TOMTEN FARM

Russian Kale
Lettuce Head
Shishito Peppers
Khmer Thai Chilies
Salad Turnips or Radishes
Asian Long Beans
Bok Choy
Garlic
extra – Eggplant

Greens and quick roots are growing fast all over the farm. We have had some issues with germination in our cut greens and are beginning to see some deer pressure in the lettuce heads and cooking greens, whatever smells sweetest at the moment they will find; but overall crops are coming along. This week’s share is made for all kinds of stir-fry’s. Bok Choy, shishitos, long beans, and turnips or radishes all do well cooked on their own quickly over high heat doused in some soy sauce, hoisin, or oyster sauce. They also work well together, or with a protein. Our Khmer thai chilies are very hot; but can lend a subtle, floral, heady flavor and aroma when tossed into a stir-fry whole. If you don’t like too much heat, pull it out when done cooking. Both the salad turnips and radishes are also delicious thinly sliced and soaked in salt and rice vinegar. Check the recipes out below and enjoy the share…..Autumn & Brian

Hoisin Eggplant, Prawn and Bok Choy Stir-Fry

Stir-Fried Beef with Bok Choy and Turnips

Stir-Fried Hakurei Turnips With Dried Shrimp, Chiles, Garlic And Lime

Snake Bean and Egg Stir-Fry

Chinese Beans and Bok Choy with Peppered Shrimp

Brown Butter Scallops With Sautéed Kale, Shishitos Over A Bed Of Polenta

Arugula
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Romano Beans
Hakurei Turnips or Radishes
Maules Red Hot Pepper
Assorted Sweet Peppers
Assorted Eggplant
Parsley

Welcome to the Fall 2022 CSA season! The crops are looking good and although we have had some struggles in the last few months (where’s the okra?  Well the deer are still eating it.), most of the late summer crops are very strong with a bumper crop of long beans (deer stopped eating them), loads of tomatoes, and some healthy enormous eggplant and pepper plants. The fall crops are looking pretty healthy even though it has been warm and humid for a lot of the past few months. Compared to last year when we lost tons of our brassicas crops to heat, disease, and pests and had to replant carrots three times, our fall diversity seems in a great place. We still have intense worm and early aphid pressure and with the week of rain a few weeks back the weeds are really trying their best to take hold; but our management up to this point seems to be keeping the crops healthy. This is good news! Before we know it the cooking and eating greens will abound. Chicories, collards, and broccoli raab will get some sweetness from the cold nights and be at perfection and the wide diversity of fall roots will be available. We did lose our parsnip crop again this Spring, so none of that unfortunately; but the winter squash is currently curing, fennel is looking strong, herbs are beginning to grow, our polenta corn looks like it might have a little something that is harvestable and on and on. Point being there should be plenty of food. Thanks for being here for the ride. Check out the recipes below and enjoy the share….Brian and Autumn

Turnip And Red Pepper Salad

Italian Green Bean Salad

Burrata with Romano Beans and Roasted Eggplant

Radish and Arugula Salad with Pecorino and Lemon

Pan-Roasted Peppers With Garlic Infused Sauce

Green Beans in Tomato Sauce – The New Book of Middle Eastern Cooking by Claudia Roden
1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
2 Tbls olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ lb ripe tomatoes, chopped
½ lb green beans, topped and talied and cut into 2-3 pieces
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
juice of ¼ lemon
Fry the onion in oil till soft and golden. Add the garlic, and when the aroma arises, add the tomatoes and beans. Season with salt, pepper, and sugar, add water as necessary to cover the beans, and lemon juice, simmering 15-20 minutes, or until the beans are tender and the sauce reduced a little.

