sampler/ B group

Beth’s notes:  
– Expect grit in the lettuce and endive (frisee) this week.  Like last week, it’s the result of irrigation during this dry weather.
– We continue to send scallions each week, so you have something in the onion family to enliven your dishes.  We’ll include scallions for a few more weeks, then we’ll switch to sweet onions, fresh garlic, cooking onions and eventually leeks.  I’ve gathered lots of scallion recipes below.

Strawberries, 1 quart
Snap peas, ~1/2 lb
Zucchini &/or yellow squash, ~3 lb
Lacinato kale, 1 bunch
Endive (frisée), 1 head
Iceberg lettuce
Shunkyo radishes, 1 bunch
Scallions, 1 bunch
Garlic scapes, a handful

Next week’s box will probably contain Caraflex cabbage, zucchini, scallions and more.

Strawberries – Strawberries are perishable.  Refrigerate and eat soon.

Snap peas – These pea pods have strings to remove.  Snap off the stem end and pull the string down the concave side of the pod (the inward-curing side).  Throw away the string and eat the pod.  The thicker pea pods will usually have a string along both edges. Remove them when you snap off the stem.  Snap peas should be eaten pod and all.  They are delicious raw, or very lightly cooked or stir-fried.  
Heads up!:  You may find some fibrous shell-type pods mixed in, from off-type plants.
Preparation: They will need a quick rinse to remove faded gray blossoms.  
Storage: Refrigerate.

Zucchini &/or ‘Zephyr’ summer squash – It’s summer now!  Zucchini and squash are somewhat sensitive to cold temperatures.
Storage: Refrigerate in a warmer part of your fridge.

Lacinato kale (bundle of grey-green textured leaves) – This is our most beautiful green and a super food!  Use like any kale.  
Storage:  Cover and refrigerate.

Endive (frilly head, also know as frisée) – Endive is closely related to escarole.  These members of the chicory family can be used interchangeably in recipes, whether raw or cooked.  Their slightly bitter flavor is a good addition to mixed salads.  They are excellent cooked alone or mixed with other greens.  They cook quickly, but not as quickly as spinach.  
Storage:  Cover and refrigerate.

Iceberg lettuce (round head of lettuce) – We’ve found an iceberg variety that grows well for us.  It is crisp and tender inside.  Examine closely before using in a wedge salad – some heads have grit from overhead irrigation.

Shunkyo radishes – This is a new variety for us this year, chosen because it is supposed to be unusually sweet, plus tolerant of hot weather.  They are also pungent, a good cooking radish.

Garlic scapes (curly green things) – Garlic scapes grow at the top of garlic plants.  We snap off the young scapes to direct the plants’ energy into forming garlic bulbs underground.  Use scapes as a substitute for garlic cloves.  They can be minced, mixed with olive oil, and added to stir fries or simple pasta dishes.  The scapes can be sautéed, but will not brown like garlic cloves.  Expect them to retain their crunch even when cooked, and to be milder than garlic cloves, closer in pungency to the green garlic we’ve sent.

Garlic scapes

Top; Lacinato kale
Bottom; Endive, also known as frisée

Scallion Ideas

It is time for my annual roundup of favorite scallion ideas.  We have sent scallions for many weeks in a row.  They are the best seasonal allium (onion family plant) this time of year and are beautiful right now.  Let’s share a few of our favorite ways to prepare them.  
Gingery Pea & Scallion Fried Rice (6/29/22 newsletter)
Scallion Meatballs (6/15/22 newsletter)
– Scallion biscuits (slice and add to your usual biscuit recipe).  Or try Savory Cheese & Scallion Scones 
– We have a favorite scallion dressing for adaptable pasta salads.  We use it with spinach and asparagus in spring, then switch to grilled vegetables and sweet Walla Walla onions once those are available.
– Egg drop soup with spring greens, topped with sliced scallions
– Grilled scallion, asparagus and turnip salad
– Grilled beef bulgogi wrapped in lettuce leaves.  Easily adapted to tofu.
– Salmon patties with minced scallions mixed into the batter.

