week 7

Red Springs Family Farm 7/15/14

In one bag: Eggplant New Potatoes

Green Beans Yellow Crookneck Squash

In the other bag: Lettuce Tomatoes Cucumbers

Parsley Basil Garlic

Summer is picking up speed! The nice rain last night will help everything out. Lettuce has been taking a whipping in the heat lately, but everything else is doing great, especially since the weeds are (almost) under control.

Sweet corn is tassling – ears aren't filled out yet, but it all looks good. Paul is putting up the electric fence now since something came in and sampled an ear of field corn already. We'll save as much as possible for you!

The cucumber variety you're getting right now is called Shintokiwa. It's a nice smooth one. We'll have different varieties as the season progresses. Oh, and those stories about cucumbers making your skin nice and taking away wrinkles around your eyes – they're all true. If you don't just eat your cucumber this week – put them on your face.

And a word about our tomatoes.... there are more every week. Some varieties haven't even started ripening yet. You might notice that the tomatoes we send don't look like store bought tomatoes. There are funny shapes and interesting shades of pink, orange, purple and maybe red. Some never lose all their green. If you take the time to notice – their flavors and textures are diverse too. Most vegetables are like that. What makes it to the store is selected in part for its capacity to survive a long trip and rough handling. Since the food we grow rarely travels over 40 miles, every size, shape, color, and flavor is welcome in our garden, and we hope you will enjoy giving them a try in your kitchen, too. The dark orange/purples and pink tomatoes are some of our personal favorites.

Levon and I had fun digging up these new potatoes. When the soil dries up, we'll dig them all and then they will be a regular, or semi-regular, part of a basket. There are some beauties out there, and there's just nothing quite like a fresh potato.

The eggplant are still under attack. Any fruit that touches the ground (which is a lot of them) gets chewed on. There would have been at least twice as many in the harvest this week if there weren't so many chewed up. I don't know how many of you would have appreciated twice as many eggplant, but we're scrambling for some kind of deterrent or trap for the hungry beasties.

As it is, I've been trimming the chew marks off and roasting the eggplant on the grill for Baba Ghanoush. If you don't know what Baba Ghanoush is, I'm sorry. It's wonderful. Here's a hint: if you like Hummous (Middle Eastern chick-pea dip or spread), you will like Baba Ghanoush.

Here's how:

1 large eggplant 1/4 cup tahini, plus more as needed
3 garlic cloves, minced 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, plus more as needed
1 pinch ground cumin salt, to taste

Roast eggplant in the oven or on the grill until it is soft. Peel and then, using a fork or a food processor, mash the flesh with the remaining ingredients. Adjust seasonings to taste, and garnish with feta cheese, chopped parsley, and kalamata olives.

Enjoy your week and your veggies!