Plans are in progress for a harvest celebration at Judi’s in October. And the big news is that Judi’s husband Tom is starting a meat CSA with naturally grown, pastured beef, pork, poultry, etc! We hope to feature some of their products at the harvest party, and we’ll have more information available at that time. Details are still being worked out, but it looks like Tom would be able to start in early winter.

On another note – no pun intended – entirely, there’s a free concert at the Adams Ricci Park in Enola on Sunday at 6 pm – one of your farmers and two Cool Beans members are performing with the New Cumberland Town Band, which will present an hour-long concert. It’s very family-friendly – bring chairs or a blanket and enjoy a summer concert in the park. The set-up for this particular concert makes it possible for little people to run around within sight of parents without disturbing concertgoers. Your farmer, Katie, plays French horn in her non-farming life, and Cool Beans Jenn and Lesa play trumpet and horn, respectively.

A quick recap of the gardens:  we’re learning a lot, which is sort of a code for ‘we’ve made some mistakes, plus some things out of our hands went wrong’, but overall things are looking pretty good.  Summer crops mostly come from Yeehaw Farm, since the Stoney Creek end of things is so tied up with the iris in late July and early August.  Fall crops are going in as space become available in newly emptied iris beds.

Some things haven’t done as well as we’d hoped, which is the nature of farming.  Groundhogs apparently love edamame even more than I do.  The new puppy, Finian, is doing his best as predator control at Stoney Creek but at nine weeks still falls asleep on the job.  The alternating heavy rains and dry spells have slowed down the fruit set on eggplants, but the plants themselves look great and we have high hopes for a good harvest.  The Rainbow Chard and lemon balm are setting records for production.  Green beans were slowed down in the heat but are starting to really pick up now.  And we’re just about the best potato growers you could ask for.

You’ve had a few tomatoes, and most baskets from now until frost will contain more.  If you’d like extra tomatoes, please let us know.  We don’t want anyone to be overwhelmed.  If you find that you’re not able to use your tomatoes, throw them in the freezer, whole, and use them later in soups and sauces.  We do not make any tomato sauce at this frantically busy time of the year, but instead fill a freezer with tomatoes and make the sauce in the winter, when the extra heat in the kitchen is appreciated.

By the end of this week everyone will have received blackberries.   In our first year, we don’t have enough production to cover everyone in one week, so those were staggered.

Next week is our mid-season hiatus – there will be no CSA delivery on Thursday 19 or Friday20.  Judi’s children are showing their animals at the Perry County Fair, and they’ll be sleeping there to care for them.  Katie’s heading to the family home in northern Ontario for a few days.  We’ll resume deliveries the following week, and will continue right up until early November.

Your herbs, which were consistent for everyone, include Thai basil (the one with purple flowers, which I left on to help you identify it), lemon basil (green) and red Rubin basil, which is really purple, and which is similar to regular basil.  Also mint and curly parsley.  If you’re getting overloaded with parsley, just throw it in a plastic bag and freeze it for later.

If you got purple beans, they’re just normal green beans except…purple.  They’ll turn green when cooked.  It’s an easy way, actually, to tell when they’re done perfectly!  You might have a yellow summer squash or a small green zucchini.  By the way, if you want a big zucchini, perhaps for zucchini bread or Mock Crab Cakes  (Nicola reminded me about those this afternoon) just shoot me an email and I’ll make sure you get one when they’re available.  We know it’s the time of year when neighbors begin making stealth zucchini drops in the dark hours of the night, and enthusiasm begins to wane.  I’m not advocating wasting food, but just so you know…….a carved-out zucchini half, fitted with ’sails’ made from bamboo skewers and hosta leaves, can sail from the dock in Dauphin all the way to Fort Hunter, and may have in fact made it to the Chesapeake for all we know.  And if you happen to be entertaining an eight year old nephew, you can carve some great cannon from carrots to outfit your zucchini warship.

Your basket might also include potatoes, onions, garlic, peppers, tomatillos (I’ll post a soup recipe later this evening, and you can find great salsa verde recipes on line; I’ll let you find you own, as the hotness of them varies so much).  You might have carrots, chard, or cucumbers.  Really, there could be just about anything in there this week!

