TOMTEN FARM

Fennel
Escarole
Southern Green Mustards
Red Radishes or Hakurei Turnips
Mala Cara Storage Tomatoes
Eggplant or Sweet Peppers
Garlic
Dill

Dill is back, which is always exciting for us, when it disappears in June we cannot wait for it to return. This week’s share includes a lot of strong flavors; peppery green mustards, bittersweet escarole, pungent and herbaceous fennel, spicy radishes and turnips, and clean, woody, and slightly sour/sweet dill. At the moment we are wrestling with a ton of insect presence in our crops: moth worms, aphids, harlequin bugs, you name it. The weather in august and continued high humidity can cause a lot of plant stress, plus perfect conditions for fungal and bacterial disease growth. The insects really thrive in weak and stressed plant crops. Interestingly though the insects seem less interested in the strong, bitter, and herbaceous crops, so that means more for you. For those of you that find these strong crops overbearing, it is time to learn to love them. Some cooking hints include using more fatty, acidic, and salty foods for pairing. Mustard greens do great when braised in a heavy umami laden broth and finished with a touch of vinegar and salty hard cheese. Use things like dill and fennel sparingly in a salad or cook them into a dish with a lot of other rich ingredients, more like an aromatic than a main ingredient. This week’s share also includes storage tomatoes, something we learned about while in Spain a few years back in February. The markets were laden with these tomatoes, likely harvested 4 months earlier, and used in sauces or stews but found specifically in romesco and pan de tomate. That’s right these tomatoes can store for a long time, when given good ventilation and even cool temperatures. There is a long tradition in southern Europe of growing tomatoes for winter and spring uses, long before people were using hothouse and hydroponic methods. We recognize you might use these right away and have included some recipes below that are traditional uses for this type of tomato with its thick rind and mild and sweet flavor. If you want to reserve these for later use, set them aside and keep an eye on them, they ripen very slowly. Enjoy the share……Autumn & Brian

Escarole And White Bean Salad With Fennel And Gruyere Cheese

Potatoes with Fennel and Radish Salad

Eggplant Escarole Lasagna

Peas and Greens With Tomato, Scallions and Dill

Grilled Turnips With Dill Olive Oil

Authentic Romesco Sauce Recipe

Pan Con Tomate

Bibb Lettuce
Mesclun Salad Mix
Highlander Onions
Goldrush Russet Potatoes
Lacinato Kale or Collard Greens
Poblano, Anaheim, or Seyrek Peppers
Clemson Spineless Okra
Cilantro

Spicy Sauteed Okra with Collard and Turnip Greens

Chicken Stir-Fry with Collard Greens

Potatoes with Roasted Poblano Chiles and Mexican Sour Cream

Aloo-Bhindi (Stir-fried okra and potato)

Cilantro Kale Salad

Roasted Potato and Pepper Salad with Cilantro Salsa

Frisee
Cushaw Winter Squash
Lacinato Kale or Collard Greens
Sweet & Cubanelle Peppers
Late Season Tomatoes
Chioggia Beets
Eggplant Mix
Something Extra

This week’s share is a strange mix of summer and fall. We are feeling the early fall crop losses from our crazy August weather and the intense bug pressure it brought in its aftermath. It’s a reminder that even though the weather is currently perfect (who could ask for anything better), we are also dealing with what came before. Because of the absence of early fall crops and an abundance of winter squash this season, we thought we might as well send along the beloved Cushaw a little early. Cushaw squash has a very long history, thought to have been domesticated between 7000 & 3000 BC in Mesoamerica, it has deep roots throughout Appalachia, Louisiana, and the Southwestern US.

“The word cushaw is derived from an Algonquin word, although the plant itself ultimately derives from the indigenous peoples of Central America and the West Indies, possibly Jamaica.  In Jamaica they replaced the edible gourds that West and Central Africans were used to.  When African Virginians moved across the Piedmont into the Appalachians, they brought the sweet potato pumpkin with them, and like the banjo (Kimbundu: mbanza) it became part of Southern Appalachian culture.  Cushaws are made into cushaw butter, pie filling, puddings, and are cooked on their own. ”         – The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty

