We have an abundance of plump zucchini and yellow squash available in your shares this week, and just in time - their high water content alongside fresh cooling herbs like cilantro will help you hydrate and beat the heat in recipes like this zucchini soup with crème fraîche, served cold. If grilling is more your style, they pair again beautifully in this delicious sweet and spicy grilled squash recipe. Whip together a crisp napa cabbage salad and you're ready to get back outside!
As consumers in a small-scale local food system, we're all more in tune with what's thriving in this particular moment in our particular watershed, and we know that natural systems on an organic farm are constantly changing. One week is cool and rainy and the soil is saturated, the next week is extremely hot and muggy. Vegetables often change in appearance from week to week, or some of our favorites might be in short supply because the conditions are so dynamic and unpredictable - plants respond to the variable weather, changing in flavor and texture, and we believe this is something extraordinary to experience as an eater. Many vegetables (like radishes, turnips, lettuce, kale and arugula) start out mild and tender in the spring, get spicier and more robust in the heat of the summer, and then get sweeter as the temperatures cool off in the fall.
This week, let's embrace the variability in our food as a source of inspiration. Try tasting each of your vegetables raw before you start cooking and see if you notice a difference from last week. It just might spark a new idea in your cooking.
Enjoy!