Scallion Pancakes

I love scallion pancakes and have tried many recipes over the years.  
Kimchi, Pork + Scallion Pancakes – Beth’s comment: This is our household’s favorite, but we add bay scallops instead of pork, halve the kimchi and add any green, whether spinach, komatsuna, napa cabbage or kale.  Kale takes longer to cook than spinach, so reduce the amount and slice finely before adding to the batter.  We skip the relish and use 1:1 soy sauce:rice vinegar for dipping sauce.  These are hefty and filling.

Member suggestions:
Several of you have shared scallion pancake recipes in our Facebook discussion group over the years.  Here are some of the recipe links and comments.  
Korean Pancakes with Scallions (Pa Jun) – “So many scallions, so little time. Make Pa Jun, Korean scallion pancakes. There were a few different recipes in the newsletter but I like this one! Simple, fast, and delicious!”
Extra Flaky Scallion Pancake Recipe – This recipe makes layered pancakes.  This is a J. Kenji López-Alt recipes, with his usual insightful explanations.

RECIPES by DEB

Photo by debslunch

Kale and Orzo “Risotto”

Based on a recipe by Hetty McKinnon, this one pot dish subs orzo, a rice-shaped pasta, for rice. Orzo cooks more quickly than rice and there’s less need for stirring. I tested the recipe with curly kale, but the original recipe was designed for the lacinto kale in this week’s box. With the flavors of spanakopita – herbs, greens, and feta – this is a tasty way to get even the greens haters in your house to eat their greens.

Serves: 4
Takes: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

about 1/2 pound lacinto kale, 8-9 ounces, rinsed, stems removed and leaves thinly sliced
1 cup onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic minced or put through a press
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
a big handful of fresh dill if available, OR 1 teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon dried oregano
a few pinches of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 scallions, whites and green, thinly sliced
3/4 pound orzo
3 cups of vegetable broth
3 tablespoons salted butter
grated zest and juice of one lemon
3 ounces of feta crumbled (optional)

1. Rinse and slice the kale. Chop the onion. Pour the olive oil into a wide deep skillet with a cover or a Dutch oven, and heat over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent.
2. Season with salt and pepper, add the fresh or dried herbs, and then add the kale and scallions. Toss everything together and cook covered for 5-10 minutes to wilt the kale.
3. Add the orzo and vegetable broth, bring to a boil, and then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir a few times during the 10 minutes scraping the bottom, to reduce sticking.
4. Taste and when the orzo is tender and the broth is absorbed, add the butter, lemon zest and juice, and feta if using. Stir well, cover and remove from heat and let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

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Chocolate Zucchini Cake | King Arthur Baking

From King Arthur Baking
King Arthur’s double chocolate zucchini bread is always a winner, but this cake was new to me this year. It uses three cups of zucchini or yellow summer squash, but no one will notice in this chocolatey, fudgy cake.
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Vegetarian Stuffed Zucchini Boats | From Scratch Fast

From From Scratch Fast
This gluten free and meatless version of stuffed zucchini gets it flavor from ricotta and Comté cheeses, and fresh herbs. Cottage cheese can be subbed for the ricotta, and Swiss or Gruyere cheese can take the place of the Comté. And you can omit the fresh herbs – add an extra scallion or two – or use dried.
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Frisée aux Lardons à la Breakfast Sandwich | Never Not Hungry

From Never Not Hungry
A traditional way of preparing curly endive, also called frisee, is Frisée aux Lardons, a bacon-y French bistro salad, with croutons fried in the bacon fat and typically some bacon fat in the dressing, and a soft cooked egg on top. So I love this idea of turning that salad into a breakfast sandwich. Alternatively, you could make this sandwich with shredded iceberg lettuce instead of the endive.
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Pasta Primavera Recipe | Love and Lemons

