CSA for September 4th

A new friend helped with CSA today!

Thursday CSA seems to have no luck this year...when it comes to rain!  Another rainy Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning.  Thunder, lightening - the whole show!  But, we're already behind with Thursday's families so when the weather radar looked like it was going to end mid-morning we decided to go for it!  It's mucky - no question.  And the veggies are dirty - no question.  But, there is some awesome stuff ready to go and we got it!

We're into September, I haven't seen any stats but I think this summer has been short on heat and long on rain!  On the Weather Network, the 'High Water Level' is back on due to the rain.  Yeesh!  We have some lovely, lovely tomatoes - all as green as anything.  We can't seem to ripen a tomato this year!  Anybody love fried green tomatoes, let us know - we can make you happy!  We've lost a few cantaloupe due to rot starting where they lay on the ground.

Here comes the winter squash!  We've got our first pick today on vegetable marrow - a traditional favourite with my mother's family - enough for the Full Shares only today.  It can get a little confusing because Brits tend to call small zucchini 'courgettes' and large zucchini 'marrow' but what we have is a different thing called 'vegetable marrow'.  It is a winter squash so you don't eat the skin, although we have one farmers market customer whose family has always eaten the skin on all winter squash!  On it's own, vegetable marrow is rather bland.  It's fantastic, though, at absorbing flavours!  Our traditional family recipe involves spiced sausages removed from the casing - anything from breakfast sausage to chorizo would work, depending on your spice level.  Check out this recipe for sausage stuffed marrow!  You can stuff it with anything you might stuff a pepper or tomato - just think flavourful because the marrow will absorb the flavour!  We've also got a wee pick on Delicata - known as the sweet potato squash for its' resemblance to the taste of sweet potatoes.  It's a favourite of one of our long time members who happens to be allergic to potatoes - it is perfect for making fries!

Finally, here comes the carrots and beets!  We've got a nice little dig on purple and red carrots today - for a little veggie 'bling'!  And STOP!  Don't compost those carrot tops...they're good eating, including a nice, slightly bitter pesto!  Here's a great link with ideas for eating your carrot greens!

Zucchini and other summer squash continue to do well.  Hmmh, Greek zucchini fritters!  Here's a great link to a plethora of links for zucchini recipes: everything from bread to muffins to appetizers with goat cheese!  In Tuesdays' blog post we mentioned the spiralizer - a little gadget that will cut your zucchini or other veggies into pasta or curly fries.  If you've got a mandoline or if you have good knife skills, you can cut your zucchini into lasagna noodles!

Cucumbers are doing well!  Anybody wanting to pickle - let us know.  In the meantime, how about using some for cucumber canapes? Little, bite-size cucumber slices for hors d'ouevres or as a side? Everything from cream cheese to crab to sun-dried tomatoes make awesome bite size delights!  The bigger sizes are perfect for chunky salads like Greek or this chunky cucumber salad.  Cucumber are also fantastic for beauty treatments....no, really!  Here's some great ideas for cucumber facials.

FULL SHARES:  Vegetable marrow, Delicata winter squash, slicing cucumbers, Lemon Ball cucumber, Crookneck, Papaya Pear and Patty Pan summer squash, 1 lb. Romano beans, carrots, beets, Swiss Chard, apples, Red Potatoes,  jalapeno and Hungarian Hot peppers.

PART SHARES:  Delicata winter squash, slicing cucumbers, Crookneck, Papaya Pear and Patty Pan summer squash, 1/2 lb. Romano beans, Swiss chard, carrots, beets, apples, potatoes, jalapeno and Hungarian Hot peppers.

SINGLE SHARES:  Slicing cucumbers, Lemon Ball cucumbers, Papaya Pear and Patty Pan summer squash, Swiss chard, carrots, beets, apples potatoes, jalapeno pepper.

CSA For August 28th

Lots of flowers, but no sign of fruit yet on the Butternut
squash.  Is there time to finish any this year?