“The flesh is light-yellow; it is mild and slightly sweet in flavor; meaty in texture and fibrous. It is sometimes called cushaw pumpkin and is often substituted for the standard, orange, jack-o-lantern pumpkin in pie-making. The cushaw has a green summer squash flavor and scent to it. It has a smoky-ness in taste and is moist without being wet. It is used for both savory and sweet dishes and is great for northern climates because it provides vitamin C for the winter and stores very well. In some Native cultures, the seeds are toasted for snacks or ground and made into sauces and moles. The flowers are stuffed and/or fried……
Author Lois Ellen Frank (Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations) cites the Akimiel O’odham and the Tohono O’odham, whose homeland stretches from Phoenix, Arizona, to east central Sonora, Mexico, as cushaw growers. The land is some of the hottest and driest in North America; cushaw, a heat-hardy plant, is grown there with the summer rain. In addition to the plant’s tolerance for heat, the green-striped cushaw’s large, vigorous vines are resistant to the squash vine borer, which kills other squash and pumpkin plants that aren’t protected with pesticides. This quality may account for the green-striped cushaw’s longevity—natives could count on it when other species didn’t survive.” –  Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity

To learn more about Cushaw squash visit the Slow Food Foundation website or check out The Tennessee Farm Table podcast “Cushaw Squash” episode (11/2/19, season 6 episode 31).  These squash can be extremely large, which can be a bit overwhelming for our modern day kitchen and is likely the reason they can be hard to find at farmers markets or at farm stands, as everyone is looking for small. Some of ours this year exceed 20lbs, so you might be getting a half squash or a whole. If your piece is cut open, please process within 7 days. If you get a whole, you can store in a cool (55-60degree) place for up to 3 months. Not in the mood for squash pie, process and freeze for future use; just cut into large chunks, remove seeds (delicious toasted) , roast for 45minutes, scoop out flesh and puree. Many great recipes are below, I’ve made the squash pie recipe for 10 years and it is a huge crowd pleaser, but only when I use the cushaw squash, you can substitute fresh ginger, add a slight bit extra squash, but do not cut the brandy or heavy cream. Enjoy the share….Autumn & Brian

Roasted Red-Pepper Salad with Anchovy White Beans

Dijon Vinaigrette with Frisée, Artichoke & Pepper Salad

Eggplant with Kale, Tomatoes, & Ricotta

Beet & Blue Cheese Salad

Greens and Cheese Vegetable Lasagna

Cushaw and Shrimp Curry Bisque with Mustard & Collard Greens

Moroccan Cushaw Salad

Rich Squash Pie – The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
Basic Pastry Dough for a 9” pie shell
1 cup pureed cooked winter squash
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
3 Tbls brandy
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
½ tsp powdered ginger
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp mace
Preheat the oven to 425. Line a 9” pie pan with pastry dough. Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and beat until smooth and well blended. Pour into the lined pie pan. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 300 and bake for 45-60 minutes more or until the filling is firm.

Bok Choy
Spicy Salad Mix
Summer Crisp Lettuce
Red or Green Mustards
Clemson Spinelesss Okra
Shishitos or Long Beans
Asian Eggplant Mix
Thai & Jyoti Chiles
German White Garlic

We seeded our last greenhouse trays this past Thursday and will not startup again until January. This marks a slowing down of our Fall plantings, although we direct seed succession crops every week until early November in the ground, our crop planting is lessening weekly. Now we focus on our coming season’s crop map and cover cropping everywhere that we can so our soil stays covered through the Winter and is replenished. Thanks to our work share crew this past Sunday we were able to cleanup a huge section of field tomatoes, outdoor basil, and summer squash all in one go with a plan to cover crop asap before the coming rain. Other areas are cleaned up as they are emptied, bare fallowed (to work through weed seed banks), and then prepped for early Spring plantings. In these empty areas (there are few), we will cover the beds by December with large plastic tarps to keep the beds covered to avoid erosion and to have them ready for early plantings like onions, potatoes, or spring brassicas. So lots of cleanup and looking ahead to have things ready for next season. With an increasingly wet climate, we have to be more on top of looking ahead and addressing the crop fields as soon as we can.  We also are frantically trying to hoe and hand weed the existing Fall crops. With a rainy August, the weeds are outpacing us and so we are hustling to address what we can and turning in lost causes.
This week’s share is loaded with greens: some for salads and some for cooking, along with favorite summer crops like eggplant, peppers, and okra. Even though the deer have continued to ravage our long bean stand, we are getting a new flush and so some of you will get a small amount at least to try this season. This is usually our staple summer bean crop and one we harvest from for well over two months; but this year it has proven to be a great trap crop, so we are settling for very small harvests. What this week’s share is missing are herbs; which really tie together all the Asian influenced salads, curries, and dry-fry stir fry. The basil (both Italian and Thai) got the seasonal downy mildew very early this season, with all the wet conditions in August and our initial fall cilantro planting did not germinate so we are 3 weeks away from seeing its return. So we are sad to not include either thai basil or cilantro and we encourage you to search out some herbs to complete many of the recipes below. Enjoy the share…… Autumn and Brian

