Produce Subscription (Week 35)

It’s way too hot.

But the heat is giving us incredible peppers, superb high tunnel tomatoes, innumerable squash, and a cornucopia of weeds. It is also making plantings for the fall a challenge. Water, water, water.

Produce Bonus: Find the “polka dotted summer squash” and then drop us a line with the photo and you win a prize next week.

Even without any rain, we have a rainbow in your boxes this week;

Beans, Italian/Roma style heirloom

Potatoes, Purple Majesty or Red thumb fingerling Both are firm and waxy when cooked, so work well in soups, salads or roasted.

Cucumber Lots of crunchy cucs today; long seedless slicers, traditional market slicers and a few plump green picklers and yellow picklers for eating from the hand (just like a summer apple!)

Tomato, cherry variety Wow, they are coming on strong!

Tomato, slicer/heirloom and paste variety Reminder— DO NOT refrigerate. Allow them to red-up at room temp.

Cauliflower A bit more reasonable sized heads. We stopped using steroids on them this week.

Zucchini Big and beautiful. (No really!)

Zephyr squash Sunny summer squash soup is THE best!

Sweet pepper variety Make up some of your own homemade ketchup!

Pepper (Jalapeno) Salsa is on the agenda this week.
Onions, white sweet

Basil Nothing like fresh tomatoes and basil.
Basil, lemon Season up a nice colorful pasta salad with the zing of lemon basil!
Chives If you can’t use them up fresh, in this weather you can chop them in 1/8" pieces, spread on cookie sheet and put outside in the shade to dry for a day. Finish off in a slightly warm oven until crisp and dry, if needed.
Parsley Nothing says “fresh” like beautiful green parsley.

Recipes for your consideration

Mmmm, lentil stew from last newsletter.

Sunny Summer Squash Soup is one of the BEST soups out there…yes, truly. Depending on what’s in season, I modify it a bit (no potatoes—>more squash, no celery—>1 tsp celery seed, etc.) For canning, I leave it chunky and puree when I am about to serve it, come winter. (It cans really well.)

Sunny Summer Squash Soup
(Click the link to go to the recipe on the website.)

---

Savory and sweet and homemade. Can’t be beat. If you can’t/don’t want to can the outcome, freeze in jars or bags.
Ketchup

1 red pepper, roasted/peeled
8 tomatoes
3 Tbs maple syrup
½ onion
5 cloves garlic
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs rice wine vinegar
1.5 tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
Pinch allspice
Pinch nutmeg

Blender and cook down to thicken. Can 15min water bath.

---

Orzo is a small pasta, shaped a bit like rice. It is a wonderful base for a salad, used as a side dish or added to soup. Here it is partnered up with wonderful colors and crunch with a lemon-y zing provided by the lemon basil.

Orzo Salad

2 cups dried orzo or other small pasta such as acini di pepe, stellini, or ditalini
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
6-10 leaves lemon basil, minced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh or dried oregano, crushed/minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 carrot, finely diced
1 small summer squash, finely diced
1 bell pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 small cucumber, seeded, and finely diced
1 small sweet onion, finely diced
2 Tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to the package
directions. Drain, rinse with cool water, and set aside.

Combine the olive oil, vinegar, lemon basil, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper
in a small bowl and whisk to combine thoroughly.

Combine the cooked pasta, dressing, and remaining ingredients in a large bowl and toss to
combine.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Serves 4 to 6.

Everyone feel free to add your favorite recipes to the website.

For Your Reading Pleasure

Please have a quick read of the following article published by The Bee Action Campaign

Gardeners Beware: Bee-Toxic Pesticides Found in “Bee-Friendly” Plants Sold at Garden Centers Nationwide

Stick with local and organic/sustainable, and you can’t go wrong with the pollinators!

Farm News

We are proud co-owners of a new, old combine! A 1940-50ish John Deere that will mow, thresh, winnow and bag various grains. Farm WLIG is looking into producing local/organic wheat and oats (and maybe others) for CSA and the online market. The gears are in motion to learn it, so we’ll see!

Rog and Razz— out standing in the field.

A trial of radicchio is coming along nicely (planted just for SH, cuz I know he loves it!) Problem is, the deer have discovered it; they know harvest time is just around the corner.

A beautiful young radicchio head!

We are trying to hold out to pair it with some head lettuce for a nice salad combo. Hopefully the deer are hunkered down in the shade like normal mammals should be this week!

A beautifully deer-eaten young radicchio head! Grrrrrr.

All together now…everyone, “Let it rain! Let it rain!”

Have a wonderful week, and enjoy the vegetables.

Roger and Lara