CSA for August 7th!

The peas are about done!

We're starting to really feel the cycle of the gardens.  Most vegetables are annuals: the plants have one try at growing and making babies (the vegetable or part we eat) and then they die.  The peas are the perfect example, already the foliage is yellowing and dying back; they're about done for this year!  Yes, there are still a few flowers at the tips, but unless the weather stays cool and rainy, those would largely just set stumpy little pods.  We picked out the peas today and really not enough for any share but some bags will be on the trading table!

Amanda and Ed have supplied one last round of cabbage.  We had an extra from Tuesday's CSA and we snapped it up for a little dinner party in honour of visiting sister Keltie last night.  Oddly enough, sister Keltie did most of the cooking for the party - and was it delightful!  She used this recipe for roasted cabbage with bacon on the BBQ!  So tasty - and really very easy!  You could do this in the oven, as well, no problem!  It's a must try - very yummy.  We had some vegetarians with us last night and did a couple pieces without the bacon - also delish!

It is bean time...lots of beans the next few weeks.  Keltie also made, last night, honey-Dijon glazed beans.  She pre-cooked the beans, a mix of yellow and green, to just crispy.  Then she sauteed them in equal parts honey and Dijon mustard.  She made a huge mess of beans, enough for eight people, and used half a cup of each.  Dial back the amount to maybe two tablespoons for a pound of beans - you can always add more!  She just stirred the beans a few times to make sure all were well coated in the mix.  Great flavour!  Now we do like our families to keep some of their share for winter use.  The abundance of beans may mean you have more than you can eat in a week.  Check Tuesday's blog for a post of quick-and-easy freezing without blanching.  If freezer space is limited you can dehydrate beans - they reconstitute quickly in soups and stews.  They can just be stored, preferably in glass, in cupboards or pantry shelves.  Here's a link with a number of ways to preserve beans including dehydrating in the oven!

At the bottom of this post is a great chart for cooking a wide variety of vegetables.  This showed up in my inbox and I thought it was perfect for sharing with you all.  Most people over-cook vegetables and destroy more of the essential vitamins and minerals then is necessary.  This cheat sheet is fantastic!  Hope you can read it!

So, for the FULL SHARES:  1 1/2 lbs. Dragon's Tongue beans, 1 lb. mixed Royal Burgundy and yellow wax beans, 1 lb. green beans (Jade, first pick), lg. cabbage, 3 lbs. Norland red baby potatoes, onions, Grand Rapids lettuce, Mesclun mixed lettuces, radish, herb, raspberries.

For the PART SHARES:  1 lb. Dragon's Tongue beans, 1 lb. mixed Royal Burgundy and yellow wax beans, med. cabbage, 2 lb. Norland red baby potatoes, onions, Grand Rapids lettuce, Mesclun mixed lettuces, herbs, raspberries.

For the SINGLE SHARES:  1 lb. Dragons Tongue beans, 1 lb. mixed Royal Burgundy and yellow wax beans, sm. cabbage, onions, Norland red baby potatoes, Grand Rapids lettuce, herbs, raspberries.

CSA For August 5th!

Things are finally starting to look like Summer in the garden!  Took a while this year!  The first pick on zucchini today, there are little wee cucumbers and tomatoes!  The corn is coming nicely, although a little weedy.  And the beans!  The beans!

CSA members will get a torrent of beans of all kinds over the next few weeks!  The bigger beans, the Romano types like Dragon's Tongue and some of our climbing beans, do very well in veggie packs in tinfoil for the BBQ!  The regular beans do okay, the delicate filet will not benefit from that treatment!  Vegetables of all kinds are awesome and easy roasted on the BBQ in foil.  Here's a great link with basic instructions for BBQ roasted veg.  We encourage you all to freeze some packages of beans for winter use!  Here's a great link to easy bean freezing without blanching.  However, we all want to eat a bunch right now so here's a nice link with eleven fresh bean recipes.  Hmm, beans in a bacon vinaigrette?

