Edgewater Farm csa

      P i c k l i s t

tomatoes - broccoli - basil - parsley -

cabbage - blueberries - eggplant - corn - green beans

This week in farming proved way chiller than last- woop woop! We did not have to take shelter due to thunderstorms, we did not have to pull riverside equipment in fear of flood, and we did not have to grin and bear at 2 pm on those 95 degree days.  We got to enjoy the season, we got to enjoy farming.  It is all harvest all the time right now and it feels so good to swiftly fill a bushel with carrots, or a flat with raspberries.  Pints upon pints have been filled daily with the sweetest blueberries, and I can't help but eye the shishito pepper crop nightly as it is planted right outside my bedroom window.  I like to lazily dream gaze at this field, waiting for it to produce an abundance of my fave veg (the shishitos) to pick and fry.   

Bottomline here, we are in the middle of what seems to be a good all around summer bounty, with loads of cukes, pickles, squash, zucchini, and green beans coming in from the fields. Now adding cherries, grapes, and mixed colors little tomatoes to pint up along with their elders: gobs of red slicing tomatoes and heirlooms just waiting to be sliced. The corn is ready! The melons are sweet as can be- lets just hang out in July forever shall we?

What is proving to be a challenge right now? We are struggling to get our Fall crops seeded, and our fields weeded.  Even with this abundance of light levels, there are just not enough hours in a day.  Forgive me, if I’ve said that last part about light and not enough hours, 100000 times.  But it’s so true!

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS: 

Basil: hot tip on storing basil, treat it as a cut flower and keep it in a vase on your counter (outside the fridge) in about 2 inches of water.  

Ripe for the grill:   broccoli - cabbage - eggplant - corn - green beans - tomato

Where are Mitchel's recipes?!? Due to the nature of this CSA (diverse and ever changing), we had to make some last minute crops switching on account of a sudden abundance of green beans and blueberries.  Therefore, Mitchel’s recipes for what would have been a cucurbit heavy CSA will be bookmarked for the next cucumber-squash-zucchini week. 

Grilled Summer Veg with Creamy Sesame Dressing BY MOLLY BAZ

https://mollybaz.com/grilled-summer-veg-with-creamy-sesame-dressing/#memberful_done

SERVES: 4 Silken tofu is the magical miracle ingredient in this creamy mayo-less sesame dressing. If it sounds weird to blend tofu into a dressing….it’s not. It Lends body and a subtle soy flavor that gets bolstered with sesame seeds, sesame oil, and garlic.As for the grilled vegetables, really ,the world is your oyster here. I’ve suggested some green things that cook quickly and go well together but I’ve also used this dressing on grilled or roasted mushrooms, and drizzled over baked sweet potatoes, so don't feel like you have to stick to the script.The recipe will yield twice as much dressing as you need and that’s intentional – no sense in busting out the blender for one meal. 

ACTIVE TIME: 45 MINS TOTAL TIME: 55 MINS

PRODUCE:

4 garlic cloves

2 lbs green summer vegetables (zucchini, asparagus, snap peas, scallions or green beans)

1lemon 

PANTRY 

4 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

¼ cup toasted sesame seeds

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil

 ⅓ cup unseasoned rice vinegar 

1tablespoon soy sauce 

Kosher salt, lots of freshly ground black pepper 

PROTEIN 8 oz soft tofu 

1. MAKETHE CREAMYTOFU SESAME DRESSING: 

In a small food processor or blender, combine 8 ounces soft tofu, 4 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, ¼ cup toasted sesame seeds, 2 garlic cloves, ½ cup canola oil, ⅓ cup rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon soy sauce. Blend or blitz until very creamy. Season with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper - it should be noticeably peppery. Finely grate the zest of half a lemon into the dressing and blitz once more. Set dressing aside.

2. GRILL: Prepare a grill for medium-high heat. If using zucchini, cut into ½” rounds or planks. Snip the ends of any green beans or peel the strings of snap peas, if using. Combine all the prepped veg (2 pounds total) in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle with a few tablespoons of canola or olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Finely grate 2 more garlic cloves over the veg and toss to coat. Arrange the veg on the grill and cook until charred in spots and softened but not mushy–you be the judge. Everyone likes their vegetables cooked to a different doneness. Get some good color and then start tasting.

3. SERVE: Spread some sesame sauce on a serving platter.Top with the grilled veg. Finely grate some more lemon zest over everything and squeeze the juice of the lemon over just before serving. Finish with more sesame seeds.

Serves 4

This is it guys. The crispy eggplant you have all waiting for… The trick is to slice it thick-ish and salt it generously. Let it sit out releasing puddles of water. Pat dry aggressively, cover in corn starch aggressively and then fry in hot oil until it comes out golden and dark brown in some places (you want to make sure the eggplant meat inside is cooked, custardy and sweet). I have topped the eggplant in with garlicky tahini, amba (mango pickle sauce), fresh parsley and sea salt but you can really do whatever you want here. Someone suggested drizzling it with honey or silan (date syrup) and once I tried that...you’ll see.

1 large eggplant or 2 medium eggplants

kosher salt

1 cup cornstarch

4 cups canola oil or any oil with no flavor and a high smoke point like grapeseed, sunflower, veggie

sea salt to finish

serve with garlicky tahini (recipe below), amba, fresh parsley, fresh lemon, parsley, honey

Slice the eggplant in 1/2 inch thick pieces. You have the option of keeping the skin on or removing the skin. I keep it on, because I don’t like to waste it but if you remove the skin, it will get even crispier. Place the eggplant slices on a sheet tray and generously salt the eggplant. Let it sit out at room temp for at least 1 hour. Puddles of liquid will come out of the eggplant.

Before frying, take a kitchen towel and pat down the eggplant well, drying them off as much as possible. Slice in half on a diagonal (I think they are too big to fit in a sandwich or a pita this way so I like to slice them in half) Place the cornstarch in a bowl and toss each piece in the cornstarch well. Shake off excess and place on a dry sheet tray. Heat up the oil in a deep pot. If you don’t have a thermometer (which I don’t) heat on high and sprinkle a little cornstarch in the oil. If it sizzles it should be ready. Turn the heat to medium high it should be around 350 degrees f and add in the first piece. I like to fry one at a time so that the oil temp stays up (if you overcrowd the oil the temp will come down and the eggplant wont fry they will soak)

Flip the eggplant over once the bottom is golden and brown in some places around 1-2 minutes. When the other side is golden another 1-2 minutes remove from the oil and place on a paper towel to let dry. Immediately season well with sea salt.

Serve this eggplant on its own, on sandwiches, in pitas…you can do a lot with it. 

garlicky tahini

1/2 cup tahini paste

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 small garlic clove, finely grated

large pinch kosher salt- or to taste

3 tablespoons cup ice water

   P i c k l i s t

strawberries - garlic scapes - basil  - lettuce - broccolini - hakurai turnips - cucumbers - plants!

I did not intend to go right into week 2 with a weather charged sob story, but here we are. The heat followed by the rain did not demolish crops, but it certainly did not help. Watching the storm roll through and hit the fields was tough on the heart.  First and foremost, let’s talk about strawberries and rain. The two quarts you are receiving today are a part of an effort to clean off the current fruit and make way for the next flush. It is likely that your 2 quarts of berries may not be the sparkly shiny gems we all lust for, but they will absolutely serve a delicious purpose if eaten today or tomorrow, or, use them to make a jammy sauce to complement every biscuit in sight, ahem strawberry shortcakes (see pro tips). Because of the past week’s precipitation, this round of berries will not hold. But the later varieties should (weather dependent, lol).

Another unfortunate arrival this week are all the pests.  I am not entirely certain why they all decided to show up at the sametime, but I've been squashing countless horn worms in the tomato greenhouses and the wire worms are really starting to show their face and make trails in our radishes and our (legendary 2024) hakurai turnip patch. And don’t even get me started on the deer. Daily cute love notes I like to send to Ray have been replaced by deer eating lettuce photos, deer eating strawberries photos, and deer eating cucumber photos.  Not an easy time to farm, but a hell of a great time to be a pest. Some would say, it's buck wild.

MEANWHILE, in the Pick Your Own Strawberry patch, the berries are still showing up, and people are still so pumped to pick.  It’s awesome to hear from Anne and Jen about all the CSAers that have made their way down River Road this week to get in on the action. I do hope to see yall out there as it is certainly the season for stained red fingers/ a belly full of berries/ late night strawberry jamming/ etc.

PYO HOURS: 8am-noon WEATHER & CROP PERMITTING!

FIXED PRICES: CASH AND CHECK ONLY

1 quart: $7/ medium picking box: $25/ large picking tray: $44

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS: 

Yall, get ready, and let me introduce you to new neighbor Mitchell! 

Somehow by the grace of something, Edgewater has been blessed by a neighbor that not only knows how to cook, but also has stacks and stacks of tested recipes.  We connected a few months ago when he popped into the greenhouses.  At that time, much of what you are currently eating from the farm existed in seed packs, waiting to be sewed.  Since then these seeds have sprouted into food and Mitchell is here to tell us how to eat it best.  Thank heavens for resident chef Mitchell Davis, as a result we all get to try new things and prep this bounty in new ways! I AM JAZZED.  If you too are jazzed, I highly recommend subscribing for free to his weekly newsletter Kitchen Sense,

Pickled Garlic Scapes recipe by mitchell!

Similar in flavor to kosher dill pickles because of their strong garlic flavor, these lacto-fermented garlic scape pickles require little effort beyond patience. They will last in the refrigerator for over a year. (I just shared some two-year old ones with Jenny and they were still delicious.) Eat

them as is or slice them to add to salads (egg, tuna, chicken, potato), or relish, or anywhere you might think to add pickles or capers.

I’m not giving amounts for this recipe because this is more of a technique (one you can use with just about any vegetable). Adjust the amounts accordingly, adding more brine in the same proportion as you need to submerge your scapes. Use kosher salt or pickling salt, not table salt,

the iodine in which will cause the pickles to discolor Kosher salt

Hot water

Garlic Scapes

Other aromatics, such as bay leaf, dill seeds or flowering dill, yellow mustard seeds (optional)As for most lacto-fermented foods, your goal is to create a brine that is a 2.5 to 3% saline solution. That means for every 1000 milliliters of water, 25 to 30 grams of salt, or about 2 teaspoons of kosher salt per cup. Place 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons kosher salt in a mixing

bowl and add 1 quart (4 cups) hot water. Stir to dissolve the salt. Let sit to come back to room temperature, stirring occasionally to make sure no salt crystals remain at the bottom of the bowl.

Meanwhile, prepare the garlic scapes. Rinse the scapes and cut into 2-inch lengths just up until the bud, which you should discard. Tightly pack the cut scapes into clean canning jars, using the shoulder of the jar to wedge the scapes in. I like to use pint jars. If using aromatics, add a bay

leaf, ½ teaspoon of dill or mustard seeds, and/or some flowering dill to each jar. Once the brine is cool, fill each jar until the scapes are completely submerged. Cover the jars loosely and let sit at room temperature, out of the sun, for 5 to 7 days to ferment until your desired level of tartness. The timing will depend on the temperature of your room. Open the jars once a day to

release any gas that builds up. As the fermentation takes place, the liquid will turn cloudy, and the scapes will darken and sink. Taste them to check if they are done. When satisfied with their flavor, seal the jars and refrigerate until needed. You can strain the brine and repack the scapes

if you like a cleaner look, but it isn’t necessary.

—Cookbook author and food writer Mitchell Davis recently moved from New York City to the

Upper Valley, just down the road from Edgewater Farm. For more recipes, subscribe for free to

his weekly newsletter Kitchen Sense at www.kitchensense.substack.com

Here it is, everyone's summertime favorite: fresh, sweet strawberries atop a flaky, buttery biscuit — topped with whipped cream, of course!

PREP 25 min/ BAKE 10 to 12 mins/ TOTAL 1 hr 35 mins YIELD 9 biscuits

Berries

2 quarts (1336g) strawberries, trimmed of their leaves

1/2 cup (99g) granulated sugar

2 teaspoons lemon juice, fresh preferred

Biscuits

3 1/2 cups (420g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon table salt

1 tablespoon (11g) baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup (36g) buttermilk powder

3 tablespoons (35g) granulated sugar

8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter or 1/2 cup (92g) vegetable shortening, cold

2 teaspoons King Arthur Pure Vanilla Extract

1 large egg

1 cup (227g) milk*

2 teaspoons milk, optional; for topping

2 teaspoons granulated sugar, optional; for topping

*Or substitute 1 cup buttermilk (227g) for the buttermilk powder and milk

Topping

1 cup (227g) whipping cream

Instructions

To prepare the fruit: Mash 2 cups of the strawberries. Slice the remaining strawberries, and mix all of the berries with the sugar and lemon juice. Let rest 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line it with parchment.