Coconut Chicken Curry w. Okra and Eggplant Recipe

Hoisin Eggplant, Prawn and Bok Choy Stir-Fry

Jungle Curry with Pork and Thai Eggplant

Spicy Greens With Double Garlic

Mustard Greens In Chile Pequin-Anchovy Butter

Shishito (or padron) peppers with okra

Gaji-namul – Eggplant Sidedish

Long Bean Salad

Okra Salad with Black vinegar

Kale
Purslane
Bibb Lettuce
Nicola Potatoes
Poblano Peppers
Jalapeno & Aji Dulce Chilies
Red Candy Onion
Italian Parsley
A Cucumber

Sofrito

Parsley-Poblano Salad with Orange-Glazed Beef

Homemade Green Chorizo Tacos with Kale & Potatoes

Creamy Cucumber and Grilled Potato Salad

Aguadito De Pollo (Peruvian Chicken Soup) Recipe

Cucumber, Onion And Purslane Salad

Purslane and Parsley Salad

Purslane & Kale Fatayer

Arugula or Spicy Mesclun Salad Mix
Hakurei Turnips or Red Radish
Clemson Spineless Okra
German White Garlic
Assorted Eggplant
Romano Beans
Sweet Peppers
Tomatoes

Welcome to our Fall CSA season. This year our Fall season is beginning a bit more precariously than we would like.  August was brutal with a mix of high temperatures and lots of moisture. Many crops have been hard hit; not decimated but loss of 20-30% making for a stressful situation. On a good note though, we had wonderful harvests of onions, garlic, beets, potatoes and winter squash, so we have some storage crop abundance to fall back on. We are also still reaping the benefits of great summer production and will continue seeing tomatoes, okra, beans and eggplant through much of the fall season. The peppers and chilies as always are just hitting their stride as the days shorten and the nights cool, making for great additions to our weekly shares. To counteract some of the damage and loss in our greens, cabbage, broccoli, fennel and winter roots, we are hoping to do a bit more succession plantings of quick brassica crops such as salad radish and turnips, Asian greens, salad greens, and flowering brassica like things. As most of you know we love love love chicories (radicchio, escarole, frisee, puntarelle) and we are continuing trials of different varieties and their ability to succeed in our extreme weather shifts. This family of heading greens usually thrives in much more mild and temperate environments so getting them going in the fall can be difficult. We are happy to say though that we have a very healthy block of chicories and if we can keep the weeds under control we are looking at some really fun, beautiful, and tasty greens.
This week’s share is great for salads as well as for stews or sautés. A simple green salad with thinly sliced hakurei or radish and sweet peppers tossed in a simple vinaigrette and sprinkled with a salty cheese can be eaten for breakfast or dinner. Eggplant, romano beans, and okra can be cooked together or separate in curries, stewed with fresh tomatoes, or roasted/charred. A sweet pepper/garlic sauce can be used with almost any cuisine and even frozen to bring a taste of summer into the darker months. Check out the recipes below and enjoy the share….Brian and Autumn

Summer Bean and Radish Salad

Charred Romano Beans with Cherry Tomatoes, Garlic and Preserved Lemon

Burrata with Romano Beans and Roasted Eggplant

Okra Summer Salad

Quick okra, eggplant and turmeric stew

Radish and Arugula Salad with Pecorino and Lemon

Pan-Roasted Peppers With Garlic Infused Sauce

Nevada Lettuce
Poblano Peppers
Assorted Eggplant
Assorted Tomatoes
Highlander Yellow Onions
Nokia & Suyo Long Cucumbers
Red & Chioggia Beets
Italian Parsley

