Hi everyone! We can't believe that we are officially half way through our season. Say hi to Rory, who was prepping onions for the markets this week! Rory's last day with us will be next Thursday, as she heads back to UConn for the fall semester. She's been a huge asset at the wash station this season.
We hope you enjoyed the Week of Choice, for those of you who opted to receive a voucher. This week we're including some more choice, as all of our members who pick up their share will be able to pick out a pint of your choice: shishitos, cherry/grape tomatoes, or husk cherries. What will it be?! (Delivery members will all receive shishito peppers this week for consistency.) Be sure to check out the Library of Resources for recipes, depending on which you choose.
This week, everyone will be receiving potatoes. We tend to dig up the first of our potatoes in August and then save the majority of our haul for the fall Extended Season portion of the program. However, we thought it would be fun to include something a little different this week. You may be receiving white or red potatoes in your share, depending on availability. Leave the dirt on your potatoes, since it acts as a natural preserving agent.
This week, everyone is also receiving green peppers in your share. We grow ten rows of bell peppers, and we only harvest two of the rows for green peppers. The rest we leave on the plant to turn colors. All of our peppers start out green and then turn orange or red (and all colored peppers in general start green and then turn colors depending on the variety!) The only exception to this is our purple peppers, which start out a pale yellow and turn purple. The flavor profile on these is similar to a green pepper.
Our peppers in those other rows are just starting to turn colors.
Hey, Ethan! This week we have another planting of cabbage ready for harvest. We're also looking ahead to melons, summer radicchio, and romaine, which will all be ready soon. This month, production of eggplant, tomatoes, and colored peppers will all pick up. Enjoy!
In Your Share (In approximate order from shortest to longest shelf life)
Small:
1 lb. of tomatoes
1 lb. of green peppers
1 pint of your choice - shishito peppers, grape tomatoes, or husk cherries
1/2 lb. of beans
1 head of cabbage
1 lb. of potatoes
Large:
1 lb. of tomatoes
1 lb. of green peppers
1 pint of your choice - shishito peppers, grape tomatoes, or husk cherries
1 lb. of beans
1 lb. of cucumbers
1 lb. of zucchini
1 head of cabbage
2 lbs. of potatoes
Caring For Your Share:
Keep tomatoes out on the counter and out of direct sunlight, where they will get plenty of air flow. Do not put them in the fridge; it will dry out the tomatoes and change their consistency. Tomatoes continue to ripen after harvested, so use within a few days. To ripen a tomato quickly, put it in a paper bag in a dark place, like a cabinet. Do the same for grape tomatoes and husk cherries, if you get them this week.
Store peppers in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of your fridge. Set the crisper drawer to low humidity to allow some of the ethylene gas that results from decomposition to escape. Ethylene gas will cause the peppers to rot sooner. Do the same for shishito peppers, if you get them this week.
Store beans in a plastic bag in the fridge. Wash and blot dry when ready to use.
Store your cucumbers and zucchini in the crisper drawer in the refrigerator.
Leave the outer leaves on and store the head of cabbage in the fridge. The outer leaves will keep moisture in the head and prevent it from drying out.
Store potatoes in a mesh bag in a cool, dark place such as a cabinet or pantry, and ensure that they get plenty of air flow. Do not wash until ready to use, but wipe away dense soil, if any. Keep away from onions.
LGF Cooking Club (The Library of Resources is filled with TONS of ideas about all of these veggies)
Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers https://momsdish.com/philly-cheesesteak-stuffed-peppers
Chicken Fajita Stuffed Peppers https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/chicken-stuffed-peppers/
One Pan Cabbage and Potato Skillet https://www.erinliveswhole.com/one-pan-cabbage-and-potato-skillet/
Bell Pepper and Potato Frittata
Overnight Pickled Green Beans https://www.womansday.com/food-recipes/food-drinks/recipes/a55331/overnight-pickled-green-beans-recipe/
Fried Green Beans https://lilluna.com/fried-green-beans/
Green Beans with Peanut Sauce https://rasamalaysia.com/green-beans-peanut-sauce/
Green Pepper Tomato Salad https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/green-pepper-tomato-salad/
Zucchini and Fresh Tomato Pizza with Fontina https://www.food.com/recipe/zucchini-and-fresh-tomato-pizza-with-fontina-95528
Biweekly Catch-Up:
Welcome to the 2021 Week of Choice for those of you who opted in (the deadline was July 24th)! Here's how it will work:
On your regularly scheduled pickup day, you'll come into the store. We'll confirm the amount of money you have to spend (there will be no physical voucher):
Small pickups: $17
Large pickups: $26
Small deliveries: $24
Large deliveries: $33
You'll shop in the store to pick out vegetables totaling that amount. When you go to check out, we'll deduct the value of your share from your total. If your total is slightly over your "voucher" amount, (less than $1.00) we won't require you to pay the difference. If you'd like to add on additional vegetables, or any non-vegetable items, we'll check your items out through our system and you can pay the difference by cash or credit card. We'll help you fulfill the full value of your voucher this week, and it will be good for this week only (no roll-overs). Feel free to use the scale and scrap paper in the veggie room of our store to help you budget your items before you check out, if you'd like!
Unfortunately, if you are skipping your share for this week and doubling for the following week, there will be no voucher beyond this week. Thanks for your understanding; it would be very hard to keep track of going forward.
If you're receiving a box this week, your pickup process will be as normal.
Don't forget to post what you're cooking in the Facebook group so we can see how everyone's week will differ! This should be a lot of fun regardless of whether you chose a box or voucher since there will be some new offerings this week!
Onion harvesting is now upon us! This year we doubled our production (thanks, in part, to many of our members who came out in April!) This past week we worked our way through the 5 rows of the first planting, and this coming week the crew will finish it up.
Here's our neighbor Frannie, who helps out A LOT on the farm.
We pulled the onions out of the ground and laid them out on trays. We hauled the trays home from Booth Hill.
The incredible thing is that all you have to do to dry out onions is to leave them in direct sunlight for about 3 days and then they're ready for storage as dried onions. They won't last quite as long as the commercially-produced onions you might get in the store, but they'll last for months anyway. Here they are, sharing space in the greenhouse with the tomatoes. The bad thing is that because we've been getting rain, they also need to be sheltered, so we don't have as much space as we'd like for this.
While I was up at Booth Hill harvesting onions, I took a peek at the melons. Looking good!
This week we're finally bringing in some field tomatoes in addition to our greenhouse tomatoes. Our greenhouse tomatoes are yielding like crazy now! Randy's strategy for getting a nice big push for field tomatoes is to grow a "determinate" variety, which means the fruit ripens all at once. He also grows "indeterminate" varieties, which ripen a little at a time to keep the harvest going in the weeks (and months!) to come. Here are our greenhouse tomatoes.
Sun golds (yellow cherry tomatoes) and grape tomato plants are ready, too. We're getting a steady supply of those this week!
The planting marathon continues. Last week the crew planted another succession planting of cucumbers, squash, and zucchini to take us into the fall. And we said goodbye to the garlic patch as Randy plowed it under and seeded beets for the fall. We plant until September 15th!