If you only know sage as something that gets included in the stuffing at Thanksgiving, here’s a real treat:  heat olive oil to medium hot (a drop of water flicked into it will splatter a bit but not spit violently) and fry the sage leaves, just seconds per side, until they’re just slightly brown.  (They’ll become very bright green first, and if you wait just a second or two before  removing them them, they’ll be just about perfect.  Drain on paper towels, blot very gently (they’re brittle) and then crumble the cooled sage leaves into pasta with olive oil and parmesan, or on top of any cooked vegetable.

Stuffed Zucchini Recipe from Allrecipes.com

If you’d prefer a vegetarian version, make a filling with cooked rice and sauteed veg – top with cheese if you wish – and proceed as above.  You want to be careful slicing the uncooked zucchini, and you want the filling to be a bit moist, so it will stay together when you cut the baked zucchini into individual servings.  It will reheat well.

Use your imagination with this; the zucchini is just a vehicle for your favorite ‘insides’.  We’re on a curry kick here, so curried rice with cashews and onions and a little drizzle of coconut milk has been a favorite.  Other grains, like millet or quinoa, are good bases.  Pasta, not so much.  Chili works.  Chicken or a firm fish can be worked into a grain based filling.  Think of it as a good use for leftovers!

This week:  a big green zucchini (Judi will be posting a recipe for stuffed zucchini this evening, when she gets back from helping the 4H booth at a local fair) or a few Zephyr summer squash (yellow with a green end).  Some of you have pattypan squash as well, which will work with the same recipe.  You have a tiny bit of lettuce – I  know I keep saying this is the last week, but we didn’t think this was too bitter, so people get it instead of the pigs and goats.  Bundled with the curly parsley is lemon basil, which you can use as you would any basil (you can also freeze it for later).  It’s lovely with fish, or you can put it in a salad.

You have beets and onions, dill, an assortment of potatoes, and a mix of kales.  An easy way to use the kale is to chop it into pieces and throw it into a soup.  It can be steamed or stir-fried (follow Katie’s rule:  if you don’t know what it is, saute it in olive oil and garlic and add parmesan) or diced and added to green salads or a potato or pasta salad. The really weird looking purple potato is Purple Viking, and the insides of it are pure white.

You have one or more, depending on your share size, of the pizza shells / flatbreads we sell at market.  These are the underpinnings of the default dinner at Stoney Creek in the summer, since they’re already fully cooked.  Top with whatever strikes your fancy and bake long enough to melt anything that needs to be melted.  This past weekend, we used the flatbreads as a base for chevre, sauteed Rainbow chard and sweet onions, and shredded tomme cheese.  I had the wonderful experience of watching my nine month old granddaughter, Calliope, enjoy a dinner with no pesticides or additives, with all the components grown and made by family members or friends.

The blueberries were so good last week that we made arrangements with Jay, the grower, to supply us with a second week, in a larger quantity.  The variety is Berkeley, which is not grown widely around here.  We’ll have our own blueberries in a few years, but it takes a long time to get them up and running, so we’re glad to have Jay helping us out in the meantime.

And if you’re a Friday Bean with a Camp Hill or Yeehaw Farm pickup, you’ll get the fingerling potatoes I forgot last week.

Here’s the recipe I used here, adapted from a 2008 recipe in Gourmet magazine:

You need:  one head frisee, 1/4 c maple syrup, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, half a cup or so of stale bread crumbs, olive oil, salt, pepper

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Cook bread crumbs until crisp and golden brown, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and stir in zest and a pinch of salt.

Wipe out skillet, then add  2 Tbsp oil and cook 15 seconds. Increase heat to medium-high and sauté  frisée until slightly wilted, about 2 minutes. Off heat, stir in juice, syrup, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Serve topped with bread crumbs.

The original recipe called for a bit of anchovy paste, which I never seem to have on hand.

We’ve started packing the Friday boxes at Judi’s, because that evens out the driving for the two of us.    But shifting gears to a different location meant making a big list of what had to be moved from Stoney Creek to Yeehaw this morning, and the potatoes were missed.  My apologies, and you’ll have them next week!

