Share 8 - week of July 15th
In the share this week:
1.5 lbs tomatoes
2 lbs eggplant
2 lbs summer squash
Pickling or slicer cucumbers
1 lb yellow onions
2 banana peppers
2 lbs beets
Thoughts from Farmer Anna:
Hey there! This week is quickly getting away from me. We are trying to dodge the raindrops this week in order to continue doing the necessary work of weeding and bed prep, but it's been tough! I can't really complain, because it's been great not to have to irrigate at a time of summer that is typically so hot and dry. So far it feels like we've been able to keep up with our most important work and the weeds haven't gotten the best of us yet, but fingers crossed we can find a bit of dry in the next couple of days.
Although this is the first week of tomatoes in our shares, the crop I'm feeling most excited about this week is the eggplant! This crop looks better than ever this year and we have three different varieties coming off the vines. The long light purple one is an Asian variety that folks often like to grill, but is also nice for cutting into small rounds. The black variety is a classic Italian eggplant and the purple and white striped one is another type of Italian eggplant called Annina. I pretty much use all types of eggplant interchangeably, but there are slight differences in flesh texture and seeds. I was thinking that since you have tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini in the share this week, it would be the perfect opportunity to make some ratatouille! Something like this recipe:
https://www.thekitchn.com/ratatouille-recipe-23673997
Or maybe you'd rather try to make some little baked eggplant Parm rounds instead:
Our spring beet plantings are just about finished up, so we are giving a lot of beautiful beets to everyone this week. If you haven't yet found a way that you enjoy beets, try this recipe that I initially made when I got beets when Steve and I were CSA members of a farm in WI. It's a pretty delicious chocolate cake (probably because it has a goodly amount of butter and sugar) and the beet flavor really goes well:
Alrighty- I'm a little short and sweet today since I'm late in getting this out! Next week I'll tell you about the chicken math that is already happening here at the farm :)