Last week was a bit wild! Stormy weather Thursday caused us to cancel the pick-up - something we've rarely done in our years of doing CSA!  The wild weather continued through the weekend causing some havoc around Aagaard Farms.  Did you see the picture we shared on Facebook of the corn all blown over?  Branches were broken on tomatoes, apple trees and, of course, the willow drop thousands of bits all over the place.  The rain was welcome - it has been a bit dry but the deluge can cause things to grow too fast.  Time will tell on the weathers' effects on the gardens!  We tried our carrots today - and got a small dig - just enough for the Full Shares, but they are coming along nicely.

Today has been a bit rocky for me (Norah).  I always have a little problem with my hip but this morning I woke up with my neck out-of-joint.  I tried a little heat in the morning, which helped a bit but by early afternoon I felt like I had seized up from my shoulders to my thigh on my left side.  Farmer Man was nice enough to say he'd do the CSA pick up solo while I stretched out again with a hot water bottle.

The cucumbers have gone wild: they loved the hot weather of last week and then 'did, indeed, blow up' with the rains of the weekend.  How about a cold cucumber soup, this one made creamy by stirring in avocado! This tangy cucumber salad would be great as a side dish, as the bed for a grilled piece of salmon or chicken, or on a sandwich or burger.  This cucumber sauce, intended for Greek gyros, would be excellent as a veggie dip, with falafels or on fish or chicken.  Don't forget that if you don't have fresh herbs, use dried but use 1/4 to 1/2 the specified quantity - drying herbs concentrates the flavour.  Start of with about 1/4 of the recommended amount of fresh, then taste to decide if you need to add more.  If you love Japanese food, you've had sunomono salad...it is really quite easy to make.

Here is a nice little guide to food preservation.  We always love it when our CSA members save a little of the harvest for winter eating!  While the summer squash are happening - freeze a bit for winter muffins or cake.  The beans will save nicely, too.

Nice Crookneck squash in everyones' baskets today.  Here's a nice crookneck frittata - great for breakfast, lunch or dinner!  This Southern fried crookneck  and crookneck fries recipe sounds good!  Check Tuesday's blog for a recipe for beer battered crookneck!  Here's a recipe for stuffed crookneck from a Southern cook's grandma!  There some Papaya Pear going around today, too!  Always our favourite for the BBQ!

For the FULL SHARES:  Assorted summer squash of Romanesque, Crookneck and Papaya Pear, an Armenian cucumber, slicing cucumbers, carrots, beets, German Butterball potatoes, Hungarian Hot Wax peppers, onions, herbs, Kentucky Blue pole bean, Romano green beans.

For the PART SHARES:  Summer squash assortment of Romanesque, Crookneck and Papaya Pear, slicing cucumbers, onions, German butterball potatoes, beets, herbs, Kentucky Blue pole beans.

For the SINGLE SHARES:  Summer squash assortment of Romanesque, Crookneck and Papaya Pear, slicing cucumbers, beets, German Butterball potatoes, onions, Kentucky Blue pole beans.

CSA for August 26th!

We do have some lovely tomatoes! Just all green still!

Did you see the picture on our Facebook page of the corn all knocked over?  It's been a tough weekend!  First, we had to cancel Thursday's CSA pick up due to wet weather.  And the wind and rain didn't stop!  Lots of damage over four days of storms: corn and sunflowers knocked over, tree branches down, plums blown off the tree, some of the tomato plants broken.  It was chilly-willy when we started out with chores this morning: just 5 C (about 42 F) but it has warmed up nicely as the day has gone along. It is, however, still mucky in the garden and lots of the veggies are dirt-splashed!