So perhaps I’ve been assuming too much previous familiarity, and in trying not to sound patronizing, or seeming to state the obvious, maybe I haven’t shared enough basic information.  Let’s look at this week’s basket in a new light:  Vegetables 101.  After all, we didn’t all grow up eating such a variety.  My mother refused to cook cabbage, for instance, because that’s what ‘poor people’ – i.e., her family – ate during the Depression, and it was forever associated with poverty in her mind.  Thinking through today’s basket, I’m realizing we also never ate kale, swiss chard, or kohlrabi, although I’m not sure what association or bias or maternal neuroses kept those from the table.

I grew up eating beets that came in cans, and probably thinking that’s where they came from originally.  I was a bit baffled when I bought ‘real’ ones for the first time and learned I was supposed to peel them.  Peels, I thought, are what bananas have:  something you just zip off.  Not so with the beet.  I’m glad no one secretly filmed my attempt to peel a raw one the way you would an orange.  The beet won that round.  Then I learned that the skins loosen when the beet is boiled, but for how long?  And then how do you handle the thing without getting second degree burns on your hands, or beet juice all over yourself?

I’ll admit I still haven’t entirely solved the last part  (I recommend wearing a magenta shirt).  But as far as the boiling, I’ve reached Beetmaster status.  First, cut off the greens, which are in fact edible, we’ll get to that in a minute.  Leave about an inch of the stems on, that makes a nice handle when you peel them.  You can put them into boiling water or start with cold and bring the heat up, doesn’t seem to matter.  Length of time will depend on the beets’ size, but you want them to be fork-tender (i.e. you can stick the tines of a fork into it).  If you are somewhat lacking in coordination, as I am, you may wish to remove the pot from the heat before trying to impale a beet that’s spinning in boiling water.

Once they’re tender enough, dump the beets into a colander (being careful not to spill, and guess how I know to mention that) and run cold tap water over the beets for a minute or so.  You will not cool them too much, if your goal is to serve them hot.  This will help loosen the skin further and will make it possible to grab the beet by the remaining stem for peeling (or if you do not have teflon fingers, spear it with a fork).  A regular vegetable peeler works well, but if you have achieved that perfect moment of beet nirvana and boiled it just long enough, you can rub the skins off with your fingers.  Slice off the top part, with the remaining stems, and the root.  Serve as is, or splash with a little orange juice.  Or balsamic vinegar.

You can peel raw beets, and boil them after, but you lose too much of the juice and color.  Shredded raw beets are a good salad topper, though, especially paired with feta – I like to toss them with some lemon juice and olive oil first.  Beets can be picked – there’s lots of recipes online.  Cooked beets can be used to make a cold or hot beet soup.

Beet greens are edible.  I’m not a huge fan personally just because there’s so many other good greens available at the same time, and the best beet greens are the tiny ones.  But if you’d like to try them, the fallback position for all greens is to saute them in olive oil with a bit of garlic.

That’s a good plan for the Tuscan kale (also called dinosaur kale, can you see why?)  Remove the ribs, or not, and then slice the kale crosswise into 1/2″ strips.  Heat a little olive oil, briefly stir in the kale until it’s coated and the green has intensified.  (Cooking by color-change is nearly foolproof.)  You can serve as is, or if you’re trying to ease into this idea of eating dark green veg, try this Katie-recipe (which means there’s no measurements).  Add a bit of turmeric and cumin and curry powder, or two of those, or just one, while the kale is cooking.  Dump in a can of rinsed, drained chickpeas.  If you have leftover chicken, or pork, or fish, dice it and throw it in.

The Swiss chard – you received a variety called Rainbow, which we chose just because it’s cool looking – is related botanically to the beets, but it’s the stalks and greens which are used.  The greens can be prepared as with the kale, or try cooking them in a little bit of sunflower oil (or another light oil) and adding a splash of vinegar and just a pinch of sugar and salt before serving.  The stalks can be baked or prepared on the stovetop.

There are a lot of resources on the internet for recipes.  We’ll try not to put something in your basket for too many consecutive weeks (lettuce doesn’t count) so you don’t tire of it.  Above all, don’t be afraid to experiment!