week 10

August 6, 2013 week 10

In one bag: Tomatoes             

In another bag:  Sweet Red & Yellow Peppers   Onions       Garlic              Summer Squash        Tomatillos

and finally: Lettuce     New Zealand Spinach    

Sorrel       Basil           Parsley

Maybe: Jalapeño or Serrano Peppers                        Okra

I sure do love a cloudy Tuesday morning with no rain!

The cool weather is just great and the greens are responding to it wonderfully.  Some of our summer regulars are on vacation for a little while.  The green beans gave out early, probably in response to the stress of that 9 inches of rain awhile back.  Eggplant are taking a break, gathering their strength to bloom and fruit again.  But Okra is starting to produce.  Right now I only have enough to give to a few of you at a time, so I’ll alternate weeks.  The green okra is Star of David – it holds tenderness for a long time, is less slimy, but has a slightly prickly exterior, until cooked.  The red is a new variety for us – gorgeous, tho a little more slimy. 

Next week we’ll have sweet corn, and probably some melons.  Carrots and beets are coming soon, too.

Tomatillos are new this week.  They are an excellent addition to a homemade salsa.  We’ve also enjoyed them sautéed with summer squash and sweet peppers.   They are authentic to Central American cuisine.  Have fun with them.

If we don’t get to see you when we drop your basket off, please advise whether you like hot peppers or not.  We have them in GREAT abundance, and the hotter ones will be coming along a little later in the season.

As for all this beautiful basil – if you haven’t already, I recommend you make some pesto.  Pesto is a flavorful paste of basil, garlic, nuts, cheese, and olive oil.  Traditionally, in Italy, they put it on pasta, but it’s great on potatoes, on toast, on grilled or roasted veggies.  It’s good.  It freezes well, too.  Here’s a nice basic recipe for Pesto:

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed              1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil                     1/3 cup pine nuts, walnuts, or Brazil nuts

3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced      Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a food processor, chop the cheese, nuts, and garlic, not too fine, but nicely chopped.  Take them out of the processor, and put in the basil.  Process the basil to a very fine chop, then combine the cheese mixture with the basil and olive oil in another bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste, then toss on pasta and enjoy.  Alternately, pack it into a freezer bag and freeze it for later. 

We hope you enjoy your basket – and have a great week!

week 8

July 23, 2013 week 8

In one bag: Tomatoes Green and Red Peppers

Eggplant Garlic

In the other bag: Lettuce Green Beans Cucumber Summer Squash Chard Green Onions

Parsley Basil Celery

The tomatoes are really starting to roll around here! So many colors, shapes and flavors to enjoy. We grow some real oddballs – we hope you like them as much as we do. The purplish orangey ones are among our favorites, and they often maintain the green color on their shoulders (around the stem). Cut into them and they’re perfectly ripe underneath. Eat up!

When we fixed a mess of beans last week we found the final picking of the Yellow Wax to be a little tough. If that was your experience, we apologize. These green beans are certainly tender.

This week you have white eggplant. They’re called Casper and they’re wonderful. They need to be peeled, and they have excellent texture and flavor – very firm and meaty.

The other white item in your bags this time is another UFO-looking fruit – a patty pan squash. This particular variety is called Benning’s Green Tint and we think the flavor is better than just about any other summer squash. Patty Pans can be used just like you would use any other summer squash – we’ve used them interchangeably with yellow crookneck and zucchini (even in bread and muffins) with wonderful results.

It’s great to be sending some colorful peppers again. A green bell pepper is really just an unripe bell pepper – all peppers mature into some sort of exciting color. Once they mature they don’t keep or ship as well, which may be why they’re so expensive in the grocery. The flavor is beyond the pale and well worth the wait. There are many more to come!

Oh, and basil – the purple basil was getting a little leggy, so I picked just the top sprig off to send. This Purple Ruffles variety is fun to look at, great to smell, and even better to throw into a batch of pesto.

