Weekly Share July 15th to 21st

Potatoes (Nicola, sangre, or kerr’s pink)
Tomatoes (all purpose, slicers, & salad)
Sungold Cherry Tomatoes
Red Creole Onions
Genovese Basil
Salad Greens (lettuce, baby chard, or arugula)
Carrots & Celery

Long week. So much to do. Start seedlings for the fall and tend to them so the bugs cannot destroy them. Prep crop land (although it has been too wet) for direct seeding and transplants for the fall and winter. Plant cover crops of sorghum sudan grass, iron and clay peas, millet, or buckwheat in our open crop areas. Weed. Manage our current summer crops, by fending off bugs and disease as well as feeding to keep them healthy. Raising young ducks, turkeys, and chickens for fall harvest. Collecting eggs. Harvesting. Then more harvesting and weeding and harvesting yet again. We harvested tomatoes for many hours this past week and for that we are thankful, but this is truly the time when everything culminates and we just cannot stop. Our bush hog (a large mower implement for the tractor) is out of commission this week and we are up to our necks in grass around the farm as well as weeds in our finished crop areas, things are growing inches every day. This is really the wrong time to do without this one piece of equipment or any of them for that matter, but we just keep working and enjoying the breeze when it blows through or some shade from the clouds or a successful harvest. 

Here are two Basil recipes from our friends at the Kitchen Garden, a farm in Massachusetts where Brian worked a few years ago.  Basil can often be limited to pesto or as a garnish, but we love it and love looking for ways to use it. Although we are not growing sweet corn or shelling beans, they are being sold by many farmers locally and are deliciously in season right now. Enjoy the summer and this week’s share… Autumn and Brian

Corn, Tomato and Basil Salad – from the Kitchen Garden

This works well with chopped tomatoes or cherry tomatoes!

3-6 ears sweet corn
1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
few sprigs basil
cider or red wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Cut the corn kernels off the cob into a bowl and mix with tomatoes. Tear the basil into the bowl and dress with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. This is the essence of summer!

Soupe au Pistou

This recipe makes enough soup for 8, so feel free to reduce quantities to suit your needs. Or make a big batch and freeze half. The beauty of soup is you can use whatever you have on hand and omit what you don’t.

10 garlic cloves, peeled and quartered lengthwise
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 medium onions, diced
4 medium carrots, cubed
1 lb. potatoes, cubed
1 cup fresh shell beans
bouquet garni (bay leaf, thyme, parsley)
1 cup zucchini, cubed
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
1 cup green beans, chopped in ½ inch rounds
salt and pepper
1 recipe pistou
½ cup grated Parmesan
Pistou
4 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper
2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

In a stockpot, gently cook the onions and garlic in oil until soft. Add carrots, potatoes, shell beans and bouquet garni and cook gently, stirring, for 10 minutes. Add the zucchini, tomatoes and green beans along with 8 cups of cold water and simmer gently uncovered until the shell beans are tender, about 20 minutes. Add additional water if the soup becomes too thick. Season with salt and pepper. While the soup is cooking prepare the pistou by placing all ingredients in a food processor and blending slowly while adding the oil. To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl, swirl in a generous teaspoon of pistou and sprinkle with cheese.