Share 7 - week of July 2nd

In the share this week:

1 red cabbage

1 bunch red long onions

1 bunch green onions

Summer squash mix

1 bunch sweet basil

1 bag green beans or 1 pint cherry tomatoes

1 fennel bulb

1 head lettuce

Thoughts from Farmer Anna:

The farm is in transition right now. Most of our spring crops are done or almost finished up and we've been busy mowing those field down and moving tarps onto them to ready them for a second planting in a few weeks. Our main summer crops are starting to produce - tomatoes, peppers and eggplant will very soon be appearing in your shares! Our garlic is cured and we are planning to process that this week so we can start giving it in shares next week. Once the garlic is out of the greenhouse, we'll be pulling our main season onions to dry as well. It feels like we have so many onions right now since we are still harvesting fresh red long and sweet onions in addition to having our cured overwintered onions available. We'll probably be loading you up on onions over the next few weeks. The dried onions keep great at room temperature so you can store them for awhile if you won't use as many as we're giving.

New in the share this week are the first of our green beans! Fresh green beans are definitely a treat of summer and worth the time it takes to pick them :) Unfortunately our first planting was hit really hard by Mexican bean beetles and we are going to have to mow and tarp the planting this week to try to keep them from moving over to our next plantings. Right now our second planting is under row cover to keep the beetles off and it looks good. We'll have to remove the row cover as soon as the plants start flowering to allow access for pollinators and I'm hoping the timing will be just right to avoid severe damage from the bean beetles. There are only a few pests that can completely destroy a planting and these are one of them. I would bet that any time you are buying non-organic beans, they have certainly been sprayed for these guys.

We have the last of the spring planted cabbage in shares this week and it's a beautiful red/purple variety. Our family has been enjoying a lot of 'fancy' ramen soups with cabbage and I thought this recipe that also includes mushrooms looked really good. I'm not totally sure how the flavor would play, but it would be interesting to try thin slicing fennel bulb and adding it to a recipe like this.

food52.com

If I had to have my last meal on earth I would hope it’s ramen. <br /> <br />Living in Asia I’m very lucky to have tasted some of the best ramen in Bangkok, owned by long standing ramen chefs from Japan. In Japan ramen is almost an art form. Chefs train for many years to perfect this nutritious noodle soup and pride themselves on their masterpieces. <br /> <br />The reason I love this dish is because it is highly versatile, it’s great for winter or summer, it’s packed with nutrients, great for people with sensitive stomaches such as colonic inertia, also vegans, people with high intolerances to certain foods, or if you have a major cold, this will do the trick for comfort. <br /> <br />This recipes is more or less my interpretation of ramen and I have to say it’s blooming tasty.

Sweet basil is another new item in shares this week and if you'd like to try something a little different that also helps you use up some of your summer squash, this cool summer soup sounds awesome:

www.loveandlemons.com

This chilled basil zucchini soup recipe is so easy - the perfect bright, fresh meal on warm summer days. Serve with garlic croutons!

Last new item this week is one of our summer lettuces - either summer crisp or summer romaine. We grow these heat tolerant varieties for summer that are really great for salads or sandwiches. Once those tomatoes start coming, they will definitely be a part of a perfect BLT! Hope you all have a great week!