REMINDER: There are no Farm Shares (or Bread Shares) next week (Monday Aug 28 – Sept 2). BUT we are still here, the plants are still growing, and we are still harvesting food! So, our self-serve farmstand will be open, we are still selling through the online farmers markets ( FallLineFarms.com and Local Roots Food Coop), and we will still be at the Saturday markets ( the Brandermill Green Market & the Farmer’s Market @ St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the West End of Richmond.)
We are feeling reflective this week, in light of the recent solar eclipse. (Pardon the pun.)
{Dan’s face is expressing his anxiousness while trying to keep our younger kids from going blind.}
Some of us here were surprised at how light it still was outside while only a small sliver of the sun was shining down on us. There was only 10% of the sun showing but it felt way more than 10% light outside. We heard from friends who were fortunate enough to travel to The Zone of Totality and they said indeed – it was only really dark during the 2 minutes in which the moon was smack dab between them and the sun. As soon as a sliver of the sun was revealed again, it was quite bright outside.
This got us thinking…how amazing it is that such a small sliver of something can make such a big difference. Dark versus light. Small but mighty.
We have a special place in our hearts for small slivers of things. We are a small farm. A really small farm. From the perspective of the USDA or even our nation’s major food system, we are insignificant.
But…we like to think that we make a big impact in the lives of the 200 or so families that get our food every week through our CSA and the farmers’ markets. To borrow someone else’s words: Our farm’s job isn’t to feed the world. It is to grow the best food possible for about 200 local families. We’re a tiny sliver. With a big, tasty impact.
Thanks for eating what we grow.
~ * ~ * ~ REMINDER: There are no Farm Shares (or Bread Shares) next week (Monday Aug 28 – Sept 2). BUT we are still here, the plants are still growing, and we are still harvesting food! So, our self-serve farmstand will be open, we are still selling through the online farmers markets ( FallLineFarms.com and Local Roots Food Coop), and we will still be at the Saturday markets ( the Brandermill Green Market & the Farmer’s Market @ St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the West End of Richmond.)
Saturday’s Farm Share will most likely include:
Lettuce, Large Sweet Peppers (orange and red), Snack-Size Sweet Peppers (orange and red), Slicing Tomatoes, Onions, Green Beans (some of which are actually yellow), and Shishito Peppers if you would like them.
Sweet Peppers – Add slices of our sweet peppers to Sweet and Spicy Peanut Noodles or make Cold Peanut Noodles with Tofu and Red Pepper (or substitute your protein of choice). Plus, please remember to layer these on sandwiches (great with our lettuce and tomatoes!) and dice them up with tomatoes, garlic, sea salt, and olive oil. Serve this on top of any green salad or as a cool side dish. Also, our stand by favorites: We slice them on top of every green salad, we stuff them like so many of these Stuffed Sweet Pepper recipes. We Roast Peppers with Garlic. We dice them and toss them with diced tomatoes, minced garlic, olive oil, and sea salt, which we serve on top of green salads, in omelets and scrambled eggs, in frittata, and as a crisp side dish. And if you really can’t eat the peppers now, you can Roast and Freeze Sweet Peppers. (Our family eats quarts and quarts of sweet peppers each week.)
Lettuce – Easy Caesar Salad because it is really wonderful with our crunchy lettuce. (And – we’d like to celebrate because we haven’t had a Farm Share this season without lettuce/salad greens! In the past we have missed a week or two because greens don’t prefer the summer heat. But we made it through the challenging part of the season with 100% salad greens representation! Your next share is in September, and then it’s greens in their prime.)
Green Beans – We have planted hundreds and hundreds of bean plants this season…and harvested a pitiful few beans until last week. We are finally harvesting good quantities. More shares will get beans this week if there are enough during harvest Tuesday morning.
One variety we are harvesting now is a “fancy” style, thin bean that is actually yellow. We prefer its flavor over regular green beans. Another variety is called Dragon’s Tongue – it has purple streaks. See photos below.
Ours are so yummy raw as a snack that we rarely eat them cooked. When we cook them we saute them lightly in a fry pan with sesame oil, grated fresh ginger, and a splash of organic soy sauce/Bragg’s liquid aminos. We like them still crunchy so we don’t cook them very long – just a little.
Shishito Peppers – They are quite unremarkable if eaten raw. They are meant to be cooked, and cooked whole. Don’t cut them! Saute in a pan or cook on a grill with salt and oil until they darken/soften/blister. They should not be spicy. We haven’t encountered a spicy one, but some people say they find a spicy one from time to time. They are flavorful! Eat them whole, biting all the way up to the stem. Enjoy them as a side dish or as a topping on something, like a hot dog or tofu. See Epicurious’ Sauteed Shishito recipe. Here’s a Collection of Shishito recipes.
This week’s harvest (and baking) includes:
Cilantro, Chard, Fairy Tale Eggplant, Beatrice (Italian) Eggplant, Garlic, Lettuce, Okra, Onions, Shishito Peppers, Sweet Orange & Red Peppers, Salad Mix, Spearmint, Summer Squash, Tomatoes (slicers and just a few cherries)…and our Organic Hearth Baked Bread (Baguettes, Roasted Pepper and Onion, Whole Rye, Seed, & Raisin loaves for this weekend)
{Our farmstand is open Thurs & Friday with most of the above items…see here for updated inventory}
2017 Market Share CSA Members: Reserve your selection online to pick up Saturday, Aug 26th at our farm, at the Brandermill Green Market, or at the Farmers Market @ St. Stephens.
Anything remaining after CSA shares are distributed and our farm stand is shopped… we’ll bring to the Brandermill Green Market or the Farmer’s Market @ St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the West End of Richmond. Keep an eye on what we have available via the online farmers’ markets: FallLineFarms.com and Local Roots Food Coop.
Enjoy ~
Janet, Dan, & the whole Broadfork crew
Want to follow along during the week, including Farm Stand updates? Visit us on Facebook or Instagram