To make the biscuits: Whisk together the dry ingredients, and work in the cold butter or shortening until the mixture is crumbly.

Whisk the vanilla and egg with the milk, then add all at once to the dry ingredients and stir until the liquid is absorbed.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead four or five times, just until it holds together. Pat the dough out until it's about 1/2" to 3/4" thick, and cut it into 2 1/2" to 3" circles.

Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet, brush the tops with milk for a shiny surface, and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. Remove them from the oven and cool for 15 minutes before serving.

To assemble the shortcakes: Whip the cream until soft peaks form.

Just before serving, split open the biscuits, spoon half the berries and whipped cream on the bottom half, top with remaining biscuit halves, and spoon on the remaining berries and cream.

Tips from our Bakers

  P i c k l i s t

strawberries - garlic scapes - arugula - bok choy - hakurai turnips -

basil - cilantro plant - plants for your garden!

Holy solstice light let it shine! Wow, what an entrance to Summer we have going on here.  Heat wave, upon strawberry season, upon the most perfect hakurai turnips we’ve ever grown at Edgewater.  Let’s all just knock off, celebrate JUNETEENTH with our CSA bounty, find some water and munch by the river side.  You in? Love this plan, meet ya there.

But don’t wait, start without me, something tells me we here on the farm have a big day of irrigation going on. Three days in a row of over 90 can really make the fields jump, bring on a ton of blossoms, ripen the fruit, and kill any strugglers out there. It’s a real “everything everywhere all at once” vibe.  

But all that aside, welcome! Welcome! Welcome! For all the returning CSA fam,  I’ve absolutely missed picking veg for ya.

And for all the new buds- Hi! Hi!! I am so happy to have you along for the best season of eating there is.  

And in case there is any confusion, these newsletters, recipes, emails, ESP’s, communications, vibrations are brought to you by me, Jenny.  The seeding and growing and picking and washing and setting up for the CSA is a total collaborative effort between all of us at Edgewater, field crew and farmstand crew especially.  

Please holler with any questions, curiosities, comments etc. It’s good to keep the momentum going throughout the season with some light vegetable banter, ya know?

ANYHOW, enter Summer Solstice and welcome this light, a big three cheers for Juneteenth, and goodness gracious enjoy and eat all these berries today, right now, in their absolute  prime. 

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS: 

ARUGULA: its bagged unwashed, to remove grit, please wash :)

GARLIC SCAPE PESTO (it’s a scape season must)

YIELD About 1 cup recipe from the NYTimes

JENNY’S NOTE: No real measurements here, everything is to taste.

The star of this pesto is the garlic plant’s under-appreciated second offering: the fleeting garlic scape. The ingredients are straightforward except for the substitution of sunflower seeds for pine nuts. The seeds are a fraction of the cost and do the job just as well. A food processor is a must for this recipe. For pesto, ingredient order matters. Start with the scapes and process for about 30 seconds. Add the seeds until they are broken down and mixed well with the scapes. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula for wandering bits. Next, pour in the olive oil. If you have Parmesan cheese in chunks, add it now, but if it is grated, wait until the scapes and seeds smooth out. If you’re serving right away, add the basil and lemon juice. If not, hold back on the basil for now — otherwise the pesto will lose its vibrant color. Add generously to cooked spaghetti or spread on crusty bread.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup garlic scapes, sliced crosswise (about 10 to 12 scapes)

¼ cup raw sunflower seeds

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup Parmesan cheese

½ cup basil leaves

Juice of one lemon PREPARATION

Place the garlic scapes in a food processor and pulse for 30 seconds.

Add the sunflower seeds and pulse for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the olive oil and process on high for 15 seconds.

Add the Parmesan cheese and pulse until the ingredients are combined.

Add the basil and lemon juice, and process until reaching the desired consistency.

Add salt to taste and serve immediately.

As for all the other crops included in this pick-list, welcome to salad season!

The following are some standby combos and quasi recipes I hold onto to brighten up all these greens for eating:

Rice noodle bowls!  Grain bowls!  Perfect vehicle for every green thing. Just add coconut aminos or tamari and sesame oil.  For protein you will have to look elsewhere- but as for the basil, bok choy, hakurai turnips- just chop and fold in.

GARLIC SCAPE PESTO SALAD DRESSING: 

Remember all that garlic scape pesto you intend to make this week)? Take a couple of tablespoons of that and add the following: olive oil, vinegar, maple syrup, and lemon juice. Everything to taste- whisk to combine.  

This Bok Choy Kimchi is a quick kimchi recipe ready in 15 mins.! With Vegetarian or Vegan options, plus detailed instructions on using baby or regular bok choy.

1 lb baby bok choy

1 garlic scape

2 bulb spring onions

For the sauce:

0.4 oz garlic cloves 2 large, grated

0.1 oz Ginger a tiny small knob, grated

1.5 tbsp coconut aminos

1 tsp coarse sea salt

0.5 tbsp fish sauce

1.5 tbsp gochugaru Korean red pepper flakes

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

For the garnish: Toasted rice sesame seeds, Toasted sesame oil to taste

Prep:

Halve the baby bok choy, rinse, and pat them dry. Thinly slice the garlic scape and chop the spring onions. If using larger sized bok choy, separate them into leaves and make crosswise cut into small pieces.

In a separate bowl, combine the sauce ingredients from garlic to vinegar.

Mix:

For baby bok choy (halved): In a big mixing bowl, add the bok choy, onion, and the sauce. Gently toss to combine. Take care not to bruise the leaves.

For larger bok choy (diced-up): Add the bok choy stalks, onion, and half the amount of sauce to the mixing bowl. Toss to combine for 2 minutes. Then add the leaves and the remaining sauce to combine for 1 minute.

Serve:

Transfer them onto a large serving plate and sprinkle with sesame seeds, sesame oil, and scallions. You can serve them right away or chill them in the fridge for up to 2 weeks but best consume within 2-3 days for the crunchiest bok choy kimchi!

Notes

When you first combine the bok choy with the sauce, they will seem dry. Gently toss to distribute the seasoning evenly. The bok choy will continue releasing water as they marinate, creating a saucier consistency.

Select bok choy with firm stalks so they will last longer, more juicy, and crunchy.

Add an apple: If you don’t want to use maple syrup, apples will add sweetness to the dish. Add it to a blender or food processor with sauce ingredients and blend until creamy.

Korean plum vinegar: You can use it in place of maple syrup and apple cider vinegar.

Vegan fish sauce or Yondu seasoning (a South-Korean brand of all-purpose, savory umami seasoning) will keep this recipe vegan/vegetarian.

To store: Store in the fridge in jars with a tight lid for up to 2 weeks. The kimchi will continue to ferment slowly in the fridge and the texture will turn softer.

Andy Williams was wrong when he said Christmas was “the most wonderful time of the year…”

It really isn’t.

Mud season on the farm is!

What are we to make of the weather thus far in 2024?  I am personally torn. I feel for my skiing buddies, but as a person whom is no longer skiing, I have enjoyed the relatively ice free footing and the temperatures that have allowed me to cut brush and indulge in an occasional bike ride, say nothing about economizing on the firewood.

Spring fast approaches, maybe a little too fast. There is a palpable level of tension in the Macs Maple Sugarhouse as to the uncertainty of the weather and that its impacts could spell a very short sugaring season. Climate change  has wrought some real havoc with the trees as we lost not only the tree fruit in most of New England in 2023 but most of the leaves on the hardwoods got burned off as well. This is abnormal stress that they can once endure, but they wont do well if it becomes a normal event.

Let’s shift to to greenhouse season and early considerations about vegetable growing.

We pretty much adhere to a chronological schedule for doing things in the greenhouse. Things are timed as best we can to provide flower and vegetable starts for our farm and customers in May. This plant material is all grown in a controlled environment, so it is a mostly weather independent schedule. However, what we do in the field and gardens out in the real weather and the timing of when we do it becomes a whole other bucket of fish. We time the first plantings of our spring vegetables starts for early to mid May, especially the field crops that take a long time like peppers and tomatoes. The first part is easy: seed and grow in the greenhouse. Then there is a general planting date (mid May) that is adjusted and affected by temperature and moisture. You can’t keep transplants in the greenhouse forever until all threat of frost has gone, because the quality of the transplant diminishes. Maybe you cant (or dare) plant because it looks like a cold front coming at you in 3 days. Or perhaps the ground is too dry and the supplemental irrigation has not been set up.  After planting, the frost sensitive crops will need protection in the manner of row covers….and a bit of weather related luck by avoiding late frosts. Weather can affect the successive planting of vegetables. In 2023 we had all manner of vegetables backed up waiting for transplant, couldn’t get them planted in a timely manner because we couldn’t get into flooded areas or the ground was just too saturated.

Lets forget about last year….not a minute too soon…

The question in my mind (and every other farmer) is this : Are we to expect a drought like in 2022, or a wet year like 2023? From what I am seeing today, I put my money on a drought this summer. Loggers are complaining about the water running in the woods, but down here on these well drained sandy soils I fully expect dust clouds in May when we go to work up planting ground. There is no snow pack to keep the brooks and streams flowing full bank into May. There is no ice in the brooks and rivers and I would say by the lack of fishing huts on area ponds is that there isn’t much ice there either. That is not to say we could not have a wet spring. We certainly could, after all, don’t we live in New England? The Connecticut River across the road looks navigable in a kayak today (March 3, 2024) without much water in it. Thirty years ago (back in the Old Days…) we worried about “ice out” in the river resulting in ice dams and flooding. The river rarely skim coats ice now, and didn’t at all this year.  So it will be pretty easy to get things pretty dry around here pretty quickly with a strong spring sun and some breezy April days.

Other than the regular weather concerns we think we are ready (mostly) to hit the ground running. We will put in our first two houses of tomatoes by the end of this month. Jenny and Ray are busily grafting the later plantings of tomatoes and seeding vegetables and herbs for later vegetable tunnels and outdoor planting. Ali, Aly, Sarah, Holly and Anne are already cranking out hanging baskets and transplanting seedlings. We have passed the annual housing inspections by NHDOL for the H2A crew, and we have a good start on family firewood for the upcoming winter.  Youth hockey season is wrapping up and winter vacations are over so there are a lot of bodies here working already. With Jenny and Ray busy grafting tomatoes, Steve is seeding onions and I am seeding annuals and tying up the latter part of vegetative propagation of ornamentals. The warmth and relative dryness has been very nice to work in,  a silver lining to all that is  potentially dangerous about a warming climate. By week’s end we will have 8 greenhouses up and running.

Game on.

P i c k l i s t

GREEN PEPPERS - JALAPENO PEPPERS - CELERY - LETTUCE - FENNEL - CARROTS - 

ONIONS - PLUM TOMATOES - SAGE - WINTER SQUASH - SWEET POTATOES

BREAD OF THE WEEK:  APPLE CIDER BREAD

THIS WEEK AT EDGEWATER…

Welcome frost!  I am shocked at my exclamation and openness to this event, but jeez we are tired and plants are tired.  Both fields and humans are ready to button up, cover up, and take a long winter nap.  However, pre naptime, there is much to do. Since Friday of last week, we have been busy sweeping the fields of any non frost hardy fruit.  This list includes peppers of every variety, tomatoes, lemongrass, etc… the kol crops and carrots can handle a cold snap and often sweeten up with every below 32 degree night, so thankfully there is no hurry on that harvest.  But the rest is on go-time as our crew is seasonal and our honey-do list is long.  So as soon as frost arrived Tuesday morning, we began to break down the fields: Cut plants, pull drip tape, remove rebar, remove posts, etc… This is absolutely the less glamorous side of farming, but there is a feeling of completion and renewal in this field breakdown and tidying up.  

Another area of completion we hit yesterday was the Halloween carving of the very last of the pumpkin crop.  It feels good to say, what we did not sell, we carved and stuck a candle in.  

As far as other crops go, we have a cooler stacked high with bins full of already harvested beets and carrots, and watermelon radishes.  Soon leeks and cabbage and the rest of the carrots will be picked and join the cooler party.  Outside the cooler are bins of onions, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, and we remain beyond fortunate to have greenhouse space to grow greens.  All that said, we will not go hungry this winter, and there is always plenty of food for all.  

Ok, I need to step away from this computer, put on 10,000 layers of wool, top it off with some fancy neoprene gloves and go finish the CSA pick.  I see flurries outside.  

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS: 

WINTER SQUASH WITH CRISPY SAGE AND HONEY VIA EDEN GRINSHPAN

Winter squash cut into ½ inch thick slices (i keep seeds in!)

