CSA Week 4, 2022

CSA Week 4

This week you may have any color of summer squashes, beans (green, wax, Amethyst, or Romano), cucumbers, blueberries? (the ripening and picking early has been unpredicatable; I know, Tuesday and Wednesday folks got beans instead of berries last week) , choi ir kale, fennel?

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!!! I have not seen any lemon cuckes yet, so I doubt that is what will appear in your bag.

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 those varieties are unlikely to make an appearance and I iwll warn you if I think that is happening 😉 Don’t forget the purple peas and beans turn green when cooked more than 4 minutes – but raw or flash cooked purple peas and beans are super high in anthocyanins!

I made a delish squash and sausage casserole the other night…I will try to get the recipe down this week. I also served last night’s chili on zoodles – which was great!

Fennel is ready! The bottom bulb part is choice, the stems and leaves can be used for flavoring, they tend to be tough. Delicious raw, roasted, soup, stir fry…

Fresh Summer Squash, Cucumber and Fennel Salad

Quickie choy/choi

Heat 1 Tb oil in fry pan, add 2 gloves minced garlic, good pinch of crushed red pepper flakes, a little grated ginger (or use ground at the end), cook a couple minutes, add sliced stalks and cook for few minutes, add chopped greens, a glug glug of soy sauce and a glug (a tsp?) of sesame oil and cook until the greens are wilted. If you are serving with rice, start the choy about 5 minutes before the rice will be done 

Baby bok choi is actually a different plant than the regular, it does not mean it was picked young 

 

Cool Cucumber Soup – Taste of Home

• 1 pound cucumbers, peeled, seeded and sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 cups fat-free plain yogurt
• 1 green onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 4-1/2 teaspoons snipped fresh dill
• Additional chopped green onion and snipped fresh dill

In a colander set over a bowl, toss cucumbers with salt. Let stand for 30 minutes. Squeeze and pat dry.

Place the cucumbers, yogurt, onion and garlic in a food processor; cover and process until smooth. Stir in dill. Serve immediately in chilled bowls. Garnish with additional onion and dill.

---

From member Jordan: Hi! I thought this recipe might be useful to anyone looking to use up some summer squash in a delicious way. I have been using an InstantPot for a lot of my cooking because it doesn’t heat up my kitchen on hot days.

Zucchini & Summer Squash Soup

• 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, sliced
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 ½ pounds any combination of zucchini and summer squash (2-3 large), halved and sliced ¼ inch thick
• 2/3 cup vegetable stock/low sodium broth
• 1 ½ cups water

Stovetop directions:

1. In a large saucepan, melt the butter in the olive oil. Add the onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderately low heat, stirring frequently, until softened, 7 to 8 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the stock and 1 ½ cups of water and bring to a simmer; cook until the zucchini is very soft, about 10 minutes.
2. Working in 2 batches, puree the soup in a blender until it’s silky-smooth. Return the soup to the saucepan and season with salt and pepper. Alternatively, blend in the pot with a stick blender and season to taste with salt and pepper.

InstantPot directions:

1. Place butter, olive oil, chopped onion, chopped garlic clove, slice zucchini, vegetable stock, and water into the instant pot. Cook on high/manual for 3 minutes and quick release the steam.
2. Puree the soup with a stick blender or in batches in a tabletop blender until silky smooth and return to the pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve it either hot or chilled, with suggested garnishes of drizzled olive oil, extra julienned zucchini, or a spoon of crème fraiche/sour cream.

Check out

Zucchini Recipes (cake, fritters, pizza, soup…)
Zucchini Pizza
Zucchini casserole
Cucumber Salads

It is still early for corn in MA and I kind of doubt it will appear in bags this week, but just in case it sneaks in by next Wednesday or so….  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 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! Corn is a very needy crop, needs lots of attention and inputs and those costs have gone up a lot in the past 2 years. I am pondering how long we will continue to grow it in the future because I don’t know what the ceiling is on price point. I do know we all pay more for water that has been filtered through beans than we do for 2, 3, 4 or more ears of corn, so there’s that 😉

I believe Glenn is out planting the last of the corn for the summer, that’s a milestone.

We had a lovely rain the other night and are all enjoying this weather (see farmers don’t ALWAYS complain about the weather, LOL). I scouted the garlic, eggplants and potatoes today. The garlic will be harvested soon, the eggplants are in blossom and there are some baby Asian types developing, so a few weeks on those, there were creatures on the potatoes, but not so many that we need to do anything about them before we harvest these early taters. There was a raggedy Polyphemus Moth hanging out in the barn…I left him alone, assuming his objectives have been met. What beauty is around us all the time!

 

Eat well,

Geneviève Stillman

Coming up: corn, beans, blueberries, fruit and tomato CSAs starting soon…