TOMTEN FARM

Okra (Clemson Spineless)
Sweet & Mild Peppers (Giallo di Asti, Corno di Toro Rossa, Yaglik, and Gypsy)
Eggplant (Dancer, Rayada, Rosa Bianca, and Prosperosa)
Baby Turnip Greens
German Red Garlic
Tomatoes
Arugula
Basil

We hope you all had a wonderful week last week during our CSA break. We took a short trip up north into the most urban place we could find, NYC. It had been exactly a year since we have been to such a big city and only the second time this year that we have left the farm for more than a day. So we reveled in all the things we normally cannot experience, such as people watching, walking through neighborhoods bustling with activity and history, eating as diversely as possible, and checking out some new art. While it was a nice break with entirely different surroundings and some truly inspiring food experiences, we were both itching to get back to the farm and get more done for the coming Fall and Winter. With our Latin inspired family style farm dinner on the horizon, we have a lot to do in the kitchen as well as out in the fields. The farm dinners offer us a venue for displaying the diversity of crops we have and what delicious things can be done with our seasonal offerings. This particular meal lets us explore our bounty of chiles and peppers, with a current list of 10 different pickled relish, hot sauce, and salsa options on the menu. Working within the “limitations” of seasonal produce and local meat, egg, and dairy options actually is quite liberating, because we have distinct parameters to help shape the dishes and final menus. We are absolutely thrilled to be working with our friends Robert and Ruth-Ann at Deer Run of Amelia Farm for this dinner, offering us the best quality pork and beef we could imagine. Overall these dinners remind us that the best thing about having such great quality food all around us is getting to cook with it and then of course eat it. We encourage each of you to find the time to have fun in the kitchen, get creative, explore, and us your local and seasonal parameters to inspire new dishes at your house.

Its our last Spring/Summer share of 2015; but don’t despair Fall shares will commence next week. We are already seeing peeks of Fall crops with the return of cut greens and bunching greens. Okra, Eggplant, and Peppers are in full swing, absolutely loving the slight cooling of the weather and that is great because these items are perfect for stewing, braising, frying; frankly cooking with whatever preparation you desire. Our tomato harvests are slowing down considerably because our 4^thand final succession was decimated by cutworms soon after transplant. You will still get some here and there, but in small amounts. This week’s will be a mix of small salad, all-purpose red, and sauce varieties. Please check out some of the recipes below for slightly different preparations of both eggplant and okra. Enjoy the share….Brian and Autumn

10 Best Aubergine Recipes

Crispy Okra Salad

Thinly Sliced Okra with Dried Bonito Shavings

Coconut Chicken Curry w. Okra and Eggplant Recipe

Fried Eggplant (Patlıcan Kızartması)

Mizuna or Arugula
Red Noodle or Oriental Wonder Long Bean
Japanese Long or Thai Round Eggplant
French Breakfast Radish
San Fan Bok Choy
Cucumber
German Red Garlic
Padron Peppers or Romano Beans
Salad Tomatoes or Tomatillos
Khmer Thai (hot) & Aji Dulce (mild) chiles

Each week we seem to write so little about what is really going on at the farm, because we are just too busy. Even though we have passed the hump in the main season, this time of year is filled with so much harvesting. Really probably at least 40 hours a week split between the two of us is spent solely on harvesting vegetables. Between harvesting, packing, washing, travel time, and markets this leaves little time for actually farming. As many of you know we never found full time help this year and although we had a few different part-time workers through the Summer we are now confronted with way more work than the two of us can physically do in a given week. We discussed this possibility, so it is not a surprise; but all the same difficult to contend with when we are trying to focus energy towards Fall and Winter crops; which are completely time sensitive. If we do not get plants seeded and growing by a certain time, of which there are many deadlines throughout September, they will not get to size when we need them to and hence we will not have a given succession when we need it. In this climate we have almost no plant growth between late November and late January, so we are completely dependent on getting crops where we need them before mid November. This may seem a long ways off, but since the days are getting shorter, many crops need to be started every week in September and early October in order to guarantee continual harvest. So we are switching our focus each week between large abundant harvests and moving as much produce as we can and then continual seeding, transplanting, and plant management for the next seasons produce. Oh and then there are the animals, they take up another complete day of work too. Lesson for next year, full time help is absolutely necessary.

