Veggie CSA Week #15

Howdy folks! So, below is the list of what the Wednesday CSA boxes will contain (Carrboro and On-Farm pick ups). The Thursday and Saturday boxes are going to vary, depending on availability. To be honest, the harvests are not quite as plentiful lately (I'm blaming the excessive extended heat), so we'll determine what will go in the boxes after tomorrow morning's harvest.

Thursday folks are hopefully receiving sweet corn, grown by another farmer near Pittsboro (I haven't quite confirmed this yet, so again, it'll be a fun surprise :) The reason the farmers market picker uppers won't be receiving sweet corn is because it wasn't grown by us. One of the farmers market rules (at both Durham and Carrboro) is that the CSA boxes we hand out MUST contain products grown on our own farms.

So, here is the Wednesday box run-down:

Half Shares:
Sungold Tomatoes - 1 pint
Assorted Peppers (Hots in the plastic bag, sweets separate) - 1 pound
Japanese Eggplant - 1/2#
Padron Peppers - 6 peppers
Melon - 1 melon
Basil - 1/4 pound

Full Shares:
Sungold Tomatoes - 1 pint
Assorted Peppers - 1 pound
Padron Peppers - 6 peppers
Melon - 2 melons
Eggplant - 1 pound
Green Beans - 1 pound
Basil - 1/4 pound

Padron Peppers: Yum! one of my new favorites, we have been very simply heating a pan with olive oil and frying these little peppers whole (stem and all) just until they're hot, then sprinkling them with salt and munching. Sometimes, we cut a little door in the pepper, and stuff them with cheese. They are a "hot" pepper, and some are way hotter than others, but cooking them seems to mellow them a bit. Basically, the bigger the pepper is, the hotter they are. All the ones we've picked for you will be spicy, but not outrageous. Wednesday CSA'ers get them this week, we'll most likely have them for the Thursday and Saturday CSA'ers next week.

Veggie CSA Week #14

Half Shares:

Tomatoes - 2 pounds
Green or Yellow Wax Beans - 1/2 pound
Assorted Peppers - 1 pound
Basil - 1/4 pound

Full Shares:

Tomatoes - 3 pounds
Sungold Tomatoes - 1 pint
Melon - 1 large or 2 small
Potatoes - 2 pounds
Eggplant - 1 pound
Assorted Peppers - 1 pound

A quick pepper run-down: The peppers in the plastic bag are all varieties of hot peppers. Jalapeno, Serrano, New Mexican and Padron.

Jalapeno












Serrano













Anaheim










Padron

Veggie CSA Week #13

What's in your box:

Half Shares:

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes - 1 pint
Tomatoes - 2.5 pounds
Melon - 1
Green or Yellow Wax Beans - 1/2 pound
Jalapeno or Serrano Pepper- 2-3

Full Shares:

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes - 2 pints
Tomatoes - 3 pounds
Melon - 1
Green or Yellow Wax Beans - 1pound
Japanese Eggplant - 1 pound
Serrano or Jalapeno Pepper - 4-6

Recipe of the Week:

I really should have included this recipe a few weeks ago, but I figure by now you need something creative to do with those Sungolds :) This is my favorite:

Shiloh's Creamy Sungold Pasta

Ingredients

• 3 C sungold tomatoes, cut in half
• 1/2 C fresh chopped basil (packed)
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 6-8 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 2/3 C heavy cream
• Romano or Parmesan cheese to taste
• Fettucine pasta
• Peeled shrimp (optional)

Method

1. Heat your pan and saute the garlic in butter, being careful not to burn.
2. Add salt, pepper and halved tomatoes and wilt them down a few minutes.
3. Add cream and cook gently, allowing sauce to thicken.
4. When sauce is to your liking, add peeled shrimp directly to the simmering cream sauce - they'll cook fast so do wait until the end.
5. Add basil.
6. Serve with pasta and freshly grated Romano or Parmesan.

Original recipe at http://www.durhamfarmersmarket.com/recipe_show.html?id=18

Veggie CSA Week #12

What's in your box:

Half Shares:

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes - 1 pint - $3.50
Tomatoes - 2 pounds - $6.00
Green or Yellow Wax Beans - 1/2# - $2.00
Muskmelon or Galia Melon - 1 - $3.00
Basil - 1/8# - $1.50


Full Shares:

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes - 1 pint - $3.50
Tomatoes - 2 pounds - $6.00
Cucumbers - 1 pound - $2.50
Summer Squash - 1 pound - $2.00
Green 'Jade' Beans - 1 pound - $4.00
Basil - 1/4 pound - $3.00
Onions - 1 pound - $2.50
Muskmelon or Galia melon - 1 - $3.00


We may be also throwing in some Jalapeno or Serrano peppers this week, $1.00 worth. Perfect for spicing up your salsa or tomato sauces!

The difference in the melons is: some have a green flesh (the tropical Galia Melons) and some have the orange flesh (muskmelons, a lot like cantaloupe). Both are quite tasty, but we have noticed our variety selections have become such that the orange fleshed melons (muskmelon) are sweeter (and a little denser fleshed) than the Galia (green fleshed). Both are really good and sweet, but we would love some feedback!

In the tomato world, we have a lot of varieties growing, so to do a quick run-down.... the red tomatoes are called "Big Beef", a really wonderful standard beefsteak tomato, and actually, of all, my favorite!, well, except for the "Cherokee Purple", which you all should get at least one of this week. Brick red in color, this heirloom tomato is by far the best I've ever tasted. It makes the absolute perfect BLT (or in our house, TCOM - tomato, cucumber, onion, mayonnaise:) the yellow/orange ones are called "Orange Blossom", a little milder than the Big Beef, and the pinks are called "Pink Girl". The pinks are really great as a crushed, canned, juice tomato. YUM! I just boil a whole bunch of them for about 30 seconds, pull them out into a big bowl of ice water, then peel the skins off, cut the core out, squish the rest into a mason jar, add a teaspoon of lemon juice, and can them. Absolutely the best tomato juice I've ever had (and I'm a HUGE fan of V-8).