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First, HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY TO MY NIECE ALYSSA! I was honored that she came to pick up vegetables on her birthday. We had a picnic and played in the park, and then as they were getting ready to leave, Alyssa was the one who remembered about actually putting the CSA box in the car to bring home! One time last year she said, “I LOVE veggie pick-up day!” And when I asked her why, she said, “Well, you always bring me cucumbers!”
Sadly, it is not quite time for cucumbers yet, but we are enjoying an abundance of early June veggies. In your box this week:
- Rhubarb
- Green Onions (the perennial kind. we’ll switch to the smaller annual ones soon)
- Bok Choy (maybe for one more week?)
- Mint
- Garlic Chives
- Chamomile
- ARUGULA (like a spicy lettuce. Eat it raw or cook like spinach. Loose leaves of various sizes in a bag.)
- Red Russian Kale — purplish stem, wrinkly edged leaves, mostly green with some purple. Rubber-banded together at the stem.
- Dill leaves
- Radishes. Little known fact: you can eat the radish leaves too, but because they are prickly most people would cook them first. You could saute them or flash steam by dunking in boiling water, or you could chop them up into eggs or hotdish. (No pressure of course if you don’t want to eat them, most people do just compost them. But most people also do not know that the leaves are great sources of vitamin C and calcium!)
Welcome to the CSA season!
In your box this week:
- Rhubarb
- Bok Choy
- Green Onions
- Garlic Chives
- Oregano
- Lemon Thyme
- Mint
In your box this week:
- NEW! Popcorn: Hang or place in the open air to let dry for about 4 weeks. Test a few kernels to see if they are ready for popping. Kernels that are not dry enough will not pop fully. We removed most bad spots, but due to recent wet conditions there may still be a few moldy kernels. The rest is still good. When they are dry enough, rub off the good kernels into a jar for storage.
- NEW! Rutabaga
- NEW! Lavendar: an edible variety. Use for crafts, tea, or make some sorbet!
- NEW! Parsnips: baby ones! You could just boil them and have mashed parsnips. You could also mash in rutabagas, potatoes, and carrots for a lovely fall treat.
- Eggplant: they are very little, but I think you can use them just like full grown eggplant.
- Hot Peppers: In the bag with the eggplant, so you know which ones are hot.
- Sweet Peppers: Lots of sizes and shapes. We picked some of them quite young (just before the frost on Saturday night). Young peppers have thinner walls but can be used just the same as the older. If you have too many peppers to handle — freeze some! Select some full grown peppers (with thicker walls) and cut into chunks. Throw into a plastic bag in the freezer. Easy! These frozen peppers are perfect for chili, soup, hot dish, etc. all winter long!
- Kale
- Rainbow Chard
- Broccoli
- Carrots
- Beets with leaves
- Parsley
- Cilantro
- Mint: easy to dry
- Sage: easy to dry
- Pineapple Sage
- Thyme: easy to dry
- Lemon Thyme
- Rosemary: easy to dry
In your box this week:
- LAST OF: Fennel
- LAST OF: Cabbage
- LAST OF: Garlic Chives
- Kale
- Sweet Peppers
- Carrots
- Broccoli -OR- Beans (LAST OF BEANS)
- Beets with Greens
- Parsley
- Arugula
Next week will be our FINAL WEEK! We have some surprises in store for you too!
In your box this week:
- LAST OF: Onions. These are PERFECT for KABOBS! Or Creamed Onions! They have been cured in the sun for longer storage.
- NEW! Eggplant: This is the first week that everybody gets one. Either the traditional dark purple or the gourmet Rosa Bianca variety.
- Broccoli
- Zucchini / Summer Squash
- HOT Peppers: A few people have small striped “Fish” hot peppers. Everyone has the long skinny Cayennes. They are excellent for drying. Hang them up to dry (maybe they will turn red?), and then crumble into a jar for (red?) pepper flakes or just leave them hanging and use as desired throughout the winter.
- SWEET Peppers: All of the peppers are sweet, EXCEPT for the two varieties of hot peppers described above.
