Weekly Share July 18th – 24th

Purslane
Cucumbers
Beets
Dill
Basil
Garlic
Candy Onions
Sangre or Red Gold Potatoes
Red Pear & San Marzano Sauce Tomatoes

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind and today is the first day “off” we have taken in a long time. Last weekend we had a wonderful dinner at Sub Rosa Bakery benefitting Birdhouse Farmers Market. We collaborated with Evrim and Evin from Sub Rosa along with Paul Winston of Dutch & Company in designing the menu and creating the vegetable heavy all local feast. It was a very satisfying and fun meal to make. Some of the highlights include working with a wood-fired oven as our main cooking source, working with food all coming from Birdhouse Market vendors, having a great group of market volunteers for the service, excellent alcohol pairings coming from Native Selections, Potters Cider, J EmersonWines, Ardent Craft Brewery, and Lamplighter Coffee and a adventurous group of diners willing to be over fed. Spending time experimenting with dishes is something of a rarity for us in mid-Summer; so although exhausting this dinner was a great reminder of why we grow food: so people can cook amazing meals and eat deliciousness.

On the farm we are consumed with harvesting and managing our Summer crops. Mainly we are hoping for rain. In our immediate vicinity we have been without rain for a few weeks, 15 miles in every direction has been hit with many of the storms over the past few weeks, but not us. We are also feeling the effects of the May monsoon; that delayed a lot of our nightshade plantings by 2-3 weeks. Now 2 months later we are noticing a slow start to our peppers, eggplants, and 2^nd and 3^rd succession tomatoes. Although we are harvesting some, they are increasing production very slowly. In May the plants were held in pots longer than needed, so their roots stagnated in growth and they often take time to bounce back. In addition we have had limited rain and really hot conditions. Most heat loving plants prefer 85 degrees and good amounts of water. All this means that the CSA will see slow starts to some of these Summer crops. On a good note though our early and sauce style tomatoes are in full swing, our onion and garlic crops survived and are curing nicely, and we have had a bumper cucumber crop over the past few weeks. This week we are giving you wild purslane, the stuff that grows in many areas on our farm and amongst our crops. This green is widely used throughout the Middle East. The leaves and tender stems (not main stem parts) can be eaten simply dressed with salt, lemon, and olive oil or used in a multitude of ways. Check out this article with many recipes 45 Things To Do With Purslane or check out the recipes we have highlighted below. Enjoy the share……Brian and Autumn

Purslane and beet salad

Cucumber, Onion And Purslane Salad

Salade Khorfeh – Shirazi Style Purslane Salad

Creamy Cucumber and Grilled Potato Salad

Tiella di patate, cipolle e pomodori (Potato, Onion and Tomato Casserole) 

Pasta Pomodoro