Weekly Share July 6th – 12th

Arugula
Summer Squash
Romano Beans
Red Ace or Chioggia Beets
Sungold Cherry Tomatoes
New Potatoes (Red Gold)
Candy Onions
Genovese Basil

We hope you had a great 4^th of July holiday. We so rarely get to partake in holiday festivities what with our set schedule, but since it was a Saturday we were able to enjoy our neighboring town’s firework display while enjoying a delicious picnic of our homemade fried chicken, potato salad, and sweet corn on the cob from Amy’s Organic Garden. It was a delightful evening. This past week on the farm was filled with activity; harvesting, planting, and scrambling to keep up with the mountain of weeds coming from all this rain. We harvested a majority of our garlic crop and are happy to have around 400lbs of German White garlic hanging in our barn. We planted a later succession of basil, our entire winter squash crop and a late planting of celeriac. We have also been watching our first fall seedlings of bunching greens, broccoli, and cabbage growing strong with these cooler than normal temperatures. This year we are experimenting with putting our muskmelons under cover, to see if they thrive with the warmer temperatures and controlled watering, by planting them in our new high tunnel. So far so good as we have loads of melons around baseball size and we do not expect to harvest until August. This coming week we will plant our last succession of cucumbers in the high tunnel as well, with the hopes of extending the season into late September, when the nights start getting colder. The high tunnel will keep the plant vegetation dry and hopefully stave off disease while keeping the plants warm through the night. On a sadder note this week we lost one of our two original ducks, brown duck, who we have had on our farm since our first season. She got sick and likely passed away from old age. She will be missed.

This week’s share brings you the firsts of Sungold cherry tomatoes and Romano flat Italian green beans. We have a recipe below that uses the two together, but the cherry tomatoes are also delicious on their own. The Romano beans are great simply braised with tomatoes, garlic, and onions and then eaten with big hunks of delicious hearty bread or made into a simple salad with olive oil and lemon. Needing a new idea for beets, try the beet salad recipe below that incorporates the arugula, basil, and candy onions. Enjoy the share…..Brian and Autumn

Tomato Salad with Green Bean and Basil

Italian Green Beans & Potatoes w/ Some Random Bites 

Roasted Beet and Basil Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette

Chef John’s Stuffed Summer Squash

Summer Squash Fritters – two different recipes, one with cheese, another with basil and a great dipping sauce, try either or combine both into one

Summer Squash Fritters: Aggies Kitchen

Summer Squash Fritters with Basil & Lemony Sour Cream