Summer CSA 2023
Hello from the farm!
Hope you all had a great week. Thank you to everyone who submitted recipes for the summer squash recipe challenge. It was so fun to see your kitchen creations and the diverse ways everyone is using summer squash in their kitchens. I have complied all the recipes and photos and I will write them into a blog post to share with you. I didn’t have time to do that before the newsletter today, but I’ll make time later this week so you can read about the new recipes!
CONGRATULATIONS to Maria and Nick Bradley, the winners of our summer squash recipe challenge! Your prize will be at your drop site during the CSA pickup tomorrow. Thank you for entering the challenge!
Today was a big harvest and pack push for the CSA, so I apologize for the late newsletter. I always forget how long it takes to pick beans and harvest some of the summer fruits. Hopefully you can wake up to it in your inbox and enjoy reading it while you have breakfast 🙂
This week on the farm we were able to seed some fall crops, like daikon radishes and some more beets. I also seeded another round of pea shoots that will (hopefully) be ready for next weeks CSA. April and I cleared out some old plants in one of our greenhouses and seeded another round of fresh herbs: dill, cilantro, and parsley.
Also, after almost a full year of wreaking havoc on our farm, we finally caught the resident groundhog living in our field. They have eaten so many of our crops and it was TIME to go. It walked into one of our bated live traps this week and it’s time in our field is no longer. Pearce moved it across the lake near the farm, so hopefully it won’t find its way back. I’m amazed by the amount of earth they are able to push around. All that sand in our potato patch was moved by the groundhog into our field as they were digging their tunnels. Now we’re dealing with a pocket gopher problem, they must know the groundhog is gone and they’ve taken over! Wish us luck…
I had some fun in the kitchen this week too, so keep reading for some veggie inspiration and a recipe!
In your box….
Here are photos of what you’ll find in your box this week!
Large CSA
Fennel, chiogga beets, cosmic purple carrots, cucumbers, green beans, summer squash, chard, basil, lovage, heirloom tomatoes.
Small CSA
Fennel, summer squash, green beans, gold beets, orange carrots, cucumbers, chard, and lovage.
Some inspiration…..
This is a really fun box this week. I was so excited to see that summer color start to take over in the photo! Large CSA shares will get some of the first tomatoes from the farm. I threw in a little basil in the large shares to go with the tomatoes too 🙂 Small shares, don’t worry, tomatoes will come your way soon!
Also, this week everyone got the FIRST BEANS of the season. To me, beans are the seriously underrated veggie of the farm. I always forget that I planted them because they are super easy to grow, then when they’re ready, they come in full force! And they are such a trusty side dish in the kitchen. You can eat them fresh, pickle them, ferment them, sauté them, put them in soups, blanch and freeze them….. the list goes on. I’ll try and include some bean recipes in the newsletter soon!
The herb in the share this week is lovage. This herb is reminiscent of celery, and is used best in small amounts, because it has such a strong flavor! I LOVE to use lovage in the base of my soups. Because it is similar to celery, it gives soups that warm flavor that you get from celery stalks. I also use it in slow-cooked meats. I slow cooked a whole chicken in the instant pot this week for soups and shredded chicken for lunches and I chopped some lovage into the pot before cooking. It turned out amazing! Feel free to use fresh, or dry for later use.
RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Fennel Upside Down Cake
Fennel is one of my vary favorite vegetables. It’s mainly grown for its bulb, but you can eat the whole plant, fronds and all. I love fennel sliced on a pizza, or in the base of soups (it would pair nicely with the lovage and carrots for a mean chicken soup!) but you can use it in so many ways. This week I made a fennel upside down cake, and I wanted to share the recipe! Hope you can give it a try.
Carmelized fennel:
-one or two fennel bulbs depending on size
-1 tablespoon butter
-1 tablespoon maple syrup
Instructions: slice the fennel bulb into thin strips. Heat a pan over the stove and add the butter. Caramelize the fennel by sautéing in the butter on low heat for about 15-20 minutes. Add the maple syrup about 5 mins into the process and let reduce. Once caramelized, pour the fennel into the bottom of a loaf pan.
Basic pound cake:
-4 eggs
-1 cup melted butter
-1 cup sugar
-1 1/2 cups organic flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly beat eggs and add sugar, mix together. Stir in melted butter and vanilla. In another bowl combine: flour, baking powder and salt. Mix together, then add to the egg, sugar, butter mixture. I also added some chopped fennel fronds to the cake batter for extra flavor. Combine all ingredients thoroughly and poor cake batter over the fennel in the loaf pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 50-55 minutes. Top with your favorite summer berries and yogurt to enjoy!
Next week your share will include beets and kohlrabi. I made a fermented beet and kohlrabi kraut and I will share the recipe next week. If you’re interested in fermenting, ToxyFree has a really great fermenting jar for sale on their website. It makes fermenting veggies REALLy easy. Super important to support out gut health with fermented foods. Check out the link below if you want to purchase one for your kitchen so you can ferment veggies too!
Tomatoes and basil,
Eleanor