A little reminder, next week there will be no share, as we are taking the week off from the CSA and Tuesday market. Since we have many crops in abundance right now, this means a big share for you all this week. Every year right around this time we reintroduce the quick growing cooler weather crops such as bok choy, radishes, cut greens, and salad turnips; which all pair beautifully with cucumber, beans, and eggplant to make delicious Asian inspired dishes. This will likely be the last of the cucumbers you will see for the season and the sole time you all receive long beans, so please enjoy them. The long beans are extremely versatile and can be used raw, blanched, seared or sautéed. The Jungle curry below is delicious (feel free to skip the baby corn) and a great way to work with the round Thai eggplant. Enjoy the share….Brian and Autumn

Stir-Fried String Beans (Chinese Long Beans)

Quick Khmer Pork with Green Beans –Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffery Alford & Naomi Duguid

Hoisin Eggplant, Prawn and Bok Choy Stir-Fry

Jungle Curry with Pork and Thai Eggplant

Cucumber and Radish Salad

Long Bean, Cucumber, and Tomato Salad

black eyed peas

okra

onion, carrot, celery, & jalapeno

zephyr summer squash

sweet peppers (yaglik, giallo di asti, & corno di toro)

red slicing tomatoes

cut greens (lettuce, arugula, or mizuna)

parsley

We are so excited that this week’s share includes black eyed peas and okra along with an assortment of other items for making Cajun, southern, or African influenced dishes. Over the past three years we have struggled to get a really good yield from our black eyed pea crop and this year we feel quite satisfied. Some of you will get dried pods and others fresh pods, but all should be treated as fresh and used soon. Below we have included a few recipes that call for either dry or canned peas. The cook time for these fresh ones should be somewhere in between with no soaking necessary. Small portions of celery, onion, carrot, and jalapeno have been included as aromatics for making hoppin john, pea salad, gumbo, or the like.  This is a difficult climate for celery, we are too hot and humid and it prefers well draining sandy soil, but we have heavy clay. So our celery is much smaller, with more concentrated flavor and less big succulent stalks. We love it but use it raw finely minced or cooked. Please make sure to use the leaves as well, they are fabulous as an aromatic in a sauté. Have fun cooking and enjoy the share….Brian and Autumn

Eggplant (Rosa Bianca, Prosperosa, and Dancer)
Red Slicing Tomatoes
Nicola Potatoes
Roma Beans or Padron Peppers
Cucumbers
German White Garlic
Leutschauer Paprika Peppers
Gypsy and Seyrek Peppers
Something Extra

The past week was quite productive. We were able to wrap up our major fall planting without too many issues and move all of our poultry to different areas of the farm, quite a feat. Our laying hens were moved onto a new piece of shaded pasture that required a bit of clean up to be able to set up their fences around all the trees. This area has been overgrown since we moved onto the farm. Cleaning it up made clear to us that it was a dumping ground for former tennants of the farm, leaving behind scrap metal and large chunks of concrete. It’s amazing what brambles and poison ivy can hide. We don’t get as much time as we would like to clean up the property so it always feels nice to make a little impact here and there. On the other side of the farm we have 3 batches of meat birds on pasture now surrounding our dog Aleppo. Each year August and September have been challenging for us with our poultry due to wild predators. It’s the time of year that black vultures move through our area, hawks and owls seem present and we have more sightings of opposums and racoons. Aleppo’s presence helps to deter these predators.

This weeks share feels a lot like August to me. We’re starting to harvest our Leutschauer Paprika peppers which are excelent fresh, so no need to dry them. Eggplants are becoming abundant and this week you will get both Middle Eastern and Italian styles to play with in the kitchen. Our green beans and padron peppers are making another appearance and the cucumbers this time around will be our pickler variety Piccolo Parigi, which we add into our last succession. Try some bread and butter pickles or a classic dill pickle recipe, they will not disappoint. Nicola potatoes are a golden creamy and floury spud, probably our favorite. They make great hashbrowns, skillet potatoes, or potato salad and they are fabulous fried with a little duck fat or roasted in the oven.  The tomatoes this week are going to be red slicers. We’ve been coring the tomatoes and roasting them whole in the oven at 200 degrees for 3-4 hours. You can eat them on their own, or add them to dishes asking for tomato.
Enjoy the share…
Brian and Autumn

Eggplant and Greek Yogurt Dip

Stuffed Cubanelle Peppers

Eggplant and Potato Curry

Sweet-and-Spicy Bread-and-Butter Pickles

Crimson Sweet or Ali Baba Watermelon
Eggplant (Thai, Asian, or Italian styles)
Heirloom Salad and Slicer Tomatoes
Hot Chiles (Thai, Serrano, and more)
Shishito Peppers
Scallions
Thai Basil
Shiso

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.

