Greetings All,
I hope everyone had a great week! I'm sorry it took so long to get this out this weekend. I started the day with harvesting this morning and I'm so glad I did, because now it's 10 degrees hotter and way more humid! Thank goodness we're past that part of the day ;)
I realized something quite disgusting the other day.. It's already the last week of July! I feel attacked by the Walmart end caps with the stupid Halloween decorations already- I'm protesting to keep summer as long as we can. We all know it's that time of year when we start seeing school supplies, ugh!
All jokes aside, I am going to start talking more about preservation and how we can keep some of these summer flavors alive during the winter time. We'll touch on blanching and freezing and I'll even add some info about canning throughout the next few weeks! I'll add more on that below after the list of veggies we'll have for you this week.
Quick update- we had a good time at the tournament last weekend! We lost our first game but then won the next two games. It was a fun season and we're thankful for our coaches and friends on the team!! I do have to say that I am happy to have a little more time at the house now that the season wrapped up. I don't get home from delivering until about 6pm on most nights so it was a rush to get to the weeknight games and I always slid into my chair on the sidelines riiiight before the game started at 6:30. So this little reprieve before our VBS starts next week is welcomed. (Vacation Bible School).
Our son William came up to me the other day and said guess what I have?! I thought his t-shirt was bunched up on his belly because he was holding a frog in there or something that'd jump out at me.... It was a little handful of grape tomatoes!!!!!
He WINS! The first tomatoes of the year- and I was the lucky recipient of these tomatoes. I put them in a bowl on my counter and every night around supper he'd say, "hey mom, don't forget about those tomatoes" because I couldn't eat them fast enough for him, haha! If I was eating anything else, he'd remind me that I still had some grape tomatoes to get to ;) I love it! Of course, he won't eat them, but he'll remind me that I can!
*For our CSAs we're thinking it'll be a couple weeks or so before we have the quantity for adding to our Shares. Picking a bucket here or there doesn't cut it, we'll need 15 half bushel baskets to fill a whole week of our CSAs with grape tomatoes. Ben said that if they start coming in good we could also alternate weeks, so the Jumbo & Family Shares get them one week and the next week the Single Shares get them. That way, we don't have to wait as long to get them into your CSA boxes!
So as we're picking off the small quantities of ripe ones we'll sell a few at the stand and then when we see the big wave of ripening we'll add them into your CSAs! Ben says these are the nicest grape tomatoes he's ever grown, so it looks like we'll have plenty for several weeks of shares. Just not quite yet unfortunately.
Our pepper plants are doing OK but they could definitely be a little bigger by now. They were planted late and the stress around the time they were planted has pushed them back a little bit. The plants are growing nicely now and we even have some peppers on.
We're actually going to harvest all the peppers that are out there right now because we want the plants to keep growing. If we harvest the peppers now, the plants will focus on (plant) growth, and not the ripening peppers. We brough a handful up to the farm stand but again, we're harvesting 20 peppers. I need 20 bushels (literally) to put peppers into your CSAs. All in good time ;)
You'll notice the trend: we start harvesting a couple here or there and then all the sudden it's a waterfall. Just like the zucchini where we were worried we wouldn't have enough... now this past week I went to CAER in Elk River and they actually turned down my zucchini donation because we had SO much, haha! To be fair, they can only use so much, and they have gotten quite a few large zucchini donations more recently. So, it's different on a week to week basis; but I have never gone home with produce after bringing it to the food shelf before lol! It wasn't the other veggies; just the zucchini.
HOUSEKEEPING
Make sure to submit your donation form through the newsletter please. I have gotten a few emails which is AOK! (I'm not picking on you!!) But I created that form so that it would come up at the top of my inbox. That way, if someone submitted a last-minute donation request, I would be notified right away so I wouldn't miss out on delivering produce to the food shelf. It's really a logistics thing; just saying it's helpful to have donation requests come through the form because those are flagged as a priority (the form is at the bottom of every email newsletter, right under the recipes I send out).
I also wanted to touch on a few things now that we're getting into the CSA season a bit more. One of the most important things is: please don't pull into people's driveways to pick up your CSA box. Please park on the street and walk up the driveway. (*This doesn't apply to folks picking up at the farm here). In an effort to respect our hosts, please make sure to park on the street.