From Love and Lemons
Love and Lemons’ version of pasta primavera is a pretty way to eat up our zucchini and summer squash and you can sub in the snap peas for frozen – string the snap peas, and place them in the colander where you will drain the penne – pouring the hot pasta and water over the peas will cook them just enough. The recipe also calls for asparagus, red onion, and cherry tomatoes, and you can up the amount of squash to make up, and/or try adding scallions instead of the onion.
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Photo by Meredith Food Studios

Seven Layer Salad | Allrecipes

From Leah Mae on allrecipes.com
Seven layer salad is a midwestern potluck staple, and usually made with iceberg lettuce. This version from allrecipes.com has a layer of cauliflower – personally I like a celery layer, but you can sub in what you have to make the seven layers. And use the snap peas in place of frozen. Another popular salad made with iceberg is wedge salad, and you could make the dressings from last week’s Deconstructed Wedge Salad to serve over wedges of this week’s iceberg.
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Summer Squash Tacos with Kale Slaw | eMeals

From emeals.com
These vegan tacos are filled with sauteed squash and topped with a quick kale slaw and pepitas, or toasted pumpkin seeds. In the picture it looks as if a bit of cheese might have sneaked in there too – not vegan, but tasty if you eat dairy. A recipe for a suggested side dish of pinto beans and diced tomato over rice is also included.

Week #5; Irrigation = grit

Top: Overhead irrigation with a traveling gun.
Bottom: Drip irrigation of melon plants growing in plastic mulch.  This shows the inlet of a long plastic tube that extends 600 feet down the field. We can pump about 3 gallons per minute through the tube.

We continue to irrigate. It’s been five or six weeks since the last substantial rain.  Recent rains totaled 1/4 inch for us, essentially nothing.

We use a mix of overhead and drip irrigation.  The first is great for plantings on bare grounds of quick crops like lettuce.  Longer-season crops planted into a thin layer of plastic mulch  (to protect from weeds) can be irrigated via plastic drip tape tubing under the plastic.  It’s a good water-efficient system for crops like melons, tomatoes and peppers but not suitable for every situation.  See second photo.

There will be grit in your lettuce and napa this week, a side effect of overhead irrigation. When the weather is this dry, we need to lay down a lot of water when irrigating each field, which splashes grit onto the produce.  We do not like that side effect but it’s what we need to do right now.  The baby bok choy and everything else is clean.

Thoughts:
– Cut your lettuce one and a half inches above the base and you’ll leave a lot of dirt behind.
– Expect to spend extra time cleaning this week’s greens.  Therefore, let’s talk about how to do that efficiently.

Cut your lettuce heads at one and a half inches above the base and you’ll leave a lot of dirt behind.

How to wash greens efficiently and to maximize storage life

Washing and drying your lettuce, spinach, and other greens prolongs their storage life.  It also means they are ready to use on busy weeknights!  Here’s our approach.  It works.
1.  Fill your sink or a basin halfway with cold tap water.  If you have two sinks, fill one sink partway with cold water.
2.  Chop your lettuce, spinach, escarole or other green to the size you wish.
3.  Dump it into the water and swish around gently but thoroughly.
4.  Working in two batches (for average lettuce head) or more batches (big spinach bunches, Romaine), pull handfuls out of the water and drain in the basket of a salad spinner.
5.  After all the greens have been rinsed one time, dump the water.  Rinse the sink/basin and refill with cold tap water.
6.  Repeat the process.
7.  Spin your greens dry and store in a dry container.  They store much longer when spun dry.

This works because …
– pre-chopping the greens frees soil trapped in the head.
– the large amount of water washes and dilutes away the grit.
– By pulling the greens out of the water, you take advantage of the draining action to pull the grit with it.
– Drying (spinning) the greens before storage reduces spoilage.

