CSA Newsletter - August 8, 2020

Our view from the packing area

WHAT'S IN YOUR SHARE:

CARROTS

We made carrot juice this week - yum!

CURLY KALE

Ready for bunching

PAK CHOI - NEW!

Stir-fry tonight?

ROMANO BEANS - NEW

Romano beans - big, squashed-looking, and delicious!

ZUCCHINI/SUMMERSQUASH

It takes a long time for us to dip all the ends in green beeswax!

ONION

Remember all that weeding the crew did?

POTATOES- Purple!

Purple inside and out

CABBAGE 

The humble cabbage - so versatile and a good keeper!

GARLIC 

 

ARUGULA 

First picking of new patch - young and tender leaves.

BONUS - HEIRLOOM TOMATO!

STORAGE TIPS:

Rinse, drain and place in plastic or veggie-keeper bag for most. Garlic and onions, although not cured, can stay out of the fridge for a few days; refrigerate for longer storage. 

WHAT'S COOKING:  Romano Beans! If new to you, be assured that Christina Chaey, writing for Bon Appetit, crowns Romanos the "...Queen of Snap Beans," and goes on to add that "these beans should have their own show and it should be called “Everybody Loves Romanos”! So what to do with these celebrated beans? Ms. Chaey offers a number of recipe suggestions in her article, but we also like her general suggestions that  "...they taste best when they’re cooked, whether quickly blanched for crudités, charred on the grill and dressed with lemon juice and olive oil, or slow-braised in a tasty broth so they plump up and soak up all that flavor." Say, you can use your homemade soup stock for braising! :-)

Looking for something new to try with zucchini (and its cousin summer squash)? From the PFC comes this recipe for Grilled Marinated Zucchini, where they suggest that "a simple lemon marinade adds big flavor to mild zucchini". We especially like the option to take the grilled zucchini, cut in chunks, and add tomato, feta, and couscous for a tasty mediterranean salad.

CSA member Sylvia sent this recipe for Zucchini Butter with Herbs and although she hasn't tried it, the recipe's Comments section was full of rave reviews. A tasty way to use up some extra zucchini!

NOTES FROM THE FARM - WEEDS!

From Adrian Higgins, Home & Garden writer for the Washington Post:

If you had to define the purpose of gardening, the answer might be that it is the act of crafting beauty from nature.

That would be the poetic response. At its base, gardening is about holding back the immense, ravaging forces of weeds. A garden is, metaphorically, a quivering bunny rabbit surrounded by snarling wolves.

This sounds like hyperbole. It is not.

In the Mid-Atlantic, and surely in many other regions of the country, the weed pressure is unrelenting in every month of the year. In the heat and humidity of summer, the pace is supersonic.

Well, it sounds like Mr. Higgins has been weeding a lot - or maybe too much :-)! But here's another expert chiming in  - from Timothy Tilghman, the head gardener at Untermyer Park and Gardens in Yonkers, N.Y., a 43-acre former estate on the Hudson.

“If you can’t enjoy weeding, you won’t be a happy gardener,” said Mr. Tilghman, citing its importance to a garden’s health and visuals. “Everyone enjoys the neatness of a fresh planting, but unless you’re willing and eager to get in there and weed …”

So where does the Frog Holler crew fall between these two weeding attitudes? Holding back ravaging forces, or hoping to create order? They haven't published any articles about weeding to our knowledge so we will say they are willing, if not eager - determined, if not combative - and very good-natured as they go about the seemingly endless nose-to-the-ground, hands-in-the-dirt task of making space for our chosen plants to grow.

We realized that if you met any of our crew on the street, you might not recognize them, as most of our photos show them weeding away with their heads down. This week's cases in point:

Cleaning up the next beet patch

Liberating the tiny carrots (can you see them?) from too many weeds. This patch almost got away from us! 

We asked the crew to look up for this shot. These are the onions in early spring.

Neighbor and retired dentist Steve who grew up farming and missed weeding! He volunteers regularly and led the charge into the onion patch this spring (and into the carrot patch this week)!

More heads down as the crew plucks the results of their weeding labors from the onion patch this week.

Onions curing in the pole barn along with their garlic neighbors. Harvest complete!

And we don't think all weeds are bad; as some of you know, we offer fresh-picked medicinal herbs (aka weeds) on our produce ordering site, thanks to the interests and efforts of crew member Milan. And we are grateful that we live on a diverse piece of land that is chock full of wild plants, woody plants, pollinator plants all living together in a happy weedy jumble. We just ask for a few acres of admittedly unnatural rows and appreciate the efforts of the crew to maintain a little order!

Well they can't weed me from the garden!

Have a great week everyone!