Week Seven

Hello to all of our CSA members!  We hope you're enjoying this last week of spring as the summer solstice occurs this weekend (and Father's Day)---the longest day of the year.  In a way, the waning daylight will be nice even though it probably won't be noticed until August.  Here comes the heat!  Our fields are like swamplands right now, so we're looking forward to some hot days to dry things out.  Not the sweat and humidity, just the dry beds.  All of our beds that should be planted right now are covered with a thick layer of weeds that have germinated with all this rain.  So not only are we backlogged with planting, we have to do all the tractor work once again on these beds that were ready to go a couple weeks ago (hilling the beds and then tilling for a fine tilth).  We're going to give you all fair warning that we might not have enough produce in August to properly fill your boxes since we haven't been able to direct seed anything or plant any of our transplants in the field for a few weeks.  You just can't plant into mud.  We will of course compensate everyone if we are short one week; we just might have to extend things a week later into September....but this is hypothetically speaking.....let's hope we have a bountiful amount of produce despite these wet conditions.   

Last week after market we had a chance to visit a very close neighboring farm, Infinity Farm, located in Cedar Grove, NC.  We'll be doing a post soon on our other blog, bluebirdmeadows.blogspot.com if you'd like to see more pictures.  They have goats, turkeys, horses, chickens, cows, a donkey, and more.  It was a rare breed of cow, can't remember the name, but they had these beautiful horns on them.  With around 150 acres and all these animals, this place felt on the magical side to us, feeling like a true farm.  Sometimes our farm feels like something is missing with no animals as of yet.  We LOVED the goats at Infinity Farm, so perhaps down the road we'll have a few of these lovely animals to keep us company.  It was really nice to step onto another farm; it seems like we rarely get off of ours, so it helps to keep things in perspective when we get to visit another place trying to make a livelihood similar to ours.  
In your boxes this week

half-shares

cucumbers

squash

basil

garlic

onion

green beans

padron peppers

fennel

Large-shares

same as half with (we're not completely sure yet what we'll have extra for you all, but this is what we're thinking)

pint of cherry tomatoes

extra pint of padron peppers

extra squash

RECIPES

Sauteed Padron Peppers with garlic

These peppers are our favorite new item this year.  They are the best snack around; a Spanish heirloom pepper, they serve them as a tapas (appetizer) over there, usually just sauteed with olive oil and salt.  So this is the recipe we'll give you all.  

1 tbsp to 1 1/2 tbsp oil

2-3 cloves regular garlic or 1/2 clove elephant garlic

pint of padron peppers, rinse and leave whole

coarse sea salt (any salt will do but this is what we prefer)

Cover a shallow frying/saute pan with olive oil---probably 1 tbsp will be enough for the pint you have.  Heat over medium-high heat til' warm, then throw in whole rinsed padrons.  

Saute for 5 minutes, then throw in garlic.  Add salt (we use more than we typically do for these peppers, maybe 1 teaspoon or more?), cook for around 5-7 more minutes until peppers look deflated and soft.  They will probably brown some or have white blisters on them from the heat.  This is normal!  

Remove from heat and eat peppers whole, seeds and all (leaving the stem).  Wonderful!!!  We hope you all like them; they are classified as a hot pepper, but we think they are very mild, a 1-2 on a hot scale of 1-10.  Every now and then there will be a pepper that is more like a 3-4, but still mild.  

Cucumbers with Basil and Vinegar

We love cucumbers because they are so easy to make.  We typically slice them into thin rounds,  pour some balsamic vinegar over them, add a pinch of salt and sugar, and slice some leaves of basil on them, stir and let soak for a few hours, then have them as a snack.  Easy and delicious.  

We also put them on our sandwiches, put cream cheese in the middle and eat whole, add on top of salads, or put into raita, the Indian cooling side dish.  We'll have cucumbers for several weeks, so there will be more recipes for these guys.  

Couscous with Fennel and Pine Nuts

(this recipe calls for a bigger fennel than you have, but even with the size of yours should still work out)

Roasted Fennel with Olives and Garlic

once again this recipe calls for more fennel than you have, but it's just to give you a cooking method

Flower Shares

This week you will be getting rudbekia (black-eyed susans, state flower of Maryland) and/or dianthus.  

Hope everyone enjoys their produce and flowers!