The Patty Pan summer squash are coming on strong.  As the sizes get larger think about stuffing them!  Eye-catching as well as yummy.   Farmer Man has a favourite recipe involving crab meat, cream cheese and onion.  How about cheese and bacon stuffed Patty Pan?  Here's a great link, with good photo instruction, on sausage stuffed Patty Pans.  If you've got a large one, stuff it and serve slices.  If you've got a few mediums, stuff and serve as individual portions - looks good on a plate!  You can stuff them with anything you might stuff a pepper or tomato with: rice mixtures, quinoa, left-over mashed potatoes all mixed with veggies, meats, cheeses and even fruits!  We've done this recipe for stuffing with dried cranberries!

All of the summer squash are pretty much interchangeable in recipes.  You've all got Crookneck today and it is a bit more tender and buttery.  It is awesome in something like zucchini fritters.  We have a soft spot in our hearts for battered and fried Crookneck: here's a link with a beer batter for Crookneck!  Here's basic instructions for a crunchy coated squash.  We quite often do them in Panko and Cajun spice!  You all know summer squash is excellent for dessert, too, right?  Do try these zucchini brownies  or these cinnamon frosted zucchini bars

While they are abundant, are you going to get some veggies frozen?  Here's some quick and easy instructions for freezing fresh vegetables.  We always save some freezer bags of summer squash - grated, drained a bit then stuffed into freezer bags in one cup portions: perfect for winter muffins or zucchini bread.  The Patty Pans, Papaya Pear and Moroccan types aren't as 'juicy' and we usually don't have to drain them.

We've got a pick on pole beans today: either a green bean type or a Romano (flat pod) type.  The pole beans are late, after the bush beans.  They are a bit more fibrous and all have a string along the spine so remove it as you top-and-tail the beans!  These big, meaty beans are awesome for soups and stews, and do quite well in tin-foil packs on the BBQ, although not quite as tender as Dragons Tongue!  Beans are a little prone to rust and we're surprised at how much rust developed over this wet weekend!  We were 'editing' in the field as we picked, but some may have made it into your bags with some rusty ends.  It's largely cosmetic, but eliminate the end and the rest of the bean is fine!

For the FULL SHARES:  A couple of large Crookneck, assorted medium to large Patty Pans, Blue Lake pole beans, beets, an Armenian or Long English cucumber, slicing cucumber, small bag mesclun mix, large bag All Red potatoes, small bag either Sangria red or Yukon Gold potatoes, onions.

PART SHARES:  Crookneck squash, assorted medium Patty Pan squash, Romano pole beans, Armenian or Long English cucumber, slicing cucumber, medium bag Sangria red potatoes, medium bag Yukon Gold potatoes, herb, onions.

SINGLE SHARES:  Crookneck squash, Patty Pan, slicing cucumber, small bag All Red potatoes, herb, onions.

CSA for August19th

A little bit of an unusual CSA Tuesday.  We've lost our right-hand lady Alex, who is off to university in Saskatoon.  We will sure miss her but wish her all the best of luck!  Then, to complicate matters I, Norah, am off this afternoon to a training session.  If I didn't do this session, the only other option was driving to Winnipeg on a Thursday, in a few weeks, so I had to take the time today.  I've picked beans like crazy this morning, but will be leaving Jes and Andrew to prepare the rest of your CSA baskets.

Had one of those fantastic 'farmers markets moments' on Saturday.  Love introducing new vegetables to people!   During the Global Market I introduced some acquaintances to Patty Pan summer squash.  They were having a BBQ, and I told them about the joys of Patty Pans ( or Scallopinis, as they are sometimes called) in tin foil veggie packs.  They don't get soggy like zucchini.  Well, by chance I ran into them later that night and they were raving!  The creamy texture, buttery flavour - they are big fans now!  Next, they need to try Papaya Pear, which is also fantastic for BBQing.  Papaya Pear is solid enough that you can grill thick slices of it just like a hamburger.  We often soak it for twenty minutes or so in a mix of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  Yummy!

