Week 11: The CSA cup is half full.

Howdy! Joe here this week giving you all the weekly farm report.

Week 11 marks the half way point for this year’s regular CSA share distribution. But don’t worry, one extra share for Thanksgiving will be the 23rd share.

How are you all doing this week?! Using all your cucumbers? Putting any up for this winter for when you want a little taste of summer on a snowy afternoon? We’ve had some conversations during CSA pickup and we know some of you are taking advantage of the cucumbers you’ve been getting. Has anyone put up any beans yet?

Soon you will be able to do the same with tomatoes. Cranking up the heat in your kitchen from canning salsa and sauce (or gravy as some say)!

This past week has been a fun one out here on the farm. My parents came out on a road trip for a visit to see the farm. They went right to work helping us out on Friday by harvesting all the flowers. We all sat around in the evening making up the bouquets that we take out to the Pine Bush farmers market. On Saturday they came out and enjoyed the market and saw how beautiful our table looks with all the veggies and flowers. We sent them home with a good sampling of their favorite vegetables and now they are set on joining a CSA next year back home themselves.

I’ve promised Anna and Alli that I would make my favorite okra dish for them, so I finally made it this afternoon for lunch. It uses a bunch of the items you are getting in your share so I’ll put it in here because they were pretty happy about how it turned out. It is an Indian dish called Bhindi Masala and I’ve only had it in restaurants before today…

I know that some of you may be looking for ways to utilize the cucumbers and/or kale you have been getting. One thing I like to do is make kale shakes in the morning.

In the blender start with some water. We keep large amounts of kale on the freeze (it makes the shake nice and cold). So, add a bunch of leaves of kale. Lastly throw in a cucumber or two and blend it up. Other things often added are a good hemp protein, hemp seeds, and some frozen fruit. I like starting my day with this, and a small plate of fermented cucumbers or cabbage before moving onto the coffee!

Here is a really easy to put together sauce for the top of your pasta (and also use more veggies from us):

Sauté an onion with some garlic.

Add sliced carrot and stir.

Let everything caramelize.

Add a little salt and pepper.

Add a couple diced tomatoes and some summer savory.

Simmer this all together and cook it down until you have nice tender carrots and most of the water has cooked out of the tomatoes.

Place it over your favorite noodle.

You can also add summer squash into the cooking to make it more vegetabley.

As you can tell, most of my cooking involves throwing things together without much measurement. It always seems to work out, except for being able to repeat it the same way next time!

This week you will see onions! We planted several varieties this year. A few are storage onions like we normally grow, but a new one for us is a variety that is best used soon after harvest, which you’ll be receiving throughout this month. We think you will enjoy them.

We look forward to seeing you all this week and hope that you are enjoying all the fresh food this great soil is providing us with.

Cheers,

Joe, Alli, and Anna

P.S. Appearing in this weeks share…

Kale

Chard

Green and Dragons Tongue beans

Carrots

Beets

Onions!

Garlic

Arugula and/or lettuce mix

An herb

Tomatoes!!

Cherry Tomatoes or Tomatillos

Okra, Shishito Peppers, or Eggplant

Cucumbers

Squash