15 fresh sage leaves

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground pepper

Pre heat oven to 425

On a baking sheet, toss the squash and sage with the olive oil, honey, salt and pepper.  Roast until the squash is tender and golden, 20 to 25 minutes, flipping once about halfway through.  Serve

Mirepoix Is the Foundation of Stews, Sauces, and More—Here's How to Make It:

The savory combination of celery, onion, and carrots (and sometimes other vegetables) is the silent MVP of so many recipes.

By Victoria Spencer  Updated on October 3, 2023

A big bowl of warm, hearty stew is typically full of flavors that go beyond the focal point (think: Beef Stew, Vegetarian Gumbo). If you've ever wondered what makes up the backbone of these liquid-based meals, then it's time to learn about mirepoix, one of the first things chefs learn in culinary school, and the foundation of flavor in so many dishes.

What Is Mirepoix?

A mirepoix is a combination of finely chopped aromatic vegetables that gives a subtle background flavor to dishes such as soups, stews, sauces, and braises. It's a French term that was reportedly devised in the 18th century by the cook to the Duc de Lévis-Mirepoix, a French field Marshal.

The classic mirepoix is made up of onion, carrot, and celery, but this version is only one of many possible variations. Mushrooms, parsnips, leeks, peppers, tomatoes, and garlic are all considered aromatic vegetables and can be used in endless combinations in a mirepoix. Other cuisines have flavor bases allied to the mirepoix:

Soffrito

The Italian soffritto is similar to a mirepoix. Like a mirepoix, it calls for onions, celery, and carrots, and sometimes pancetta and garlic.

The Holy Trinity

The "holy trinity" is used as the base of most soups and stews—including gumbo—in Cajun and Creole cooking in Louisiana. It includes onions, celery, and—instead of carrot—a bell pepper. Green peppers were substituted because they're easier to grow in southern Louisiana—plus they're delicious. It also differs from a mirepoix because the holy trinity uses equal amounts of each vegetable.

Sofrito

A sofrito is a Spanish flavor base. It is similar to the mirepoix in that it uses finely chopped vegetables but the vegetables used are different: onion, tomatoes, bell peppers, and garlic. This sofrito is the base of many recipes including paella, sancocho, and rice-and-bean dishes. A Puerto Rican version of sofrito is known as recaito, and often includes ajíes dulces (small sweet chile peppers). It is used in dishes such as the island's take on arroz con pollo.

How to Make a Mirepoix

For a classic mirepoix, use 2 parts onion to 1 part carrot and 1 part celery.

Rinse, trim, and peel the vegetables.

Chop them into uniform pieces. The shorter the cooking time of your recipe, the smaller the pieces should be, so that they effectively infuse the foods with flavor.

Using a Mirepoix

You can add the mirepoix uncooked to stocks and broths for a light dose of flavor.

To add richness to heartier stews and braises, "sweat" the vegetables first, cooking them with a little oil or butter over low heat until they start to release their juices into the pan.

Recipes that start with a mirepoix are many, from rich French chicken stews and French-style pork stews to those that start with a sofrito, like Spanish-style shellfish dishes. Almost every vegetable soup starts with a mirepoix. Once you know about this flavor base, you'll see how ubiquitous it is.

PICKLE YOUR JALAPENOS!!

Store-bought jars of pickled jalapeños are perfectly delicious. But if you feel like doing more work than unscrewing a cap—or if you bought a glut of peppers at the farmers market—you can make quick-pickled jalapeños (or anything) at home too. First, slice your peppers into rounds. There’s no law against using whole jalapeños, but smaller pieces will soak up the brine faster. Bring 1 cup distilled white vinegar, 2 Tbsp. kosher salt, 2 tsp. sugar, up to 2 Tbsp. spices (e.g., peppercorns, ­coriander seeds, and/or ­mustard seeds), chopped fresh herbs (like cilantro), and 2 cups water to a boil in a saucepan. You’ll want enough liquid to cover the peppers, so feel free to scale this ratio up or down as needed.

P I C K L I S T

october 18

carmen peppers - habanada pepper - hungarian hot wax - poblano peppers - zinnias - mizuna - red onion - garlic - cilantro - acorn squash - plum tomatoes - broccoli

BREAD OF THE WEEK: olive focaccia

P I C K L I S T

october 25

NAPA CABBAGE - CARROTS - GINGER - DAIKON RADISH - LETTUCE - SNACKING SWEETIE PEPS - CARMEN PEPPER - CAYENNE PEPPER - HABANERO PEPPER - LEEKS - PLUM TOMATOES - GARLIC - RASPBERRIES - HOUSE PLANT - CARVING PUMPKIN - FLOWERS   

BREAD OF THE WEEK: AUBERGINE BREAD

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS: 

Literally meaning “sour stuff,” this is the everyday Vietnamese pickle that you’ve seen and eaten countless times in bánh mì, on rice plates, and in other dishes. Ðồ chua is typically made with daikon and carrot, but you can use jicama instead of the daikon for a crunchy-sweet result. It does require more time: You can’t massage it as it will just break apart and you need to chill the pickle 1–2 days to allow the flavors to fully develop before using. If using daikon, choose one that is dense with firm, smooth skin, which are signs that it enjoyed good growing conditions and will likely taste more sweet than bitter. Precut jicama may be sliced into matchsticks for this pickle.

Makes about 6 cups

2 lb. daikon (about 1), peeled, cut into 3x¼" matchsticks

12 oz. carrots (about 6 medium), trimmed, peeled, cut into 3x¼" matchsticks

4 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 2½ tsp. Morton kosher salt

4 tsp. plus 1 cup granulated sugar

2½ cups distilled white vinegar

Preparation

Step 1 Toss 2 lb. daikon (about 1), peeled, cut into 3x¼" matchsticks, 12 oz. carrots (about 6 medium), trimmed, peeled, cut into 3x¼" matchsticks, 4 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 2½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, and 4 tsp. sugar in a medium bowl to combine. Let sit 20 minutes. You should be able to bend a piece of daikon to make the ends touch without it breaking. (If you need to speed up the process, you can massage and knead vegetables with your hands until softened, about 3 minutes.) Step 2 Rinse vegetables in a large mesh sieve or colander under running water, then press or shake to expel excess moisture. Divide between two 1-qt. glass jars or airtight containers. Step 3 Stir 2½ cups distilled white vinegar, remaining 1 cup sugar, and 2 cups lukewarm water in a medium bowl until sugar is dissolved. Pour into jars to cover vegetables; reserve any excess for making salad dressing (you may have about 1 cup liquid left over). Cover and let sit at least 1 hour at room temperature. Drain before using. Do ahead: Vegetables can be pickled 1 month ahead. Chill.

BAECHU KIMCHI BY MORIHOUSE (@mori.house)/ Makes about one 750ml mason jar

1 large Napa Cabbage**, about 1kg/2lbs

Sea Salt (non-iodized), fine to semi-fine- 3% the weight of the Napa Cabbage

3-5 GARLIC cloves, thinly sliced

zest of 1 Lemon, sliced into thin slivers

2 dried Togarashi Chili Peppers or Chile de Arbol, chopped (deseeded, optional)

3-5 cloves Garlic, crushed into a paste

3-5 Tbsp Gochugaru (Korean Chili Pepper Flakes)***

1 Tbsp Fish Sauce (optional)

Pickling Brine* or Filtered Water

JENNY’S NOTE: 

OTHER CSA CROPS TO ADD TO THIS KIMCHI RECIPE JULIENNED CARROTS/ SLICED DAIKON RADISHES/ MINCED OR GRATED GINGER

Supplies:

1x Mortar & Pestle

1x Large Mixing Bowl

2-3 Spoons for mixing

1x 750ml sterilized, air-tight Mason Jar

1x Knife or Cleaver

1x Heavy object like a large stone or a large mason jar filled with water for weighing down your pickles.

1x Dish Towel

1x Small jar or pitcher for collecting excess brine

1x Fork or utensil to press down the pickles into the jar

Prepare the garlic scapes, lemon zest and chili peppers as described. Cut your cabbage into 1/8ths lengthwise and then widthwise into approximately 3 inch chunks. (JENNY’S NOTE: Add your julienned carrots, sliced radishes, grated ginger here to the mix)

Place into a large bowl and scatter the salt, lemon zest, garlic and chili peppers over the cabbage. Gently massage the salt into the cabbage mixture evenly. As you are doing this, you will feel the cabbage excrete its water content. This will take just a few minutes.

Next use a plate or another round flat object which has a smaller circumference than the bowl, so it fits just inside rim and on top of the cabbage mixture. Using a large stone, mason jars filled with water or another heavy object, weigh the plate and cabbage down. Cover the top of the bowl with a towel to keep dust from getting in and let it sit weighed down like this for at least 3 hours to lightly pickle. After the 3 hours or more have elapsed, you will find the water from the cabbage will have filled the bowl to cover the kimchi in what is now a salty *pickling brine.

Decant the brine into a pitcher or jar and gently squeeze a little out of the cabbage mixture. At this stage you will have a fresh, lightly-pickled style of napa cabbage known in Japan as “Hakusai no Tsukemono”. If you don’t like spicy, you can skip ahead to the jarring stage.

Crush your garlic into a paste with a mortar and pestle and a couple pinches of salt to break it down easier. Add your gochugaru, fish sauce (if using) and using small amounts of the brine, make a paste similar in thickness to a tomato paste. Chuck this paste into the drained cabbage mixture, still in the original bowl, and massage all together, making sure the paste is distributed evenly.

Use the following final steps for both the spicy and non-spicy versions: Layer your kimchi into the mason jar in 3-4 stages. Between each layer, use a fork to gently press the kimchi down as flat as you can. Continue to do this until all the kimchi is in the jar. Give it a few more presses with a fork, getting as much oxygen and as many air bubbles out as possible. If your kimchi paste was the right consistency, brine will rise to the top as you press the air out of the kimchi. If not, add small amounts of brine until it does. If making only non-spicy Kimchi, you will definitely need to add some brine. This extra thin layer of liquid at the top will help to seal your kimchi during the beginning of the fermentation process. Seal the jar and place it in the coolest and darkest part of your home.

Next is the waiting! 1 MONTH is the sweet spot but while it may not be for everyone, do try to wait at least 5-7 days before tasting. It takes at least this long for there to be any noticeable fermentation. In the colder seasons, it may take even longer, up to 10 days. If you want to “taste-as-you-go”, be sure to use a clean utensil and DON’T double dip! However long your preferred fermentation time, you will need to help the kimchi release carbon dioxide gas every couple of days. You may notice that when you open it, the kimchi will bubble. Sometimes it will bubble like soda but it may also only bubble slightly or barely at all. Either way, you can rest assured that it is fermenting. Each time you release the gas, you will also notice the kimchi may have risen slightly. Using a fork press it down again as much as you can. Brine may or may not rise to cover the kimchi at this stage and that is ok.

Note: Depending on whether or not you sterilized your jar properly and the environment temperature, you may occasionally find trace amounts of white, blue or green mold on the top of your kimchi. DO NOT worry about this. Simply remove it from the kimchi or wipe it off if it is on the jar or lid. However, if you find black mold, I’m sorry to say your kimchi may have been contaminated by unwanted outside bacteria. At that stage, it is better to start over just to be safe. All this said, mold is highly unlikely using this method.

After 1 month (or shorter) has elapsed, enjoy your kimchi as a side to most of your favorite Asian dishes, cook it in a dish or eat it as a snack!

**Do not use standard or savoy cabbage to substitute. However, you can use Bok Choy (same weight) as a substitute if Napa Cabbage is nowhere to be found.

P i c k l i s t

watermelon - cherry tomatoes - field tomatoes - lunch box peppers - onion -

corn - potatoes - basil - carmen pep

THIS WEEK AT EDGEWATER…

SO MANY FALL FEELS! This weekend's equinox totally hit like a ton of bricks.  As the light levels change, I find myself already reaching and hoping for every bit of sun to shine on us, our fields, etc… It is hard to experience a change of seasons as we moved right over Summer, experienced an eternal Spring, and now suddenly Fall is here with its demand that we put on at least one to two layers of woolies during morning harvest, spark our ovens nightly for tomato/pepper roasting, 

and consider which pumpkin reaches Martha Sterwart stoop status, as we move them out of bins and clean them up to sell.  These are all good things, BUT after a summer that was sun deficient, I am certainly not ready.  

However it is not all doom and gloom at Edgewater, I am but one salty farmer in a village of many!  Pooh seems particularly tickled about Fall’s entrance; he spends his days seeding cover-crop and jonesin for the nightly potato harvest. 