Oh, Yeh! Carbonara pasta with green beans!  We did this Sunday night with Jade green beans, topped with some crumbled bacon.  Very nice; the leftovers were good for lunch the next day!  It will work very well with the Blue Lake pole beans everyone is getting: it's a big, meaty bean perfect for this sort of recipe!  I had pre-cooked the beans and next time I will leave them a little less cooked!

The summer squash is coming on strong!  How about turning those zucchini into little zucchini pizza bites?  We made these before:  zucchini pancakes. Big and fluffy and just fabulous with Manitoba Maple Syrup.  Long time customer Juel shared on Facebook a recipe she found on this blog a few years ago: a zucchini salad called crudo, from Michael Ruhlman.  Zucchini are not just for dinner: there is, of course, the fabulous moist chocolate zucchini cakes, and zucchini muffins but this recipe for zucchini cookies with lemon glaze sounds great.

So, for the FULL SHARES:  Long English cucumber, slicing cucumber, Blue Lake pole beans, Dragons Tongue bean, zucchini, Patty Pan, golden zucchini, kale, baby beets with greens, All Red potatoes, Mesclun lettuce mix and Buttercrunch lettuce.

For the PART SHARES:  Long English cucumber, slicing cucumber, Blue Lake pole beans, zucchini, Patty Pan squash, golden zucchini, All Red potatoes, Mesclun lettuce mix, Buttercrunch lettuce.

For the SINGLE SHARES:  Armenian cucumber, slicing cucumber, Golden Child French filet bean, Blue Lake pole bean, zucchini, golden zucchini, Yukon Gold potatoes, Mesclun mixed lettuces, Buttercrunch lettuces.

CSA For August 14th!

Here comes the Summer Squash!

It's high summer and look out!  Here comes the Summer Squash!  The zucchini, the Patty Pans, the Papaya Pear, the Golden and more of our fabulous variety of Summer Squash are kicking into high gear!  They will be in your baskets 'big time' for the next while!  There are so many fabulous things to do with summer squash, not just stir fries and raw sticks!  Cookies, the most fabulous chocolate cake, pancakes and, oh, here's a great recipes for zucchini fritters!  While you are there checking out the fritters, do check out the rest of the fabulous blog Closet Cooking! Here's our own primer on our wide variety of Summer Squash, Part 1 and Part 2.  On this blog, down the right-hand side are labels for all the blog posts over the years, click 'summer squash' label and a ton of posts with recipe links will come up!  And we'll be posting new finds in each and every newsletter in the next little while!  Speaking of chocolate cake: here's a recipe for a simple, from-scratch chocolate zucchini cake.  If you've never made one it is the most moist, delectable chocolate cake with all that 'hidden' fibre and nutrition!

Amanda and Ed have arrived with some lovely Long English Cucumbers for everyone!  These are thin-skinned, delicate cucumbers which tend not to cause digestive problems for people!  Amanda and Ed have also supplied some nice herbs - ask us about what is in your box if you don't recognize it 'cause there are small amounts of a number of herbs!

We've dug the last of the winter onions today and everyone is getting some.  We took our first little dig of the spring-planted onions and they are coming along nicely!  The foliage will be awesome chopped raw into salads and as garnish!  The garlic, well, it's coming slowly.  We've just had a walk to look at it and we're watering it this afternoon.  Although Brandon has been inundated with flooding and wild storms we are now officially into drought.  This hot, humid weather can be stressful for plants used to cool and moist!

Also, as the season progresses more of our interesting potatoes are being dug.  As we get away from baby or 'new' potatoes we get more interesting textures.  Today, everyone is getting a mixed bag of 'Yukon Gold', a drier, fluffy yellow potato great mashed or for fries, and 'All Red' a neat, dense potato with pink flesh! Yes, it's red all the way through.  Great fun mashed or in salads or scalloped potatoes!

