CSA Week 5
The Fabulous Fruit and Totally Tomatoes CSAs start this week! Woo Hoo! Tomato peeps, the variety will get more interesting next week and on.
Things you MAY have in your box/bag this week: cucumbers, summer squash, kale or arugula, blueberries, tomatoes, basil, and beans…
It’s time for bulk orders of cucumbers or squashes. Please talk to your market/CSA person or email me for ordering by the half bushel.
To recap the cucumber situation: 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!!! In the top 10 questions we get at markets: do the lemon cucumbers taste like lemons? Nope.
Recipes
What have you been up to with your CSA goodies? Please share any recipes or ideas with me to share with everyone in this letter and/or post your creations on Instagram or FB and tag @stillmansfarm and #cookingwithstillmans
A great week to look up “Caprese” anything. I made Caprese salad AND I made pizza – both were excellent! It’s a no brainer: go find some fresh mozzarella, toss it with the tomats and the basil, drizzle with yummy olive oil, season. DELISH!
Here’s another version…this should be your big clue that you can do anything you want, LOL!
Vegetarian Chili
HELPFUL ITEMS
- 2 Tbs. veg.oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 lb. chopped tomatoes
- 2-3 ears worth of corn kernels
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1/2 lb. shell beans (yes, shelled)
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 1 summer squash, diced
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
- 3 Tbs. chili powder
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne
- salt to taste
- Accompaniments: optional MEAT (just kidding), rice…
As usual, nothing here is set in stone. A variety of veggies is fun, but it works just as well with all the same squash, canned tomatoes, canned kidney or black beans….also, if you have fresh veggies – use them and make your own adjustments! Of course, fresh hot peppers are a great addition too.
NOW WHAT?
Heat oil in 4+ qt pot and sauté onion, garlic, and chili powder for 5 minutes. Add peppers and sauté another 5 minutes. Add squash and other spices; sauté 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, corn, and beans if fresh; cook 10 minutes. Stir in salt and canned beans if using; cook 5 minutes or until everything is the texture you’re looking for.
Arugula Pesto (you’ve seen the kale pesto recipe, right?)
(there are a thousand recipes for this…but here’s a basic)
4 cups (packed) arugula leaves (about 6 ounces)
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted (I like almonds or pistachios…but use your favorite)
1/4 cup (packed) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
Blend arugula, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese in processor until almost smooth. With machine running, gradually add olive oil; process until well blended. Season pesto to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made ahead. Cover and let stand up to 2 hours at room temperature or refrigerate up to 1 day. Bring to room temperature before using.)
Spring CSA members saw this already, but it warms my heart to see Glenn out with Josie and the not Pussy Cats, LOL. I date myself. Josie and the Grandbaby Collies? GCBC?
Farm Dirt
We got 10 minutes of rain on Tuesday night and that was nice, but not as nice as a half hour could have been. Then we got like an hour of rain Wednesday night/Thursday morning and that did the trick. Yes, there was some run-off, but the ground was ready to receive the water and it was perfect! We know there was enough precipitation to count because Glenn could not lay plastic today 😉
The tomatoes are starting to come in and the gang stripped the first peppers to encourage more vegetative growth which helps provide sun protection for the new peppers. We’ve had times when there are loads of peppers on the plant, only to have a few hot sunny days sunburn the peppers and we have to pick them and toss them. Sad. This is a preventative measure to give the main season crop a fighting chance.
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. ALSO, once you make the trip, you also gain insight into the trips we make to deliver your produce 🙂 Check out our directions and other things to do page
We are 25 minutes from the Sturbridge exit on the Pike, so you can pop in at Old Sturbridge Village and we are not far from the Quabbin Reservoir, you can plan a hike after you are done hiking here 🙂 Pro tip: Do not let your GPS get you off the Pike in Worcester or Auburn, unless you have business there or there is an accident…she just thinks it is better, it’s not. Rt 2, drop down though Princeton or Gardner 🙂
Faith rescued 2 snappers today…not that there is a shortage, but we value them as part of the ecology here. As with prior years, we have Chimney Swifts in our chimney (duh) and hear the wing-beats, usually at 10-15 minute intervals, of the parents descend, and then next the sounds of the young chirping away to get fed; the parents leave and all is quiet again. I have recorded the sounds on many occasions but have yet to upload anywhere. The Blue Jay families (yes, plural) are driving me crazy with their non-stop screeching at their kids, reminds me of many haggard parents I have seen at the store, LOL. It’s not one of their better “songs”.
We are looking forward to our own peaches ripening up and many other crops such as eggplant, peppers, OH! and the onions look fabulous right now, so that’s very exciting. There may be potatoes soon too!
Eat well,
Geneviève Stillman
Chimney Swift (Wikipedia)
