In the share this week:
1 bag carrots
1 lb green beans
1 medium garlic
1 bunch green onions
Sweet italian peppers
Jalapenos (pictured below)
1 head lettuce
Thoughts from Farmer Anna:
We enjoyed the lighter load during the break last week, and used the time to get a lot of fall things planted! Happily we finally got some more rain on Friday, so those new planting have been watered in a bit and the humans and plants are all enjoying the milder weather we're having to start this week. We are weeding the fall carrot planting and getting a few more things planted before the heat returns this weekend.
It's definitely pepper time here on the farm! There are lots of sweet peppers ripening up, so we are giving double the amount of sweet italian peppers this week. I really love the flavor of these peppers - they are so much sweeter and tastier than a typical bell pepper. We are always chopping them into strips and sauteeing with onions for burrito and taco toppings. I've also been a big fan of slicing them thin and adding them to the ramen noodle soup we've been making nearly once a week around here lately. And when I needed a snack at the market on Wednesday, I just ate one whole (working around the smallish seed cavity :) They are really so versatile that you probably don't need any special ideas or recipes, but if you are feeling like putting the effort in, you could do something like this stuffed pepper recipe below:
The jalapenos are also on strong enough that we have a pint (6 or 7) in your shares this week. An excellent way to preserve jalapenos is to pickle them with garlic. We'll put the pickled jalapenos on nachos, atop a cracker with cheese, or on a sandwich or taco. You could adjust this recipe slightly since it calls for 10 jalapenos (although ours are honestly fairly large, so it may end up being pretty similar).
The carrots continue to be really nice, but their greens are getting week, so we'll be packing them into bags for you this week. We have another bed we haven't even gotten into yet, so expect more carrots again next week! These are another great ingredient in our ramen soups - I like to grate them so they cook super fast. And we're enjoying them raw dipped in hummus or ranch. There is no need to peel these carrots before chopping and eating. They have a very thin 'skin' and we just never find it necessary to take any goodness off of these babies.
Tomatoes are off the share list this week because we are in between fruit flushes and are waiting for the next round to get going. It looks like our second planting of red tomatoes will get going later this week, so likely they'll be back on the share list next week!