IN YOUR BOX THIS WEEK:

1. NEW! Parsnips.
2. NEW! Popcorn
3. NEW! Celeriac (aka Celery Root)
4. NEW! Kuri winter squash
5. Celery
6. Cabbage
7. Beets
8. Carrots
9. Rainbow Chard
10. Eggplant
11. Tomatoes
12. Peppers, sweet and hot
13. Hakurei turnips with leaves (have you tried them sauteed with your scrambled eggs yet?)
14. Beans
15. Onions
16. Thyme (can hang to dry)
17. Mint (can hang to dry)
18. Arugula

Frosty Little Beet Leaves!

In your box:

1. Tomatoes
2. Zucchini/Summer Squash
3. Cucumbers
4. Broccoli
5. Beans
6. Onions
7. Kale
8. Eggplant
9. Peppers — sweets and hots (hots are in their own bag, long skinny cayennes hang to dry easily for winter use)
10. Cabbage
11. Carrots
12. Arugula
13. Turnips with really tasty leaves
14. Cilantro
15. Thyme
16. Rosemary
17. Mint
18. Basil
19. Fennel
20. Dill seeds (you can use these in cooking, or even plant a little windowsill winter herb garden!)
21. LAST OF: Garlic

Special thanks to my mom Carol for spending the week in the garden taking care of everything while my dad enjoyed elk hunting in Colorado.  Welcome back, dad, we’re glad you are home safe and had fun!  Mom, thanks for holding down the fort and picking green beans and zucchini all by yourself!

In your box this week!

1. Tomatoes — thankfully the forcasted heat this week should help the rest of the tomatoes continue to ripen,  You will notice less in your box this week because of cool temps.
2. Broccoli
3. Zucchini and Summer Squash — wow, we are finally past the peak of these guys!  Instead of trying to sneak them into your neighbor’s car, you can once again savor and appreciate them as they wind down for the year.
4. Cucumbers — same as with Zukes above!
5. Onions
6. Rainbow Chard
7. Eggplant
8. Peppers – sweet and hot (everyone got a few hot cayennes — they are long and red and skinny.  They dry really easily, so if you don’t want to use them fresh you can just hang to dry and once dry crush them up into a jar for red pepper flakes.  The other kind of hot peppper, the yellow/orange Hungarian variety, is harder to tell apart from the sweet peppers so I continue to write “hot” for you on their stems.)
9. Beans
10. Cabbage
11. Beets with leaves that you can use just like Chard
12. Carrots
13. Turnips with really tasty leaves
14. Purple Basil
15. Garlic
16. Celery

Tomato slice fresh out of the dehydrator at sunset.

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Walking along the Rum River

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Joe the Dog enjoying a lovely afternoon walk.  In the spring we tap the largest of these Silver Maples lining the river bank to make maple syrup.

Happy Labor Day!  We have labored for you and have this beautiful box ready:

1. NEW! Sage  — use it fresh or easily hang it to dry and once dry crumble into a jar for winter use.
2. Cilantro
3. Basil — store it dry in your fridge or in a vase on your countertop.
4. Mint
5. Cucumbers
6. Zucchini and Summer Squash
7. Broccoli
8. Tomatoes
9. Onions
10. Peppers — mostly sweet, one hot Hungarian Wax
11. Cabbage
12. Kale
13. Beans
14. Beets with leaves
15. Hakurei Turnips with really tasty leaves
16. Eggplant
17. LAST OF:  Sweet Corn

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In your box!

1. Tomatoes
2. Broccoli
3. Zucchini and Summer Squash
4. Cucumbers
5. Onions
6. Rainbow Chard
7. Eggplant
8. Peppers (sweet and hot)
9. Beans
10. Cabbage
11. Beets with greens — more thinnings, just like last week.
12. Carrots — orange and yellow.
13. Sweet Corn
14. Mint
15. Dill

We were out in the cabbage patch and SURPRISE! we found this beautiful cauliflower baby looking for a forever family.

The reason there are less Sungold tomatoes in your box this week than usual.

In your box today:

1. Tomatoes
2. Broccoli
3. Cucumbers
4. Zucchini
5. Cabbage
6. Beans
7. Kale
8. Onions
9. Eggplant
10. Rainbow Carrots
11. Sweet Corn — this is the 2nd picking of the first planting, so slightly lower quality than last week.  We’ll have the first picking (=higher quality) of the second planting ready soon!
12. Beets with Greens — we had to thin out one of our beet plantings, so these are the young beets that we picked to make room for the others to get bigger
13. Dill
14. Cilantro
15. Arugula
16. Celery — remember, this is MN celery, which is smaller and more flavorful
17. Sweet and Hot Peppers — the hot peppers are skinny (long Cayenne, shorter orangish-yellow Hungarian Wax)

In your box:

1. NEW! SWEET CORN!
2. Tomatoes
3. Broccoli
4. Zucchini and Summer Squash
5. Cucumbers
6. Carrots — orange and yellow
7. Onions
8. Rainbow Chard
9. Cabbage
10. Beans
11. Eggplant
12. Arugula
13. Dill (young seeds)
14. Cilantro
15. Peppers — mostly sweet peppers (a variety of colors) and a couple Hungarian Wax hot peppers that say “hot” on the stem (they are small and yellow/orange)
16. Purple Basil

Beet, Blue Cheese and Almond Salad

• 7 medium beets
• 1 small clove of garlic
• salt
• 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 8 ounces creamy blue cheese (we didn’t put in this much, and we thought it was perfect with less)
• 2-4 ounces of toasted almonds sliced or slivers, you choose
• 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, arugula, or cilantro

Trim and peel beets. Cut six beets in bite sized pieces. Place in a steamer rack over  a pot of boiling water. Cover the pot and steam for 20-25 minutes until tender.

Coarsely grate the remaining beet, place in a large bowl. For dressing, mash the garlic with a pinch of salt to a paste, add to grated beet along with the oil, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper. When the beets are cooked, toss them with the dressing. Cool to room temperature.

Crumble blue cheese over the salad and sprinkle with the toasted almonds.

Makes 6 servings

I admit, before retyping it from the book, I googled it and found it already typed up here.  (I borrowed their picture too.)

• 2 cups fresh zucchini (or any summer squash), shredded
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or any hard granular cheese)
• 1/4 cup bell peppers, finely chopped (I used a mixture of orange, red and yellow)
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon canola oil or non-stick spray for preparing the pan
• Pita chips and sliced raw vegetables for dipping (such as carrots, cauliflower, peppers, rutabaga, kohlrabi, cucumbers, Hakurei turnips, or even blanched green beans).