Welcome to the 13th share of the Pitchfork & Crow Summer CSA!  Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Sweet Corn
• Snap Beans
• Cauliflower
• Escarole – A cousin of our favorite winter chicories, this one is not so bitter. But be warned that it is on the bitter side. Bitter is better though! Great in soups and salads and well, check out this link for lots of great ideas.
• Carrots
• Cilantro
• Tomatillos – It’s salsa verde time!
• Mixed Summer Squash & Zucchini
• Mixed Cucumbers
• Onions
• Inchelium Red Garlic – Said to have a mild but lingering taste, this is a taste test winner originally discovered on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington.
• Mixed Sweet Peppers – A mix of any of our sweet peppers with some color on them including bells, Italian frying, and paprika varieties. Use them all as you would a green or red bell pepper.
• Jimmy Nardello Sweet Peppers – They look like they should be hot, but they’re not! An Italian frying pepper brought to the U.S. in 1887, great raw or cooked.
• Bulgarian Carrot Chile Peppers – These are a new-to-us variety of hot peppers originating in eastern Europe where they’re also know as shipkas. They’re said to have a fruity flavor and a hot finish, one source said they’re 12 times hotter than a jalapeno!
• Mixed Tomatoes – Cherries and slicers all around!
• Tirreno Tuscan Melon and Divergent Cantaloupes
• Asian Pears

We’re now accepting members for the upcoming Winter CSA! Go check out the Winter details and sign-up to join us for more seasonal, organic vegetables December-April!

It’s the end of August and that makes for long harvest days here on the farm. I’m going to keep this week’s message to a minimum as I need to join Jeff out there for the final push of the harvest effort. There are beans and tomatillos to bag, cucumbers and summer squash to pick, cherry tomatoes to pluck, and onions and garlic to clean before we make our way to Salem for tonight’s pick-up. Let’s go, go, go!

I had good intentions last night to write about the pepper patch and all the fun peppers we’ve been throwing at you this season. Well, best laid plans and all…time got away from me and so here’s a an abbreviated version.

This week you’re getting some our favorite sweet Italian frying peppers called Jimmy Nardello. They’re so good that the folks at Slow Food list them on their Ark of Taste! Fry them, roast them, eat them raw. You’ll also get a couple of other sweet peppers from the varieties noted above. These are all along the lines of a red bell pepper, but hopefully tastier and with more character too!

We’ve got several new-to-us hot pepper varieties in the pepper patch this year including these Bulgarian Carrot peppers. They’re an heirloomy variety from Hungary originally and may have been smuggled out from behind the iron curtain in the 1980s. Whoa, communist peppers! They’re one of the hotter varieties for us, landing somewhere between jalapeno hot and twelve times jalapeno hot. That’s some range!

More peppers and other fun end-of-summer produce will be headed your way in the coming weeks. This week on the farm we’ll be keepin’ on keepin’ on with the planting, irrigating, weeding, and harvesting. We’ll see you on the other side of this week’s mini heatwave!

Enjoy the vegetables and we’ll see you next week!

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler and Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Wilted Greens in Tomato-Bacon Broth

• 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 4 slices bacon, coarsely chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1 pint Sun Gold or cherry tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp. honey
• Kosher salt
• 10 cups torn greens (such as escarole, Swiss chard, and/or mustard)
• 1 Fresno chile, thinly sliced into rings (or this week’s Bulgarian Carrot Chile pepper)

Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a large saucepan over medium-low. Add bacon and cook, stirring often, until brown and crisp around the edges, 5–7 minutes. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to high and add tomatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes have mostly burst and are lightly charred in spots, about 5 minutes. Mix in vinegar, honey, and 1 1/2 cups water. Season lightly with salt and simmer over low heat to allow flavors to blend, 8–10 minutes.

Working a handful at a time, add greens, stirring to wilt before adding more, and cook until all greens are wilted and submerged in the broth. Season with more salt; let cool slightly.

Transfer greens to a serving dish. Generously drizzle with oil and scatter chile over.

From Epicurious.com via Bon Appétit by Claire Saffitz, https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/wilted-greens-in-tomato-bacon-broth

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Layered Chicken Enchilada with Tomatillo-Cilantro Sauce

• 2 pounds large tomatillos, husked, rinsed, halved
• 1 1/4 cups low-salt chicken broth
• 10 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 cups sliced green onions
• 2 cups (packed) very coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 large serrano chile, sliced (with seeds) (or this week’s Bulgarian Carrot Chile pepper!)
• 12 5- to 6-inch corn tortillas
• 1 purchased roasted chicken, meat torn into strips (about 4 cups)
• 1 pound whole-milk mozzarella cheese, cut into strips
• 1 cup whipping cream

Preheat oven to 450°F. Mix tomatillos, chicken broth, and garlic cloves in large saucepan. Cover and bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat; simmer gently until tomatillos are soft, about 10 minutes. Transfer hot mixture to processor. Add sliced green onions, chopped cilantro, and sliced chile; blend mixture to coarse puree. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Overlap 6 tortillas in 13x9x2-inch oval or rectangular baking dish. Top tortillas with half of chicken strips and half of mozzarella strips. Pour 2 cups tomatillo sauce evenly over. Top with remaining tortillas, chicken strips, and mozzarella. Pour 1 1/2 cups tomatillo sauce over, then whipping cream. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until bubbling, about 25 minutes. Cool enchiladas 10 minutes. Serve with remaining tomatillo sauce.

From Epicurious.com via Bon Appétit, https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/layered-chicken-enchiladas-with-tomatillo-cilantro-sauce-232700

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Roasted Curried Cauliflower

• 12 cups cauliflower florets (from about 4 pounds cauliflower)
• 1 large onion, peeled, quartered
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 3 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 tablespoon Hungarian hot paprika
• 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 450°F. Place cauliflower florets in large roasting pan. Pull apart onion quarters into separate layers; add to cauliflower. Stir coriander seeds and cumin seeds in small skillet over medium heat until slightly darkened, about 5 minutes. Crush coarsely in mortar with pestle. Place seeds in medium bowl. Whisk in oil, vinegar, curry powder, paprika, and salt. Pour dressing over vegetables; toss to coat. Spread vegetables in single layer. Sprinkle with pepper.

Roast vegetables until tender, stirring occasionally, about 35 minutes. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Rewarm in 450°F oven 10 minutes, if desired.)

Mound vegetables in large bowl. Sprinkle with fresh cilantro. Serve warm or at room temperature.

From Epicurious.com via Bon Appétit, https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/roasted-curried-cauliflower-230653

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