CSA Week 4, 2020

CSA Week 4

This week you may have summer squashes, lettuce, green, wax or Romano beans, cucumbers, blueberries, something green like Swiss chard kale or beets, fennel? a tomato? corn?

Summer squash varieties to look for: green or golden zucchini, yellow straight-neck (pale yellow), pale green cousa, and the green, yellow or both pattypan/scallopini.

With all the varieties of cucumbers we grow, it’s not that outrageous to wonder what’s what. After all, the squashes and cukes are all cucurbits and share many characteristics! Naturally we grow the regular slicing cucumber, but we also grow the Kirby or pickling cuke, as well as Persian, which are very smooth skinned and almost seedless, and Lemon, which are round, yellow, tennis-ball-lookin’ things. Those are the ones people sometimes think are squash, or baby melons…also cucurbits!!!

Beans to look out for: Green, yellow/wax, Romano/Italian flat, French green/ hericot vert, Amethyst/purple – basically a purple French bean. They all are “snap beans”, so you can enjoy the entire bean, pod and all…kind of like the snap peas. We grow other beans like favas. limas,  and French Horticultural shell beans but I will warn you if I know they will make an appearance 😉

Fennel: this is bulb fennel, or finocchio, grown for it’s delicately flavored, tender, white stem-base. Sliced thinly, it is a crunchy addition to salad and is great roasted with meats or other vegetables. It is high in vitamin C, potassium, folate, and fiber. Did you know the Greeks called it marathon and it actually was growing in the field where the epic battle was fought? Yep, the Battle of Marathon. It was also awarded to Pheidippides after his long run. The bulb is good raw or cooked, the leaves are nice for seasoning, the stems not so useful.

Back to fennel- Depending on who is doing the picking, your fennel will probably be the entire plant: “bulb” or swollen stem, green stems and fronds. If the stems with fronds are attached, cut them off near the top of the white bulb portion and save the stems for soup stock and use the leafy fronds for seasoning, in salads, etc. The green stem part is typically tough and not overly enjoyable to eat raw 🙂

Roasted Beets and Fennel Salad

• 1 bunch of beets (about 1 pound)
• 1 fennel bulb 1 teaspoon thyme
• 2 tablespoon olive oil mixed greens/lettuce/arugula

Yes, wash everything  Preheat oven to 400°F. Wash and trim the beets. Chop in halves or quarters if the beets are large. Place the beet pieces in roasting pan. Add about 3 tablespoons of water to the pan. Drizzle a tablespoon olive oil on the beets and sprinkle with coarse salt if you like. Cover the pan with foil and put into the oven. Separate the fennel bulb from the stems. Thinly slice the fennel into 1/8th inch slices. Place the slices into another roasting pan. Drizzle a tablespoon of oil on the fennel. Cover the pan with foil and place into the oven. Bake fennel for 20 minutes covered and 10 minutes uncovered. The slices should start browning at the edges. Bake the beets till they are easily pierced by a knife; about 30 – 45 minutes. Chop up the leaves of the fennel – about 1/2 cup. Mix the cooked fennel and beets together with the dried thyme. Place beet mixture on top of a bed of mixed greens or lettuce. Sprinkle the fennel leaves on top.

Serve with a vinaigrette dressing, like: ½ cup balsamic vinegar, ½ cup olive oil,1 TB Dijon mustard, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. This is great with oranges and or goat cheese too!

Fresh Summer Squash, Cucumber and Fennel Salad

Gnocchi with Summer Squash, Basil and Feta (from Real Simple)

• 1 pound gnocchi, fresh or frozen
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 3 yellow squash (about 1½ pounds), cut into ¾-inch pieces (use any summer squash)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 4 ounces Feta, crumbled (about 1cup)
• ⅓ cup torn fresh basil leaves

Cook the gnocchi according to the package directions; drain and return it to the pot.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the squash, garlic, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Cook, tossing occasionally, until crisp-tender, 6 to 8 minutes.
Add the squash to the gnocchi and toss to combine. Serve sprinkled with the Feta and basil. Season with pepper

How about this simple salad with grilled fish, lamb or pork?

• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 Tbs cider vinegar
• 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
• 2 Tbs chopped fennel fronds
• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced

Whisk together the yogurt, vinegar, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add the fennel, fennel fronds, and cucumber and toss to coat. *you don’t have to, but unless you are eating this within minutes of making it, the cucumber will make the creamy dressing watery after a while. You can avoid this by lightly salting the sliced cukes beforehand and letting them drain.

Check out Zucchini Recipes (cake, fritters, pizza, soup…)
Zucchini Pizza

Stuffed patty pan squash – made a wonderful batch this week and hope to post my recipe this week!

Corn!?

Well, it’s happening. You will notice that some of the corn is short – short ears I mean. This is what we feared during the “dry spell” (aka six weeks without rain) and with no access to water on that early piece, the corn stunted out. No surprise and we will eat it anyway, but now you know why 🙂 In spite of the disclaimer, it’s not all short and we are super excited our favorite time of the season has come. if you are new here, this is not supersweet corn bred to hold up for days/weeks at the supermarket. You really have to eat it the day it was picked (which is the same day you got it from us). The sugars start to break down to starches almost immediately. Also, fresh, standard corn only needs 4-6 minutes to steam or boil and will get kind of gummy if overcooked. No pressure though, it’s hard to mess up corn. Oh, and corn is absolutely delish and perfectly healthy raw!

The rains last week filled up the ponds again and it looks like we are getting more in a day or two. Glenn and Merrick have been prepping land like crazy to get the backlog of crops planted. I think Glenn laid about 20,000 feet of plastic at the front of the week and also planted the last batch of corn. The guys are all busy setting out the next crops of broccoli, lettuces, cucurbits, etc. It’s filling up fast and there is still tons to do. As usual, we are running out of room to plant and literally as soon as a crop has been picked through, the plastic is pulled up and the land is prepped again for replanting. Some fields will see three to four turns this season. Even last year’s strawberry bed that you enjoyed some of the sweetest berries from jsut a week ago has been ploughed under and is ready for something new. It is kind of hard to fathom sometimes.

My gosh the Bluebirds are having a good year so far! There are fledglings out everywhere and we have two pair that feed in the yard consistently and both have four young with them. I could sit and watch them all day (I can’t but I would if I could ;)) Actually, there are young birds everywhere, I am looking at three young Jays and about nice young House Finches on the feeder as I type. Mr. Rose Breasted Grosbeak was here earlier with his three youngsters showing them where the good stuff is. LOL.

I hope you all had a fantastic Independence Day! We filled up our inner tubes and enjoyed our annual float down the Ware River. It was very peaceful and quiet and our favorite Turk’s-cap Lilies were blooming along the banks. We lit the outside fire and enjoyed some good eats while an unusual amount of fireworks went off all around us. It was a much appreciated day off after months of non-stop working. I wish the farmer had rested more (he worked instead of drifting on the river) but he did knock off early to relax on the porch with a few folks who stopped in. It was actually something normal 🙂

 

Eat well,

Geneviève Stillman

Coming up: beans, tomatoes, blueberries…