Share 10 - week of July 28th
In the shares this week:
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 lbs eggplant
2-3 sweet peppers
1 large garlic
2 cucumbers
Hot pepper Mix (poblano, hot wax, jalapeno)
Thoughts from Farmer Anna:
Last week of July already! We are pumped to be harvesting a good amount of our delicious sweet peppers and beautiful eggplant this week. Actually, I wanted to take a moment to go over the pepper and eggplant varieties we are growing this year, so you know what to expect.
For sweet peppers, we have standard red, orange and yellow bell peppers, along with the long Italian frying peppers in red and orange. While these are all delicious, the bells tend to have thicker, juicier walls (great for veggie tray and dips) while the Italian peppers will knock you out with their sweet flavor and thinner walls (great for sauteing with onions, or pretty much anything).
For hot peppers we have a couple of low to moderate heat varieties poblano (great for stir frying or stuffing) and padron (classic Spanish appetizer pepper and a trickster - mostly low heat, but 1 in 10 is much hotter). Our hotter varieties are a classic jalapeno and hot banana (hungarian hot wax), along with a small hot pepper called aji Rico (a little citrusy). This week you are getting a mix of poblano, jalapeno and hot banana peppers. I wanted to make sure everyone knows the banana peppers are HOT this year as we've grown mostly sweet bananas in the past. We have one last odd-ball pepper variety that is still on its way to ripening up - the habanada. This is a type of habenero pepper with virtually no heat. So all the yummy flavor of habenero without the kick! We are excited to try this one and perhaps mix it in with some hotter peppers in some homemade hot sauces.
We have three types of eggplant (same that we've been growing in the past) two Italian varieties - a standard black one and a stripey white and purple one, and one long Asian variety. You can really use these eggplant interchangeably in most recipes, but folks often prefer certain shapes for particular dishes. My mother-in-law likes the long Asian type to make smaller rounds that are perfect for appetizers. If you want to do less cutting, the Italian varieties may be better.
With all the lovely peppers and eggplant in your share, I think this summery pasta that combines these two veggies roasted sounds really nice:
https://girlwiththeironcast.com/roasted-eggplant-bell-pepper-pasta/
For farm lunch today I made a panzanella salad - a rustic Italian dish combining old bread cubes toasted with oil and salt, along with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, onion and herbs tossed in a simple viniagrette. You could definitely make this with your cherry tomatoes this week and add in any other tomatoes that may still be sitting on your counter from last week. It was simple and really delicious!
https://www.loveandlemons.com/panzanella/
Have a great week all!