CSA Week 3, 2018

CSA Week 3

We are off to the races now! This week’s goodies will look A LOT like last week. Please don’t panic if you do not get something I list, you are sure to see it sometime – I can never be totally sure what goes into the box/bag each day. You MAY have lettuce, chard, kale, beets, summer squashes, beans? radishes without tops? and cucumbers toward the end of the week. As a reminder, our strawberry crop was very sad this year. We ended up with a virus in the new crop and plowed it under. We are picked our of last season’s crop and supplemented from a friend’s farm to make sure all of you got a box of berries this year. Now we are looking forward to blueberry and raspberry season!

*UPDATE 7/2/2018: looks like there will be a little corn and some blueberries this week!!!

This is gorgeous salad weather! I enjoyed my first green beans fresh and snappy with an amazing head of Boston/Buttercrunch. A note about our greens for those who have missed it the first time: our greens are rinsed, but not washed. You should wash all your greens. We do not spray our greens, so there may be creatures on them. As I mentioned in the first letter, I always fill my salad spinner with salted water and let the leaves soak for a few minutes; then give a rinse, spin dry and store in fridge. There are some aphids on some of the lettuces right now because of the dryness, so this method will release them from the leaves.

What I really want to talk about is summer squash season! With the rain yesterday and heat this weekend (as I write) there will be a lot of squash. We generally stay on top of picking it so there are not any large ones; the great thing is even the large ones are super tender and not seedy when they grow fast. Any squashes with tender skin harvested in the summer are technically summer squash. There are slight flavor and texture nuances, but nothing to prevent you from using them interchangeably. I love that they have become the go-to replacement for pasta and why not? They are low carb, low calorie, high in vitamin C and a good source of fiber, B-6, Potassium and Magnesium. Get the spiralizer out and make some veggie noodles. As I still have not bought a spiralizer for myself, I use my mandoline to make thin ribbons for salad or think slabs for lasagna!

Don’t forget, there are no pickups or markets on the 4th. That’s the only day, all other pickups will go on as scheduled.

I’ve already blathered about how you can simply plug summer squash into all your pasta dishes, but here’s some more specific ideas 🙂

Zucchini and Summer Squash Lasagna
Swiss chard, summer squash, black bean quesadillas
Sautéed Summer Squashes (any variety)
Here’s one from the Inspiralized website cold-spiralized-sesame-noodle-salad

One tip, no matter what you are doing with your squash, is to lightly salt it after spiralizing, slicing, etc, to draw out some of the water. In a fresh salad this process tenderizes the squash and also prevents your dressing from becoming watery, if used as the lasagna layer it wont make your finished dish runny, and if sauteing will allow the squash to brown.

Sprinkle squash with 1/2-1 tsp of salt, let sit for 10 minutes, drain and pat with paper towel if needed.

Grilled Summer Squash

any summer squash
S&P
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar

Wash and trim squashes. Cut into 1/3″ slices. Yes, you can go thicker or thinner, but you have to really be watching to make sure they don’t burn into up into squash paper or get to black while you are waiting for the center to cook. Preheat the grill. Lightly salt, let drain and blot off excess moisture. Toss with oil and vinegar. Place the squashes on the grill, cooking for a few minutes per side. These can char pretty quickly, so don’t get involved with a good book. When done, they should be perfectly fork tender and have nice grill marks. Season with another drizzle of oil and vinegar, ground pepper, and salt if needed.

It’s been dry, so there’s lots of aphid pressure on the tender greens, now we’ve had ample rain, so the squashes and cukes are going to swell, tomatoes and cherries split, and mud get tracked into the house. It’s all good. We all can wash our greens carefully, enjoy a wonderful bounty of zukes and cukes (ok, I am anticipating a little on the cukes, but it’s gonna happen), and the corn is going to fill out and not look dry. Speaking of corn, that’s where the wildlife has been this week. We’ve got raccoons and skunks sampling it, checking for optimum ripeness. Oh yes! They know when it is at it’s prime…which won’t be until next week or so. We have put up three stands of electric fence to keep those guys out, but the skunks are still managing to squeeze under the lowest wire, plus they have a pretty thick coat of fur to insulate a little. Thankfully, they do not cause the extensive damage the coons do. We started using electric fence about 25 years ago. Glenn and I were going out at night and walking through the cornfield, making lots of noise, to try to scare them off. We figured we had about 40 raccoons because in one night they destroyed almost an acre of corn. The next day we invested in fencing! The squirrels enjoy a nice corn feed themselves, but I think because it is so much work, they eat ALL the kernels off the cobb, unlike the raccoons which will take one bite out of 100 ears in order to sample them all!

Last year the bear was in our corn…nothing to be done about that but try to capture it on the wildlife cam.

The songbirds are all busy with their broods and delight me even as I sit at my desk typing this.

I cannot believe it’s almost July! July is exciting because there’s just nothing like the first corn and tomatoes. It is also a perfect time to plan a visit to the New Braintree farm. Yes, come on out. Wear sensible shoes, plan on getting dirty, pack a picnic lunch or check our local attractions page for other options. Yes, you can pick some produce, bird watch, catch frogs, walk your dog, and see where and how your food is growing.

We wish all of you a SAFE and HAPPY Independence Day!!!

Eat well,

Geneviève Stillman