Yes! The great potato harvest has begun! And compared to last year’s crop- think back to last summer’s drought and 0 irrigation on the potato field due to debatably poor planning, but also, who knew we were gonna have an intense drought?!?!?- this crop looks baller.  Every variety is coming through with pretty decent yields.  Nightly, Pooh and Mike venture down the road well after morning pick and afternoon deliveries.  Mike drives the tractor with a gigantic potato harvester attached to it and Pooh drives the other tractor with a massive potato wagon to collect said spud.  They ride side by side - it is indeed darling as they both have a tendency to be real lone wolves.  Mike's potato harvester pulls the tots from the earth, moving each potato through the machine like Miss Pac Man through the maze (sans ghost).  The potato makes its way to the top of the harvester, goes through the hopper and lands in Pooh’s wagon- a real “he shoots he scores” moment for all.  Each morning after harvest, field crew then heads to the field, scoop’n up all the little spuds that did not make the hopper.  Those potatoes- those perfect tiny round little bits- that is what is in your CSA this week.

In other perfect carby news, we are NOW taking Fall CSA bread share sign ups on the internet- woop woop! Honestly, I can not think of anything better to compliment a CSA veg pick up on a cold Wednesday night than a fresh loaf.  

Here are the deets:

Made by our in house baked good masters, Laura and Kathleen

$46 for 5 weeks/ pick up in conjunction with FALL CSA/ Space is limited.

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS:

ROAST YOUR TOMATOES, ALL OF THEM… 

Please see CSA WEEK 14 on the blog to jog your roasting/saucing making memories on how to!

Serves 2 

JENNY’S NOTE: highly recommended making way more of the shakshuka tomato sauce and canning or freezing for deep winter brunch.  All your friends will be so impressed :)

For the tahini 

1 cup tahini paste

2 tsp fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste

1 garlic clove, grated 

1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste

½ cup ice water, plus more if needed 

To make the tahini: In a medium bowl, whisk together the tahini paste, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and ice water. It will reach a weird, lumpy consistency, but don’t be afraid. Keep whisking until it smooths out and becomes light in color (if it doesn’t, it needs more ice water, so just add a bit more). Tahini sauce with the perfect consistency will drip through the tines of a fork, but just barely. Taste for seasoning, adding more lemon juice or salt if desired. Store in a jar in the refrigerator for up to one week. If the tahini gets too thick while in the fridge, just loosen it up with a little water before using.

For the shakshuka

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling 

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

1 red pepper, finely chopped

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp ground cumin 

1 tsp curry powder (optional)

½ tsp ground turmeric

1 tbsp harissa, store-bought 

6 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

Pinch of sugar

4 large eggs 

Fresh dill or parsley, for garnish

Challah, pita, or other soft white bread, for serving

In a large skillet with a fitted lid, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and pepper, and season well with salt and black pepper. Cook until the onion just begins to lightly brown, 6 to 8 minutes, then add the garlic, cumin, curry powder (if using), turmeric, and harissa. Sauté until fragrant and the onion is lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and season with the sugar and a pinch each of salt and black pepper. Cover the pan and simmer over low heat until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 20 minutes. Uncover the pan, raise the heat to medium-high, and continue simmering, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick enough to cling to the eggs, 10 to 15 minutes. 

Use a large spoon to make four wells in the sauce. Crack an egg into each well, cover the pan with the lid, and cook over medium-high heat until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny, about 3 minutes. 

Remove the pan from the heat. Garnish with fresh dill or parsley and drizzle with olive oil and garlicky tahini. Serve hot with bread.

Crispy Roasted Potatoes with Garlic and Herbs – these are just classic. Once you figure out how easy this method is, it’s hard to make roasted potatoes any other way. You can totally omit the herbs and toss these potatoes in spices like, paprika, turmeric, curry powder….whatever flavor combinations you love. The key here is making sure you pre-heat the oven and space out your potatoes on the sheet tray so they have the ability to really crisp up and get golden and crunchy. 

2 lbs New Potatoes

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 head garlic, crushed cloves

5 fresh thyme sprigs- can substitute with dried

3 rosemary sprigs- can substitute with dried

Or your sage from last week’s csa!

lots of Kosher salt and cracked black pepper to season

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and add in the potatoes. Boil for 10-15 minutes until a knife runs through the potato easily. Strain and let air dry for 5 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven for 425 degrees F. Place the potatoes on a sheet tray and using the bottom of a cup or the heel of your hand press down on each potato. Make sure they aren’t touching. Season well with salt and black pepper. Sprinkle over fresh thyme, rosemary and drizzle over the olive oil.

P i c k l i s t

watermelon - cherry tomatoes - sweet peppers - sage - kale - onions - corn

THIS WEEK AT EDGEWATER…

I am overwhelmed with joy to announce the return of kale.  On Monday I slogged my wet boots out into the field to pick you bunches upon bunches of collard greens.  After last week’s box of pure bulk, I was missing something green and fluffy to pick and basque in.  All the good fluffy crops have just absolutely failed this season- Lettuce, arugula, swiss chard, and kale have all taken such a hit.  But alas! I peered towards the hill and to my total delight, I spied the return of the sweet green fluff, the old comeback kid. Kale is supposed to be the workhorse of vegetables- the one crop that never says die.* So we were all aghast back in early August, as we watched this patch of kale look so sickly.  That week- we did our best, and used every trick we could.  We stripped all the sad leaves off the plant, spread pelleted fertilizer, and looked to the sun praying to see her shiny face.  A month and a half later, we have curly greens again.  Woot! Woot!

Don’t get me wrong, I love a stand of collard greens.  I’d be just as happy with collards as kale, But it’s been a minute since we all made kale chips and ate kale salad.  As far as other greens go, we’ve been trying like hell to grow lettuce all season.  However there is a woodchuck that continues to eat every last plant that we seed in the greenhouse, and if the lettuce makes it to the field, the deer are all over it.  All that said, we have big plans for our Fall CSA.  We planted up a whole greenhouse of lettuce starts, keeping the sides of the greenhouse down as much as possible.  Tim (of field crew) volunteered to sleep in said greenhouse with a bow, an arrow, a jar of peanut butter and a nine iron.  We’ll see if it comes to that.  

Bottomline here, welcome back kale, but it is now my belief that Collard Greens are the real workhorse all star champ veg.  

Other noteworthy crops of the week, SWEET COLORFUL ROBUST PEPPERS! The pepper fields are finally ripening with all the colors of the rainbow.  Hopefully we can get a good flush out of the crop before the wind breaks all the plants, or we get the first hard frost.  WHAT A SEASON!

*I am positive I mentioned this in a previous note back in late July, please forgive my broken record tendencies. 

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS:

I have no words for this recipe – it is definitely one of my all time favourites. This is hands down the ultimate crowd pleaser dish, and it doesn’t get much easier than this. Packed with creamy feta, rich olive oil, olives, fresh sage, toasted sesame seeds, sweet honey, a touch of orange zest and a hint of chili pepper, this dish is pure goodness. I mean, who wouldn’t want this?! If you are entertaining and need to get something on the table that looks sexy and tastes like heaven, this Baked Feta with Olives, Sesame, Sage & Honey dish is for you 😉

16oz Greek feta- pat dry 

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 strips orange zest- around half an orange

1 tablespoon lightly toasted sesame seeds

1/3 cup castelvetrano olives

1/3 cup kalamata olives

Small handful of fresh sage- can also sub with fresh rosemary or thyme

2 tablespoons honey

Half cayenne chili pepper, thinly sliced

Flaky sea salt

Preheat the over to 400 degrees F.

In a small baking dish, place the feta, olives, orange zest, toasted sesame seeds, sliced chili peppers and olive oil.

Place into the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes.

Set the oven to broil and let broil for 3-5 minutes.

Remove, drizzle with honey, sprinkle Maldon sea salt and serve with crusty fresh bread.

Enjoy that Baked Feta!

I also implore you to eat the above sage feta with ROASTED PEPPERS!! YES PLEASE!

THE FOLLOWING ROASTED PEPPER NOTES ARE FROM bonappetit.com via Alex Delaney:

You don’t need much to make roasted red peppers. Peppers (duh). Olive Oil. And some kosher salt. That’s it. You have most of that stuff at home already, so grab some peppers and let's do this.

There are two ways to roast peppers. Both involve some form of aggressive heat followed by a more mellow, lower-heat method as needed. Whether you’re an oven person or a stovetop person, your cutlet sandwich will be stacked with red peppers in no time. Here’s how we do it:

The Oven Method: Turn on your broiler. Yes, the broiler. That fire thing you might be scared of. It’s cool. Broilers are our friends. We promise. Cut red bell peppers in half and remove the core and seeds. Toss the pepper halves in a tiny bit of olive oil and spread them on a sheet pan, with the cut sides down and skin sides up. Our goal here is to get the skin charred enough to be able to easily remove it. Put the peppers under the broiler for 12-14 minutes, until the skins are black. Remove the peppers and turn your oven to 250°.

The peppers won’t be cooked all the way through from that time under the broiler. But the skins should peel right off. Let them cool a bit until you feel comfortable handling them, then use your hands or the back of a knife to peel the charred skins off of the peppers and then place the skinless peppers back on the sheet pan. Throw them back in your oven for about half an hour, until the peppers are tender and cooked through. Take them out, let them cool, and slice them into strips. Look at you! You roasted red peppers! Amazing!

The Stovetop Method: You can also recreate the broiler effect by laying peppers directly over an open flame. We would not suggest using that BIC lighter in your junk drawer. The flame on your (gas) stove will work much better. (Sorry to those of you with electric burners—hopefully you have a broiler?) Turn the flame on medium, place the peppers on the burner so they're in direct contact with the heat, and use tongs to rotate as needed so the skin gets dark and charred all over. Repeat this with as many burners as you need for as many peppers as you have. Maybe it’s two. Maybe it’s 736. We don’t know how much you like roasted red peppers. When each one is finished charring, sling it into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap—you want to let those bad boys steam a bit once they come off the burner.

Once you've charred all the peppers and let them all hang out in that steamy covered bowl, take them out, pull out the stem and seedy parts, open the peppers kind of a like a book and place them (charred) skin side up on your cutting board. Using your hands or the back of a knife, scrape off the charred skin. (It's okay if some won't come off; it won't kill you.) At this point the peppers should be mostly cooked-through, but if you want them a little softer you can go ahead and cook them over low heat in a Dutch oven with a glug of olive oil, stirring every once in a while, until they've softened to your liking.

JENNY’S NOTE: i roast my peppers by charring on the grill :)

Storage Maneuvers: Whether you went the stove or oven route, you should be looking at some tender, skinless roasted red peppers. Nice job. You can eat them immediately if you’d like, but the secondary goal is to store them so they’re ready to use at a moment’s notice. Sprinkle the peppers with a bit of kosher salt and transfer them into a glass jar or plastic Tupperware. Pack them in tightly, then add olive oil until the peppers are fully submerged.

P i c k l i s t

watermelon - roma tomatoes - garlic - poblano pepper - 

Cherry tomatoes - carmen peppers - lunchbox peppers - carrots

THIS WEEK AT EDGEWATER…

We remain swimming in field tomatoes.  I believe the crop of plums might be at peak, or nearing peak yields right now.  The plants are dripping with fruit, and this abundance is simultaneously soul-nourishing-farmer-pleasing and totally overwhelming.  Being rich in tomatoes lends itself to a real feeling of urgency.  A crop based time crunch.  

For one, as soon as the fruit ripens, we have only so much time until the juice of the tomato bursts through the skin and rots the fruit.  The crew has done an incredible job of staying on top of the pick, however it is inevitable that some of the cherries and plums will rot before we move/sell/cook/eat them. 

The second feeling of urgency comes when the weather turns and the nights move toward fall and flannel.  This is that moment in between seasons that makes me want to harvest everything all the time by day and preserve via canning or freezing all the time by night.  This harvest rush makes for a real crazy person (i.e. me).

This week’s CSA share 100% reflects that crazy.  Please join me as we get into it and go deep with tomatoes.  By Sunday I expect everyone of your countertops to be tomato splattered and every dish piled high in your sink. But come JANUARY, you will be so pleased that you followed suit and took to heart the farmy foodie canny pro-tips.  

Let’s CAN people!

 (wait wait let me try again) 

We CAN do this!

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS the canners edition: 

by far my fave way of preserving cherries and plums

It is simple and the only ingredients you need are tomatoes/salt/pepper/GARLIC/olive oil.

READ ON…

Cherry, grape or small Roma tomatoes

Whole cloves of garlic, unpeeled

Olive oil

Herbs such as thyme or rosemary (optional) Preheat the oven to 225°F. Halve each cherry or grape tomato crosswise, or Roma tomato lengthwise and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet along with the cloves of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, just enough to make the tomatoes glisten. Sprinkle herbs on, if you are using them, and salt and pepper, though go easily on these because the finished product will be so flavorful you’ll need very little to help it along.