Probably the last share on raspberries.  As the picking gets more sparse it's just not worth our time and we have U-pickers waiting to get a chance!  Nice, big container for everyone today!  Probably the last of the Grand Rapids lettuce as well today - unless the plants already cut grow back well.  That is highly unlikely in hot, dry weather so we will probably bid adieu to Grand Rapids for now!  We will seed a variety of lettuces shortly for nice Fall salads.

Amanda and Ed have supplied lovely cabbages again today - probably also the last of the cabbage for you!  So many 'last of's today - but that is what fresh, local eating is all about!  Everything has it's season, it peaks and then it is done!  Amanda and Ed have also supplied a nice assortment of fresh herbs.  There is a bit in everyone's basket; we'll be on hand to tell you what it is or how to use it but they have brought dill, summer savory, oregano, spearmint, mojito mint and Italian parsley!

So, for the FULL SHARES:  Lg. cabbage, a zucchini, 1/2 lb. shelling peas, onions, 1 lb. Dragon's Tongue beans, 2 lbs. assorted yellow wax, green and purple beans, 2 lbs. Norland red baby potatoes, 1/2 lb. Warba white potatoes, raspberries, radish, Swiss chard, Grand Rapids lettuce, one of the assortment of fresh herbs.

For the PART SHARES:  Cabbage, zucchini, snow peas, onions, 1 lb. Dragon Tongues Bean, 1 lb. assorted beans, 2 lbs. Norland red baby potatoes, raspberries, Grand Rapids lettuce, one of the herbs.

For the SINGLE SHARES:  Small cabbage, zucchini, onions, 1 lbs. Dragons Tongue Beans, 1/2 lb. Royal Burgundy beans, 2 lbs. Norland red potatoes, raspberries, Grand Rapids lettuce, one of the assortment of herbs.

Enjoy!

CSA For The Last Day of July!

Everyday starts and ends this way..for about another month!

It finally feels like summer! We had to wait until the end of July - but summer seems to be here!  Lovely and warm today, very little breeze, not a lot of bugs - fantastic day for harvesting for our families!  We were actually late for Tuesday's meet-up because there is so much to harvest right now!  We used our time a bit more wisely today and think we'll be on time!  There's so much labour-intensive veggies to harvest right now we could sure use some help - especially with raspberries!  If you'd like to find more raspberries in your basket and have time on Thursday mornings please let us know!

Beans will come hot-and-heavy for the next few weeks.  Here's a great link, with links at the bottom of the page, to a lot of ways to keep beans for winter use!  We've never dehydrated beans, but it seems like a good idea! They'll take up shelf space only, and a small space at that!  We regularly freeze beans and pack them in portions in freezer bags.  They stack nicely in the freezer, thaw quickly for use in soups, stews and stir fries!  We've picked the first of the Dragons Tongue - a Romano type bean, big and flat but tender and tasty!  Treat just like any other bean; unfortunately the purple stripes fade on cooking.

Our growing partners Amanda and Ed have provided beautiful cabbage again today.  They've also brought the first harvest of some fresh herbs.  The ferny leaf of the dill will be wonderful chopped for the new potatoes or in your salad - very different from the dried dill in the stores.  The heads of dill will flavor jars of the 'Dilly Beans' from the link above or a wonder to flavour vinegar for homemade salad dressing.  The flat leaf Parsley will be excellent chopped into salads or sprinkled on grilled chicken or pork.  It's also excellent for stuffing a roast chicken and I believe the first chickens from Luna Field Farm are available this week.  The herb with the flowers is Greek oregano - a zesty herb that will also be excellent in your salads.  It's fantastic to add a little Greek flavour to meats and pastas.  Try a little of the herb in your box straight, to give you an idea of the flavour.

The first share of new potatoes for Thursday's families- a lovely red Norland.  Please don't over-cook young potatoes.  We usually simply steam them for about fifteen minutes but you can boil them, too, just not too long!  New potatoes sometimes can get mushy if roasted in tin foil on the BBQ, so perhaps wait a couple of weeks until we've got older spuds for you!

