CSA Week 5, 2018

CSA Week 5

Things you MAY have in your box/bag this week: amazing corn (remember, eat that when you get it for maximum flavor), cucumbers, summer squash, blueberries, chard or kale, beans, and fennel. Florence fennel is a swollen stem with frondy leaves attached and smells like anise.

The blueberries are in! Some of you saw them last week and you all should see them for quite a few weeks in the future. We are harvesting lots raspberries, but it is unusual to have them make it into the CSA boxes. We’d love for you to come out to the New Braintree farm to harvest your own! It is great when members experience the harvest for themselves and it is part of understanding the labor involved with our local food supply. If you have children, it is a timeless lesson to have them pick a head of lettuce, pull a beet, pick berries, eat an ear of corn raw, standing in the field…. Not only does one understand how something grows, but one gains perspective on the labor costs of harvest. Actually, it is a perspective many adults are missing too – so if you’ve never picked a tomato or bean, put that on your CSA bucket list.

If you are not going to eat your corn today, we find it stores better husked and bagged. SOMETIMES, I have known Glenn to put raspberries in the CSA. If you are super lucky and get a box, eat them right away OR store them spread out on a plate in your fridge. High humidity causes fragile, juicy raspberries to mold quickly, so the less they are touching each other, the better. There are fungicides we can use to wipe out the natural spores that are in the air, but (you should know where I am going by now) we prefer not to spray the berries.

I cannot recall if I covered the cucumber situation already or not so, here it is: we grow a regular slicing cuke (long, dark green, slight bumps, sometimes with spines still attached), an Armenian style cuke called Diva (looks like the slicer but with smooth skin, spineless, almost no seeds), pickling or Kirby cukes (short, somewhat striped with light and dark green), and lemon cukes (round, yellow, lemon looking ;~)). Like their cucurbit friends the summer squashes, they are interchangeable.

The hot weather has inspired lots of grilled squash, cucumber salad, and cereal with fruit this week. What have you been up to?

This fennel is grown for its bulb, which is lovely julienned for a salad or even roasted with your beets. Did you know beets can naturally lower your cholesterol and blood pressure? Several studies show that drinking beet juice or eating beets can lower blood pressure 5 points for 24 hours. Cool, right? They are high in potassium and nitrates – plus, they are just downright yummy! The greens are high in potassium too 🙂 Try roasting your beets if you haven’t already done so. I quarter mine and toss them in olive oil and a little seasoning.

More about fennel: It is high in vitamin C, potassium, folate, and fiber. Sounds like a super combo with beets, eh? 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.

Roasted Beets and Fennel Salad
Summer Squash Cucumber and Fennel Salad

From member Jordan (OMG another InstantPot fan!

I’ve probably sold 30 – I should get a commission ;))
Jordan says: 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 instant pot 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.

Instant pot 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.

Green Gazpacho

(adapted from Delicioso! The regional Cooking of Spain)from member Sue

• 4 slices sandwich bread, crusts removed
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 small onion, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 3 pickling cucumbers (i haven’t been particular about this and put in any cuke), peeled, seeded, and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 2 Tablespoons good quality olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons sherry vinegar (I usually use white wine vinegar, maybe with a drop of sherry, because I don’t have sherry vinegar), or to taste
• 2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup finely chopped leaf lettuce

Tear bread into bite-sized pieces. Place in bowl and cover with water.  Let soak 10 minutes.  Remove bread and squeeze out excess moisture.

In a food processor, pulse garlic, onion, cucumbers, bell pepper, cilantro, parsley, and salt until very coarse.  With machine running, add bread, then the oil, sherry and wine vinegars, and the one cup water.   Transfer mixture to a bowl.  taste for seasoning and add more salt or sherry vinegar if you like.  Stir in the lettuce.  Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or until well chilled.  taste again for seasoning and adjust.

Cucumber Drink

Member Alicia found this recipe at www.chowhound.com.

• 1 1/4 cups peeled, seeded, roughly chopped cucumbers 2 c cold water
• 1 c crushed ice 1/3 cup lime juice
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used simple syrup, which worked well, too) pinch salt, if desired

Place all ingredients in blender and blend well.  Can be enjoyed as is, or filter through a fine sieve if you want a beverage without the pulp.

We’ve been busy irrigating! My hopes were dashed Friday 6th when we got about 20 minutes of light rain and the hours of rain fell on Boston. Things look good though; we are putting water on what we can and the crops in heavy-soil fields are in fine shape. Good news: the tomatoes are starting to come in, the peaches are coloring up, Glenn is done planting corn, the fall crop of tomatoes are planted, and I think there will be peppers soon!

The dryness has brought the bees to the fountain in our yard in impressive numbers. Everyone needs water and I imagine they are making lots of honey! The Pileated Woodpecker hung out in our backyard yesterday and made his presence known with his loud, prehistoric sounding call (what I imagine prehistoric). Then he flew across the yard to another tree where he called again. Even though I know they are huge, I am always surprised when I actually see one; they are the size of crows! The Pileated Woodpecker used to be a species of concern, but with the regrowth of their habitat forests, their numbers are really great now. In the picture below, you can see how effective they are at shredding dead wood to find grubs, there are even large shreds of wood on the ground around the tree. Remarkable skills and skulls they have!

Looks like there might be some T-storms in our future…so fingers crossed we get a little rain without any of the “excitement” that sometimes comes with.

Eat well,

Geneviève Stillman