Bake the tomatoes in the oven for about 3 hours. You want the tomatoes to be shriveled and dry, but with a little juice left inside–this could take more or less time depending on the size of your tomatoes.

Either use them right away or let them cool, cover them with some extra olive oil and keep them in the fridge for the best summer condiment, ever. And for snacking.

JENNY’S NOTE:  Smitten’s slow roasted tomatoes stop there… but I am suggesting you take it one step further.  Let’s can :)

STEP 1: Prepare your jars and lids- clean them, dry them/ get em lined up and ready.  

STEP 2: Prepare your water bath (big pot with boiling water)

STEP 3-STEP 100: is an excerpt from Tart and Sweet: 101 Canning and Pickling Recipes by Kelly Geary and Jessie Knadler (Rodale, 2011). The excerpt is from Chapter 6: Summer. I am also going to provide their favorite recipe to can tomatoes in case you want to go the “whole” tomato route.  However, if you want to take your newly roasted tomatoes and skip ahead to the canning part, go ahead and ladle your warm batch of tomatoes into jars, skip to bullet point 3 and proceed with the lemon juice. But do not add water- any juice leftover from your smashed down cherry tomatoes is enough!

Canned Tomatoes 

• 12–15 pounds tomatoes, blanched, peeled, andcored • About 8 cups water per quart jar • 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice (or 1 tablespoon per pint jar) • 1 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/2 teaspoon per pint jar)

1. Leave the tomatoes whole or quarter or halve them, as desired.

2. Bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan (you may need more or less, depending on the size and cut of the tomatoes). Reduce the heat, but keep the water hot.

3. Place the appropriate amount of lemon juice and salt in each hot jar. Top with raw tomatoes.

4. Ladle hot water into the jars to cover the tomatoes, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Check for air bubbles, wipe the rims, and seal. Process quarts for 45 minutes, pints for 40 minutes, adjusting for elevation.

YIELD: 4 quarts or 8 pints

Ok DO YOUR BEST HERE PEOPLE! I Highly recommend you get yourself a copy of this book. It is extremely user friendly and chock full of all my fave ways to preserve. Writing it one more time for the boys in the back:

Tart and Sweet: 101 Canning and Pickling Recipes by Kelly Geary and Jessie Knadler 

And if you are not ready to can, but do want roast your maters go ahead and these little gems on toast, with eggs, by the spoonful, or make soup:

Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Soup from the cook book: lucid food

serves 4

12 ripe tomatoes

2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon honey

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

4 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 dried bay leaf

1/4 cup fresh goat cheese

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Core and quarter the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds, reserving the seeds and cores for the stock. In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes with the garlic, onion, honey, rosemary, 1 tablespoon of the vinegar, 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, and a dash of salt. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet and roast for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the rosemary and set aside. Combine the tomato scraps, bay leaf, and 1 cup water in a pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Strain the stock into a bowl and discard the solids. Rinse the pot and return the stock to the pot. Add the roasted tomatoes. Bring to a boil over high heat, then decrease the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Let the soup cool for 10 minutes, then pour into a blender. Add the cheese and blend until smooth. With the blender running, add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Season to taste with salt.

P i c k l i s t

Bok Choy - Napa Cabbage - Green beans - Shishito Peppers - Cayenne Pepper - Sweet Peppers - 

Cherry Tomatoes - Mint - Carrots - Cilantro

This week at edgewater: 

The cilantro continues to thrive.  I bet over the past few weeks you’ve had a hankerin for some basil… me too.  However, the herbs were flooded with river water back when we considered ark building, and it takes a minute to get the next planting going (yup, We are still seeding and planting over here!).  Also we’ve seen signs of downy mildew around the plants which is kind of like an airborne kiss of death for basil… So this Summer as a result, we continue to celebrate cilantro- who, as it turns out, loves a rain girl summer. I am aware that cilantro is not everyone’s fave herb- so thank goodness for Mrs. T and the mint she picked this week to distract the cilantro haters among us.  A new planting of parsley has started to fluff up and stretch its wings- and to be safe, we planted it in a greenhouse because you just can't trust the skies these days.  Fingers crossed you get dazzled with these bunches over the next few weeks, but until then, cilantro is queen.

Also over the next few weeks, get pumped!  It is officially cherry tomato overwhelm in the fields/ the packshed/ the farmstand/ the co-ops/ your kitchen etc.  Embrace this moment, and make some cherry roasted tomato candy to be eaten on everything all the time (recipe to come, probs next week).  

AND LASTLY FOR NEXT WEEK, we are in the midst of planning our Fall CSA, which is a mini extension of Summer, but sub out tomatoes for winter squash.  STAY TUNED FOR DEETS!

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS: 

First off, bok choy + napa + carrots + hottie pep, HELLO KIMCHI! Cruise back on the Edgewater Farm CSA blog to week 4, for an easy peasy kimchi recipe.  Look for, BAECHU KIMCHI BY MORIHOUSE (@mori.house)

(This is admittedly an extremely New England version of a Thai Salad. It does its best to mimic the heavenly Som Tam papaya salad that you will find all over Thailand, but here we are in the upper Valley with 0 papayas in sight.  Give it a shot, I think you will be delighted with the results)

750g raw french green beans

1 cup baby tomatoes (halved)

2 yellow onions

1 1/2 cups raw peanuts

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

1 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1 cup fresh mint leaves

1 cup fresh basil leaves

Dressing

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

3 tbsp white sugar

3 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp fresh birds eye chili, diced

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and place raw peanuts on a baking sheet.

Slice onions in thin half-moon rings, and then heat up grapeseed oil on medium heat.

Roast the peanuts in the oven for about 10 minutes until they start to brown.

Cook the onions for 15-20 minutes until they're brown and crispy. Stir every few minutes so they brown evenly.

In the meantime, prepare the rest of the salad. Mince the garlic, birds eye chili, and slice your tomatoes if you haven't already. Clean and cut your green beans into bite sized pieces.

In a large bowl, make the dressing by combining all of the ingredients using a whisk (garlic, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar). Add half of the diced chilis and taste the sauce to see if it's the right level of spice before adding more.

Once your onions have finished cooking, remove and place on a plate lined with a paper towel.

Remove your roasted peanuts and once cool, lightly chop them.

Add your green beans and tomatoes into the large bowl and toss with the fresh herbs. You can keep this for a few hours in the fridge.

When you're ready to serve, add in the fried onions and roasted peanuts.

Salsa Very Verde

FROM THE cookbook,

That Sounds So Good by Carla Lalli Music (which i highly reccomend getting a copy :)

JENNY’S NOTE: My brilliant friend Claire made this last week, and I had to nab the recipe for ya.  You might need more herbs than what is in the CSA this week, BUT I highly recommend holding onto this recipe, making it with what you have in sight and schmearing on everything.  It’s too damn good. 

2 oil-packed anchovy fillets

Kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 garlic clove, finely grated

1 shallot, minced (your red onion from last week is fine)

2 tablespoons capers, drained and finely chopped

1-inch pieces spicy green chile (such as jalapeño or serrano), finely chopped

2 cups thinly sliced tender herbs (such as basil, parsley, tarragon, chervil, chives, cilantro, and/or mint), loosely packed

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Freshly ground black pepper

Place anchovies on cutting board and sprinkle with Kosher salt. Finely chop anchovies, then use the edge of your knife to smash them against the cutting board until they become a paste. Scrape into a medium bowl and add red pepper flakes, grated garlic, shallot, capers, and green chile. Add the chopped herbs and olive oil and stir. Once combined, add cider vinegar and taste to adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Charred Shishito Peppers

(THE SECOND* SIMPLEST WAY TO ACHIEVE THE PERFECT BITE)

2 teaspoons grapeseed or olive oil

1 pound shishito peppers

Flaky sea salt

Directions

In a large cast-iron skillet, heat 1 teaspoon of the grapeseed oil. Add half of the peppers and cook over moderately high heat, turning occasionally, until charred and tender, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl. Repeat with the remaining oil and peppers.

season with flaky sea salt. Transfer to a platter; eat  ASAP

P i c k l i s t

Blueberries - cabbage - tomatoes - cucumbers - summer squash - patty pan squash -

 wax beans - dill - potatoes - peppers - eggplant - fennel

This week in farming…

The past week has been extremely chill compared to the past few weeks of fury.  While we are still figuring out what comes next and what takes priority, it is a bit of a relief to usher in cooler, drier weather.  This allows the crops to hold their horses and slow down production.  This is especially helpful in cucurbit land (summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, etc) where it is more often than not that we are culling caveman club sized zucchini from the fields, then picking the more epicurean faves.  Thankfully, it is not just our crew coming in for harvest.  Willing Hands- the awesome organization that assists in food security for the Upper Valley has been dropping by weekly with their own crew to glean from the fields.  To glean, is to pick from a field post initial harvest.  Gleaning is an excellent opportunity for farms to share the literal fruits of their labor.  These crops are known as “seconds” on our farm- still great stuff, but not necessarily the most supreme picking.  Typically in July, we host a strawberry glean for you all, our dearly beloved CSA crew.  However, this July was met with the most extreme rain that brought the season to a real hard stop.  Super fun times for all, amiright?

As far as the current veg situation goes, we are delighted to welcome potatoes to the team.  Prior to our big potato harvest that will start in about a month, we hand dig these cuties.  Digging for potatoes is like searching for buried treasure.  Rather than an x marking the spot, you hone in on the potato plant.  Once you pull the plant, you can get an idea of how glorious the potatoes will be underground by the resistance the plant gives.  The Harder to pull, the more potatoes you reap.  There is also a very satisfying plucking sound that occurs when potatoes leave the plant- pop-pop-pop-pop.  Anyhow, once the aboveground plant has separated from their babies,  you dig until every last sphere is found.  After last year’s drought that culminated in a very small potato harvest, it is a real joy to pluck these beauties from the earth, wash them off, and make some dynamite potato salad.  

Another veg to geek out about are the wax beans.  However, a big heads up to you all, we did not wash the bagged beans.  Because there is so much rot in the fields from the very damp weather, we opted to keep them dirty to avoid ushering in any unnecessary rot.  They should keep for a hot minute, but absolutely wash before use.  No one likes a gritty bean salad.

That is all from the fields.  Melon is on the horizon friends!

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS: 

THINGS TO GRILL THIS WEEK: 

EGGPLANT! SUMMER SQUASH! PATTY PAN SQUASH! PEPPERS! FENNEL! Just add salt!  Also shaved parm takes all the above grilled crops to the next level.

This clever wax bean dish is a cross between a salad and a side dish: it's served warm but loaded with the bright, fresh flavors of tomatoes and basil.

By Jody Williams  Updated on March 31, 2014

2 pounds yellow wax beans, trimmed (UNFORTUNATELY, you only have .75lbs of these beans, but i STILL think the recipe is worth downsizing the rest of the  ingredients for…)

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 ounces thickly sliced bacon, cut into lardons (1 cup)

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

10 ounces halved cherry tomatoes (or chopped regular tomatoes!)

1 small shallot, very finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped

1/3 cup chopped dill

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

Cook the beans in a large pot of salted boiling water until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Drain the beans and cool them under cold running water. Drain well and pat dry; transfer the beans to a large bowl.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the bacon and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until golden, 7 to 8 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the vinegar, tomatoes, shallot, garlic and dill. Scrape the bacon vinaigrette over the beans, season with salt and pepper and toss to evenly coat. Serve warm.

SOUR CREAM SLAW WITH FENNEL

From my second favorite cook book, START SIMPLE by Lukas Volger

1 small cabbage 

1 medium fennel bulb, cored and very thinly sliced, fronds reserved

¼ cup sour cream

1 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon or more herbs de provence (thyme!!! Oregano, rosemary, etc)

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

¼ teaspoon sugar

Pinch red pepper flakes

 In a serving bowl combine the cabbage (kale) and fennel.

In a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, olive oil, lemon juice, herbes de provence (thyme etc!), sugar, and red pepper flakes.  Taste and season with salt.  Add most of the dressing to the cabbage (kale) and fennel and taste, adding more if needed (you may have some dressing left over).  Coarsely chop about 3 tablespoons of the fennel fronds and stir them in.  You can eat this slaw immediately, but the flavors will meld a bit after and hour or so at room temperature.  