Chinese Spicy Garlic Eggplant (Yu Xiang Qie Zi) 

Miso-Roasted Eggplants with Tomatoes, Dill, Shiso and Black Vinegar 

Tomatoes with Thai Basil Dressing

Heirloom Tomatoes
Watermelon or Melon
Peppers – Cubanelle & Anaheim or Poblano
Beets –Red Ace & Chioggia
Cucumbers –Suyo Long & Marketmore
German White Garlic
Tomatillos
Jalapenos

Summer is wonderful and so so bountiful. For someone who enjoys food and cooking, this time of year can be overwhelming. Every few weeks new Summer crops are coming to center stage, from squash and tomatoes, to chiles and peppers, okra and watermelon, and then corn and beans. Living in this central Virginian climate really lends itself to warm season crops. Compared to other parts of the country, we have a long and abundant season with tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and squash. That is if we can fend off the diseases and pests that also thrive in our temperate and warm, humid summers. At Tomten Farm, we slowly incorporate the summer crops, due to our limited labor force and therefore limited time. Instead of planting everything in early May, we stagger our crops and successions, this allows us at least a month to get crops planted and also means we can ease into a full summer harvest schedule. Many crops, such as tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, okra and specialty peppers need to be picked three times a week, while others, such as garlic, potatoes, and watermelon can happen in a few big harvests. By staggering our crops we can more easily manage our harvest loads. So with our schedule we are hoping to have tomatoes and summer squash coming in June; green beans, peppers, and potatoes coming in July, and eggplant, watermelon, and okra coming in August. Depending on the number of successions and crop management many of these crops continue until first frost.

Coming up this week as we are full swing into our three-day a week summer harvest schedule, we will focus for two days on transplanting and direct seeding for our big fall push. This will be our main fall planting. Some will be quick crops that will come on the scene in September, such as radishes, bok choy, and scallions. Others slow crops such as radicchio, carrots, brussel sprouts, turnips, and bunching greens; that will make it onto the scene in October, November, or even December. We continue hoping for slightly cooler temperatures over the next 10 days for better germination results as well as not “too heavy of a rain”, which is impossible to predict during the constant chance of thunderstorm, so that our newly transplanted and seeded crops can set roots and make the transition into soil as seamless as possible. Regardless of the weather we are getting the soil beds prepared and amended as best we can to start the fall and winter out right.

This week’s share screams summer. Everyone will get either a watermelon (sugar baby or crimson sweet) or melon (sun jewel asian melon or halona cantaloupe) with their share and we encourage making beverages out of them, as this time of year we crave beverages all of the time. It must come from constant work in the heat. Not feeling watermelon juice or spritzer, we have included a number of salad recipes, but straight eating is superb as well. Anaheim or Poblano peppers are included, both are excellent added to a pot of pinto beans or sautéed with onions and tomatoes and added to scrambled eggs. Want something a bit fancier? Check out the recipes below. Tomatillos are also just starting to come in strong so we added them in order to encourage salsa verde or even a green chile pork stew eaten alongside some watermelon with lime, chile pepper, and queso fresco. So many ideas, so little time. Enjoy the share….Autumn and Brian

Watermelon-Cucumber Cooler

Cantaloupe Agua Fresca

Melon Granitas 

Michoteta (Feta Cheese and Cucumber Salad) – The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

½ lb Feta Cheese
Juice of 1 Lemon
2 Tbls Olive Oil
1 Red Italian Onion, finely chopped
½ large Cucumber, peeled and diced
White Pepper
Crumble the cheese with a Tbls of water, using a fork, and work in the lemon juice and olive oil. Mix in the onion and cucumber, and add pepper.

Beet and Cucumber Salad

Watermelon and Cucumber Mint Tsatsiki Salad

Tomato and Watermelon Salad

Cold Beet and Cucumber Soup

Roasted Tomatillo and Garlic Salsa

SAN LUIS POTOSÍ: Huevos en Rabo de Mestiza (Eggs Poached in a Tomato Poblano Sauce)

Spicy, Citrusy Black Beans

Potatoes (Sangre)
Lettuce (Little Gem)
Romano Beans
Swiss Chard
Genovese Basil
Sungold Cherry Tomatoes
Sauce Tomatoes (Red Pear, San Marzano, & Amish Paste)
Sun Jewel Melon or Sugar Baby Watermelon

We have had a very productive week and are excited to have our CSA work share members coming out this weekend to help us get even more accomplished. Over the past month we have had a lull in big plantings, but instead have been doing big harvest jobs, such as garlic and this weekend, potatoes. It is so enjoyable to harvest most of a crop at one time and see the job finished; but potatoes are even better because it is the closest we get to feeling like little kids, crawling around in the dirt searching for all the hidden gems. Once potatoes are harvested we will load them into our basement to cure in a dark and stable 75degree environment for a few weeks at which point they will be shelf stable for a period of months. We love potatoes; because it is a root crop that we can store and sell throughout the season into the Winter months. For our limited labor force, this is a very efficient crop for us.