So, for the FULL SHARES: Long English cucumber, slicer cucumber, green and golden zucchini, Dragon's Tongue and Romano bean mix, Jade green beans, Golden Child filets beans, 3 lbs. mixed potatoes, lg. bag Mesclun mixed lettuces, lg. bag Buttercrunch, head of Romaine lettuce, winter and spring onions, an herb.

For the PART SHARES: Long English cucumber and slicer cucumber, mixed green and gold zucchini, Dragon's tongue and Romano bean mix, medium bag of Jade green beans, 2 lbs. mixed potatoes, Mesclun mixed lettuces and Buttercrunch lettuce, winter onions, an herb.

For the SINGLE SHARES:  Long English cucucmber, green zucchini and a small Patty Pan squash, Dragons Tongue and Romano bean mix, 1.5 lbs. mixed potatoes, Buttercrunch lettuce, winter onions, an herb.

CSA on September 19th!

Rather a mucky, squishy, damp, cool day preparing for CSA!  All the veggies will be damp and probably still a little dirty!  We highly recommend that you get the potatoes and tomatillos out of the plastic bags and let them air out and dry out!

Yes, everyone got some tomatillos today!  They are a tomato relative, but tart and dry.  They are what Mexicans and Central Americans make their awesome Salsa Verde from!  If you didn't see Tuesday's blog - check out this great link with a ton of great things to make with tomatillos!  We're going to try the tomatillo sauce on chicken this weekend!  Lots of people like them fried like green tomatoes, sometimes coated, sometimes not!

Yes, the summer squash keeps coming!  Love this simple appetizer with zucchini roulade: thins strips of zucchini wrapped around ricotta cheese and other goodies!  Also love this dessert recipe from Fruit Share Manitoba: zucchini crabapple crisp!  That uses up a bit of local food: perhaps you've got a crabapple or apple tree in your yard?  Here's a nice recipe for a zucchini apple muffin!  This dessert cake sounds delicious:  Patty Pan Bar - with cinnamon frosting!  Of course, any of the summer squash can be substituted!  CSA member Terra found this scrumptious looking recipe for Patty Pan Quesadillas!

As the Winter squash comes along - here's some other great uses!  We roast up large squash and freeze one cup portions of the meat.  We use the small freezer bags so they stack beautifully in a corner of the freezer.  Grab one, that and whip up these fabulous muffins - they are a go-to breakfast for us in the winter!  We've made these muffins with virtually all winter squash and they're all great, but Hubbard is definitely one of our favorites!  We've also replaced some of the flour with whole wheat and spelt, and just upped the oil a titch!  If you save just 3 tbsp. of that pumpkin meat you can make your own Pumpkin Chai Latte.  Or how about this Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake, which uses applesauce instead of oil and is lower in sugar!  How about a Pumpkin Spice Almond Butter - paleo and vegan! Easy and would be great on pancakes, toast or fresh biscuits!

So, in the baskets today:

FULL SHARES:  Buttercup (green) and Hubbard (orange) winter squash, zucchini, cucumber, tomatillos, Chioggia beets, carrots, a mix of Warba and Sangre potatoes, Hungarian Hot Wax peppers, tomatoes, corn, apples.

PART SHARES:  Buttercup winter squash, cucumber, tomatillos, carrots, mix of Warba and Sangre potatoes, Hungarian Hot Wax peppers, corn, apples, zucchini.

SINGLE SHARES:  Buttercup winter squash, cucumber, tomatillos, carrots, Hungarian Hot Wax peppers, corn, apples, zucchini.

CSA For August 29th!

Everything was a little wet and dirty today!

A stormy start to the day.  Harvesting was delayed until about 11:30 AM, so the boxes are a little small today.  We had to wait until the rain stopped and then gave it a bit more time to dry up a bit.  As it was, everything was still wet and dirty!  Highly recommend any beans that are not being eaten promptly be laid out on a towel or something to dry out.  Beans are a little prone to rust at the best of times and damp beans sitting in plastic bags is a recipe for disaster!  Even though we waited until mid-afternoon, digging carrots was still a mucky chore and potatoes were an impossibility!