A crisp salad of pole beans, fennel, and parmesan cheese 

From my tried and true old standby eating bible, TENDER by Nigel Slater

Wax  beans 

Medium fennel bulb

Small, salad leaves (chop up your savoy!) 4 double handfuls… 

White bread- 2 thick slices

Oil for frying the bread

For the dressing:

Tarragon vinegar- a tablespoon 

Dijon mustard- a teaspoon

An egg yolk

Olive oil- a scant ½ cup

Grated parmesan cheese- 3 tablespoons, plus a block of parm for shaving

Lemon juice- 2 teaspoons

 Trim the beans and boil them in lightly salted water or steam them, until tender.  Drain them under cold running water.  Cut the fennel bulb in half and shred finely.  Make the dressing by whisking the vinegar, mustard, and egg yolk together with a little salt and black pepper, then beating in the oil followed by the grated cheese.  It should be thick and creamy.  Squeeze in the lemon juice, stir, then set a side for a few minutes.  

 Put the “salad” leaves in a large bowl with the cooked beans and the fennel.  Cut the bread into small squares and fry in shallow oil until golden on all sides.  Drain the croutons on paper towels.  Toss the leaves and beans lightly with the dressing.  Pile the salad into two plates and shave pieces of parmesan over with a vegetable peeler.  I usually do at least 8 per salad, depending on my dexterity with the peeler.  Tip the hot croutons over the salad and eat straight away while all is fresh and crunchy.  

POTATO SALAD!

p i c k l i s t

pickling cucumbers - garlic - dill - summer squash - zucchini -

lettuce - celery - tomatoes - blueberries - hungarian hot wax pep

This week was farmed with a pretty heavy heart, and we are still wrapping our heads around it all.  We are still trying to calibrate all we lost and take count of all the pests and diseases that are thriving as a result.  We are still trying to figure out the best ways to support our farming buds in Vermont that lost too much.  Because I am in fact here to farm-splain let me break it down to you the best way I can.  Farming is so much more than sweet corn and tomatoes and beautiful photos and pastoral sunsets (if you are a CSA veteran then you absolutely know this by now).  When you choose to give your life over to farming- you sign a deal with the weather gods.  For better or worse you are always under the thumb of a 10 day forecast.  Sometimes it works in your favor, but this year, there is no good compromise.  The first humbling hit occurred with that late Spring kill frost, and we’ve been drenched and pruned every day since.  And when it is not raining we are staring at a pink sun and breathing in air that's just not quite right.  Quite frankly, growing food this Summer sucks.  However last Summer was hard too.  Ray reminded me recently of last Summer’s drought and crazy winds.  While people were vacationing and lounging around their favorite swim holes (remember those dreamy blue skies?), we were all thirsty and moving around irrigation lines, watching crops dry up and die.  We prayed for rain, and it came 1 year later in the form of bucket loads upon our heads and pools at our feet.  

Clearly, I am feeling pretty doom and gloom this week as climate change is moving fast and it is impossible to look away.

However, as noted above, we gave our lives over to farming a while back now and that’s not gonna change.  We are still pumped on growing  all the Summer faves and we just gotta learn to adapt and be more mindful with every step along the way.

In other news this week, we are totally overwhelmed with cucurbits! And I can not stress enough the urgency to pickle all your cucumbers and grill all your squashes.

As far as flood relief goes, and the massive financial hit that many farms are experiencing, please know that we are working on a plan to help, and I’ll pass around info as we navigate that.  

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS: 

IT’S PICKLING SEASON YALL! Here are my 2 fave recipes and pickling tips followed by the very best, most refreshing after work meal.

Pickling and Fermentation 101

Presented by Jeffrey Yoskowitz of The Gefilteria

author of The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Food

Lacto-Fermentation vs. Vinegar Pickling 

Lacto-fermentation, also known as saltwater pickling, is a traditional preservation method that utilizes the natural bacteria found on vegetables and fruits in order to preserve them. Vinegar pickling, also known as quick pickling, by contrast, utilizes vinegar to destroy all bacteria found on vegetables and fruits, thereby preserving them in the process. 

With lacto-fermentation, we create an ecosystem for Lactobacillus (the same bacteria found in yogurt) to thrive and convert carbohydrates (sugars) into lactic acid. The acid acts as a natural preservative. The end result is not only delicious, but healthy—it aids in digestion and boosts the immune system. 

4 Essentials of Lacto-Fermentation 

Salt: The salt brine regulates fermentation by enabling positive bacterial growth and inhibiting negative bacterial growth. Use kosher salt or sea salt, nothing with added iodine!

Spice: Add your desired pickling spices to saltwater to infuse flavor into brine. Tannin-rich leaves—such as bay leaves—help keep the crunch. Garlic, dill, mustard seeds, coriander, peppercorns, chili peppers and cinnamon sticks are standards. 

Produce: Choose the freshest, thinnest cucumbers possible. Kirby is your best choice variety, but you can replace cucumbers with green beans for similar flavor results and a consistent crunch. 

Patience: The true process of fermentation involves waiting as the bacteria goes to work. Be sure to keep your jar in a moderate temperature space (65-75 degrees F). Keep your vegetables under the salty brine, too. Anything above the liquid may get a tad bit moldy. Note that mold happens often, and it’s ok! Anything white can simply be scraped away/cut off of the veggies. The rest will be just fine. Once your pickles are at their desired flavor point, place them in the refrigerator to stop the fermentation process and keep them there and enjoy. 

Recipe for Crisp Garlic Dilly Beans or Cucumbers

Fill a pint sized jar with water (2 cups). Add 1 heaping Tbsp kosher salt and shake or stir to dissolve the salt fully. 

Place cucumbers or green beans in the jar (as many as will fit! Squeeze them in tightly!), along with 1-2 bay leaves, 1-3 cloves chopped garlic, 2 sprigs of dill, and 1/2 tsp seeds such as mustard seeds, peppercorns, coriander seeds, etc. If needed, add more water/salt mixture (same ratio) and cover the veggies, leaving at least an inch between the liquid and the top of the jar. 

Seal the jar. After the first two days, “burp” the jar. Check them daily after that. When you like the flavor, transfer the jar to the fridge. Enjoy! 

(quick) DILL PICKLES from the cookbook TART & SWEET

4 cups white vinegar

2 cups water

¼ cup kosher salt

4 ½ pounds cukes

PER JAR:

3 cloves garlic

3 dill heads or 4-5 dill sprigs

1 tablespoon yellow mustard seed

1 tablespoon brown mustard seed

1 teaspoon dill seed

1 teaspoon black peppercorn

Bring the vinegar, water, and salt to a boil in a medium reactive pot.

Stir to dissolve the salt.

Place Garlic, dill, and spices in each hot jar.  Pack cukes in as tightly as possible without crushing. 

Pour in boiling brine, leaving ½ inch headspace. Make sure the cukes are submerged in brine.  

ANOTHER RECIPE I STUMBLED ON… Calls for caraway instead of the mustard seed… I am actually leaning towards caraway seeds rather than mustard for my next pickling adventure because that classic caraway flavor found in rye bread or saurkraut seems completely appropriate and potentially awesome here.  

2 lbs cucumbers, halved lengthwise, seeded and chopped

1/2 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 small garlic cloves

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish

1 tablespoon chopped dill, plus sprigs for garnish

Kosher salt

Pepper

Directions

In a blender, puree the cucumbers, yogurt, lemon juice and garlic. With the machine on, gradually add the 1/2 cup of oil until incorporated. Transfer to a bowl, stir in the chopped dill and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, 30 minutes. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with a drizzle of olive oil and dill sprigs.

Make Ahead

The soup can be refrigerated overnight.

Notes

p i c k l i s t

Zucchini - summer squash - cauliflower - lettuce - cucumbers - lemonbalm - heirloom tomatoes

Spent the past two days harvesting for CSA and watching the river rise.  Not a ton for us to do other than watch.  All day Monday we played eye spy with this one particularly low field at the farm.  I must have have done 16 drive-by’s just eyeing the water level and taking note of every change.  The concern is that once the water crests in that once particular spot, we have about 50 minutes until that field is totally flooded. That field is home to our carrot crop (remember those beauties from last week?), 4 greenhouses, strawberries, and all of our herbs.  It would be a massive hit.  The river never peaked right there, and we were mostly alright.  The water did pool up considerably around the herbs and one of our lower greenhouses.  As a result, you will see a massive cut back in herbs over the next few weeks.  All in all, we experienced very little loss.  But the ground is still so damn heavy and saturated and this summer remains the perfect breading ground for disease and rot and not a morning goes by that I put on dry boots.  

And while we walked away extremely lucky, so many others did not.  I’m thinking of our buds at Hurricane Flats Farm in South Royalton and Joe’s Brook Farm in Barnet.  All of our farms experience the total joy of planting crops on alluvial (river bottom) soil.  That proximity to rivers and streams makes for great farming.  These fields tend to be flat and long and rich and easy to irrigate.  Flooding can occur, but moments of catastrophic destruction are known to happen very rarely, every 100 years… and here we are 12 years later since Irene, and it all feels like too much too soon.  Not to mention this flood on the heels of that extremely late Spring kill frost, and farming in smokey air.  The 2023 growing season is absolutely going on record as one of the hardest years to grow food.  But here we are, and at this point, let’s play ball. 

One crop we went heavy on this week is cauliflower.  Is it your favorite veg? I hope so.  If not, it will be this week.  We had to harvest our whole cauliflower crop ahead of the rains because this weather can turn your cauli from beautiful white delicious florets to rot in a heart beat, as a result you have 4(!) heads of cauliflower- which I know is alot, but also, in this case, is the nature of a CSA.  Sometimes you get whole lot of something but I can assure you there is a good reason for it.  And in other news that will hopefully cheer up this box of non stop rained on veg, hi hi to our beloved heirloom tomatoes that were grown inside a high ground greenhouse!

Alright sun, we are ready to see you shine now.  ok?

FLOOD RELIEF, WAYS TO HELP:

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS: 

ZUCCHINI ON THE GRILL by Nigel slater:

Summer squash/zucchini

Zest and juice of a lemon

Olive oil- 3 tablespoons

Small bunch of fresh herbs

Wipe the zucchini and slice thinly along their length, no thicker than ⅛ inch thick.  Put them in a colander in the sink.  Grind over a little salt and leave for half and hour.  Prepare the grill.  Once they are covered with little beads of moisture- as if they have broken out in a flop sweat- pat them dry and put the slices on the hot grill.  Let them brown lightly in stripes on the underside, then turn them over and brown them on the other side.  

Meanwhile. Make the dressing.  Grate the zest from the lemon into a mixing bowl.  I do this finely and lightly, as any white pith will make the dressing bitter.  Add the lemon juice, then beat in the olive oil with a fork or small hand whisk.  Add a pinch of salt and black pepper.  Coarsely tear the basil leaves, depending on their size- I like to leave small ones intact.  Lightly crush them in the hand to release the oils, add them to the dressing.  As each slice of zucchini becomes reasy, drop it into the dressing and mix gently so that the slices become completely soaked.  Set aside for the flavors to marry and vegetables to soften slightly

REALLY JUST GO AHEAD AND GRILL IT ALL:

Grilled cauliflower wedges are perfectly tender and spiced after a quick steam and finish on the BBQ. Served with a luscious tahini yogurt, tangy sumac onions, and crispy chickpeas, this vegan main is so impressive.

SUMAC ONIONS

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 ½ teaspoons sumac

sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

TAHINI YOGURT

¼ cup tahini

¼ cup unsweetened vegan yogurt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 small clove garlic, finely minced or grated with a Microplane

sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

3 tablespoons cold water, plus extra

GRILLED CAULIFLOWER WEDGES

1 medium head cauliflower

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon ground cumin

sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

TO SERVE:

crispy chickpeas (see notes)

chopped leafy herbs (cilantro, mint, parsley, basil or a mix)

extra drizzles of olive oil

NOTES:

I learned the sumac onions technique from Ottolenghi! I sub apple cider vinegar for lemon juice, but otherwise it’s the same.

My favourite unsweetened vegan yogurts for savoury applications are Yoggu or Culina.

I quickly tossed my chickpeas with oil, salt, and pepper and air fried them for 12 minutes at 390 to get them crispy, shaking the basket often. You could also accomplish this in the oven with the method that I outline in this recipe. If you have a bag of store bought crispy chickpeas hanging around, they would be great too!

If you don’t have a grill, I recommend roasting the steamed cauliflower wedges with all the spices, oil etc in a 400 oven for about 20 minutes, flipping the pieces over at the halfway point. You could also just break the cauliflower down into florets and skip the steaming step! If you’re doing that, I’d increase the roasting time to 40 minutes.

The sumac onions can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for up to 3 days. The yogurt tahini will keep for up to a week.

Make the sumac onions. In a medium bowl, combine the sliced onions, apple cider vinegar, sumac, salt, and pepper. Give them a toss with your hands and set aside for at least 20 minutes.

