week 22

Lettuce Green Peppers Zucchini
Sweet and White Potatoes Garlic Green Beans
Big Bok Choy Tomato Red Turnips Butternut
herb bag: Basil Parsley Arugula Nasturtium Chives

Branden sez ~ This is a good basket if you like FOOD.
Speaking of Branden - this is Branden's last week with us. He'll be leaving next Thursday to begin his hike down the Appalatian Trail toward his home in Georgia. We wish him all goodness in his future travels and thank him from the bottom of our hearts for his dedication and hard work this summer. Branden has logged countless hours in the gardens this year, played tirelessly with Lulah and Levon, and kept things going and growing during the weeks of our spinal emergencies. Think of Branden with gratitude.

The frost is coming. The wind has picked up and the clouds are moving out. It will be cold tonight. We spent yesterday scurrying to harvest everything that wouldn't make it. Eight bushels of beautiful green peppers came down the hill. We picked a lot of beans, but covered the row with a couple layers of remay with the hopes of pulling them through for one more picking. Tomatoes and basil we're letting go. All the greens will be OK, in fact, we look forward to the sweetness of Fall brassicas after a frost.

We did pull all the Nasturtiums, and you've got a nice handfull of leaves in your herb bag. Spanish conquistadors brought Nasturtiums back from South America in the 1500s. They spread across the Old World, and were no doubt brought back to the NewWorld too. We've not given you enough leaves to make this recipe, but you could use basil, arugula, AND nasturtiums to make a very intensely flavored green spread.

Nasturtium Pesto
Into a food processor or blender, put the following ingredients:
4 cups packed nasturtium leaves 3 to 5 cloves of garlic 1 and 1/2 cups olive oil
2 drops Tabasco sauce 1 cup walnuts Process the mixture until smooth.

Green Peppers – store them in a paper bag in your crisper, and chop up and freeze what you can't use right away. No blanching necessary! Here's a fun way to use some peppers...

Bell Pepper Egg-in-a-Hole
2 teaspoons olive oil 1 bell pepper (any color), cut into 1/2-inch-thick rings
Large eggs Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 teaspoons grated Parmesan 4 slices multigrain bread, toasted
8 cups mixed salad greens
In a large cast-iron or nonstick skillet, heat 1 teaspoon oil over medium-high. Add bell pepper, then crack 1 egg into the middle of each pepper ring. Season with salt and pepper and cook until egg whites are mostly set but yolks are still runny, 2 to 3 minutes. Gently flip and cook 1 minute more for over easy. Sprinkle with Parmesan and place each egg on a slice of toast. Toss salad greens with 1 teaspoon oil and season with salt and pepper; serve alongside eggs.
Aren't the turnips and bok choy grand? We're so glad to be able to share them.

One of our favorite ways to enjoy turnips is brined. Here's how:

Pickled Turnips
Dissolve 2 to 3 Tablespoons salt (preferably sea salt) in a quart of filtered water.
Trim and wash the turnip bulbs. Slice them to your preferred thickness. We generally cut the bulbs in half lengthwise before slicing them into half moons. Fill a mason jar (quart or pint) with the sliced turnips and pour the brine over them. Cover loosely and leave on a shady counter for a few days to ferment. If you use a screw top lid on the jar, be sure to 'burp' it at least once a day to release the gases that build up. Notice the beautiful deep reddish color the turnips turn. After a few days, store the jar in the fridge and enjoy. We like to eat these with hummus, tabbouli, and other middle eastern dishes. They will last almost indefinitely in a cool dark place. We're still enjoying the turnips we put up to ferment last Fall!

Kale and Bok Choy Slaw with Spicy Sesame Ginger Dressing
(from Raw Food Revolution – a good complement to any Asian inspired meal)
Spicy Sesame Ginger Dressing
¼ cup tahini 1 Tbsp water 1 Tbsp light miso
1 Tbsp lemon juice 1 Tbsp agave or honey 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp onion powder ¼ tsp powdered mustard ¼ tsp salt
1 crushed clove garlic pinch of cayenne
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until well blended.

Salad
2 cups kale leaves, firmly packed, cut into thin ribbons
1 ¾ cups thinly sliced bok choy, packed 1 tomato, finely diced
1 apple, finely diced ½ cup mung bean or lentil sprouts
1 ½ Tbsp finely diced red onion
Place kale in a large bowl and massage it well for a few minutes to soften. The kale should take ona cooked appearance and reduce dramatically in volume. Add the remaining salad ingredients to the kale. Then add the dressing and toss well. Kale and Bok Choy Slaw is best served within 3 hours, but it can also be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. The slaw will release some liquid when stored but it will still taste good.

The abundance of this week's basket serves as a reminder of what this whole garden-share thing is about. Your commitment, to pick up baskets of whatever size and selection we have, serves us all. We believe that the current large scale commodified agriculture system is a blip on the screen of history, and we hope that we can be part of the way through into a healthier future.

We hope you'll all stay warm and enjoy this shift in the weather.

See you next week!

Paul, Coree, Lulah, and Levon

“Tools were made, and born were hands,
Every farmer understands.”
~William Blake