Veggie List & Veggie Notes
Week #5, June 15/16, 2023

– Weekly shares
– BiWeekly/ purple
– Sampler/ A group

Strawberries, 1 pint
Napa cabbage
Baby bok choy, 1 bundle
Zucchini or yellow squash, ~2 squash
Lettuce, green leaf
Lettuce, red Romaine
Kohlrabi, 2 with leaves
Salad radishes, 1 bunch
Scallions, 1 bunch
Oregano, 1 small bunch

Next week’s box will probably contain strawberries, zucchini, lacinato kale, lettuce, endive or escarole, scallions and more.

Strawberries – Refrigerate and eat soon.  

Napa cabbage (large, pale green cabbage with crinkled leaves) – Napa cabbage is an interesting vegetable, useful for both fresh, raw salads and for cooking.  Its most famous use is fermented kimchi.  I like to prepare a fresh, unfermented kimchi.  Same seasonings, but it’s ready to eat right away.  You will be amazed at how much shredded napa cabbage shrinks when prepared this way.  See here for an example, but cut the salt in half (or even further): Grilled Flank Steak with Kimchi-style Coleslaw.
Storage:  Napa stores very well.  When refrigerated, it will keep for several weeks.  Peel off the outer layer and it will be ready to use.  Here are a few preparation ideas from the ‘Asparagus to Zucchini’ cookbook.
– Chop raw napa into green salads.
– Substitute napa in traditional coleslaw.
– Chinese cabbage cooks quickly.  Steam 3-5 minutes, or until leaves are wilted down but remain slightly crisp.
– Substitute napa cabbage for common cabbage in recipes, but reduce the cooking time by 2 minutes.
– Napa cabbage is the main ingredient in egg rolls.  Try making an egg roll mixture to eat as a cooked side dish instead of preparing time-consuming egg rolls.

Baby bok choy – This was a fun experiment this spring. This is much more tender than full-size choy and cooks quicker.
Storage: Cover and refrigerate.

Lettuce – The lettuce are small so we are sending two in mixed colors, for pretty salads.
Storage: Cover and refrigerate.

Kohlrabi (pale green, round vegetable with thick skin and attached leaves) – Crunchy and sweet, kohlrabi is a great addition to salads.
Storage: Kohlrabi bulbs will store for a month in the refrigerator. Remove the leaves if you plan to store for more than a few days.
Uses: Kohlrabi are good peeled and eaten out of hand, or added to sandwiches, or added to salads. It makes a nice salad on it’s own. You can grate it, slice it, or cut it into matchsticks. It’s also good cooked.

Oregano (small bundle of fragrant leaves) – Useful in salad dressing or if paired with this week’s zucchini. You can always wash well, pat dry and hang to dry out of direct sunlight.

RECIPES by DEB

Pork & Cabbage Rice Bowls with Peanut Sauce

This recipe includes all the ingredients for fried egg rolls, arranged as tasty layers in a rice bowl. The crispy wonton strips are easy to do, even if you typically avoid deep frying.  They’re also optional and you can top your bowls with chopped peanuts or extra scallions or toasted sesame seeds. Or used purchased crispy chow mein noodles! This recipe is designed to help you address the large Napa cabbage that’s in your box this week. You’ll also find a Napa slaw recipe a bit further down. Another great way to prepare Napa cabbage is to make it into kimchi, and you’ll find a recipe adapted for US kitchens in one of the June 2021 newsletters. There are more kimchi recipes at the Korean food blog Maangchi. Try a search there on Napa to get recipes for not only kimchi but other cabbage dishes as well.
Serves: 4
Takes: about 30 minutes active time; the brown rice takes about 45 minutes

Optional Crispy wonton strips
2-3 tablespoons oil
6-7 wonton wrappers
Salt, to taste

Pork:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
One pound of ground pork – or turkey or chicken or a 14-oz box of tofu, crumbled
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced or put through a press
one-inch piece of fresh ginger, minced or grated – or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
6-7 cups of thinly sliced Napa cabbage – probably about half the head
Drizzle of toasted sesame oil – 1 tablespoon or less
3 scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal, white and green – set aside most of the sliced green part for topping
salt & ground black pepper to taste