Eggplant in a Spicy Honey Sauce –The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
The sauce is a splendid example of the hot, spicy, and sweet combinations; which are a thrilling feature of North African cooking. Serve it cold with bread.
2 medium-large eggplants
olive oil
salt
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 inches fresh gingerroot, grated, or cut into pieces
1 ½ tsp ground cumin
large pinch cayenne or ground chili pepper, to taste
4-6 Tbls honey
juice of 1 lemon
2/3 cup water
Cut the eggplants into rounds about 1/3” thick. Do not peel them. Dip them in olive oil, turning them over, and cook on a griddle or under a broiler, turning them over once, until they are lightly browned. They do not need to be soft, as they will cook further in the sauce. In a wide saucepan or skillet, fry the garlic in 2 Tbls of the oil for seconds only, stirring, then take off the heat. Add the ginger, cumin, and cayenne or gorund chili pepper, honey, lemon juice, and water. Put in the eggplant slices and cook over low heat –either in batches, so they are in one layer, or together, rearranging them so that each slice gets some time in the sauce –for about 10 minutes, or until the slices are soft and have absorbed the sauce. Add a little water if necessary.

Arugula
Long Bean
Cucumber
Asian Eggplant
Shishito Peppers
Khmer Thai Chile
Yellow Onion
Tomatoes
Thai Basil
Shiso (Perilla)

We have arrived at the final week for our 2022 Spring/Summer CSA share.  Looking back at journal entries from the same time in past seasons, there are some strong similarities from year to year. We seem to struggle a bit in late August, partially because we are exhausted; but mostly because there is a significant seasonal shift. Most Summer crops are taking a little breather after an undoubtedly hot July, so our yields seem low and weather/pest dependent some crops are petering out or done. Although we are in the thick of it with planting for Fall and through the Winter, we are still two weeks away from early Fall crops being harvestable. Every year this “lull” brings on a little stress, this year that is magnified by deer ravaged okra (it will come folks just very late) among a handful of other stressful crops. The point though is that it is partially just the way it goes with our Virginia growing climate, so we should really just embrace it. Sounds like it is about time for a little break and then we can welcome in some new crops with the start of our Fall season while still enjoying the summer ones.
This week’s share is made up of some of our favorite crops and we have included recipes we have given out year after year; because we make them ourselves quite regularly and absolutely love them. The Pok Pok cucumber salad is a staple at the farm and can be improvised or shifted quite a bit and still is always delicious. We make salad rolls at crew lunch at least a few times a year. A favorite way to eat the self starting perilla we find all over our farm. Wanting something sweet, try the Shiso Granita, it is subtle and refreshing, Thanks so much for joining us this season, enjoy the share…..Autumn & Brian

Long Bean Salad

Tam Taeng Kwaa (Thai Cucumber Salad) –Pok Pok by Andy Ricker

Eggplant and Chili Garlic Pork Stir-Fry
Use a thai chili to replace the chili sauce and serve this dish alongside a simple cucumber vinegar salad and seared shishito peppers.

Japanese Eggplant With Chicken & Thai Basil Japanese Eggplant With Chicken & Thai Basil

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.

Vietnamese Salad Rolls (Gỏi cuốn)
When we make these we let everyone prepare their own and it makes for a really fun meal activity. As the recipe states, you can substitute various herbs’ we particularly like thai basil and shiso together. We will add carrot, cucumber, daikon, long bean, scallion, and sometimes substitute shredded pork or shrimp for tofu. For dipping sauces we use a traditional Nuoc Cham and peanut sauce (recipes below).

Nuoc Cham –Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffery Alford and Naomi Duguid
1/4cup fresh lime juice
¼ cup fish sauce
¼ cup water
2 tsp rice or cider vinegar
1 Tbls sugar
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 bird chile, minces
several shreds of carrot (optional)
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar completely. Serve in small condiment bowls. Store in a tightly sealed glass container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days (after that, the garlic starts to taste tired).

