Welcome to the 14th week of the Pitchfork & Crow CSA!
Here’s what’s in the share:
- Summer Squash
- Green Beans- blue lake pole this week – minimal strings for your snap bean pleasure
- Green Cabbage
- Bunching Onions
- Garlic – mostly Early Italian Red
- Basil
- Hot Peppers – Early Jalapenos (green/black) and Black Hungarians (mostly black)
- Potatoes – freshly dug at Sunday’s CSA potluck!
- Cucumbers – slicers and lemon cukes
- Head Lettuce – Romaine and Butterhead
- Tomatoes – heirloom slicers including Paul Robeson & Black From Tula plus a handful of Green Zebras mostly
Many thanks to everyone who made it out Sunday afternoon to the CSA potluck. We always enjoy welcoming members to the farm and we hope you had as much fun as we did hanging out in the apple orchard. Also, our first ever potato digging portion of the event was a success and you’ll all get to enjoy the results as this week’s potatoes were fully member-dug! If you weren’t able to make it out, we’ll have one more on-farm event in October that will most certainly involve apple cidering and a pumpkin patch!
Folks who toured the farm on Sunday know we have a lot of work ahead of us this fall. Our overwintering plantings of cabbages, kale, cauliflower, broccoli etc are already in need of cultivating and we still have mustards and lettuce to transplant and more onions, radishes, and turnips to direct sow. And of course, those are just the youngest crops. As of this week we’re halfway through the season, so of course we still have plenty of things to focus on before the winter sets in. There’s still storage crops to begin bringing in and cover crops to sow plus the routine harvests, weeding, and irrigating of the late summer.
This is the point in the season where we really shift into maintenance and harvest mode. As we plan for the end of summer and look toward next season, we’ve been reflecting on past years. The biggest difference this year is our knowledge that we’ll be staying put over the winter. Our purchase of the farm a few weeks ago secured our place here and we’re already finding it easier than in the past to follow through on our late season plans and move forward with the long-term goals we’d continuously had on hold. Thanks for supporting us through the transition!
Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Jeff Bramlett and Carri Heisler .Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:
Fettuccine with Pesto, Green Beans, and Potatoes
- 3 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves (about 6 ounces)
- 3/4 cup olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 3 tablespoons walnuts
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
- 8 ounces green beans, trimmed, halved
- 8 ounces white potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 12 ounces fettuccine
Blend basil, 1/4 cup oil, pine nuts, walnuts and garlic cloves in processor until finely chopped. Add grated Parmesan cheese. With machine running, gradually blend in remaining oil. Set pesto aside.
Cook green beans in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Using 4- to 5-inch-diameter strainer, transfer beans to large bowl. Return cooking water to boil. Add white potatoes and boil until tender, about 7 minutes. Remove potatoes with same strainer and transfer to bowl with beans. Return cooking water to boil. Add fettuccine to same pot. Boil until pasta is just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup cooking water. Return green beans, white potatoes and cooked pasta to pot. Add pesto and toss to coat. Gradually add enough reserved cooking water to coat pasta with moist sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.
Long Bean, Cucumber, and Tomato Salad
- 2 dried Thai chiles, soaked for 2 minutes in warm water, drained (try jalapenos or black hungarians here)
- 3 small garlic cloves, crushed
- 1/4 lime, cut into 3 wedges
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar or granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon dried tiny shrimp
- 9 long beans (2 1/2 ounces) or green beans, trimmed, cut into 2 1/2″ lengths
- 2 kirby cucumbers or 1 English hothouse cucumber, coarsely chopped into 1″ pieces
- 2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 tablespoons crushed roasted, unsalted peanuts
Add long beans to mortar; lightly crush with pestle to bruise. Add cucumber pieces, fish sauce, and lime juice. Mix well. Add tomatoes, lightly crush, and mix in. (Alternatively, place beans and tomatoes in a resealable plastic bag. Roll a rolling pin over bag to bruise vegetables; transfer to a bowl with the cucumber, fish sauce, lime juice, and chile dressing.) Let marinate for 10 minutes. Stir in peanuts.
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Corned Beef Sandwiches with Pickled Cabbage
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1 8-ounce package shredded green cabbage (about 3 cups)
- 1 cup thinly sliced onion
- 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, coarsely crushed in resealable plastic bag with mallet
- 1 teaspoon celery seeds
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 8 slices rye bread
- 4 ounces sliced sharp white cheddar cheese
- 12 ounces thinly sliced corned beef
Whisk mayonnaise and Dijon mustard in small bowl. Set aside.
Heat vegetable oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add cabbage, sliced onion, crushed coriander seeds, and celery seeds; sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper and sauté until wilted and crisp-tender, about 6 minutes. Stir in white wine vinegar and sugar. Sauté until all liquid is absorbed, about 30 seconds. Transfer to medium bowl; set aside. Wipe out skillet and reserve.
Place slices of rye bread on work surface. Divide white cheddar cheese among 4 bread slices; top with corned beef, dividing meat slices equally. Divide cabbage mixture over corned beef. Spread 1 teaspoon mayonnaise mixture over each remaining bread slice; place rye bread slices atop cabbage, mayonnaise side down. Spread 1 teaspoon mayonnaise mixture over each top bread slice.
Heat same skillet over medium heat. Add 2 corned beef sandwiches, mayonnaise side down. Spread some of remaining mayonnaise mixture over top bread slices. Cook sandwiches covered until golden brown and cheddar cheese melts, about 2 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining corned beef sandwiches and serve.
