CSA Week #13
THIS WEEK IN THE BOX - week of August 24th
VEGETABLE SHARE
1 bunch Arugula (Tues & Wed)
1 bunch Purslane (Thurs)
1 bunch Baby Basil Tips
1 piece Green Bell Pepper
2 pieces Green Long Peppers
1 piece Eggplant (Rosa Bianco or Black)
9-10 pieces Zucchini
1 piece Cucumber (Thurs)
2-3 pieces Tomatoes*
1 pint Cherry Tomatoes (Tues & Wed)
1 half pint Blackberries or Raspberries or Cherry Tomatoes (Thurs)
1 head Garlic
FRUIT SHARE**
1 bag Peaches & 1 bag Apples (Tues)
1 bag Mixed Tree Fruit & 1 container Raspberries (Wed)
*The tomatoes have been sprayed with copper as a preventative for late blight fungus. This spray is certified for use in organic production and is harmless to humans, but must be washed off before eating. Also be sure to ripen completely on the counter before eating! They should be a deep red and slightly soft to the touch.
**Be sure to remove fruit from plastic bags immediately when you get them home. They can ripen out on the counter or in a paper bag. Store ripe fruit in the fridge.
BOX NOTES
This is the first harvest of basil for the season, so we've picked just the tender tips of the plant. It's a small bunch, but basil packs a lot of flavor into its leaves. There will be much more to come for making pesto and other basil recipes over the next few weeks. The long green peppers are supposed to be sweet, but in past years we've found that one or two may be hot, so please check first before cooking with children.
LETTER FROM YOUR FARMER Hi Members-- It’s a zucchini bonanza!! We know that 10 zucchini might challenge everybody’s creative cooking skills, but the bounty of the harvest is what is so exiting about CSA. We have a beautiful new planting of zucchini that just matured and we are harvesting about 1,000 pounds a day! Since it must be picked daily, that means we're taking in 7,000 - 8,000 pounds a week-- And it’s all coming to you! This will probably continue for a couple of weeks and then begin to abate. And by then you will be so happy to see them go. Amazingly, we missed all of the rain that surrounded us over the last few days. Even though we could have used a nice soaking rain, we’re fine with it. After this past June and July with almost nonstop rain, we could not be happier to see dusty farm roads, feel the intensity of the sun, and irrigate constantly. It feels like things are back to normal when the irrigation engines are running most of the time and any vegetation that is not irrigated starts to wilt in the hot sun and soon dehydrate completely. One of the unique things about farming on Long Island is that much of the rain that comes to the east coast from the west in the summer never makes it out to us on the North Fork. All the heat and humidity last week was very unpleasant to most people, but it gets crops to ripen quickly. The tomatoes are finally coming in relatively well, almost in full swing but not quite. Between good weather and our extra attention we’ve managed to keep the infamous late blight from causing much harm, so far. It even managed to infiltrate our high tunnel and affect a few of our tomato plants. It is something we will have to deal with for the rest of the tomato season, so stay tuned. -- Farmer Matt We welcome you to explore our website to learn more about our farm and the wonderful things you can do with your weekly share. You may find our PRODUCE STORAGE TIPS page useful in figuring out how to maximize the life of your veggies, and our RECIPE section to search for ways to cook up your box! And maybe you need help identifying a particular mystery vegetable? Try our CROP GUIDE. THIS WEEK'S RECIPE SUGGESTIONS Sicilian Eggplant Stuffed with Garlic & Cheese More recipes for all the week's produce can be found here on our RECIPES page.
Fettuccine with Zucchini, Arugula, Basil and Lemon