Welcome to the 17th week of the Pitchfork & Crow CSA!

Here’s what’s in the share:

• Green Snap Beans – blue lake pole beans this week.  we love them for their snappy snap and lack of string even at a larger size.
• Bunching Onions
  
• Cucumbers
  
• Summer Squash
• Beets
• Broccoli or Cauliflower
• Sweet Italian Frying Peppers – these are a mix of locally adapted sweet peppers including Gatherer’s Gold, Stocky Red Roaster, and Jolene’s Red from Wild Garden Seed in Philomath.  Oh, and there are a few Orange Sun sweet bell peppers thrown in the mix for good measure.
  
• Basil
• Tomatoes – cherries and heirlooms for everyone
  
• Bok Choy
• Salad Mix
  
• Pears

I can tell we’re on the downhill side of the season because of the amount of time we spent off the farm this past week.  Most weeks during the season see only brief trips into town for errands or to Salem for the CSA pick-up.  This week we took several breaks for fun-having too!

Our first fun event was a trip to the local title company to sign the papers to sell our house.  That’s right, our house sold!  We’re awfully excited to be completely focused on the farm now!

We did do some work around the farm this week, such as finishing up the onion harvest!  The onions are now curing in the mostly-empty propagation house and will be making further appearances in future CSA shares throughout the fall and winter.  We grow many varieties of onions and the photo above includes red, yellow, and white storage onions and cippolinis.  I’m a fan of yellow onions for cooking, but that red onion skin color is so lovely I couldn’t help but snap a photo.

This week I spent some time attempting to preserve some of the goodness we have in season right now.  After putting up jars and jars of tomato sauce and pickles in weeks past, I thought I’d try a few new things.  It’s fun to have new additions like pickled peppers and apple-tomato chutney on our pantry shelves.  I’d love to hear your favorite recipes for putting up the bounty of tomatoes, cucumbers and such!

Today is Jeff’s birthday!  This weekend we decided to take a little time off to celebrate and we headed out for a hike to Crabtree Lake on Sunday afternoon.  It was nice to get out in the forest for a few hours and we really enjoyed the remote location.  The views of Mount Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack were fabulous, the lake itself was clear and inviting, and the only evidence of large wild animals we noticed was the lone cougar track towards the beginning of the hike.  We certainly live in an amazing place where we can tend to farm tasks in the morning, spend the afternoon in the backcountry, and be home for dinner.

Enjoy the vegetables!

Your farmers,
Jeff Bramlett and Carri Heisler
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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Sesame Soba Noodles with Cucumber, Bok Choy, and Mixed Greens

• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lime peel
• 2 teaspoons dried crushed red pepper, divided
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 8 ounces soba noodles
• 1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
• 3 cups (loosely packed) mixed baby greens (try salad mix here)
• 2 heads of baby bok choy, cored, thinly sliced crosswise
• 1 English hothouse cucumber, cut into matchstick-size strips
• 3 green onions, cut into matchstick-size strips
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro plus sprigs for garnish
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
• Salted roasted peanuts