Our carrots are finally starting to look like, well, carrots!  The taste is fantastic so carrots should start to be regular in the baskets.  Heavens, were the carrots dirty and mucky when we dug them today; forgive us if a little soil still clings!  Amanda and Ed came up with corn for everybody today: hip hip hooray!  I sure wish our tomatoes would get going!

The summer squash continues to do well!  No, we're not yet leaving them on people's doorsteps and running away but...We've often talked about lovin' the Crookneck coated in cornmeal and Cajun spices and fried.  Here's a DIY recipe for Cajun or blackening spices!  How about using slices of zucchini as the base or crust for mini-pizzas!

Love buffalo chicken?  How about this buffalo chicken stuffed zucchini, with cheddar, bacon and an avocado blue cheese dressing?  Sounds fabulous!  While you're on that link, stay to take a look around the blog Closet Cooking - tons and tons of great ideas!  As a matter of fact, here's his link to 25 great things to do with zucchini!  Also found, on another great blog called Fountain Avenue Kitchen, zucchini pizza casserole - fast and easy!  Here's an interesting link from a blogger who's vegan and gluten-free and 'examining' a paleo-diet.  She making 'rice' of grated zucchini and cauliflower.  Bookmark this one, maybe, because I've heard a rumour Amanda and Ed gave a try to growing cauliflower this year!  Also sounding yummy is this Tunisian Summer Squash Casserole; a little exotic with harissa sauce and chick pea flour but you could substitute your favorite hot sauce and regular flour!  Here's some smart ways to preserve summer squash for the winter season: from butter to relish to making chocolate zucchini bread and freezing it now!

So, in the boxes today:

FULL SHARES:  Cucumbers including, perhaps, Armenian and English, green zucchini, golden zucchini, Patty Pans, Papaya Pear summer squash, carrots, Dragons Tongue beans, corn, radishes, Jalapeno and Hungarian Hot pepper, herbs either oregano or basil.

PART SHARES:  Cucumbers, green zucchini, golden zucchini, Patty Pan, and Papaya Pear summer squash, carrots, corn, radishes, Jalapeno and Hungarian Hot pepper, herbs either basil or dill.

SINGLE SHARES:  Cucumbers, golden zucchini, Patty Pan and Papaya Pear summer squash, carrots, shelling peas (a wee bag), corn, radishes, Jalapeno and Hungarian Hot pepper.

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.

CSA For Tuesday, August 7th!

Free labour! Visiting niece Meg got put to work,
helping us prepare for CSA today! 

Our growing partners Amanda and Ed stepped up to the plate today!  The bad news:  their carrots and beets suck, too.  We've heard it from our garden renters and other vendors at the Global Market; germination was very poor for many people.  Amanda and Ed got absolutely no, zero, zilch germination on their first seeding of carrots and very little on a second seeding of re-purchased seeds.  They've just enough for personal use and nothing to share.  We've gotten some germination - probably enough for just one share for all our families.  What a disappointment!!!  The question is: would you like them in smaller sizes soon or larger sizes later?

However, the good news - Amanda and Ed have grown beautiful cabbage so it's a cabbage fest today!  Here's a link to a slew of links for cabbage salads.  Here's a super simple butter braised cabbage side dish.  Cabbage is awesome in a stir fry - add it in with some summer squash.  Here's an Asian inspired version.  Of course, cabbage soup, cabbage rolls......the heads should stay very nice in the fridge for a couple of weeks!  Amanda and Ed also supplied the lovely burpless cucumbers today!

I'm surprised by the number of people that don't think of eating zucchini raw.  Zucchini sticks used to rule the veggie tray - well, in the '80's perhaps!  Here's a lovely recipe for a raw zucchini salad from food writer Michael Ruhlman.  Here's a neat link to raw spicy zucchini chips - they sound yummy!  How about zucchini carpaccio?  And this raw zucchini pasta with vegan curry cream is one we're going to try really soon!  We like to keep Thai red curry paste in the fridge....should be good in this pasta!  Here's another link with multiple zucchini recipes: the Parmesan encrusted zucchini sticks sound awfully good!

