CSA Week 3
No pick ups anywhere on the 4th – that’s you Thursday peeps! It’s still a go for every other day though, just the 4th. You will get the letter anyway so you don’t miss out on some amazing nugget of farm news, LOL!
OMG CORN!
I’m also expecting you to have cherries from Still Life Farm, blueberries, any type of summer squash, pickling/Kirby cucumbers, a slicing cuke, beets, and shell peas.
We are excited to be picking cucumbers! These first guys we typically refer to pickling cucumbers, but sometimes they are referred to Kirby cucumbers, which I kinda like better because it sounds more inclusive and not like you are compelled to make pickles, which you are not. Did you know they are the most widely grown cuke anywhere?
Stillman’s Bucks/Store Credit
We give everyone who signs up early a fixed amount of CSA store credit – the earlier you sign up the more credit you receive. This year, we offered the option of a free 2 week extension ($70 value) OR $60 of store credit for signing up early, what a bargain. How does it work? We have your amount loaded into our POS system, found by your name. You shop at any of our markets and give your name at check out and we run your purchases off your pre-loaded credit. Simple, well, it should be 😉 Sometimes the staff doesn’t run it in the moment and leaves it for me to do later. How could that ever go wrong? It’s basically the same way we run the A La Carte CSA.
Recipes
Cucumber Salad
We eat some form or cucumber salad 3+ times a week in season, I rarely use any sugar, it depends which way I go with the vinegar. When I am feeling my Swedish roots I make a sour cream version. To peel or not to peel? There are a lot of nutrients in the skin and naturally we don’t coat our produce with paraffin, so peeling is a personal preference. Some times I peel them in stripes if I am not feeling like too much peel 😉
- 1 pound cucumbers
- 1 tsp+ kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar (really unnecessary depending on your vinegar)
- 1/3 cup vinegar (I often use red wine, or cider with a splash of balsamic)
- splash of EVOO
- embellishment of a little sliced onion or dill is nice, but not not needed.
Slice and lightly and toss with salt and sugar to draw out extra moisture and also keep the cukes crisper. Let drain for at least 5 minutes. Whisk together vinegar, oil, and freshly ground pepper, add cucumber slices and chill until it’s time to eat them.
Zucchini Bread from Tammy
- 3 ½ cups shredded zucchini
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup applesauce
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 ¼ cups sugar
- 4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 tsp vanilla
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup nuts
Preheat oven to 350, oil 2 8×4” loaf pan
Sift all dry ingredients together except for the sugar then stir to combine. Beat eggs, applesauce, oil, sugar and vanilla. Slowly add liquids to dry ingredients and mix. With rubber spatula fold in nuts and shredded zucchini. Pour into prepared pans and bake 45-60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.
*Tammy adds a little cinnamon and brown sugar to top before cooking for crunchy – yummy topping.
Need more guidance on utilizing squash in every recipe?
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
Pro tip: 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 won’t 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 at least 10 minutes, drain and pat with paper towel if needed. I toss mine in salt right in the colander and let it drain while I organize the rest of dinner.
Cousa serving as the lasagna “noodles”
Grilled Summer Squash
any summer squash
S&P
2-4 TB olive oil
2+ TB Balsamic vinegar
Wash and trim squashes. Cut into 1/3″ slices. Yes, you can go thicker or thinner, but tend to them accordingly 😉 Preheat the grill. Lightly salt the squash, let drain and blot off excess moisture. Toss with oil. 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 balsamic, ground pepper, and salt if needed.
Leftover grilled squash makes for a yummy quesadilla or enchilada filling.
Farm Dirt
Very excited to be picking corn for you this week! Also nice to see cucumbers and everything else. We are in a little bit of a greens shortage but that will give anyone who has not used up the lettuce yet a chance to catch up 😉
The are so many butterflies, moths and other interesting pollinators around the farm right now. Yes, we have honey bees, but certain crops attract A LOT of attention; not just the cut-flower beds, but the squash blossoms, herbs like fennel, dill, basil, and of course the milkweed, are aflutter and buzzing 🙂 Some of you might not know that Glenn is a bug nerd, to the point he went to Peru and collected Katydids at night in the jungle. No thanks. But, I do love pretty things, and interesting things, and useful things and pretty useful interesting things. And all these things are part of the bigger picture here, ensuring we have pollination for crops that need insects, beneficial insects like ladybugs and predator mites, and food for the Bluebirds, Barn Swallows, Tanagers, and, and, and. We depend on the insects for a lot so we try to make life suck for the bad ones and very livable for the good ones. Here’s a for instance: Glenn uses a “biological control” encapsulated in a bait that attracts the cucumber beetles and non of the good guys. Another example is spraying the squashes after dusk, when the blossoms are closed and the bees/wasps are home for the evening, or slumbering inside the closed blossoms.
| That’s just a part of what it means to be Conscientiously Grown® at Stillman’s Farm 🙂 |
July will bring the first of so many things. It is a perfect time to plan a visit to the New Braintree farm. Yes, come on out. Wear sensible shoes, pack a picnic lunch or try to get something locally. Yes, you can pick some produce, bird watch, bug watch, catch frogs (and release of course!), let you kids run off leash, and see where and how your food is growing. If you bring your well behaved dog, please keep them leashed and out of the actual growing area. Thanks in advance!
We wish all of you a SAFE and HAPPY Independence Day!!!
Eat well,
Geneviève Stillman