Also, please make sure you're bringing your boxes back every week or another option is to bring reusable bags and transfer your produce into them, leaving your box at the CSA site. It just makes it a lot easier for us if we have everyone's boxes on a week to week. If we don't have your CSA box returned, we will use one of the extra boxes we have at the farm here and it'll be delivered with your name on a handwritten sticker.
So you still get your CSA Share no matter what, but it's just a lot nicer if we have your labeled boxes for you :)
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN YOUR CSA SHARES THIS WEEK: Jumbo & Family Shares: Sweet Corn, Carrots, Red Potatoes, Red Onions, Slicing Cucumbers, Summer Squash.
Single Shares: Sweet Corn, Carrots, Red Potatoes, Red Onions, Pickles & Zucchini.
We've got a couple of fun new varieties for you this week!!
First I want to touch on the fact that I know we've had quite a few summer squashes & cukes. I want to explain how those are harvested so that you understand why they're in your boxes with more frequency than say, potatoes or eggplant.
*This is an awesome way to get the kids to enjoy zucchini- making it "dip-able"! This photo is courtesy of Kelly B at the Andover site. She shared with me last week to let me know the kids gobbled up all of the zucchini fries!! I made kohlrabi fries for our kids last week too, since they take little effort to make and they're so quick to put together!
Cucumbers (slicing and pickles) and all the summer squash varieties (zucchini & crookneck), all have to be harvested every other day. I'm sure you've grown zucchini or you've heard about the MONSTER zucchini that's waiting for a friend if they didn't harvest it right away. The thing is, these varieties grow continuously and they're always putting on more blossoms. They'll start to pitter out after a month and a half of production, but that's why we have multiple patches and another one coming into harvest as one is wrapping up harvest. These are standard classic garden varieties that we include with your CSA and we sell quite a few at the stand too.
Part of the reason that you've had them every week is 1. we did lose out on some of the varieties we usually have at this time of year due to the weather. We still haven't had any herbs for you yet because we planted all the really important crops in the high ground and had to wait to put the herbs in until it dried out. (Really important crops= tomatoes, peppers, melons, sweet corn). So we're just not really working with as much variety right now that we've had in previous seasons. (Though I still have to add, I think Ben has done an incredible job this year keeping us all fed- it's insane the amount of work that went into keeping those crops alive during the tsunami this spring).
And secondly, it's because if we didn't give them to you, we'd still be harvesting them anyways. We can't take even a day off because by the time you get back out there everything in the field is overgrown and you'd just pick it off and throw it in the brush. No one wants a cucumber the size of a cinder block. So we will be taking time off of those varieties of course, but this week we figured we don't have as many other varieties so we wanted to include them.
Carrots
This is super exciting!!! These are easy to put to work in the kitchen ;)
Farm fresh carrots are one of those treats that don't have a comparable grocery store alternative. It's hard to find carrots with their tops still on them in the grocery store. The majority of carrots are pre-bagged, pre-peeled, pre-sliced, etc.
Let's talk about using out-of-the-garden raw carrots!
Sometimes our carrots come with the greens intact, for example in the beginning of the season or when they’re smaller. We like to include the greens because they are edible and contain a great amount of nutrients. They can be used in smoothies, salads, soups, and even in sautés. Save the tops to use for a pesto or seasoning (store those in a bag in the fridge). Or put them in a plastic Ziplock in your freezer and use them to make DIY vegetable or chicken stock.
In the latter portion of the season, the carrots usually don’t come with tops in-tact. It depends on the season; but if the tops are beat up by the weather, sunlight, animals etc. we won’t include them with the carrots because they don’t serve a purpose to provide.
To store: To avoid “floppy carrots,” you need to remove the green tops as soon as you can, leaving about an inch of stems. If you can only do one thing to prep your veggies for storage this week, this should be it.
Refrigerate these carrots in a plastic bag. You can also store them in a bin of water to keep them crisp, changing out the water every few days. My Mom always had a specific Tupperware container for carrots and celery when we were growing up and it was always full.
To use: Garden carrots don’t need to be peeled but can be if that’s your preference. Boil 2-inch cubed carrots in rapidly boiling salt water, uncovered, for 7-10 minutes. Eat carrot spears plain or dipped in hummus, peanut butter, or creamy dressing. Combine carrots with other root vegetables for a roasted vegetable platter.
Roasting: (Lightly coat in oil and salt and roast at 400 degrees until veggies start to brown all over about 30 minutes).
You can use your greens too! There are a ton of great carrot greens pesto recipe, I'd say that's the most popular way to use carrot greens.