Final pick on the shelling peas - we know that for sure 'cause we were pulling the plants as we went.  They are typical of the last of the seasons' ripening: some little, funny pods with only a couple of peas, but good peas!  There's some great peas, some slightly older and some very young - may as well take them all in the last picking!  Also, today is the first dig of Yukon Gold potatoes, one of our favs!  This is golden skinned, golden fleshed, crisp potato, awesome for fries, great mashed or boiled, good in foil on the BBQ!

Keep in mind please, that we're going to try to keep a few extra goodies on the trading tables...while supplies last.  We know you're getting a lot of summer squash right now, so do feel free to trade.  We're going to try to stock with things that we're not getting a lot of: today we'll have a few bundles of our little beets, and some Swiss chard, as well as extra cucumbers and beans!

So for the FULL SHARES:  2 large cabbage, cucumber, onions, 'Goldrush' zucchini, 'Sun Green' zucchini, a Romanesque squash, 'Papaya Pear' squash, Kousa or Mediterranean squash, 1 lb. yellow beans, 1 lb. 'Dragons Tongue' beans, wee bag shelling peas, 3 lbs. 'Yukon Gold' potatoes.

For the PART SHARES:  2 med. cabbage, cucumber, onions, 'Goldrush' zucchini, 'Sun Green' zucchini, Romanesque squash, 'Papaya Pear, squash, 1 lb. yellow beans, 1/2 lb. 'Dragons' Tongue' beans, 2 lbs. 'Yukon Gold' potatoes.

For the SINGLE SHARES:  2 small cabbage, cucumber, onions, 'Goldrush' zucchini, 'Sun Green' zucchini, Romanesque squash, 'Papaya Pear' squash, 1 lb. yellow beans, 1/2 lb. 'Dragons Tongue' beans, 1.5 lbs. 'Yukon Gold' potatoes.

Things You'll Never See at the Grocery Store!

Our current industrial food system only allows perfect looking food to be for sale in the grocery stores. The growing interest in organic food has started to change perceptions somewhat; early on in the 'movement' growers brought vegetables and food as is - blemishes, bug bits, etc. However, as the organic movement has grown, even those growers are striving harder for blemish-free, flawless looking vegetables and fruit. But, that certainly isn't how Mother Nature always presents it! This year we've gotten some interesting specimens. Due to heavy rains regularly, cucumbers and zucchini have 'blown up' and look more like little bowling pins. And Siamese twins are everywhere in the summer squash: twinned crookneck squash and twinned patty pans. And how about the little 'people' carrots! You never see those in the grocery store! (Face courtesy of Travis)

Summer Squash Primer, Part 1

We love summer squash. And there is soooo much more to the group than just zucchini. Summer squash, by general definition, are the squash with edible skin. They are usually ready mid-summer, earlier then winter squash, and do not store well. On the right, in the picture, is classic zucchini - this is black zucchini with a dark green skin, the most common sold in grocery stores. Next to it is golden zucchini, a variety called Goldrush. The golden zucchinis have a more delicate flavour and texture. In the middle of the photo is Italian Largo, in the Romanesco or Striata group. It has very delicate flesh, with few seeds and a nutty herbal flavour. The last two on the left are from the Middle Eastern or Cousa group. Second from the left is Lolita, and last on the left is Magda. Very distinct nutty flavour, white, firm flesh. All the summer squash are great raw, sauteed, stuffed, roasted, and in soups and stews. We find we use the firmer fleshed varieties like Magda more for soups, stews and stuffing. One of our regulars at the Farmers Markets, Charlotte, used thinly sliced Largo in place of noodles in a vegetarian lasagna. Yummmmmm!!