It’s hard to believe that August is ending this week. It seems like summer just started and now families are planning for their kids to return to school. Even though some students may have students attending in person and some learning virtually, I want to encourage you to come visit the farm with the family. It’s a great way to help kids, or grand kids, connect with their food and get out of the house. Please call me if you’d like to schedule a visit. I only host one family at a time, we maintain 6 ft social distancing. Come embrace the sounds of chickens clucking, the sweet smell of the strawberry field, the physical activity of harvesting fresh produce, the tastes of your favorite veggie and see all the beauty of the wildlife, flowers blooming, honey bees pollinating and birds zooming about feeding their babies. I guarantee you’ll feel better after a peaceful visit to the farm.
This Week in Your Box …..
Cherry Tomatoes: Lots and Lots of Jasper red cherry tomatoes and about 2-3 pints of the gold nugget cherry tomatoes.
Cucumbers: The green marketmore and lemon cucumbers are such a wonderful, fresh taste in the summer. I eat the lemon cucumbers like apples.
Cauliflower: A few more of these delightful heads are popping up from the tightly wrapped leaves that keep them white through all this warm weather. I had a couple heads leftover last week so I blanched them for 3-5 minutes and froze some to enjoy this winter.
Basil: I found this wonderful link with 25 different ideas on how to use fresh basil that I thought I’d share with you. Sometimes I get stuck in a rut with my regular dishes so it’s nice to try something new.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/25-fresh-basil-recipes/
Potatoes: This week I’m sending you the Kennebec White potatoes. I hope you like them. They are very much like Yukon Gold potatoes.
What’s a “New” Potato? Recently I was asked what a new potato is. Typically when the potato plants die back, this is a natural sign that the potatoes are done growing and ready for harvest. At this point, the potatoes are left in the ground for about two weeks for the skin to “set”. The skin thickens and forms a thick protection for potatoes that will be stored long term. This is typically what you get with the standard Russet potato at the grocery store. If you harvest them immediately, they have thin, tender skin that rubs off easily. This is called a “new potato”.
Romanesco: One of our farm share members created an infographic on Romanesco. She is working on earning her Registered Dietician certification. She interviewed me about Romanesco and created some wonderful recipes. I’m so happy that she has agreed to share her infographic with all of you too. I send it as an attachement under a separate email this week. Thanks Esther!
Jalapeno Peppers: These little peppers just keep growing. They love the heat of summer. You’ll start to see some purpling in some of them as they continue to grow in the hot sun. This is normal and contributes to their beauty and flavor. They are especially good roasted on the grill. Try them on a shish-ka-bob with your steak and cherry tomatoes.
Shishito Peppers: What’s your favorite way to prepare these yummy peppers? One farm share member said he likes to chop them up into his scrambled eggs in the morning and then wrap them in a breakfast burrito.
Broccoli: We have two kinds of broccoli this week. Most of you tasted the first cut of broccoli heads with the large flowerets. Now I’m making the second cut of the green Belstar broccoli. You’ll find the coloring a bit different as it grows during summer– brighter green with some rosy spots resulting from the summer sun. The flowerets are very tightly closed too. The second variety is a purple sprouting broccoli – a real delicacy in most restaurants. This is harvested when the florets are small. The leaves and tender stems are just as delicious as the flowers. It’s simply beautiful on a plate next to a main entre. Let me know how you like it.
Summer Squash: Has anyone tried making fried zucchini in an air fryer? I’m wondering how it turns out. I don’t have an air fryer. The five summer squash varieties continue to feed us all: Dessert zucchini, Tempest yellow crookneck, Y-star scallop squash, Green Benning’s scallop squash and 8-ball zucchini. There has been some questions about the scallop squash as to whether it’s ripe or not. First be assured, I wouldn’t put anything in your box that wasn’t ready to eat. The Y-star scallop squash has both yellow and green coloring on it. It may be clearly defined or swirled and streaky looking. The Green Benning’s scallop squash is entirely green and sometimes almost white.
Red Beets: In order to process these quickly for you this week, I am cutting off the tops and bagging them. This is a full pound of beets and you can order the tops separately if you would like tops too.
Swiss Chard: There are a few bunches of Swiss chard this week for those of you who are missing the greens.
Red Russian Kale: Red Russian kale is a purple/red kale. It has a smaller leaf and will be bagged for you to braise into any dish or mix into your green drinks with a juicer.
Strawberries: I made a fresh strawberry pie this weekend. If you haven’t tried it, you simply can’t make a pie any easier. Simply bake the shell for 10 minutes. Wash and de-stem 4 cups of berries and stir into a strawberry glaze. Glaze: ¾ c sugar + 2 Tablespoons cornstarch, 1 3oz pkg of strawberry gelatin, and 1 cup of water. Pour berry/glaze mix into the shell and refrigerate. I leave the little berries whole but slice the big berries in half.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/easy-fresh-strawberry-pie/
Extras:
1. Eggs
2. Garlic Basil Pesto: 8 oz container made with garlic scapes, basil and cashews. I have frozen it so give it a stir when you get it home.
3. Soothing Salve for your skin: I find so much relief from all this hand washing and skin irritation with this homemade salve recipe.
4. Dried Pepper Flakes made from my own mixture of dried Poblano, red and green bell, hot padrone and paprika peppers
5. Flower Boquets from Pistil Farm: Corinne is back on our menu this week with her seasonal bouquets of flowers from her farm. Enjoy!
What’s Happening on the Farm?
It’s onion harvest week! Our big bulb onions are ready to pull and cure. After pulling from the ground, they sit one day in the sun and then hang in the shade while the tunic forms. The tunic is the papery skin on the outside of the onion. Just like all bulbs (even flowers), its important not to remove the stems until they dry up. While curing, the bulb sucks all the moisture and nutrients from the leaves back into the bulb. This improves storage longevity and flavor. The bulb thinks it’s going into dormancy and prepares itself to be planted again in the spring. Little does it know that it’s going into someone’s refrigerator and likely into a winter stew.
We continue to harvest potatoes and move them into cold storage. If you would like to observe or help, give me a call. It’s super fun – like digging for treasure. In fact, I just made a video series last week for the Grants Pass School District’s Ag in the Classroom series. I work part-time for the OSU Extension Service as an Educational Assistant. One of my assignments is to develop monthly Ag in the Classroom curriculum. Unfortunately, we can’t provide this instruction in person this year, so my co-worker Erika and I, are touring local farms and creating a video series for third graders in the school districts. We work in connection with the food service department focusing on one particular Oregon harvest a month. Each series includes a horticulture lesson (how to grow it), a nutritional lesson and a cooking lesson with recipes. The potato lesson we recorded last week will be used next May 2021.
My other project with OSU is developing Grants Pass’s first community garden at the Grants Pass Senior Resource Center. I’m very excited to work on this project too. Let me know if you have any connections to businesses in the community who might like to help. We need lots of donations: tools, building supplies, a shed, plants, rock, irrigation supplies, bark, a pergola, benches, bird bath, stock troughs, paint, and more! It’s a big job. It would be nice to have the whole community involved.
Keep cooking and savor the flavors! Have a great week. Blessings, Carrie