This week’s share includes lots of delicious items. We are most excited about the sauce tomatoes, as we love to cook with tomatoes, especially fresh ones, in our house. All of the varieties are Italian heirlooms and they have wonderful complexity and acidity. Over the past few years we have been struggling to get these tomatoes to produce well and finally this year we feel like they are putting out quality tomatoes with a good amount of volume. So we have figured something out at least. Pair them with basil and romano beans or swiss chard for a delicious meal or make a simple pasta sauce, just olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar. Now we are also very excited about the melons, probably just as excited as with the tomatoes. This afternoon we had our first harvest, which means eating melon warm in the field, one of the best moments in every summer. Late July always seems like the perfect time for refreshing melon, whether it be on its own, in a salad, or juiced. Recently we made some juice with melon and basil, so wonderful and refreshing, give it a go. Enjoy the Share….Brian and Autumn

Peppers (Cubanelle and Seyrek)
Cucumbers (Suyo Long and Marketmore)
Tomatoes (Celebrity, Abu Rawan, and Red Pear)
Romano Beans or Padron & Shishito Peppers
Spanish Roja Garlic
Flat Leaf Italian Parsley
Escarole

This past week we were able to catch up on a lot of crop management and continued seeding and transplanting. We finally got our last succession of tomatoes, a small roasting tomato called Verona, planted in our high tunnel. These tomatoes will be ready in September and early October and hopefully pair perfectly with our fall vegetables. We also transplanted our last succession of summer squash and our next succession of lettuce and arugula. Hopefully they can all survive this heavy humid heat we are getting for the next few days. We were finally able to thin our parsnip stand and are happy to say it looks really healthy, which is a first for us. The eggplant, peppers, cucumber, and later successions of tomatoes all look really happy as well, probably due to continued management (suckering, staking, trellising, feeding, and weeding); which seems to be better than in years past. We have been relatively successful with summer plantings of escarole, frisee, herbs, arugula, salad mix, and lettuce heads in partially shaded areas on the farm. It feels like we are finally getting our timing more in sync so that we can have more frequent harvests from less heat tolerant crops. On deck for the next few weeks, planting our fall/winter leeks, a last succession of beans, fall snap peas, more lettuce, herbs, arugula, and then we are moving on to fall crops. Yes fall crops already.

On a less positive note, our onion crop was a failure this year, meaning you may not see anymore or very little onions in the future of this seasons CSA. Why did it fail? Well we believe it is a combination of poor crop management, uncontrollable weather issues, and onion maggot. Over the past two years we have seen an increase in the onion fly/maggot population and this spring due to a great combination of weather factors, the population bumped up considerably. If you recall, the spring had a lot of hot weather followed by really cool conditions, many of our brassica or cole crops went to flower before producing much plant growth, well a lot of onion plants also started to flower before bulbing, so we had considerable loss with that. In addition we let the weeds get out of hand and so the onions got socked in (lack of ventilation) and then soaked with rain from our continual hot weather storms. So through a combination of bug damage and weather conditions we had a lot of the crop simply disappear and what is left is riddled with either neck rot or damaged layers. This is not the only crop issue of the season, but a small example of the factors and length of time involved in a crop’s demise. For next year we have a lot of ideas to implement and so much more experience about what to be on the lookout for and how to manage properly.

This week’s share includes the first of our cured garlic, meaning this stuff is shelf stable for a number of months. It is still a good idea to store it in a shady place or pantry so it will not sprout. This variety is Spanish Roja, a hardneck rocambole style that is very tasty with a intense but clean pungency and heat. You all are getting the first of the seasons peppers, both types are mild and great eaten raw or cooked. We are introducing the Suyo long cucumber, a personal favorite of ours, the skin although wrinkly is actually quite thin and does not need to be peeled and the seeds are very small. Suyo’s are sweet and have a great silky texture with the right amount of crunch. Although it is summer and has been quite hot, please do not overlook this escarole. It is such a treat to have greens throughout the summer and even though the escarole is a bit pungent, there is a multitude of ways to prepare it to bring out the complex sweetness and to enjoy its crunchy texture. This is by far the best summer escarole we have ever grown.