- Rainbow Chard
- Beets: Beets and Chard are very closely related. However you use the Chard, use the Beet leaves this way too. Think of it as two bunches of Chard this week, one of them with Beet roots attached.
- Carrots
- Beans
- Dill
- Sage
- Thyme
- Fennel
- A slice of PRIDE OF WISCONSIN MELON, for those who picked up in Minneapolis
- A slice of MOON AND STARS WATERMELON, for those who picked up in Minneapolis
After harvesting the fennel and dill, I picked the last few tomatoes on my way by the patch. In the drizzly rain with a background of brown grass, the colors were so vibrant and beautiful I had to take a photo.
Meet the newest CSA member, Twix! Alex and Syneva just got this French Bulldog puppy and are brightening the days of everyone they meet -- there is nothing quite like an unexpected dose of really cute puppy!
In your box this week:
- LAST OF: Tomatoes
- LAST OF: Potatoes
- LAST OF: Cilantro
- LAST OF: Basil
- Mint
- Thyme
- Fennel
- NEW! Sage
- NEW! Onion Chives
- NEW! Parsley
- Kale
- Beans
- Cucumbers (LAST OF??)
- Zucchini / Summer Squash (LAST OF??)
- Carrots
- Arugula
- Peppers: All of them this week are sweet EXCEPT the long skinny green Cayenne Hot Pepper
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HERB CONFUSION?? We can help!
From Left to Right:
- Basil: Fresh, dried, frozen (chop in food processor first). Use in pesto, Italian dishes, sauces, soups.
- Onion Chives: Best used fresh. Chop up fresh as garnish for salad, potatoes, or tacos, etc. Can also be used cooked.
- Mint: Fresh, dried, frozen. Mint calms an upset stomach. Dry it and then crumble it into a jar for later use. Last winter I had food poisoning and mint tea helped A LOT. I went through almost a quart of dried mint leaves in a week, and was SO GLAD I had them on hand in the cupboard.
- Thyme: Fresh or dried. Usually used cooked, such as in Italian dishes, hotdishes, and soups.
- Cilantro: Best fresh, could probably be dried? Use it fresh in salsa, spring rolls, quesadillas, with fruit, in cornbread, or as a last second addition to sautes or soups. Cilantro also makes a great pesto!
- Parsley: Fresh, dried, frozen. Another good pesto candidate! Also used in Italian dishes, soups, sprinkled in salads (try it!), or just generally added to pretty much anything.
- Sage: Fresh, dried, frozen. Use it in fall cooking, like with squash soup, potato dishes, and meat things.
FRESH: Keep fresh by putting it in a plastic bag in the fridge. Basil is picky–wet leaves turn black in the fridge. Sometimes it works well to put basil in a vase on your counter. Or put a towel around it in the bag to catch condensation.
DRIED: Just hang the bunch upside down in a place that gets some air movement but that is out of direct sunlight. Stagnant air could facilitate molding, and the sun zaps nutrition and flavor. If you are like me, you always think, “Of course I will remember what herb this is!” but then when it is all dried up it is hard to tell if it was Oregano or Mint or Parsley or what. So just LABEL IT now and thank yourself later.
FROZEN: I have found it easiest to chop up the dry herb with a food processor, and then put in a bag in the freezer. No water or oil mixed in means the herbs stay crumbly and I can just scoop out however much I want. The super deluxe way of preventing them from clumping up would be to pour the ground-up herbs onto a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet and freeze them flat, and then pour them into a plastic bag after they are frozen. Some people like to freeze them as pesto, or in oil or water, perhaps in an ice cube tray, and then transfer the frozen herb cubes into a plastic bag.
And don’t forget the tomatoes! Arranged here by Natalie:
In your box this week:
- Tomatoes
- Zucchini / Summer Squash
- Cucumbers
- Beans
- Eggplant -OR- Cabbage
- Onions
- Peppers – sweets and hot cayennes
- Dill
- Basil
- Rosemary
- Carrots
- Cilantro
- Broccoli
- Edible Flowers
- Chamomile
- Beets
Proud Aunt Chris hugs Alyssa, who starts Kindergarten tomorrow!