*I ruthlessly pulled this image from the interwebs. Sorry guys! I didn't pull any onions/ don't have pictures of those in my files.
Red Onions
To start, we grow yellow onions & red onions. The yellow onions are the best all-around cooking onion. The red onions are more commonly used raw and the color fades almost completely when cooked. I use red onions on everything. Sandwiches, chicken wraps, pasta salads, on top of a nice big garden salad, I love them. I actually used a bunch of them this spring for making a vinaigrette which turned out super good!
Handling: When the sulfur in cut onions meets the water in your eyes, it turns into sulfuric acid — hence the infamous onion-induced tears. To reduce the assault, use a very sharp knife, or chill your onions in fridge before cutting them. If you’re planning to use chopped or sliced onions raw, it’s a good idea to rinse them in water before use as this takes away the unpleasant bite. Peel the onion’s skin and cut off the roots and top.
The greens look really nice, so I would definitely recommend finding something fun to use them with! This IS one of the last times you'll get onions with the green tops included. As the season progresses we'll dry the onions, which looks like what you'll buy at the grocery store. They're just the bulbs with the papery outer skins.
Sweet Corn
Now it's time to complicate things. Of course the first few times we have corn each season we're happy to have the novel "corn on the cob" because it's so good and simple- a quick addition to supper and no one ever complains ;P
If you want to store it for the off-season you'll have to blanch the cobs and then cut the kernels off the cob. I have a friend who actually said they left the corn ON the cob and froze it and that it turned out really well! I haven't done that but only because we never really have freezer space by the time the season is wrapped up. I think I'll try a handful that way, just to try it! I love that you can always learn something new about the food we're enjoying. No one knows everything. I sure as heck don't know everything, but I've got a few years of processing under my belt!
You'll hear this term "blanch" all throughout the fall. That is the art of quick boiling and then submerging that produce into an ice bath in the sink. That way it's like 'flash cooked' basically. For example, broccoli and cauliflower- you have to blanch them before you freeze them. Corn, you have to blanch it before you freeze it. If you don't, it won't turn out as good in the off-season when you take it out.
I was curious about why it has to be blanched and a quick google search led me to this fact from the U of M extension: The natural enzymes in corn need to be inactivated before freezing to prevent both loss of color and nutrients, and flavor and texture changes.
WRAPPING IT UP
Life on the farm is alive and well. We were showing our cousins some of the crops and the kids were catching frogs in the puddles. This is what happens when the irrigation lines come apart for a couple of hours- it floods! It'll dry up in a day, but this is exactly why there are so many frogs around this year. The farm is livelier than ever before it feels like. Kelsi decided that she was hot so she was going to go swimming. Luna can't help herself- she is everywhere we are. She saw the opportunity to lay down with Kels and got right in the tractor tire rut smooshing around the dirt. It's always exciting here but man it's exhausting keeping up with these kids' laundry!!! ;P
**I wanted to make a pitch for you guys to try to make the refrigerator pickles if you haven't already. Try adding some of your red onion (they're literally like candy after they're in there for a day). The recipe is 3/4c sugar, 1/4 c apple cider vinegar and 1/2 cup white vinegar, 1tsp salt and then either dried dill or celery seed. Super easy recipe and I add EVERYTHING to my refrigerator pickles (onions, peppers, kohlrabi, you can even add cauliflower). Before the season is out, I'll have a half dozen jars full in the garage fridge that we can enjoy through the winter. Last year we ran out in February!
When it comes to preserving veggies, I do what I can. Some years are more fruitful than others. Some years I don't even get any frozen green beans put up. Some years I have the freezer inventoried like I had some sort of OCD episode. Every year is different!
There is NOTHING more powerful than someone saying you have the best XYZ vegetable, salsa, jam, etc. For example, my pickles. My kids won't stop asking when I'll have time to make a batch, lol! We always run out and there are never enough pickles. I'd probably have to buy a warehouse to store jars if I could make enough pickles for my kids. I always joke that if they get a scratch they'll bleed pickle juice because I'm convinced that's all that's in those little bodies!
The point is, there is no greater feeling of pride than sharing something that YOU MADE from scratch. Whether it's knitting, a pottery mug, a homemade meal, or canned pickles... There is something very special about giving someone else your time. It is the most precious resource any of us have and I think there is no greater gift.
Eat Good & Be Well,
~The Farmer's Wife
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