Enjoy the share……Brian and Autumn

Turkish Shepherd’s Salad

Romano Beans Sauteed with Oregano

The Real Greek Salad

Bulgur Pilaf With Red Peppers And Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes (Sungold & Honeydrop)
Tomatoes (Orange Blossom, Celebrity, or Betalux)
Carrots (chantenay)
Asian Salad Mix (Red Mustards, Tokyo Bekana, Mizuna, Tatsoi)
Romano Beans, Padron, or Shishito Peppers
Cucumber (Marketmore)
Scallion
Cilantro
Shiso (Perilla)
Frisee (Curly Endive)

Shiso is used throughout Asia both medicinally and as an herb, especially popular in Japanese, Korean, and southeast Asian cuisines. In Virginia it is known as Perilla and is a native plant that is common throughout the Piedmont. On our farm we have the green variety and it grows on the edges of wood lines and in other slightly shaded areas. The wild variety is not as pungent as some cultivated types, but it is still amazing used in herb salads, spring rolls, and even granita.

Padron peppers are the most famous produce of Padrón Galicia Spain. They are served fried with olive oil and coarse salt. Most taste sweet and mild, though some are particularly hot and spicy, which gives its character to the dish and is perfectly captured in the popular “Os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non” (Galician for “Padrón peppers, some are hot and some are not”). The level of heat varies according to the capsaicin of each pepper. Although it’s not always the case, the peppers grown towards August/September tend to contain more capsaicin than the ones of June/July.

Shishito peppers come from Eastern Asia and are popular in Japanese cuisine. Like Padrons, they are a roulette pepper with the majority being mild and an occasional fiery and hot. They can be eaten raw, blistered with olive oil or sesame oil, added to skewers with other grilled vegetables, or tempura battered.

Shiso Granita – Japanese Farm Food by Nancy Singleton Hachisu
15 green shiso leaves
¼ cup granulated sugar
Place the shiso leaves in a medium-sized bowl or 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup. Heat the sugar and 3 cups water to boiling in a medium saucepan, stirring the sugar to dissolve. Pour the boiling sugar water over the leaves and steep until cool. Set a strainer over a plastic container large enough to hold 3 cups and strain out the leaves. Cover and transfer the shiso-flavored sugar water to a freezer shelf. Let sit, undisturbed, in the freezer for 1 hour. Remove to the countertop, open the lid, and gently stir in the crystals that have formed on the perimeter. Repeat this operation every 30 minutes, breaking up any larger crystals as you go. The finished granita should be flaky. Serve alone in a glass bowl or goblet. This is also wonderful served alongside Fig Ice Cream and Plum Sorbet. Keeps frozen for several weeks.

Carrot and Mitsuba Salad with Citrus – Japanese Farm Food by Nancy Singleton Hachisu
3 cups julienned Carrots
2 Tbls julienned Negi or Scallions (white and light green parts)
¼ tsp Salt
2 Tbls mild Citrus Juice (Yuzu, Meyer Lemon, Seville Orange)
2 Tbls Rapeseed Oil
Handful of Mitsuba (Substitute Cilantro, Lovage, or Chervil
Place the carrots and scallions in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Gently toss. Measure the citrus juice in a small bowl and whisk in the oil. Pour over the carrots and onion and mix slightly to distribute the vinaigrette. Add the mitsuba (or cilantro) leaves and toss once. Serve on gorgeous small plates that show off the bright colors of the salad. Be sure to serve from the bottom, since the dressing quickly drips down, and prop up a few mitsuba leaves on the individual plates to add a bit of pop.

Chopped Summer Salad with Miso – Japanese Farm Food by Nancy Singleton Hachisu
1 medium red or orange tomato, cored
1 Japanese cucumber, unpeeled
4 small green peppers, cored and seeded
2.5 oz “cotton” or silk tofu
1 Tbls organic miso
1 Tbls organic rice vinegar
2 Tbls organic rapeseed oil
6 shiso leaves, cut into fine threads
Chop the tomato, cucumber, and green peppers into 1/4-inch uniform dice and scrape each one into the same medium-sized bowl. Do not toss. Cut the tofu carefully into ½-inch squares. Muddle the miso with the vinegar and whisk in the oil. Right before serving, toss the vegetables, then spoon onto individual plates. Drizzle with the miso dressing, drop a few cubes of tofu on top, and strew with shiso threads. Serve immediately.

Vietnamese Salad Rolls (Gỏi cuốn)
When we make these we let everyone prepare their own, as it makes for a really fun meal activity. As the recipe states, you can substitute various herbs’ we particularly like thai basil, shiso, and mint together. We always add julienned slivers of scallions and sometimes substitute shredded pork or shrimp for tofu.

Blistered Shishito Peppers with Miso

momofuku’s tomato tofu caprese salad 

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