I’m out of time and space to post it right now, but I’ll put up an excellent Indian style greens recipe for that chard – check the blog.

Next week: The beans may slow down a bit – eggplant, too. But the tomatoes will likely increase. We hope to have new potatoes. Our corn is awful late, but it will come along eventually. This is a great season – with a little patience.

Thank you all for eating up our garden – feel free to contact us with questions if needed.

Be well. Paul, Coree, Lulah, and Levon

week 16

Lettuce            Saisai Greens   Pole Beans      Tomatoes         Eggplant         Peppers           Watermelon/Cantaloupe

Summer Squash         Potatoes      Garlic      Okra or Cuke

Herb bag:       Arugula               Basil                  Celery    Chives

"Many organic practices simply make sense, regardless of what overall agricultural system is used. Far from being a quaint throwback to an earlier time, organic agriculture is proving to be a serious contender in modern farming."  - David Suzuki

That was some kind of rain!  About 3 ½ inches fell here all together from the hurricane system.  It was just about the gentlest rain we've seen all season.  The seeds were happy, not drowned.  We were wishing we had more of the fall transplants out in time to catch the rains, but it is simply  not possible to accomplish EVERYTHING.  So, we waited for the soil to dry enough to transplant, and that was Wednesday, and then it rained some more.  Besides that, we've had an anniversary and Paul's birthday to celebrate, so there has been a slight lull in farm busy-ness as usual.  We need a lull sometimes.

In the meantime, I don't think anyone would argue that the weather has changed.  It feels like Fall now.  A few of the sweetgum trees are showing some purple leaves, some red on dogwoods, and even a few yellowing sycamore leaves.  The big rain illuminated for us what was finished in the garden.  Some plants that may have been barely hanging in there before surrendered themselves to full fledged decay in the downpour.  Most of the squash patch went down (we're not supposing many folks will mourn too hard for that one), and several of the cucumbers too, which was a shame.  They weren't too happy to be located by the overgrown herb garden.  Most plants enjoy neighboring with mint and catnip, but we learned the hard way that cucumbers do not.  The last planting is in a different location and perked up noticeably with the rain.  There's still hope for the cucurbits.  The tomatoes are pretty slow today too.  Again, there are still a LOT of green tomatoes out there, so we believe they will be trickling in now, not piling in by truckloads anymore. 

While some of the fruits have slowed, the greens are picking up.  The lettuce drought is finally ending (my, how we have missed that lettuce!), and there will be kale next week!  Saisai daikons are a special Asian radish bred especially for the greens.  We use them like turnip greens or spinach.  One enterprising food blogger has even used her radish greens as a pesto. Pesto is a wonderful substance.  It's a great way to get a dose of garlic and raw greens.  We have not tried it yet, but thought the idea warranted sharing.  It hardly needs saying, but I’ll say it anyway:  WASH YOUR GREENS WELL THIS WEEK.  That was a hard rain Wednesday – there’s grit a’plenty on almost everything.

Speaking of pesto, extra basil is now available by request.  $5 per pound for regulars like yourselves.  We need to know by no later than Wednesday so we can prepare to pick extra early on Thursday morning.  Pack up your freezer and don't miss that fresh basil all winter!

This celery is not like what you buy in a grocery store.  It’s big on flavor, low on water, and has had a rough season.  There aren’t many pieces appropriate for making ants-on-a-log or cutting into salad, but they’re wonderfully flavorful in soups and stews.  We thinned them pretty hard this morning, so we’ll see whether they persist for another cutting down the road.

Here's a solid good greens recipe:

Radish Greens with Miso Sauce (from The Real Dirt on Vegetables)

1 bunch radish or turnip greens or both      1 tablespoon miso paste
1 tablespoon peanut oil                                 Sugar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil                                   2 cups hot cooked rice (or other grain)

1) Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a medium pot. Add the greens and boil for 1 minute.

2) Drain the greens in a colander and run cool water over them to stop the cooking. Let drain again, then gently squeeze out any excess water with your hands. Transfer the greens to a cutting board. Chop finely and set aside.