Make the tahini sauce. In a medium bowl, whisk together the tahini, yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, and water. The texture should be fluid but fluffy in a way. Add more water is necessary, and then set aside in the fridge.

Cut your cauliflower into 2-3-inch wedges, leaving the core intact. I flip the cauliflower head upside down and cut right through the core to have 2 equal halves. Then I cut each half into 4 even quarters.

Grab a large, deep skillet with a lid and pour a couple inches of water in. Bring that up to a simmer over medium heat on the stove. Add the cauliflower wedges to the skillet (or into a steamer basket if you have one) and place the lid on top. Steam until just tender in the core, about 7-8 minutes.

Set the steamed cauliflower wedges on a baking sheet and blot them dry with a clean kitchen towel or paper towels. In a small bowl, stir together the olive oil, maple syrup, paprika, garlic powder, and cumin. Brush this mixture on all sides of the cauliflower wedges. Season the cauliflower wedges on all sides with salt and pepper.

Preheat a grill to high. Lightly mist the grill with oil spray. Place the cauliflower wedges on the grill grates, shut the lid, and grill until char marks appear, about 3-4 minutes. Using tongs, gently flip the pieces over and char the other side for another 3-4 minutes.

To serve, swoop the tahini sauce over the surface of your serving platter. Arrange the grilled cauliflower wedges on top. Top the cauliflower with the sumac onions, crispy chickpeas, chopped herbs, and some little drizzles of olive oil. Enjoy immediately!

P I C K L I S T

Cilantro - strawberries - napa cabbage - bok choy - carrots - radishes - 

garlic scapes - english cucumber - lettuce

Will need to forgo all farm updates this week, as I chose to parade on the 4th rather than newsletter.  But if you are wondering how your farmers are doing, we are damp to say the very least.  Despite boots, our feet are forever pruned and there is always one article of clothing on our body that just won’t dry.  The rain is relentless.  

On that note, eat your strawberries today!  These Summer jewels have very little holding power.  Delicious berries, but they too are feeling the effects of too much rain.   

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS: 

BAECHU KIMCHI BY MORIHOUSE (@mori.house)/ Makes about one 750ml mason jar

1 large Napa Cabbage**, about 1kg/2lbs

Sea Salt (non-iodized), fine to semi-fine- 3% the weight of the Napa Cabbage

3-5 GARLIC SCAPES, thinly sliced (original recipe calls for garlic, but i think scapes would be awesome here)

zest of 1 Lemon, sliced into thin slivers

2 dried Togarashi Chili Peppers or Chile de Arbol, chopped (deseeded, optional)

3-5 cloves Garlic (I BET YOU COULD ALSO CUISINART SOME GARLIC SCAPES INTO A PASTE HERE), crushed into a paste

3-5 Tbsp Gochugaru (Korean Chili Pepper Flakes)***

1 Tbsp Fish Sauce (optional)

Pickling Brine* or Filtered Water

JENNY’S NOTE: 

OTHER INGREDIENTS TO ADD TO THIS KIMCHI RECIPE JULIENNED CARROTS/ SLICED RADISHES/ CHOPPED BOK CHOY Supplies:

1x Mortar & Pestle

1x Large Mixing Bowl

2-3 Spoons for mixing

1x 750ml sterilized, air-tight Mason Jar

1x Knife or Cleaver

1x Heavy object like a large stone or a large mason jar filled with water for weighing down your pickles.

1x Dish Towel

1x Small jar or pitcher for collecting excess brine

1x Fork or utensil to press down the pickles into the jar Prepare the garlic scapes, lemon zest and chili peppers as described. Cut your cabbage into 1/8ths lengthwise and then widthwise into approximately 3 inch chunks. (JENNY’S NOTE: Add your julienned carrots, sliced radishes and chopped bok choy here to the mix)

Place into a large bowl and scatter the salt, lemon zest, garlic and chili peppers over the cabbage. Gently massage the salt into the cabbage mixture evenly. As you are doing this, you will feel the cabbage excrete its water content. This will take just a few minutes.

Next use a plate or another round flat object which has a smaller circumference than the bowl, so it fits just inside rim and on top of the cabbage mixture. Using a large stone, mason jars filled with water or another heavy object, weigh the plate and cabbage down. Cover the top of the bowl with a towel to keep dust from getting in and let it sit weighed down like this for at least 3 hours to lightly pickle. After the 3 hours or more have elapsed, you will find the water from the cabbage will have filled the bowl to cover the kimchi in what is now a salty *pickling brine.

Decant the brine into a pitcher or jar and gently squeeze a little out of the cabbage mixture. At this stage you will have a fresh, lightly-pickled style of napa cabbage known in Japan as “Hakusai no Tsukemono”. If you don’t like spicy, you can skip ahead to the jarring stage.

Crush your garlic into a paste with a mortar and pestle and a couple pinches of salt to break it down easier. Add your gochugaru, fish sauce (if using) and using small amounts of the brine, make a paste similar in thickness to a tomato paste. Chuck this paste into the drained cabbage mixture, still in the original bowl, and massage all together, making sure the paste is distributed evenly.

Use the following final steps for both the spicy and non-spicy versions: Layer your kimchi into the mason jar in 3-4 stages. Between each layer, use a fork to gently press the kimchi down as flat as you can. Continue to do this until all the kimchi is in the jar. Give it a few more presses with a fork, getting as much oxygen and as many air bubbles out as possible. If your kimchi paste was the right consistency, brine will rise to the top as you press the air out of the kimchi. If not, add small amounts of brine until it does. If making only non-spicy Kimchi, you will definitely need to add some brine. This extra thin layer of liquid at the top will help to seal your kimchi during the beginning of the fermentation process. Seal the jar and place it in the coolest and darkest part of your home.

Next is the waiting! 1 MONTH is the sweet spot but while it may not be for everyone, do try to wait at least 5-7 days before tasting. It takes at least this long for there to be any noticeable fermentation. In the colder seasons, it may take even longer, up to 10 days. If you want to “taste-as-you-go”, be sure to use a clean utensil and DON’T double dip! However long your preferred fermentation time, you will need to help the kimchi release carbon dioxide gas every couple of days. You may notice that when you open it, the kimchi will bubble. Sometimes it will bubble like soda but it may also only bubble slightly or barely at all. Either way, you can rest assured that it is fermenting. Each time you release the gas, you will also notice the kimchi may have risen slightly. Using a fork press it down again as much as you can. Brine may or may not rise to cover the kimchi at this stage and that is ok.

Note: Depending on whether or not you sterilized your jar properly and the environment temperature, you may occasionally find trace amounts of white, blue or green mold on the top of your kimchi. DO NOT worry about this. Simply remove it from the kimchi or wipe it off if it is on the jar or lid. However, if you find black mold, I’m sorry to say your kimchi may have been contaminated by unwanted outside bacteria. At that stage, it is better to start over just to be safe. All this said, mold is highly unlikely using this method.

After 1 month (or shorter) has elapsed, enjoy your kimchi as a side to most of your favorite Asian dishes, cook it in a dish or eat it as a snack!

**Do not use standard or savoy cabbage to substitute. However, you can use Bok Choy (same weight) as a substitute if Napa Cabbage is nowhere to be found.

***Note: I have had some students use Cayenne Pepper, Paprika or Chili Powder in lieu of Gochugaru before, but please use caution as the spice levels between these differ substantially. If you are absolutely unable to get Gochugaru and still want to try making spicy kimchi, start by making your paste with just one tablespoon of one of these substitutes. Taste it first, then add more, tablespoon by tablespoon until you reach a spice-level which is tolerable for you. However, I suggest you do try to add Gochugaru as a regular item in your kitchen. It is very versatile and easy to find online or at Asian Markets.

LENTIL, CABBAGE, AND FETA SALAD WITH FRIZZLED ONIONS BY LUKAS VOLGER

JENNY’S NOTE: I LOVE THIS RECIPE. My house has been eating this once a week since cabbage has been field ready.  We never have all the ingredients.  Many times we’ve made this without the lentils or onion- BUT the main players here are cabbage, feta, toasted almonds and fresh herbs, salt, and dressong.  If you can gather those essential foods then chop on and eat up!  (Also, I use the term “we” incredibly loosely, as my dear friend/housemate Rich, has been doing the cooking here). 

Also, the book this recipe is from, START SIMPLE by Lukas Volger (Copyright © 2020 by Lukas Volger. Published by Harper Wave, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.) proves to be an excellent Summer eating resource.

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup brown, black or dark green lentils

Salt

½ medium white or yellow onion

Olive oil

5 cups sliced cabbage

¼ teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar

2 teaspoons dijon mustard

¼ teaspoon honey

½ cup crumbled feta cheese

1.2 cup coarsely chopped toasted almonds

½ cup cilantro leaves (or other herbs!)

Combine the lentils with 1 cup water and ½ teaspoon salt in a small saucepan.  Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until tender, 12 to 18 minutes, depending on which lentils you use.  Drain off and liquid left in the pan and allow to cool.

(JENNY’S NOTE: SO FAR, WE HAVE NOT DONE THE FOLLOWING, BECAUSE THE ONIONS HAVE ONLY RECENTLY STARTED PUTTING ON SIZE, IT SOUNDS DELISH, BUT FEEL FREE TO SKIP IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY ONIONS)  Meanwhile, slice the onion into paper-thin wasps, preferably using a mandolin, or working carefully with a chef’s knife.  Warm about ¼ inch of the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat.  Dip a piece of onion into it to ensure it’s properly hot- it should sizzle immediately- then add all the onions.  Cook, stirring often with a fork, untl they get crispy and turn a reddish-brown color, 10 to 20 minutes. Watch carefully for the final few minutes, as they burn easily.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer them to a paper towel- lined plate and sprinkle with salt.  SAVE THE OIL!

When the oil has cooled until it’s safe to handle, strain it through a fine mesh sieve or coffee filter to remove all solids into a glass jar (I use a 3-inch strainer for this task).

Toss the cabbage, ½ teaspoon of salt, and the sugar in a colander and let soften for 15 to 30 minutes, then gentlypress with a spatula to drain off excess liquid.  

Combine the vinegar, mustard, and honey in a jar, along with the 3 tablespoons of the cooled onion-cooking oil.  Shake to emulsify.  

p i c k l i s t

strawberries - garlic scapes - cilantro - lettuce - fennel - broccolini - 

cucumber - summer squash - zucchini - plants!

This was a very hard rain.  Too hard of a rain.  We are at that point in berry season where so many strawberry varieties are ripening up and ready for the picking.  Strawberries want sunny days, therefore we want sunny days.  The rain was expected to come on Sunday, but somehow it held off until Monday around noon, at that point we knew we were working under borrowed time.  Enter Monday morning, A chance to pick off as much fruit as possible before the inevitable.  Right as our bellies called us to lunch, the heavens opened up, and the rain came crashing down.  Within the first hour, there were little rivers everywhere pooling up around the farm draining into flood zones.

This does not make for the end of strawberry season- there is still a lot of good fruit out there, and late season berries to come, BUT it will make for slower picking for the field crew and there is a very good chance you will find a few extra ripe and soft berries in your quart this week, nothing a little cream and biscuit can't fix (hello strawberry shortcakes!).  These berries are meant to be eaten the same day as they are picked.  Our hearts are a little heavy after this rain, but hopefully some good jam and smoothies will come out of it, and fingers crossed that by next week the fields will dry out and the next flush of berries will be primo.

In other news, the field cucurbits have arrived! Summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers galore. 

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS:

This is a perfect week to grill or to salad 

Crops to grill: Garlic scapes! Fennel! Summer squash! Zucchini! broccolini!

Crops to salad: Lettuce! Fennel! Cucumber! Cilantro!

Also I bet if you grab a cuisinart, some garlic scapes, cilantro, olive oil, salt, and pepper you could make some real dippy-spread magic happen for all that grilled veg.

Depending on how much you like (or should I say love?) garlic flavor, you can swap the green stalks for half or all of the basil in your go-to pesto recipe. Blitz in a food processor with Parmesan, pine nuts, olive oil, and salt and pepper.

Fold chopped and sautéed garlic scapes into frittatas, omelets, or our best-ever scrambled eggs.

Swap thinly sliced garlic scapes for the scallions in your next batch of crispy fried rice.

Cut garlic scapes into coins and add them to a hot pan to make all sorts of stir-fries.

Mix finely diced garlic scapes into a vinaigrette or green goddess dressing to instantly upgrade your next salad.

Blister whole garlic scapes on the grill for a lightly charred snack or side dish to serve at your next barbecue.

Stir finely chopped garlic scapes, olive oil, and salt into Greek yogurt to make a dip for crackers or crudités. Or, thin the mixture with a spoonful of water and drizzle it over grilled meat or roasted veggies.