So the Spring/Summer portion of our CSA season is coming to its end. We hope you have enjoyed all the bounty and not been too overwhelmed by the super successful 2021 crops (lettuce, beets, basil, tomatoes).  We definitely has some struggles this last Spring, especially with some of our brassica crops such as hakurei turnip, napa cabbage, daikon, mustards, and yu choy; but the excellent early Summer weather also produced the tastiest tomatoes, watermelon, cucumbers, summer squash, succulent eggplant, excellent carrot and beet crops, and until this monsoon deluge a fabulous basil crop. We also got the pleasure this summer of some excellent storage crop yields,  with loads of onions, garlic, potatoes, and the best winter squash yield we have every had. The cucurbit family really enjoyed the early summer dry and hot conditions and so we have seen some very healthy crops until lately.
The fall is starting really rough though with the combination of high temperatures, heavy humidity, and ongoing rain. As per usual with this time of year, we are struggling with pest pressure, although right now it isn’t bugs but rather groundhogs and deer. I think they all take turns. Regardless though we press on with fall transplanting and direct seeding as the timing is what is most important. Carrots, cabbage, and greens will come later than we hoped but we are seeing some successful seedings of quick crops such as arugula, salad greens, radishes, and turnips. Okra, eggplant, and peppers are only beginning to come into full force and we are about to begin harvesting our 4^th succession of tomatoes. So as we begin our Fall CSA in two weeks we will have that magical combination of late summer and early fall vegetables, making for some delicious meals.
This week’s share includes some Summer lettuce along with likely the last of the cucumbers you will see and a plethora of summer goodness. Check out the Greek country salad recipe, it is delicious. Enjoy the share…..Autumn & Brian

Spicy Köfte Simmered with Eggplant, Tomatoes and Roasted Poblanos

Spiced Peppers and Eggplant

Eggplant Ragoût with Tomatoes, Peppers & Chickpeas

Beet-and-Onion Salad


Raw Beet and Cucumber Salad

Cold Beet And Cucumber Soup From Julia Child

Grilled Eggplant, Tomato and Parsley Salad

Salata Horiatiki (Greek Country Salad) –The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
1 head summer crisp lettuce, cut into ribbons
2 large firm ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 cucumber, peeled, split in half through its length, and cut into thick slices
1 green pepper, cut into thin rings
1 large mild onion, thinly slices, the rings separated
8 oz feta cheese, cut into small squares or broken into coarse pieces
1 dozen or more black Kalamata olives
For the dressing
A good bunch flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
6 Tbls extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt & pepper
Put all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Just before serving, mix the dressing, pour over the salad, and toss.

Nicola Potatoes
Clemson Spineless Okra
Peppers (Mix of Sweet & Mild Seyreks)
Pozzano or Red Pear Sauce Tomatoes
Summer Squash
Genovese Basil
Arugula

Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Garlic Pesto

Patatas Bravas

Shaved Summer Squash Salad

spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce

Braised Okra With Tomatoes, Peppers and Spices

Okra with Garlic and Coriander – The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Takleya is the name of the fried garlic and coriander mix which gives a distinctive Egyptian flavor to a number of dishes. It goes in at the end. In Upper Egypt they chop up and mash the okra when it is cooked. Serve hot as a side dish with meat or chicken.
1 pound okra, small young ones
1 onion, chopped
3 Tbls vegetable or extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
juice of ½-1 lemon
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
11/2-2 tsp ground coriander
With a small sharp knife, cut off the stems and trim the caps of the okra, then rinse them well. Fry the onion in 2 Tbls of the oil till golden. Add the okra and sauté gently for about 5 minutes, stirring and turning over the pods. Barely cover with water (about 1 ½ cups), add salt and pepper, and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Add the lemon juice, towards the end and let the sauce reduce. (Lemon juice is usually added when the dish is to be eaten cold). For the takleya, heat the garlic and coriander in the remaining oil in a small pan, stirring, for a minute or two, until the garlic just begins to color. Stir this in with the okra and cook a few minutes more before serving hot.