3) Put the miso paste in a small bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons water; then add a little more water so that the miso is thinned just enough to stir into other ingredients.

4) Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped greens; cook, stirring until they are tender and heated through. Add the thinned miso paste. Add sugar to taste; stir the ingredients until thoroughly combined. Remove from heat; stir in the toasted sesame oil. Serve over rice.

And a straightforward and adaptable stuffed pepper recipe for these great peppers!  I think it could also be used for stuffing patty pan squash.

Stuffed Colored Bell Peppers

A little oil                                            2-3 cloves garlic
2 cups chopped onions                      3 cups raw brown rice
6 cups water, stock or tomato juice  1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 cup chopped tomatoes                   1/2 cup grated hard cheese, such as cheddar
1/2 cup chopped, toasted almonds  1 cup thinly sliced basil leaves: Napolitano or Genovese
Salt and Pepper          18 Pimiento Peppers or 9 Bell Peppers, tops cut off, seeds removed

Heat oil in large skillet; add and saute garlic and onion. Add rice and brown about 5 minutes. Add desired liquid and allspice. Cover and cook until rice is done, about 40 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, cheese, almonds, basil, salt and pepper to taste. Blanch peppers in boiling water one minute (I sometime skip this step.) Stuff peppers with rice mixture. Bake at 350 degrees 30 minutes. Nine servings.

The most hopeful and interesting international news rarely makes the big time presses.  We heard good tidings out of Bhutan this week.  The small Himalayan nation (population 700,000) has set a goal for its agricultural practices to be 100% organic by 2020.  This is the same country that measures its welfare by GNH (Gross National Happiness) rather than GNP.  Granted, no place is perfect, Bhutan included, and we have some very different logistics to consider in the USA, but it still seems to me that we can always learn something by paying attention to our neighbors, near and far, about different ways to carry on governance.  

That's about all the politic-ing we can stand!

Eat well and be well. 

Thanks for sharing the harvest.                                                                       

Your Gardeners, The Entwistles

week 9

corn and squash sisters

Lettuce Onions Garlic

Carrots Summer Squash Tomatoes

Green and Wax Beans Cucumber Eggplant

Parsley Sorrel Dill Basil

“You cannot lose your land and remain free; if you keep your land, you cannot be enslaved.”

~Wendell Berry's “A Few Words in Favor of Edward Abbey”

And after the rain, came the MONSOON! Low growing herbs are muddy – our apologies. It was a great rain, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The garden didn't puddle at all, but the playground and drive way did, and Lulah took her bicycle “mudding” through every bit of standing water she could find, sporting spattered soil with absolute glee. Now as we watch the corn tassle, and the vegetables and weeds sprout and grow, we are coming to accept that there are certain portions of the garden that will need a weed-eater, not a hoe, to tame.

Last week's light thinning of the eggplant, plus rain, paid dividends in their size and quality this week. Enjoy. The tomatoes even held up well. We were anticipating a field full of exploding red water balloons, and have been pleasantly surprised to find well mannered and beautiful ripe tomatoes instead. (“It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.” ~Lewis Grizzard ) Cantaloupes are coming along beautifully too – not quite ready, but it won't be long now. We're still hotter than seems reasonable during our time spent up on the hill garden. I don't understand exactly how it works, but 95 degrees with 75% humidity feels about the same at 110 degrees at 15% humidity. The main difference is that the plants are no long suffering in the soil, and THAT makes a big difference in farmer morale.

Did anyone try the drop biscuit recipe last week? We did and it was GOOD. We grew a lot of onions this year. The wet weather is proving a challenge to our ability to harvest, cure and store them all, so we're going to hand them out heavily for awhile here.

