Lacinato Kale
Spicy Mesclun Salad Mix
Thin Skinned Cucumbers
Romano Beans or Assorted Tomatoes
Clemson Spineless Okra
German White Garlic
Something Extra
Welcome to our Fall CSA season. There is so much diversity of crops, although we are having a very trying season with some of our summer crops, such as squash, cucumbers, beans, and peppers. We discovered that our outdoor peppers have a pretty devastating case of bacterial leaf spot which has been exasperated by the wet and extremely humid conditions in both early June and throughout August. This causes them to defoliate and not produce many flowers, hence little fruit. Our covered peppers look great but were planted 3 weeks late (we always plant on the later side regardless) so we are just beginning to see our sweet peppers ripen. Anyhow there will be very little in the way of chilies and peppers this season (very sad for us). On a positive note though our last successions of beans and cucumbers look wonderful so you will see them this week and probably again one last time. This has got to be one of the best okra and eggplant years we have ever had, so they will be present over the coming weeks and our latter tomato successions look happy and are finally beginning to ripen. We are experimenting with some new small tomato varieties that hold in colder temperatures and ripen slowly off the plant. If you look to Spanish and Italian traditions they use different types of tomatoes throughout the winter and we are seeing how we can incorporate some of these cooking varieties into our crop plan. It is exciting that we have the best and earliest stand of Fall greens we have seen in many years, likely due to the 80 degree temperatures and lots of rain over the past month. Usually we are in a complete drought through August and struggling to keep plants alive post planting; but this year the struggle has been to get stuff in the ground as the soil has been constantly wet. There is always some weather pattern to contend with. Anyhow we are glad to welcome both salad greens and cooking greens back into the mix, as they pair so nicely with some of our summer crops. Check out the recipes and enjoy the share……Autumn and Brian
Green Beans and Cucumbers with Miso Dressing
Charred Romano Beans with Cherry Tomatoes, Garlic and Preserved Lemon
Kadai Bhindi (Indian style Okra with Bell Peppers)
Speckled Butter Bean, Okra, And Lamb Soup