Heirloom Salad Tomatoes
Crimson Sweet Watermelon
Shishitos or Mild Green Peppers
Long Beans or Asian Eggplant
Jalapeno or Thai Chilies
German White Garlic
Thai Basil

August on our farm is a very crazy time. We have still not figured out how to keep up and fit everything into the days we have.  We focus on having a large diversity of crops from Fall through Winter and often are adding things we want to grow to that part of the season (for example we are growing more radicchio, lacinato kale, collard greens, & overwintered broccoli & cauliflower this year), meaning more seeding of trays, more transplanting, more field prep & coordination. As I’ve stated before we plant more in August than any other month besides May; but in addition we are harvesting much more food plus managing our early storage crops. For example we cure onions and garlic in our barn; but have to move them into a climate-controlled space pretty quickly in order to keep them in good shape. These tasks can take many hours, as we are clipping necks and roots , packing into bins, and moving into tight spaces, shared with many other crops. So late July and August are always a balance of harvesting, managing storage crops, and getting new crops in the ground; which includes properly irrigating, weeding, and overall management.
This year all of this has been magnified due to the particular weather patterns we have had, making for an insanely good tomato year (this crop takes a huge chunk of our time), as well as for many other crops. We harvested over half our Winter Squash last week (a month earlier than we expected) and we are seeing 5-6 times the yield as in previous years. Some of this is due to changes on our end with timing, method of planting and managing; but a majority is because this is a great summer crop season. I cannot state that enough, this is probably one of two great summer growing seasons in the 9 seasons we have had. So at the end of the day we are so happy to have all the yields we do; but recognize that our system cannot always handle the abundance. So for now we put our heads down, seed and transplant as much as we can as quickly as possible, and look forward to 4 weeks from now when we can breath a little. Every other farmer we know is in the same place we are right now, maybe not planting as much for Winter as we do, but inundated with so much food. So please do what you can to get those you know out to markets not just now but through the Fall, as markets tend to slow down in early September and there is really no reason as it can be the best time of year to shop in Virginia. With this cool weather this past week you can bet on seeing a return of salad greens and early fall crops coming in early September. Pair these with the Summer bounty and you have the best in cooking.
This week’s share includes the first of our long beans (a wonderfully versatile bean) and has a few of our favorite recipes, ones which we list every year; because they are so so good. This week has a number of things which lend themselves towards thai cooking. Find some cucumbers and you will be all set for a spicy long bean cucumber salad or pair tomatoes with watermelon and thai basil for a fabulous herbaceous and sweet salad. Grill or blister peppers and eat alongside the spicy eggplant with thai basil recipe(you’ve got to use all the thai basil for this recipe, don’t hold back). All of these recipes go well eaten while its hot and steamy, perfect for this upcoming week. Enjoy the share….Autumn & Brian

Spicy Corn and Shishito Salad

Sichuan Style Stir-Fried Chinese Long Beans

Long Bean, Cucumber, and Tomato Salad

Marinated Chinese Long Beans with Peppers

Watermelon, Feta and Charred Pepper Salad

Watermelon Tomato Salad

Eggplant with Thai Basil
1 lb eggplant, cut into ½-inch slices
4-5 cloves garlic
1-2 medium sized fresh red or green chilies (or sweet bell pepper for the meek
1 Tbsp light soy sauce or tamari
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
2 Tbsp palm sugar or dark brown sugar
1 bunch Thai basil
Slice the eggplant into ½ inch rounds and fry them over medium high in a wide skillet with ¼ inch of canola or other frying oil. When things get going, the eggplant slices will absorb the oil and you will gradually see it penetrate through to the top.  Make sure that they don’t get too brown on the bottom before this happens.  If the eggplant slices absorb all the oil and still don’t look wet, you must add more—but don’t worry, because they will release much of it as they cook.  When they look like they have absorbed enough oil and they start to get nice and brown on the bottom, flip them over and brown them on the other side.  If the pan is dry at this point, don’t add more oil because the slices have absorbed enough to fry themselves.  When they’re done, drain the slices on paper towels
Meanwhile, cut the garlic into slices and the chilies into diagonal rings.  When the eggplant is ready, remove it and add 2 Tbsp of fresh oil to the pan, add the garlic and half the chilies, and stir-fry until the garlic is golden.  Add the soy sauces and sugar, stir for about 30 seconds until the sugar starts to bubble, and return the eggplant to the pan.  Add torn basil leaves, stir and serve, garnished with the rest of the chilies (if you dare!)

Tomatillos
Bolero Carrots
Red Candy Onion
Round & Teardrop Eggplant
Shishito or Mild Green Peppers
Sungold Cherry or Heirloom Tomatoes
Italian Sauce Tomatoes
Parsley

Easy Eggplant Poblano Pepper Curry

Lebanese Baked Eggplant With Beef And Pine Nuts

Late-summer tomato & carrot salad