Sauce:
1/4 cup chunky or creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
4 teaspoons (heaping tablespoon) maple syrup or honey or brown sugar
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
2-3 teaspoons of Sriracha

For serving:
2-3 cups warm cooked rice, white or brown
scallion greens
Optional additional toppings:
additional scallions, thinly sliced
toasted sesame seeds – 1-2 tablespoons
chopped peanuts – about 1/4 cup

1. Cook the rice – do this first if using brown rice; if using white, do this after you make the wonton strips, while the pork is cooking. Start with about one cup brown or white rice to yield 2-3 cups.
2. Make the crispy wonton strips, if using: Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a deep soup pot or skillet – the deeper pot will protect your stove from splatters. Have a paper towel-lined plate ready next to the stove. Cut the wonton wrappers into narrow strips, and drop just enough to cover the bottom of the pan into the hot oil – I find I do about 1/3 at a time. Fry till puffed and brown, and remove with a slotted spoon to the paper towel. Continue frying batches until all the strips are crisped. Sprinkle with salt and set aside.
3. Cook the pork: Heat the 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet with a lid, and add the pork. Stir and cook the pork and break it into crumbles with a wooden spoon. When there is almost no pink left, add the garlic and ginger. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 5 minutes, then add the cabbage, and cover the pan for a few minutes to wilt the cabbage. Remove the cover, drizzle in the sesame oil, and stir to evaporate excess moisture.
4. Make the sauce: whisk together the peanut butter, vinegar, maple syrup, soy sauce and Siracha. Pour over the pork, add the scallions, and cook a few more minutes until bubbly.
5. Assemble the bowls: divide the rice between 4 individual bowls (or mound the rice in a serving bowl) and layer the pork mixture on top. Add any toppings you are using and serve warm.

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Photo by DebsLunch

Deconstructed Wedge Salad | DebsLunch

From DebsLunch
Probably the best part of this recipe is it includes two simple salad dressing recipes, Red French, and Creamy Herb, kind of a homemade Ranch. The Creamy Herb dressing is usually made with fresh thyme and dill, but the fresh oregano in this week’s box will also taste good.
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Photo by Taste of Home

Creamed Kohlrabi | Taste of Home

From Taste of Home
This is one of two recipes for kohlrabi this week; also check out the kohlrabi fries from last week. This creamy preparation of kohlrabi is one of the most common ways to eat it in Germany, where it is called Rahmkohlrabi.
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Photo by Joe Lingeman

Crunchy Peanut Slaw | Kitchn

From The Kitchn
This recipe calls for thinly-sliced green cabbage, but Napa will work perfectly and the non-mayonnaise-based dressing is great on Napa.
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Roasted Radish & Kohlrabi Salad with Apple, Pine Nuts & Puffed Rice | VegKit

From VegKit
In this recipe, all the way from Australia, most of the radishes are roasted, leaving one to slice up for garnish, and the radish greens are blended into the dressing. You also have the option of added puffed rice cereal for a little extra crunch, but I recommend only doing that if the salad will be all consumed at one sitting!
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Chicken and Bok Choy Stir Fry | Barefeet in the Kitchen

From Barefeet in the Kitchen
Barefeet in the Kitchen adapted this quick stir fry from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food, using skinless boneless chicken thighs instead of the chicken breasts in the original recipe. Whatever cut of chicken you use, this is a tasty way to prepare bok choy.
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Kohlrabi Slaw | A Couple Cooks

From A Couple of Cooks
Here’s another kohlrabi preparation from A Couple of Cooks. If you don’t have an apple to cut into matchsticks to add to the slaw, a few of the radishes from this week’s box would add a pop of color and a little heat to your dish. You could also sub fresh oregano for the parsley.