Vietnamese Peanut Sauce –Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffery Alford and Naomi Duguid
¼ cup dry roasted peanuts
2 scant Tbls tamarind pulp, dissolved in 2 Tbls warm water or substitute 2 Tbls tomato paste
2 tsp peanut oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbls fermented soybean paste (tuong in Vietnamese; dao jiao in Thai)
1 cup water
1 ½ tsp sugar
1-2 bird chiles, mminced
Generous squeeze of fresh lime juice
Place the peanuts in a food processor or large mortar and process or pound to a coarse powder; set aside. If using tamarind, press it through a sieve; reserve the liquid and discard the solids. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet over high heat. Add the garlic and stir-fry until it is starting to change color, about 15 seconds. Add the soybean paste and the tamarind or tomato paste and stir to blend. Stir in ½ cup water, then stir in most of the ground peanuts, reserving about 1 Tbls for the garnish. Stir in the sugar and chiles. Add up to ½  cup more water, until you have the desired texture: a thick liquid, pourable but not watery. Serve in small condiment bowls, warm or at room temperature, squeezing on the lime and sprinkling on the reserved peanuts just before serving. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days or in the freezer for 1 month. Reheat it in a small pan and simmer briefly before serving.

Nicola Potatoes
Cubanelle & Pimento Peppers
Round & Teardrop Eggplant
Summer Squash
Jalapeno
Garlic
Optional: Genovese Basil

Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Garlic Pesto

Patatas Bravas

Zesty Jalapeño Pesto Pasta with Zucchini and Corn

Eggplant Sandwiches With Cubanelle Peppers And Baby Arugula

Alice Waters’ Ratatouille

Chicken Cacciatore with Cubanelle Peppers

Caponata from The Kitchen Garden
Lots and lots of olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 head garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp chili flakes or fresh hot peppers, to taste
1 pound peppers, cut into large chunks
1 pound eggplant, cut into large chunks
1 or 2 ripe plum tomatoes, chopped
salt & pepper
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp capers
3 Tbsp chopped Kalamata olive
Few sprigs chopped basil and parsley
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat about 4 Tbsp olive oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven with a lid that can go in the oven. Sauté the onion and garlic until soft.  Add the pepper flakes and peppers and sauté over medium heat 5-10 minutes.  Add eggplant and sauté another several minutes. You may want to add more oil to make sure everything is generously anointed.  Add the tomatoes.  Cover the pot and put it in the oven to bake for 20-30 minutes.  Everything should be very, very soft.  Season with salt, pepper and the other seasonings.  Adjust sweetness, salt and acidity to taste.  Serve it warm on fresh crusty bread or at room temperature the next day.  Makes a great pasta sauce, too. (The original version contains chunks of celery, too.  If you like celery, you can add it when you add the tomatoes.)

Sugar Baby or Crimson Watermelon
Tomatoes or Tomatillos
Red Candy Onion
Anaheim Peppers
Romano Beans
Serrano Chilies
Crisp Lettuce

Not sure if everyone is as excited as we are that the weather is finally cooling down a smidge. It has been a difficult 10 weeks; with a lot of very humid and hot days, especially mid-week when we have our most active workloads. We are also antsy to begin planting our fall crops. This week if the weather cooperates, we will get all our large cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and bunching green crops in the ground. We will also seed carrots, beets, and herbs. Next week we will follow up with fennel, turnips, rutabaga, winter radishes, and the first chicory transplants. So fall is in the air for us even though we have 6 more weeks of summer.  The past few weeks have been filled with managing greenhouse crops, fending off predatory animals both big and small (harsh summers create very hungry wildlife), and cleaning up/preparing fields for the fall plantings. Our small crew of farm hands has been really productive even though we are all sweating buckets by 10am. It seems to me like one of the hottest feeling summers in our decade here in Virginia. Now as it begins to wain a tiny bit we keep our fingers crossed that our farm will be missed by big destructive storms and that we will get some precipitation but not extremes. This is a big ask but we can hope.
This week’s share finally has more beans. Our first planting was practically a wash and we are happy that the 2^nd succession is finally producing. They are delicious braised, blanched, or even eaten raw. A Romano bean is a flat-podded green bean that comes from Italy. They are meaty, with great flavor and texture. We also are happy to have a quick lettuce showing (this succession in the summer is always a crap shoot), although the heads are small and irregular, they are crisp and tender. They are so delicious as a salad with red onion, feta, and tomatoes or put in your classic blt. This week also includes the 2^nd watermelon for the season these will likely be much smaller and pair so perfectly with our mild and hot peppers. Check the recipes below and enjoy the share…..Brian and Autumn

Watermelon Salad With Cotija And Serrano Peppers

Stuffed Anaheim Peppers

Pork Chile Verde

Italian Green Beans Recipe

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.

