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Our Tomatoes are rolling and delicious! We have BULK SPECIALS on our Tomatoes this week. Swap out all your vegetables for a load of tomatoes or add ten or twenty pounds of Tomatoes to your order.
As we've mentioned here, I, Janet, injured my hand quite badly during a mountain bike ride gone awry. I had surgery last Friday to repair the damage and I'm doing well, though I have very limited use of my left hand and arm. During this time of high harvest, staff vacation, and limited physical ability by one of our owners we've brought in our children and a number of willing friends to help out. Thank you to these helpers!
The Orange Heirloom varieties, picture below, are especially delicious. While managing my injury and trying to facilitate healing, I've reminded myself that tomatoes are especially anti-inflammatory. A plate of heirloom tomato slices sprinkled with sea salt is a fantastic part of a meal or snack.
If you’re in the mood (and you should be) for a Beet Smoothie, choose Beets this week! The image below was made with the recipe in that link using red beets. We also improvised a beet smoothie this weekend using one large gold beet, frozen strawberries and bananas, ginger, and milk. It was also delicious!
Compounds in Beets relax/dilate your blood vessels, lowering blood pressure and improving athletic performance (and/or recovery) by increasing blood flow (thus oxygen and glycogen) to your muscles. Win-win. There are also many other recipe options online or in good, old-fashioned, modern nutrition cookbooks 
We've started getting potatoes out of the ground and will have them as an option in next week's shares. We grew white potatoes and purple potatoes this season.
Meanwhile, our lettuce is still holding strong for now in the fields. We're very happy to have lettuce heads and Lettuce Mix to harvest for you tomorrow!
Suggestions for crops we're harvesting now include...
BEETS - Above mentioned Beet Smoothie. Or steam them then chill them and put on top of salads galore. Or roast them and serve them alongside evvvvverything.
A medley of Tomatoes, Peppers, Cucumbers, and Basil go wonderfully in recipes like this Bean Salad, or this Quinoa Salad, or this recipe below. There are many similar recipes. Have fun!
Pro tip: These salads often don't keep well as leftovers. The cucumber in salads like these usually goes bad before other ingredients, in our experience. So mix up a quantity that you'll eat within a reasonable time. We like to keep cooked beans (we buy them dry then soak and cook them) and/or cooked quinoa on hand and then add in fresh vegetables and herbs for one day's lunch and/or dinner.
SWEET BULLHORN PEPPERS - The heroes of the second half of July and all of August are these Italian Bullhorn peppers. They are like bell peppers, but better! They grow better than bell peppers in organic conditions, and they taste better, too! Eat them raw, roast them, stuff them... the second photo below comes to us from Fine Creek Brewing. We're just starting to harvest these peppers this week, but we hope for abundant harvests from them soon. See our collection of Pepper recipes here.
EGGPLANTS - remember these beauties are best thought of as sponges. They soak up deliciousness that you put on them. We love them doused with olive oil, roasted, and sprinkled with sea salt. Roast at 400 F until their edges are a little crispy! See Eggplant recipe collection here.
SHISHITO PEPPERS - These are frying peppers. Saute them WHOLE (stems and everything!) in the oil of your choice until they blister, then sprinkle with sea salt. To eat: pick up a pepper by the stem, bite the pepper up to the stem and enjoy their amazing flavor. So, so good.
LUNCHBOX PEPPERS - These are snack size sweet peppers. We prefer to eat them raw, on their own, as a snack. But you can slice them on salads or stuff with cheese and roast.
Bread Share members: You just got a SEPARATE email to customize your bread share a few moments ago.
To Customize Your Share:
Each time you are scheduled to have a share, you'll receive an email from us 2 days prior. It should have subject line "Time to Customize Your Share." The software will create a default share for you (based on your indicated preferences and what we have available to harvest) and list those default contents in the email. The email also contains a link saying "Want to make changes to your share or add extras?" Click on that link to customize your share! Customization ends between 6 and 7 am on the day before your pick up day (depending on the time of year and thus how early we start harvesting). The cut off time is always specified in the email.
For Pick Up:
- Same for cooler(s) at pick up locations with any cold items that aren't vegetables (eggs, fermented vegetables, etc...See below for more info.)
- Preparation ideas and recipe suggestions are in your email. Also check out our Pinterest Page for lots of recipe ideas, organized by vegetable.
EGGS: Steve Ault of Aults' Family Farm and Ring-a-Bell Farm in Pamplin offer their eggs for sale through us. Their chickens live on pasture and are fed supplemental non-gmo feed from Sunrise Farms. Their eggs are fabulous and we trust their farming practices completely. You can purchase their eggs in our self-serve FarmStand at our farm and you can order them through the Harvie system "Extras" when you customize your share.
We so deeply appreciate the opportunity to farm for you. Thank you for being the most important part of our farm! We love you!
With blessings on your meals ~
Janet, Dan, and the whole Broadfork crew (Julie, Siera, Leah, Erica, Tait, Alisa, Jen, and the farm kids)
