Summer CSA 2023
Hi CSA mmbers!
Hope you’re having a good week. Just a few announcements going into this week:
WAITE PARK PICKUP: There will be house construction happening at Sarah and Jordan’s this week, so your boxes will be located at the blue house, two doors down. Just look for the yellow totes. Call me with any questions!
Updates from the farm…
This week Pearce, Milo, and I actually dipped off the farm for a much needed vacation! As soon as I got home from the CSA drop last Tuesday, we loaded up the car and headed up north to spend a few days at a cabin with Pearce’s parents. We got to swim, fish, paddleboard, rest, play board games, and just be. We feel grateful we scheduled this time in for ourselves; the farm in August can really drain a farmer of energy. And we were lucky enough to escape the heat wave! Our employee, April tended to things on the farm while we were gone, she had some zen weeding time and was able to work early in the morning, before the heat of the day set on. We are grateful for her!
We’re back at it in full force this week as we roll into September.
How is the beet challenge going?!? I hope you’re finding some creative ways to eat them up. Pearce and I pressure cooked some in the instant pot yesterday, and Milo got to try his first beets! Then we ate them on a salad bed of arugula, mustard greens, and kale with goat cheese and avocado. It was definitely tasty! There are a few more beets for you to use this week, be sure to submit all the ways you used your beets, with photos, by FRIDAY at MIDNIGHT! Excited to see all the creative ways you ate the beets these weeks.
Keep reading the newsletter so you can find out what’s in your share this week!
In your box….
Here are photos of what you’ll find in your box this week!
Large CSA
Green curly kale, shishito peppers, arugula and mustard greens, jimmy nardello peppers, broccolini, yellow onions, potatoes, beets, heirloom tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes.
Small CSA
Green curly kale, shishito peppers, arugula and mustard greens, bell peppers, potatoes, beets, heirloom tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes.
Some inspiration…..
There are some fun veggies in the share this week. It is the first week of POTATOES! We harvested all of them a little over a week ago, and now we’ve begun the sorting and washing process. Big River Farms has a brush washer that we can use for root veggies; it is a super efficient way to clean and sort the potatoes we harvested.
The potatoes in your share this week are two different varieties. The yellow ones are called a Carola potato, and the red ones are called an Adirondack red potato. Both are excellent roasted, boiled, mashed, or fried. Potatoes store best around 40 degrees, so I recommend keeping them in your fridge in the crisper drawer, away from light. I usually keep mine in a cotton cloth bag, but a paper bag will do the job too. These potatoes will store ALL winter, so if you don’t use them this week, don’t throw them out! Potatoes are a storage crop and are meant to last a really long time. Honestly, if you don’t use them until January, they will be totally fine.
A few other notes and a recipe…
LARGE SHARES: This week you received a special kind of pepper called a Jimmy Nardello. These are a SWEET pepper. I repeat, THEY ARE SWEET. Even though they are red and curly and look hot, they are actually one of the sweetest peppers out there! You can use them like a normal bell pepper, in stir fries, soups, fresh on salad, you name it.
EVERYONE: All of you received a little bundle of arugula and mustard greens. These came from the same plants as the greens from two weeks ago, but as I was harvesting today I noticed that the mustard greens have gotten SPICY. They already were kind of spicy, but now they are VERY wasabi-like. I know some people like that bite, so feel free to eat them fresh in salads, but if you want to mellow them out, you can cook them down just a bit with some olive oil and water over high heat, think of steaming them just for a minute. Then you can enjoy over rice or eggs, or on toast, etc.
Finally, here is my recipe for you this week: Creamed Shishito Peppers!
Shishitos are awesome blistered and eaten as an appetizer or for a snack, but if you’re tired of eating them the same way, you can cream them into a thick, peppery spread. I made this recipe, I just forgot to take photos and it was eaten so quickly! I spread it on toast and added sliced tomatoes on top for snacks all week. Here is the recipe:
Hope you enjoy this fun recipe!
Heirlooms and potatoes,
Eleanor