CSA member Clara hugs Sam the Saguaro Cactus puppet (along with her dad Dan).
A full bucket of Raspberries at sunset.
A bird nest in the Raspberry patch. Anyone know what kind of bird?
In your box this week:
- Tomatoes: As usual, treat these heirloom varieties very gently. Not sure what to do with the really ripe ones today? EASY TO FREEZE: Just cut them up and freeze them. Some people like to freeze them first on a cookie sheet, so they are separate and loose in the bag. Some people like to first drop whole tomatoes into boiling water for a minute or so until the skin starts to peel, and then they freeze the de-skinned tomatoes whole or cut into pieces. The EASIEST way, in my humble opinion, is to puree the tomatoes, skin and seeds and everything. Then pour into a bag and freeze. If I have time, and it’s not too hot, I will cook the tomato puree on the stove to get rid of some of the extra moisture. Then I will can or freeze this thicker and more concentrated version. It takes up less space, and is better for winter hot dishes and spaghetti sauce anyway. You can boil it until it is as thick as you’d like. Sometimes I like to cook it down until it looks like ketchup and is more like tomato paste. For the LITTLE TOMATOES, a friend taught me last year to throw them whole (with skin) into a bag and freeze them. Then in the winter take them out and throw them into Tabbouleh or slaw or sautes. Yum!
- Zucchini / Summer Squash
- Cucumbers
- Garlic Chives: Eat the flowers, BUT the stem of the flower might be too tough to eat. Try it and see.
- Sweet Corn: The second picking of the second planting. Ripeness and size are more variable. Think of it as an extra bonus week of corn.
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Kale
- Lettuce
- Arugula and Mizuna
- Sweet Peppers
- Carrots
- Beans
In your box this week:
- NEW! Garlic! “Siberian” and “German Extra Hardy” varieties
- Broccoli
- Beans
- Zucchini / Summer Squash
- Tomatoes: Sort through these heirloom varieties, some are ready to eat now, some want to sit on your counter for a few days. All of them want to be coddled and handled gently.
- Beets: Red, Chiogga (striped), and Golden
- Pineapple Sage
- Mint
- Thyme
- Cilantro
- Sweet Peppers
- Onions
- Cucumbers
- Sweet Corn
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- My dad Darwin picking the sweet corn.
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- In order to prevent the sweet corn and popcorn from cross-pollinating, we grow the sweet corn at my Uncle Rodney’s place in Nowthen, where my dad Darwin grew up.
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- Corn doesn’t get fresher than this!
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- Dad and Rod chat about last weekend’s threshing show in Nowthen while admiring the pile of corn in the truck.
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- This Sunflower’s head is bigger than mine!
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- Alyssa with a giant cucumber smile, and Carter enjoying a tomato.
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- Ooo La La! Not only does Natalie help harvest your food each week, she is also our hottie model!
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- Models, from L to R: Natalie, Maggie, Tonya with Lillian, Amy with Stitch.
I am off to Orcas Island, WA for a week for a friend’s wedding. If you have questions or need to get a hold of us this week, please email my dad Darwin at ReimannFarm (at) yahoo (dot) com. I will hopefully be back in time to help with the delivery next week, lucky #13, but your food will be harvested on Sunday by Darwin, Maggie, and Natalie. THANKS to them all for letting me sneak away in the middle of peak harvest season!
In your box this week:
- NEW! Sweet Peppers
- NEW! Fennel
- NEW! Rainbow Chard
- Tomatoes
- Beans
- Broccoli
- Zucchini / Summer Squash
- Cucumbers
- Arugula
- Lettuce & Mizuna Mix
- Onions: Not cured for long term storage, so store in the fridge
- Basil: Best kept at room temperature
- Carrots
- Edible Flowers: Nasturiums, Gem Marigolds, Oregano flowers, and Garlic Chive flowers
