In Your Box
Lettuce Heads- Romaine
Peas or Broccoli- snow peas or big broccoli heads/bunches
Cucumbers: See the backside of the newsletter for info and ideas.
Kohlrabi with its leaves – use leaves like kale or collards.
Basil-
Kale- red Russian or curly type.
- Remember that August 6th is the barn dance. Formal invite and details will come in 2 weeks.
- Please remember to give clear directions to any friends or family picking up boxes for you.
News from the Farm
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. Logan and Kat attended the Marshfield Saturday Farmers Market for the first time last week and Logan will be there for the rest of the year (with Monthly visits by Kat and Maple). If you are in Marshfield stop by!
Over the past three weeks we are realizing the amazing potential of our new weeding equipment in our second bean planting and fall cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli. We have been spending a few hours a week on mechanical cultivation and we are confident we will be on top of the weeds in 2 weeks! A big thank you to our farm crew as well as Travis, Autumn, and our worker shares for helping with some huge weeding projects. This is a tiring and physically demanding part of the season.
Cherry tomatoes and other exciting crops just around the corner. We are hoping to have cherry tomatoes in the box by the end of the month. We are still planting for fall, plowing in spring crops and planting cover crops. Summer is just flying by. We have been so fortunate with the rain. The kids are harvesting and pickling cucumbers from their own garden these days and helped diligently with the pea picking project. We are hoping these are nearly as exciting about snap beans!
Have a delicious week – Kat, Tony, Ted, Riley and Maple
Recipes from Heather Busigs Kitchens
Broccoli salad with garlic and sesame from the NYTimes recipes: serves 6 as a side. INGREDIENTS: 1 ½ tsp red wine vinegar, 1 tsp kosher salt, more to taste, 8-10 cups broccoli cut into small florets. Can also add cubed kohlrabi, summer squash, carrots, etc., ¾ c extra virgin olive oil, 4 fat garlic cloves, minced, 2 tsp cumin seeds, 2 tsp roasted (Asian) sesame oil, Large pinch crushed red pepper flakes. PREPARATION: In a large bowl, stir together the vinegar and salt. Add broccoli and toss to combine. In a large skillet, heat olive oil until hot, but not smoking. Add garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in sesame oil and pepper flakes. Pour mixture over broccoli and toss well. Let sit for at least 1 hour at room temperature, and up to 48 (chill it if you want to keep it for more than 2 hours).
Zucchini bread pancakes, by smitten kitchen. Makes 10pancakes. If you’re someone who doesn’t like maple syrup or anything sticky or sweet on top of your pancakes (gasp!), you might want another spoonful of sugar inside your pancakes. INGREDIENTS: 2 large eggs, 3 TBSP olive oil, 2 TBSP light brown, dark brown or granulated sugar, 1/4 cup buttermilk or 2 tablespoons each of milk and plain yogurt, whisked until smooth, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 2 cups shredded zucchini (from about 9 ounces whole, or 1 1/2 medium zucchini), heaping cups are fine, 1 cup all-purpose flour (half can seamlessly be swapped with a whole wheat flour), 1/4 tsp table salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg, Butter or oil, for coating skillet. PREPARATION: In a large bowl, combine eggs, olive oil, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla until smooth. Stir in zucchini shreds. In a smaller bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir dry ingredients into zucchini batter, mixing until just combined. Preheat oven to 200°F and place a tray — foil-lined if you’re into doing fewer dishes later — on a middle rack. Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Once hot, melt a pat of butter in pan and swirl it around until it sizzles. Scoop scant 1/4-cup dollops of batter (mine were about 3 tablespoons each) in pan so the puddles do not touch. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook another minute or two, until golden underneath. Transfer pancakes to prepared pan to keep warm as well as ensure that they’re all cooked through when they’re served. Repeat with remaining batter.
Cucumbers – another great veggie guide for the summer bounty
The varieties
Tasty Jade- long (12+ inches), green and smooth skinned. These have a small seed cavity and are sweet. No need to ever peel just rinse and use. These are considered a burpless type.
Classic Slicer (Corinto)- These are the iconic American cucumber and have a darker green and slightly thicker skin. We still don’t peel these but the skin is thicker if you plan to pickle and may be nice to peel for certain recipes.
Silver Slicer- A smaller yellow slicing cucumber. Great in salads together with green cucumbers. The skin is very thin and not very strong in flavor.
Suya Long- A wrinkled skin on long and spiky cucumbers. Scrub to remove spikes. These are burpless and very sweet.
Experimental types – working with UW Madison we are trialing a set of three similar large semi ribbed cucumbers. These are long like silver sliver but slightly thicker with thinner skin. All taste great so far!
Cucumber preparation, storage and a master pickling recipe!
All of the cucumbers we provide you with are slicing types but can be used easily in refrigerator or sandwich pickles (sliced). As mentioned above these is very a reason you should have to peel a cucumber other than preference and we recommend trying a slice with the skin on since most of the nutrients are in the skin and aside from the classic slicers the other varieties have been bred to have sweet thinner skin.
To store place in a loose plastic bag in the crisper. If you cannot use within a week making pickles in a great option. Store in the fridge and use as salad or a topping over the next few weeks.
Easy refrigerator dills- Because you are not actually pickling these for preservation you can easy add and subtract ingredients (think garlic scapes, sliced carrots, zucchini with seeds removed, onions or turnips). You can add pickling spice and leave out the dill; add turmeric and 2 Tbs Honey or sugar to make them a little sweeter. The joy of refrigerator pickled is that you can start eating them like a salad 4 hours after you make them and can enjoy them as pickles in several days or for weeks to come. Cucumbers can be sliced into rounds or spears (which ever you prefer).
Dill Refrigerator Pickles (Rodale Institute)
Yield: 1 quart
3-5 large slicing cucumbers plus additional vegetables if desired.
1 tablespoon pickling salt, sea salt, or kosher salt (but not iodized table salt)
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup water 1 head dill or small bunch dill leaves
1 clove garlic (optional)
3 black peppercorns (optional)
1. For the crunchiest pickles, select firm, dark-green cucumbers. To increase the crunchiness, you can sprinkle the cut cucumbers with a couple of tablespoons of salt, let them sit for 2 hours, and then rinse and drain before proceeding, but this step isn't necessary. 2. Place the dill in the bottom of a clean quart jar or container (we use an ice cream pail for larger batches), peel and crush the garlic clove (if using), and drop that in along with the peppercorns (if using), then put in the cut cucumber. Mix the salt, vinegar, and water in a separate container, stirring until the salt is dissolved, then pour it over the cucumbers, filling the jar right to the top. Pop on the lid and put the jar in the fridge.