First off, CSA business: Yes, there are Farm Shares this Saturday. In past years, we have had the whole Farm Share CSA — all members — on hold the week leading up to Labor Day. (Plus each member chose a week to not get vegetables for a total of two weeks off for the season.) But that led to having a large amount of vegetables go to waste that week each year. We have to harvest to keep the plants producing, yet there was not a home for all of the produce we harvested! (We pick and pack 100 Farm Shares each week. We also sell through 3 farmers’ markets and a few grocery stores, but those other outlets can’t use that much more produce.) So, this year members choose BOTH WEEKS that they want off from vegetables for the season. These weeks can be at any point in the season, which ends the last week in November. Thank you to those members who have already scheduled their two weeks off. If you haven’t yet scheduled yours, please do so here: http://broadforkfarm.csasignup.com/login Log in and then click on “Schedule Vacations” from the menu on the left. {If you schedule a third week off, then you can select a “Double Box week” to make up for that third week of no veggies.}
CSA SOCIAL – Save the date!
Join us on Sunday, October 21 for our annual CSA Social from 2-5 pm. It’s a fun and delicious time on the farm! Take this chance to be where your food (and flowers) have been growing this year, walk around our fields and see the plants, check out our wood-fired bread oven, and ask us any questions you’d like about farming or food. We’ll have crafts for the kids, snacks and beverages for all, and you are invited to bring a potluck dish to share if you’d like. We’ll send out an evite or Facebook event in a couple of weeks to allow you to RSVP. We look forward to having you here!
Now on to usual business…
Saturday’s Farm Share will likely include:
Salad greens, Hearty Greens Mix, Sweet Peppers, Tomatoes, Garlic, Okra if you’d like it, Shishito Peppers, Green Beans, Mint.
On the horizon: Carrots, Beets and more!
This week is one of our favorites on the farm…because it’s the week that September starts! We love September. It means the heat and its associated challenges are mostly behind us.
{carrot seedlings…they are still dodging our efforts a bit…}
These peppers, above, are such a huge part of our summer. We love them. So much. Every day. Better than tomatoes! Here’s a family dinner we made last weekend with a bunch of our veggies on top of noodles made from sweet potatoes. THIS is why we tolerate the heat and humidity of the summer! Sitting down to a meal like this (with a fan blowing on us and cooling away the day’s heat) makes it worth it. Here’s wishing you such satisfaction this next week!
Vegetable Notes & Recipe Suggestions…also cataloged on our Recipe Page and see our Pinterest Page
Shishito Peppers – If you’ve been on vacation recently and don’t know these yet… These are frying peppers and their flavor really comes out when you cook them whole – stem and all! – in a pan with your favorite oil (or broth if you don’t eat oil) and a touch of salt. Cook them this way until they blister, soften, and darken, and then enjoy their flavor. We hold the stem and bite up to the stem. They aren’t spicy – just wonderfully flavorful. See here for Blistered Shishito Peppers or Shishito Peppers with Soy Ginger Sauce or Blistered Shishitos with Smoky Paprika Aioli You’ll want them to look like the picture below, once cooked. Our family decided this week that Shishitos are made for Aioli!
{photo from Epicurious}
Sweet Peppers (large and Snack Size) – These peppers have more Vitamin C than oranges! What a fun and healthy fact. We eat many pounds per week as salad toppings, but they are also great in mixed grain and protein salads. Try this Quinoa Salad recipe, or Wheat Berry Salad with Roasted Fennel and Bell Pepper. (No Fennel is ready here yet, but it is planted and growing for fall harvest.) Check out this Zesty Mini Pepper Salad. And this versatile Summer Pepper Salad.
Green Beans – We really, really love Ginger Garlic Green Beans with Sesame Seeds and rarely prepare them any other way. So maybe we don’t have many suggestions for these!
Okra – Stir-Fried Okra with Shallots, Chile, & Ginger hits the spot. (We sub onions for the shallots.) Or Fresh Okra with Tomatoes & Ginger. Or Spicy Roasted Okra with Peanut Sauce. We made this Peanut Sauce with optional spiciness on the side so that our kids would enjoy them. It’s really great with Okra.
Tomatoes – Our Roma tomatoes are excellent when you don’t want so much juice, such as in Salsa or on Pizza. Each pick up site will be getting these tomatoes in rotation with other types. Cherry tomatoes are also now in rotation between the pick up sites, and if you haven’t yet made Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, you really should. They taste like Tomato candy…which should be a thing. We recently made this Super Simple Tomato and Garlic Sauce twice because it was so good. It’s just Garlic, Oil, Salt, and Tomatoes, but it’s delicious. It’s caramel-y and garlickly and extra yummy. We served it over pasta once, and alongside a chunk of protein once, and beside cheese-stuffed roasted peppers both times. The second time we made it, we added in some diced Mint and loved the extra touch.
Hearty Greens Mix – Think of this like Kale or Spinach. It’s great raw or cooked. Enjoy Hearty Greens with Lemon Garlic Vinaigrette or see these instructions (not really a recipe) for Stir-Frying Any Greens (with Bacon…but you can omit that).
Mint – We diced up Mint and sprinkled it on top of some our cream-cheese stuffed peppers this weekend and were surprised that it was delightful! The next night we made cream-cheese stuffed peppers again and put Mint on all of them because we loved it so much. We also added it to our Tomato Sauce, as described above. You can also add it on top of a green salad, or make Mint Sun Tea (but we don’t add honey). (Add dried Hibiscus Flowers to make it pink, if you want!)
Our harvest for Saturday’s farmers’ markets will include:
Green Beans, Rainbow Chard, Cucumbers keep plugging along in small amounts, Italian Eggplant (Beatrice), Flower Bouquets, Garlic, Lettuce, Okra, the very last Onions, Sweet Peppers (bullhorn shape and bell shape and snack size), Shishito Peppers, Summer Squash, Tomatoes, the last few Watermelon…and our Organic Hearth Baked Bread (Roasted Pepper & Onion, Whole Rye, Raisin, & Seed loaves for this weekend).
{Our farmstand is open Thurs & Friday with most of the above items…see here for updated inventory}
Anything remaining after CSA shares are distributed and our farm stand is shopped (plus the bread we bake Saturday morning)… we’ll bring on Saturday 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.
~Market Share CSA member? You’re likely looking for this link here.
Enjoy ~
Janet, Dan, & the whole Broadfork crew
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