Arugula
Chioggia Beets
Summer Squash
Round & Teardrop Eggplant
Italian Sauce Tomatoes
Genovese Basil
Garlic

Lebanese Baked Eggplant With Beef And Pine Nuts

Layered Eggplant, Zucchini and Tomato Casserole

Shaved Summer Squash Salad

Spaghetti With Fresh Tomato Sauce

Roasted Beet And Avocado Salad With Basil Lime Vinaigrette

Crimson Sweet Watermelon
Asian Long or Thai Round Eggplant
Little Leaf Pickling Cucumbers
Seyrek or Shishito Peppers
Assorted Tomatoes
Thai Basil
Scallions

With 4 weeks left in the Spring/Summer share, we are finally beginning to see some new crops after a relatively slim month. Our early Summer has been a little slim because of  a number of different factors. We ran through our Spring crops very quickly due to low yields in the carrot crops, lots of bolting in the herbs, and early heat meaning some storage crops were ready early. Since we have limited storage space, things like cabbages need to move quickly, to make space for other crops like potatoes, onions, and garlic. Another affect of the weather, the intense heat with high humidity since late May, has meant some destruction from Southern blight. It is a soil born disease that is very difficult to get rid of without taking crop land out of production for long amounts of time, something we cannot do. This has been taking out swaths of peppers (very sad, although we still have a lot growing strong) and set back some maturity. It has also affected our potato yields and mildly affected our eggplants when they were young, all slowing down early flowering and yields. We also always get behind schedule in May, often because we are waiting for one crop to be done to replant in that same space. This year we got behind planting our okra, long beans, and hot chilies. Then they were hit with unrelenting heat, followed by pest pressure (deer and groundhog eating), so their growth has been stunted. Again we have been very dry and hot, so the animals are hungry and taking risks to come into our crop fields. As we get a handle on this, we feel hopeful that the plantings will pull through but it will be another 3-4 weeks before they hit their stride.  Every season is full of these sorts of issues and our job is to anticipate in advance what we need when and sometimes things do better than expected (cucumbers, squash, watermelon, tomatoes this season) and sometimes much worse. Crops like okra and eggplant are so hearty that sometimes we ignore them and then we get setback or caught off guard; but with time things can sometimes turn around.
This week’s share includes our last spring scallion planting, which was planted 3 weeks late; but in a tunnel under a shade cloth. They are taking a long time to get to size, due to a dislike for 90degree temperatures; but they are a nice aromatic partner with thai basil, so we are happy to have them this week. The seyrek peppers are beginning to take off , they are a great crunchy mild pepper, delicious in salads, sautéed, or grilled or if you prefer some heat, we will have shishitos. Both of these peppers pair well with tomatoes or eggplant, so lots of options. We are also excited to get you a early for us watermelon, usually these do not come on until August. These will likely be enormous. Overall this is the largest crimson sweet watermelon we have grown, not the highest yield but the largest pieces. Don’t be overwhelmed, cut into it, eat some, keep a piece in the fridge for a week easily, and then juice a hug chunk, it is so refreshing on a hot day. The juicing does not require a juicer, just a blender and then a strainer. Add some lime, bubbly water, thai basil, mix with cucumber , delicious. Enjoy the share….Autumn and Brian

Watermelon Tomato Salad

Watermelon Cucumber Salad with Crispy Thai Basil Dressing

Fresh Watermelon Thai Basil Fresca (We make this without the added sweetener and both with and without the alcohol – delicious)

Blistered Shishito Peppers with Miso

Spiced Peppers and Eggplant (substitute seyrek or shishito for sweet peppers)

Japanese Eggplant With Chicken & Thai Basil

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!)