Pickled garlic scapes are a revelation. Cut the green shoots into 6-inch pieces and process them the same as pickled ramps.

Sauté sliced scapes to use as a homemade pizza topping. Save any leftover oil from the pan in the fridge for your next salad dressing.

Use the scapes whole in a hearty, warm-weather-friendly braise.

Add a few diced garlic scapes with the chopped onion the next time you make risotto. Feeling fancy? Save one finely sliced green stalk to garnish each bowl.

Mix chopped scapes with room-temperature butter and roll it into a log to make a versatile compound butter. Use it on grilled or pan-fried fish, roasted veggies, and garlicky grilled cheese. Or stash it in the freezer and pull it out a few months down the road to make a truly special Thanksgiving turkey.

2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon baking powder ¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar, divided ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, divided 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes and chilled 2 hard-boiled egg yolks, mashed with a fork or pushed through a small-mesh sieve 1¾ cup chilled heavy cream, divided 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

3 pints fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and halved or quartered, depending on size

Preheat oven to 400˚F.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Mix in ¼ cup sugar and the salt.

Add the chilled butter cubes and, using your fingertips, work the butter into the flour mixture until it has the consistency of coarse crumbs. Add the mashed hard-boiled egg yolks.

Add ¾ cup cream, little by little. Gently mix until the dough just comes together.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and gently knead into a smooth ball (about two or three turns). Gently pat down the dough to make a flat 1-inch-thick slab. Using a lightly floured 2½-inch-round biscuit cutter or an overturned glass, cut straight down to create 6 shortcakes. Place the shortcakes on a plate lined with waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour, or overnight.

Just before baking, brush the tops of each shortcake with melted butter and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar.

Transfer the chilled shortcakes to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake on the center rack of the oven until golden and firm to the touch, 15–20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

While the shortcakes cool, prepare the fruit filling and whipped cream. Place the strawberries in a large bowl. Gently toss with 2 tablespoons sugar and let sit until macerated, up to 10 minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the remaining chilled heavy cream on low and gradually increase speed until it begins to thicken. Reduce speed, add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and begin to slowly increase the speed until the whipped cream is thickened, about 4 minutes total.

Alternately, vigorously shake cream and sugar in a large Mason jar until desired consistency is reached, 10–15 minutes, depending on upper-body strength and determination.

Using a fork or serrated knife, cut the shortcakes in half. Place the bottom halves on plates and generously spoon the macerated strawberries and juices over them. Top with a heaping dollop of whipped cream. Top with the other half of each shortcake, or serve open-faced with the top halves on the side. Serve immediately, if not sooner.

BROCCOLINI: 

p i c k l i s t

strawberries - garlic scapes - basil - mint - bok choy - lettuce - cucumber - plants

Enter Summer Solstice with those all-day-high-in-the-sky light levels and the sweet scent of berries calling you to the fields… so let’s get right into it… c’mon out, PYO berry season is here!

HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Location head to 99 River Road/ Plainfield NH and follow the signs to the patch!

HOURS  morning hours: 8am-noon/ afternoon hours: 3-6pm

WEATHER & CROP PERMITTING! we will update facebook & instagram if there are early closures

FIELD REPORT: IDEAL CONDITIONS (so far/ heads up this can change in a heartbeat)

FARMY FOODIE PRO-TIPS

(it’s a scape season must)/ YIELD About 1 cup recipe from the NYTimes

JENNY’S NOTE: No real measurements here, everything is to taste.

The star of this pesto is the garlic plant’s under-appreciated second offering: the fleeting garlic scape. The ingredients are straightforward except for the substitution of sunflower seeds for pine nuts. The seeds are a fraction of the cost and do the job just as well. A food processor is a must for this recipe. For pesto, ingredient order matters. Start with the scapes and process for about 30 seconds. Add the seeds until they are broken down and mixed well with the scapes. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula for wandering bits. Next, pour in the olive oil. If you have Parmesan cheese in chunks, add it now, but if it is grated, wait until the scapes and seeds smooth out. If you’re serving right away, add the basil and lemon juice. If not, hold back on the basil for now — otherwise the pesto will lose its vibrant color. Add generously to cooked spaghetti or spread on crusty bread.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup garlic scapes, sliced crosswise (about 10 to 12 scapes)

¼ cup raw sunflower seeds

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup Parmesan cheese

½ cup basil leaves

Juice of one lemon

PREPARATION

Place the garlic scapes in a food processor and pulse for 30 seconds.

Add the sunflower seeds and pulse for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the olive oil and process on high for 15 seconds.

Add the Parmesan cheese and pulse until the ingredients are combined.

Add the basil and lemon juice, and process until reaching the desired consistency.

Add salt to taste and serve immediately.

As for all the other crops included in this pick-list, welcome to salad season!

The following are some standby combos and quasi recipes I hold onto to brighten up all these greens for eating:

Rice noodle bowls!  Perfect vehicle for every green thing. Just add coconut aminos or tamari and sesame oil.  For protein you will have to look elsewhere- but as for the basil, bok choy, mint, lettuce, and cukes- just chop and fold in.

GARLIC SCAPE PESTO SALAD DRESSING: 

Remember all that garlic scape pesto you intend to make this week)? Take a couple of tablespoons of that and add the following: olive oil, vinegar, maple syrup, and lemon juice. Everything to taste- whisk to combine.  

author: CHIHYU SMITH

Baby bok choy salad (or Pak Choi) with creamy toasted sesame dressing. This is the best Chinese bok choy recipe that’s easy and super delicious.

bok choy

2-3 tbsp creamy toasted sesame dressing, or more if you like

1-2 tsp coconut aminos 

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

In the meantime, halve or quarter the baby bok choy. Rinse them under tap water to remove dirts hidden inside the layers.

Blanch them in hot boiling water for about 1 to 1.5 minutes. Use a large slotted spoon to scoop out the bok choy and shock them in cold water. The bok choy will remain crunchy this way.

Gently squeeze the bok choy to remove the water. Place them over a serving dish. You can place them either cut side up or down. Personally, I prefer cut side up.

In a bowl, combine the sesame dressing with coconut aminos. Spoon the sauce over the bok choy one tablespoon at a time until your desired quantity. The more sauce the stronger the flavor it will be.

Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Creamy Toasted Sesame Dressing

Makes about 1/2 cup.

1 tbsp white sesame seeds

4 tbsp Paleo mayonnaise

1.5 tbsp rice vinegar

3 tbsp coconut aminos

½ to 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

2 tsp tahini

In a dry cast iron skillet, add the sesame seeds and toast over low heat for about 2-3 minutes. Stir the seeds often with a spatula or gently rock the skillet back-and-forth to keep the sesame from burning.

Off heat, grind the seeds with a pestle and mortar (or a clean coffee grinder) until smooth.

In a medium-size bowl, add all the ingredients from sesame seeds to tahini. Whisk and stir until creamy smooth. Taste and make seasoning adjustments to your own liking.

p i c k l i s t

strawberries - rhubarb - cucumbers - celery - garlic scapes - mint - lemon balm - kale - basil

Enter June.  A time when we start to eat the literal fruits of our labor.  I am always so overwhelmed by the beauty of this month- the light in the sky, the buds on the flowers, the food emerging from the fields.  June is a month of clean rows, freshly planted earth, quietly germinating seeds, perennial plant magic and easy cultivation.  At this point in the early season, all appears tidy and weed free.  Oh but get ready, it is a real illusion.  Because while we are distracted keeping our butts in the air and our heads towards the ground over in the strawberry fields- the weeds are planning their mutiny.  I am almost positive that they come together annually, have a team meeting marking their territory and by July 1, everyone from lambsquarter to crabgrass to nettles and beyond begin to form a brigade.  But enough about the future weeds, and let us lean into this moment of real crop hope and early season field potential.  

ALSO, and moreover, welcome back CSA season- for those who are keeping track- we are 15 years into this little food club that just won’t quit.  Thanks for having us at your table!

PRO-TIPS

Full disclosure, I have not made this, but my bestie swears by it…

1/2 cup (125ml) extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon water

1 small shallot (25g) peeled and sliced

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

3/4 teaspoon kosher or flaky sea salt

2 cups (25g) loosely packed fresh basil leaves

- Put the olive oil, vinegar, water, shallot, mustard, and salt in a blender. Coarsely chop the basil leaves and immediately put them in the blender.

- Cover the blender and mix on high-speed for 15 to 30 seconds until the vinaigrette is smooth. If the sauce is too thick for your liking, add a little more water or olive oil to thin it out.

Notes: Serving and storage: The basil vinaigrette can be used right away or will keep for a week in the refrigerator. It’s best served at room temperature.

Yield:8 to 12 servings

2 cups sliced almonds

⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 to 4 lemons)

Kosher salt

1½ cups extra-virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, crushed with the flat side of a knife, peeled and left whole

10 to 12 ounces washed and dried kale leaves, thick stems removed (weight after trimming)

1½ cups freshly grated Parmesan (optional)

Step 1: In a toaster oven or skillet, toast almonds until golden brown and fragrant. Set aside to cool.

Step 2: In a bowl, combine lemon juice and 1 heaping teaspoon salt. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Add garlic cloves and set aside to steep.

Step 3: Working in batches, cut the kale into thin ribbons: gather a large handful of leaves, bunch together tightly, and use the other hand to slice into ¼-inch-thick pieces. This need not be done very precisely or neatly; the idea is to end up with a kind of slaw. (Recipe can be made up to this point 1 day ahead. Keep kale and dressing refrigerated separately.)

Step 4:Place chopped kale in a very large bowl. Sprinkle surface with almonds and then with cheese, if using. Remove and discard garlic cloves from dressing. Pour half the dressing over the salad and toss. Taste for dressing and salt and add more as needed, tossing to coat thoroughly. Serve within 1 hour.

ALRIGHT LET’S GET INTO THOSE GARLIC SCAPES:

What are they?  For you fresh CSA babes, the garlic scape might be a mystery crop, but let me tell you there is magic in those green twisty wands.  Garlic scapes grow out of the garlic plant.  They are the eventual flower that the garlic would naturally produce.  However, we cut them back in order to make a more robust garlic bulb.  Plants use a ton of energy to make flowers.  When you cut back your flowers, or prune your trees, it might feel disheartening at first (if you know you know).  For example, in my own garden, I go through each of the early blossoms and snip back the flowers. We try to do this in our cut flower field as well.  This encourages all that good energy that goes into producing flowers to be redirected into the foliage of the plants and its roots, encouraging a stronger, more productive plant over the growing season.  However, unlike pruning your tomato plants or apple trees, we get to eat the ‘cut back’ flower right now.  For all you medicinal foodies, there are real benefits to eating garlic scapes: immune system support, reduce inflammation, vitamin C, antioxidant properties, etc. The garlic scape is a more mild garlic that can be chopped fresh, fried on the pan, grilled (SOOOOO GOOOQOOOOD YOU HAVE TO TRY IT) with olive oil & salt or pestoed.  To move through and enjoy lots of garlic scapes all year long, make a ton of pesto, and freeze! Next week will include a pesto recipe to follow as I can assure, you will without a doubt be getting another bunch of garlic scapes.  

(ANOTHER BESTY FAVORITE.)

Tart rhubarb is perfectly balanced with sugar in this sweet and moist rhubarb cake recipe with a streusel topping. 

Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 ¼ cups white sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup sour cream

3 cups diced rhubarb

Streusel:

1 cup white sugar

¼ cup butter, softened

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13-inch baking dish.

Make cake: Stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in eggs and sour cream until smooth, then fold in rhubarb. Pour into the prepared dish and spread evenly.

Make streusel: Stir together sugar and butter in a medium bowl until smooth. Stir in flour until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle mixture on top of cake, then dust lightly with cinnamon.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

LEMON BALM & MINT:

Fresh herbs for tea, cocktails, and salads!  The basil and mint is obvious, you know what to do.  lemon balm, I’m here to give you a heads up.  Strip leaves, place in water, drink abundantly (because we all need to drink more water!)

Ingredients

Vinaigrette

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 lemon (medium zested)

3 tablespoon lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

3 tablespoons Greek yogurt

2 tablespoons minced shallots

1 teaspoon brown sugar

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper (to taste)

Salad

3 cucumbers (medium sliced (about 4 cups))

¼ cup chopped spearmint

Kosher or sea salt (if necessary)

Directions

In a bowl whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients. Chill until ready to serve.

Pat the cucumber slices dry between paper towels. Combine with the mint in a large bowl. Toss with the vinaigrette and season with additional salt, if desired. Serve chilled.

Make Ahead

The vinaigrette can be prepared one to two days in advance.