Welcome to the 13th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2020 Summer CSA!  Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Escarole – a lettuce-like green that’s slightly hardier and can hold up to grilling or cooking. Check out the soup recipe down below.
• Cabbage – Choose red or green.
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Rainbow Carrots
• Sweet Corn
• Purple Bunching Onions
• Garlic – We’re still making our way through that earliest ripening, least storage friendly, and sometimes fairly open garlic variety. Still tasty though!
• Cucumbers – choose from green and white slicers, lemons, and picklers too.
• Zucchini & Summer Squash
• Shishito Peppers – The Japanese “roulette” pepper where 1 in 10 might be mildly hot. They’re tasty in any dish but delicious quickly blistered in hot oil, tossed with a little salt, and eaten as a snack just like that.
• Mixed Sweet Peppers
• Slicer Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Mixed Melons – Lots of melons to choose from this week.

This past week I was focused on the upcoming Winter CSA: reviewing past seasons, getting this season’s details set, updating the website etc. We’re always thinking a season ahead with sowing and planting too and it’s easy to overlook the highlights of the season at hand. This week we’re passing the halfway mark of the Summer CSA. What?! It’s true, this is the 13th week of the 26 week season. We’re at the height of summer fruits (so many melons and tomatoes!) and there’s a lot of summery goodness still to come out of the fields.

August is definitely the transition season between the constant planting of spring and the big harvests of fall. Here at the end of August we’re shifting gears, and also coming up for a breather. It’s time to make some notes about the season so that we remember the details come planning time in December, and it’s time to savor the fleeting summer season before it passes us by.

This week on the farm we’ll be doing a little planting, lots of irrigating, and of course there’s plenty of weeding and cultivating to be done. We’ll likely start the potato harvest later this week. There are pears to pick and some apples to bring in. We’ve got seed to clean and a greenhouse to clean out. And maybe even a day off the farm in the woods. I hear it’s huckleberry season out there!

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

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

White Bean and Escarole Soup with Garlic

• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 large carrot, cut into small dice
• 5 large garlic cloves, peeled, flattened
• 3 cups (packed) 1-inch pieces escarole (about 1/2 large head)
• 4 cups (or more) canned vegetable broth or low-salt chicken broth
• 3 1/4 cups cooked Great Northern beans or two 15-ounce cans cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed, drained
• 1 14 1/2- to 16-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

Heat oil in heavy large Dutch over medium-low heat. Add onion, carrot and garlic and sauté until onion is golden and tender, about 7 minutes. Discard garlic. Add escarole; stir 3 minutes. Add 4 cups broth, beans and tomatoes and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until escarole is tender and flavors blend, about 20 minutes. Thin with more broth, if desired. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before continuing.)

From Epicurious.com via Bon Appétit, https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/white-bean-and-escarole-soup-with-garlic-1537

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Thai Noodles with Chicken

• 1 package (2 ounces) rice noodles
• 2 cups shredded cabbage
• 1 cup julienned carrots
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled, quartered and sliced lengthwise
• 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into thin strips
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions
• 2 cups chopped skinless roasted chicken
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoon sugar
• 4 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon Asian chile paste
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil

Bring lightly salted water to a boil in a medium pot; cook noodles 3 minutes. Place cabbage in a colander and drain noodles over cabbage; immediately rinse with cold water. Drain again. Toss cabbage and noodles in a bowl with carrots, cucumber, pepper, scallions and chicken. Whisk basil, mint, juice, vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, chile paste and oil in another bowl; drizzle over noodle mixture; toss and divide among 4 bowls.

From Epicurious.com via SELF, https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/thai-noodles-with-chicken-237572

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Chipotle Chicken and Cauliflower Tacos

• 215g (7½ oz.) can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, chilies finely chopped and sauce reserved
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 500g (1 lb. 2 oz.) chicken thigh fillets, trimmed and quartered
• 500g (1 lb. 2 oz.) cauliflower florets (about 1 head)
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper
• 12 small corn tortillas, lightly toasted
• 3⅓ cups (300g/10 oz.) finely shredded purple cabbage
• 1 cup (12g/½oz) cilantro sprigs
• Pickled red onions, to serve
• Lime wedges, to serve

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line 2 oven trays with non-stick baking paper.

Place the chopped chilies and reserved adobo sauce in a large bowl. Add the maple syrup, garlic and oil and mix to combine.

Place the chicken in a separate large bowl and top with half the chipotle mixture. Toss to coat. Add the cauliflower to the remaining chipotle mixture and toss to coat.

Transfer the chicken and cauliflower to the trays and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes or until the cauliflower is just charred on the edges, the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened.

To make the lime dressing, place the yogurt, lime juice, salt and pepper in a small bowl and mix to combine.

Fill the warm tortillas with the cabbage, chicken, cauliflower and coriander. Drizzle with the lime dressing and serve with pickled onion and lime wedges.

From Epicurious.com via Week Light by Donna Hay, https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/chipotle-chicken-and-cauliflower-tacos

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