Carrots
Red Candy Onions
Zephyr and Safari Squash
Serrano and Jalapeno Chilies
Heirloom or Sungold Cherry Tomatoes
Tomatillos

Tomatillo And Tomato Salad

Late-summer tomato & carrot salad

Salsa Verde Recipe

Grilled Zucchini Tacos

Easy Calabacitas Recipe

South Indian Style carrot salad

Tomatoes
Sangre Potatoes
Shishito Peppers
Eggplant or Romano Green Beans
Genovese Basil
Cucumber
Garlic

Braised Romano Beans

Blistered Shishito Peppers with Olive-and-Basil Salt

Creamy Cucumber and Grilled Potato Salad

Cucumber-Basil Egg Salad

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

Aloo Baingan (Eggplant And Potato Curry)

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes
Romano Beans or Eggplant
Tendersweet Cabbage
Summer Squash Mix
Red Candy Onions
Chioggia Beets

We hope everyone is having a fun or restful holiday weekend. On the farm we are getting a bit of rest before the week begins. It seems like Summer has really hit. Our tomatoes are poised to hit high gear any day now and they are tasting really delicious. We always love the tomatoes; but this year the flavor seems exceptionally good especially for the early varieties/ Our small patch of corn (Cateto variety this year) is already 4-5’ tall, even with the limited amount of rain we have gotten here on the farm. All of a sudden it seems like our potatoes are ready to be dug, the garlic and onions have cured very quickly, eggplant and beans are producing, with peppers and okra some weeks behind. We have softball size watermelon and the winter squash is flowering like crazy. Oh and the weather is hot and humid, so yes Summer is most definitely here. This past week we began the first of our fall and winter transplanted crops (cabbage, cauliflower, fennel, and broccoli), meaning  we seeded cell trays that will be ready to plant in 4-6 weeks,. So as the new season sets in, we are off preparing for the next. This week we seed trays of late day chicories, bunching greens, and chinese cabbage. We are also set to transplant our last succession of tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers; as well as direct seed a summer round of arugula and our last succession of romano beans. Some of our farm spaces are full and abundant, while others are dry and open. These fields have recently been cleared of cover crop or spring crops and will now get ready for fall planting or cover cropping. We are looking forward to our upcoming CSA workday to help get some of the potatoes dug quickly, as they can rot if left in the ground once mature when temperatures are so high. As the season cycles continue year after year, there is always an enormous amount of timely work to be done once Summer arrives.
This week’s share will include the last spring cabbage, it holds well in the refrigerator so do not feel rushed to use it and relish in the greens, as they become more sparse with all this heat. We also will have the very first harvest of green beans for the season. They have been growing very slowly due to the dry and hot conditions; but seem mature and ready to be eaten. Both of these crops make great fresh salads; add some red onion, a little vinegar, sugar, salt, and oil. With beans,  blanch for 1-2 minutes, then chill before tossing with the other ingredients and some halved sungold tomatoes. Check the recipes below and enjoy the share…..Autumn and Brain

Cheesy Zucchini-Eggplant Bake

Salad of Chioggia Beets and Romano Beans

Cumin-Spiced Beet Salad with Yogurt and Preserved Lemon

Warm Cabbage and Green Beans

Eggplant in a Spicy Honey Sauce –The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
The sauce is a splendid example of the hot, spicy, and sweet combinations; which are a thrilling feature of North African cooking. Serve it cold with bread.
2 medium-large eggplants
olive oil
salt
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 inches fresh gingerroot, grated, or cut into pieces
1 ½ tsp ground cumin
large pinch cayenne or ground chili pepper, to taste
4-6 Tbls honey
juice of 1 lemon
2/3 cup water
Cut the eggplants into rounds about 1/3” thick. Do not peel them. Dip them in olive oil, turning them over, and cook on a griddle or under a broiler, turning them over once, until they are lightly browned. They do not need to be soft, as they will cook further in the sauce. In a wide saucepan or skillet, fry the garlic in 2 Tbls of the oil for seconds only, stirring, then take off the heat. Add the ginger, cumin, and cayenne or gorund chili pepper, honey, lemon juice, and water. Put in the eggplant slices and cook over low heat –either in batches, so they are in one layer, or together, rearranging them so that each slice gets some time in the sauce –for about 10 minutes, or until the slices are soft and have absorbed the sauce. Add a little water if necessary.