Welcome to the 13th week of the Pitchfork & Crow CSA!

Here’s what’s in the share:

• Green Beans! – These are a mix of two French filet varieties and are our favorite bush beans.  They should be tender enough to eat raw or cooked up.  Yum!
  
• Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Beets
• Garlic
• Lemon Cucumbers
• Fennel
• Peppers – Shishitos and Jalapenos again!
  
• Tomatoes
• Savoy Cabbage
• Cantaloupe – Our first year to successfully grow melons!  Note that many of these are very ripe and want to be eaten up soon.

Fall has been in the air this past week.  Cool mornings breaking into warm and sunny days only after noon.  August tends to wear us out, with the gorgeous weather, the summer produce, the lingering plantings, the weeds.  This shift in weather has us not wanting to waste a moment of summer while we’ve got it.

The bees seem to not be wasting a moment either.  As with the plum photos last week, we’re encountering honey bees and bumble bees all over the farm.   These shots above are of bumblebees in pumpkin flowers and a honey bee on a sunflower in the tomato house.  We hope to peek inside the honey bee hive at the back of the farm on one of the slower warm days soon!  Perhaps we’ll see what all this pollen is being used for!

This week we did finish the last of our big overwintering ransplantings.  We do large broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and cabbage plantings to keep early spring CSA shares interesting.  We also added in an interesting array of chicories and mustards this season.  We’re looking forward to the sweet and bitter chicories and spicy mustards in salads this winter.

With the big plantings behind us we’ve gladly been turning to other tasks around the farm.  We even liberated a few beds of fall broccoli and cauliflower from their weedy bedmates.  We’re so lucky to be able to do this work outdoors, where even in the midst of hoeing 250′ beds of brassicas, we only need to glance westward for a view of a spectacular sunset.  Hopefully more of all of that to come this week.

Enjoy the vegetables!

Your farmers,
Jeff Bramlett and Carri Heisler

PS: Reminder – The next CSA Farm visit and potluck is coming up in a couple of weeks on Sunday, August 25th.  Check the weekly CSA email from us for further details.  Let us know if you have any questions.
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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Linguine with Bay Scallops, Fennel, and Tomatoes

• 8 ounces linguine
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 medium fennel bulb, halved, very thinly sliced, plus 1 tablespoon chopped fennel fronds
• 1 medium onion, halved, thinly sliced (how about bunching onions?)
• 1 pound bay scallops
• 1 6-ounce container cherry tomatoes, halved if large
• 1 tablespoon Pernod or other anise-flavored liqueur
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided
• 1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sliced fennel and onion; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until wilted but crisp-tender, about 6 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to medium bowl.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to skillet. Add scallops and sauté until just opaque in center, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to bowl with fennel-onion mixture. Add tomatoes to skillet and sauté until heated through, about 2 minutes. Return fennel-onion mixture and scallops to skillet. Mix in Pernod.

Add drained pasta to skillet; toss to coat, adding reserved cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls if dry. Stir in 3 tablespoons chopped parsley and 1 tablespoon fennel fronds. Transfer to large shallow bowl, sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, and serve with lemon wedges.

Haricots Verts, Roasted Fennel, and Shallots