We love interesting cucumbers. This year we trialed a new one, Shintokiwa, which sounded so promising. It's a lovely cuke, but doesn't hold a candle to our favorite Suhyo long, which will hopefully be along after awhile. The white orb-shaped ones are called Dragon's Egg. They are an heirloom. We've saved the seed for a couple years now and enjoy their crisp white flesh and tender skin. Marketmores are the market standard cucumber – but we think of phasing them out of our production plan, given that there are so many better tasting cukes available.

The rain seems to have knocked back the Japanese beetle population, which means that our basil is finally over its bad hair phase – the leaves are looking lush and not so raggedy now. If it's difficult to think anything unpleasant while eating tomatoes, it's nearly impossible to think anything but good while PICKING basil – oh divine scent!

Food blogs are one of my favorite uses of the internet. I've leaned on them for this week's recipe selection. It's amazing what's out there. Enjoy...

Fresh and Savory Tomato Pie

9 inch pastry crust                                                   teaspoon kosher or sea salt

teaspoon freshly ground black pepper               2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

2 tablespoons finely shredded fresh basil leaves

4 ripe tomatoes, cut in half and sliced                2 cups yellow tomatoes, cut and sliced

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar                                     1 cup fine bread crumbs

1 cup coarsely grated fresh mozzarella or white cheddar

1 cup coarsely grated Parmesan

1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place all of the tomatoes in a medium sized bowl.

2) Add the salt, pepper, garlic, balsamic and basil. Lightly toss and let sit for 10 minutes.

3) Line 9 inch pie pan with pie crust.

4) Prick the crust all over with a fork and bake until lightly browned (8-10 minutes; check frequently after 8 minutes so it does not brown too much). Remove the crust from the oven.

5) Mix the bread crumbs with the cheeses. Layer half of the combination on top of the pre-cooked crust. Gently layer the tomato mixture into the pastry shell. Finish with the remainder of the bread crumbs and cheeses.

6) Bake until warmed through, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Let cool slightly; serve warm.

And: Easy Stir Fried Eggplant Recipe

1/2 cooking onion                                         6 cloves garlic, minced

1-3 red chillies (including seeds), depending on how spicy you like it

1 Chinese (large, with dark purple skin) eggplant, or 2 Japanese(thinner, with light purple skin)

1/4 cup water for stir-frying                      2-3 Tbsp. oil for stir-frying

roughly 1/2 cup (or more) fresh basil      2 Tbsp. soy sauce

SAUCE:

1 Tbsp. fish sauce OR 1+1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce (these are salty sauces – use less and adjust to taste)

2 Tbsp. oyster sauce OR vegetarian oyster sauce                           1 tsp. brown sugar

1 tsp. cornstarch mixed with 2 Tbsp. water (mix until cornstarch is dissolved) (or arrowroot)

1 - First, prepare sauce by mixing together all sauce ingredients except cornstarch. Prepare the cornstarch and water mixture in a separate cup or bowl. Set both aside.

2 - Chop the eggplant up into bite-size pieces (leave the peel on if using long skinny eggplant)

3 - Place 2-3 Tbsp. oil to a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, half of the garlic, chilli, and eggplant.

4 - Stir-fry for 5 minutes. When the wok or frying pan becomes dry, add a little of the water (a few Tbsp. at a time) - enough to keep the ingredients frying nicely.

5 - Add 2 Tbsp. soy sauce and continue cooking for 5 more minutes, or until the eggplant is soft and the white flesh is almost translucent. Add a little more water when the pan becomes too dry (up to 1/4 cup).

6 - When the eggplant is soft, add the rest of the garlic plus the sauce. Stir fry to incorporate.

7 - Lastly, add the cornstarch/water mixture. Stir well so that the sauce thickens uniformly (this will only take a minute or less). Remove from heat.

Taste test the eggplant for salt. If not salty enough, add a little more fish sauce. If too salty, add 1 Tbsp. lime juice (or substitute 1 Tbsp. lemon juice). Now add 3/4 of the fresh basil, stirring briefly to incorporate. Slide onto a serving platter and sprinkle the rest of the basil over top. Serve with jasmine rice. Enjoy!

Yours truly, The Entwistles