Last week everyone got Boyne raspberries - the standard hardy raspberry for the Prairies grown here for decades.  For this Thursday, we got a small pick on Mammoth, a newer variety developed at the U of S.  There's just enough today for the Full Shares.  We'll be interested to see if you notice a difference.  We won't make any comment here 'cause we don't want to influence you!

So, for the Full Shares: Lg. cabbage, 3/4 lb. each of green, yellow, Royal Burgundy and Dragon's Tongue beans, 4 lbs. new potatoes, Lg. Mammoth raspberries, bag each Mesclun mixed lettuces and Grand Rapids, fresh dill.

For the Part Shares:  Lg. cabbage, 1/2 lb. each green, Royal Burgundy and Dragon's Tongue beans, 3/4 lb. yellow wax beans, 3 lbs. new potatoes, 1 lb. shelling peas, Boyne raspberries, bag each Mesclun Mix and Grand Rapids lettuce, fresh flat leaf parsley.

For the Single Shares: Sm. cabbage, 1/2 lb each green, yellow wax, Royal Burgundy and Dragon's Tongue beans, 3 lbs. new potatoes, Boyne raspberries, bag each Mesclun Mix and Grand Rapids lettuce, fresh Greek oregano.

CSA For Tuesday, August 21.

Dragons Tongue!

Lots of the 'tastes of summer' in todays basket!  Amanda and Ed supplied corn for everybody, and Evelyn and Menno have tomatoes for all the shares!  We're going to cut basil like crazy to go with those tomatoes!  A little soft, white cheese and you've the making of an awesome Caprese salad!  We made a 'Caprese' style pasta Sunday night, tossing penne with fresh homemade creamy goat cheese, some wee cherry tomatoes and fresh basil.  A little pepper and dinner was served!  Cream cheese would work just as well, it would melt and nicely coat the pasta.  How about Open-faced Chicken Caprese Sandwiches....


Zucchinis and summer squash are still going strong!  Made these zucchini/chocolate chip/dried cranberry cookies on the weekend - really good!  Raisins would work in the mix, too but the cranberries just added some extra 'zing'!  Still intend to make these zucchini pancakes - should be awesome with Manitoba maple syrup!  On our Facebook page, we've been sharing some great little stuffed Patty Pan squash recipes; of course, the summer squash is pretty much interchangeable, but the Patty Pans are just so cute and different when stuffed!  We're enjoying the Kousa squash stuffed with all sorts of things, too!

Dragons Tongue beans continue to do well - another good pick today!  We love introducing people to the bean; it's unusual and rare and really yummy!  Love when customers try new stuff, eat well and have fun;  Farmers Market customer Kaylyn posted this on our Facebook page:  'Please, please, please tell me you will have more dragon's tongue beans at the Global Market this week! I picked up a bag yesterday AM and my kids devoured them at dinner tonight... including my oldest. And if you knew what a picky eater my oldest is, you'd realize this is something pretty amazing! We may have also goofed around w/them, sticking out of our mouths, pretending we were dragons. ;)'  CSAer Caryl was thinking outside the (bean) box when she made this hummus recipe, substituting the chick peas and peas for Dragons Tongue!  She says it was very good!

For the FULL SHARES:  2 lbs. Linzer Fingerling potato, 2 lbs. Cherry Red potato, 2 lbs. tomatoes, 4 cobs corn, 2 cucumbers, 1.5 lbs. Dragon Tongue beans, 2 zucchini, crooked neck squash, Patty Pan squash, Swiss chard, basil.

For the PART SHARES:  1.5 lbs. Linzer Fingerling potato, 1.5 lbs. Cherry Red potato, 1.5 lbs. tomatoes, 3 cobs corn, cucumber, 1 lb. Dragon Tonuge beans, zucchini, crooked neck squash, Patty Pan squash, basil.

For the SINGLE SHARES:  1 lb. Linzer Fingerling potato, 1 lb. Cherry Red potato,  corn, cucumber, 1/2 lb. DragonTongue beans, zucchini, crooked neck squash, Patty Pan squash, basil.