Week 5: Summer veggies and Farmstand news

Farmstand just keeps getting better.

July is certainly upon us with its strange weather (it was 90 on Thursday and today as I write this it is 61, dark and drizzling). Personally, the crops could all use the break from the heat and we took the opportunity to seed more beets and carrots in the field for the fall harvest.
I just wanted to update everyone on the progress of the farmstand. You've probably all noticed the additions of shelving (so beautifully made for us by Alan ___ ) and we are adding more and more local and regionally produced products every week. Let us know if there is something that you would like us to carry that we currently don't or if you know of a local producer out there that we should support by bringing them in to the store. We are open to suggestions. We are also now able to accept CREDIT and DEBIT cards!!!! YAY!
I also wanted to explain in a little more detail to our CSA shareholders that the farmstand is actually a customer of the CSA. When we grow veggies, we grow additional shares that are meant to be sold through the farmstand or go to our local food pantries. It is actually helpful to us because we can direct smaller volumes of veggies to one outlet. Hence, last week's first cucumber harvest (consisting of exactly 35 cucumbers on two separate days) went to the farmstand, and the first random broccoli heads went to the food pantry and also to the farmstand. This was better than composting them or trying to parcel them out to CSA....for which folks wouldn't have even gotten one fruit or head. We will hopefully have enough with next week's harvest to give them out to CSA...they are still ramping up, so this isn't a guarantee. We are hopeful and excited to share them out to you all.

Chickens are taking their time getting their egg-laying on. We are taking an informal survey about whether or not our community would prefer and would be willing to pay more for, organic eggs. The difference is the grain cost. Certified organic grain is very expensive, especially in the smallish (not a full pallet of bags) amounts we are able to buy in. There is a third option- GMO-free grain is slightly more expensive than conventional grain but less expensive than Certified Organic.  Our management of the hens would be the same- they will be in a mobile chicken house that moves through the fields with electric fencing around them to keep them safe from four legged predators. So they will be 'pastured' but what we feed them is still a question. We want to hear from you. Send us an email or let us know at CSA or the farmstand.

In Your Share (maybe):

Beets
Head Lettuce
Salad mix
Kale
Cabbage, green
Summer Squash & Zucchini
Cucumbers (hopefully!!!!)
Green onions
New Potatoes?!?

PYO

We are completely done with strawberries (there weren't any last week, but I forgot to tell everyone). The peas are a bust for the most part- they really really hate the heat and flowered at an absurdly small size. There are a few snow peas and even fewer shelling peas- I will open them if there is any chance that there might be enough. I am thinking of trying to grow them for fall harvest....
The flowers are GORGEOUS!!!! Please take home a lovely bunch of 8-10 stems. Please keep cutting them high (and tell any of the small people with you to do the same) so we can keep them trucking along for the whole season. If you have any question about whether or not you aren't doing it right, please ask for a demo or to see the diagram. We are HAPPY to show you how to properly cut flowers.
To keep your flowers fresh and beautiful- think about bringing a quart yogurt container with you to the farm at pick-up. Fill it half full of water at the sink and bring it out with you to the field. Your flowers will be much happier if they go straight into a little water. When you get them home, trim the greens off any part of the flower that will be submerged and fill a clean vase with fresh cool water. If you didn't put them in water immediately after cutting while at the farm, you will want to trim a 1/2 inch or so from the base of each stem. Put them in the water and enjoy them for a week. If you notice their water getting cloudy, feel free to change it for longer lasting blooms. They should last for a week or so.
Basil, herbs and beans are coming along a little more slowly than usual....again, the heat the last month or so has been a bit draining for them as well as us.

Recipes and Veg of the Week:

I love summer squash and zucchini. If pressed, I might say that it was my favorite veggie right next to tomatoes- which I also adore. In the summer time (never in the winter because the squash from the grocer that has been shipped 3000 miles tastes disgusting and has the texture of slimy cardboard), I eat summer squash every day, sometimes for all three meals in some fashion. I love it sliced, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper and grilled. I love it roasted, sautéed, steamed with butter. I love it made into quick bread, muffins, cake, pizza crust and so on and so forth. I think it might just be more versatile than the potato.
If anyone ever tells me they don't like squash, I usually ask them if they've ever eaten it any other way than boiled (um, this is gross. for almost any vegetable other than a potato).
I was given this recipe by a CSA shareholder nearly 10 years ago. Her father was Lebanese and she said that he made it every year only during the summer because that was when the zucchini were the sweetest. This has become the staple stuffed zucchini in our household and we look forward to it every summer as well. For the vegetarians in my life- I've experimented and successfully substituted eggplant sautéed and minced fine (think of the eggplant meatball recipes you've seen and do that) instead of the ground beef.
Cousa Mihshi
1.5 lbs of cousa or zucchini squash up to 8 inches in length
1 small chopped onion
butter for sauteing
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1lb of ground lamb or beef
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp salt
pepper to taste
1lb can of stewed tomatoes
Cut the squash lengthwise and remove the cores leaving 1/2 inch of sidewall, careful not to pierce the sides.Rinse in cold water and drain. Saute onions in butter in a large pan. Place rinsed, drained rice in a bowl and add meat and seasonings, mix. Add half of the diced tomatoes to meat mix. Stuff the zukes 3/4 full. Arrange the stuffed zucchini over the onions and pour the rest of the tomatoes on top. Barely cover with water and a little additional salt. Cover and cook on medium heat for about 35 minutes or until the rice is done. Enjoy.

Easy Garlic Scape Pickle
I made these this week and thought everyone might like to give it a shot.
Makes 1 pint jar
1 bunch of garlic scapes (wash and trim any withered ends)
3/4 cup of cider vinegar
3/4 cup of water
1 Tblsp of salt
1 Tblsp sugar
Additional ingredients per pint jar:
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp coriander seeds
Coil the scapes and insert into a clean, sterilized pint canning jar. Keep doing this until the jar is filled to within 1/4 inch of the top. Add all the additional ingredients. Mix the vinegar, water, salt & sugar in a pan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve. Then carefully pour the boiling brine over the scapes until it is within 1/4 inch of the top. Poke down any floating scapes with a chopstick and to free any trapped air bubbles. Cap with a clean sterilized canning lid. Let sit until room temperature, then put in the fridge. Now. Sit on your hands for the next six weeks so that the vinegar, salt and spices can work their magic. SIX weeks.....these keep for up to 8 months in the fridge. Enjoy. My partner eats them straight out of the jar.

Events:

Hay Moon Dessert Potluck!!!! Come join us under the full moon from 6:30-8:30p on Tuesday, July 19th for dessert. It's a potluck, so bring your favorite dessert to share and we will have s'mores by the campfire and ice cream....

Kohlrabi was just too pretty not to take pictures of.