Welcome to the 13th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2022 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Butterhead Lettuce
• Red Leaf Lettuce
• Broccoli or Cauliflower
• Thai Basil
• Dill
• Kohlrabi – The classic CSA vegetable, kohlrabi is often new to folks who are new to CSAs. Why else would you come home with such a strange looking vegetable? We like them chopped up and raw, like a carrot stick, but they can be roasted, or added to mashed potatoes, or shaved super thin into salads. I’ve heard kohlrabi and peanut butter can be a pretty great snack too.
• Munching Onions
• “Sweetness” Sweet Corn
• Mixed Romano Snap Beans – Flat podded mixed yellow and purple striped snap beans, great for any snap bean/green bean recipe.
• Zucchini & Summer Squash – Including green & yellow zucchini, yellow summer squash, and “Mexicana” zucchini.
• Mixed Cucumbers – Including green cukes, ‘Silver Slicer’ yellow cukes, and lemon cukes.
• Mixed Sweet Peppers & Poblano Peppers
• Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
• Mixed Slicer Tomatoes
• Red & Yellow Farm Apples – These apples were planted on the farm before we got here, so we don’t know the varieties, but they’re tasty for fresh eating or cooking.

Here we are, halfway through the Summer CSA season! Thirteen weeks down, thirteen to go. After a rough start it’s nice to have made it to the peak of tomato season. August is quickly fleeting though and only time will tell weather we’ll get an extended summer or shift to autumn weather-wise.

One task you hope to not be undertaking on the farm during August, the height of weeding season, is dealing with a repair on your cultivating tractor. A couple weeks back Jeff noticed an issue with the clutch on our little 1947 Farmall cub tractor. It appeared that somewhere along the way the thrust bearing had broken, requiring that the tractor be split in two to be replaced. Luckily he had the parts on hand and this past week he took a day to make the repair.

Although this tractor is designed to be split in two, it’s a complicated procedure requiring a lot of blocking and lifting and methodical removal of bolts and wires and anything else that spans the front and back halves of the tractor. The steering wheel, for instance, becomes a potential hang-up as the two ends are separated. Thanks to handy reference videos made by the company that sells replacement parts for these old tractors, Jeff was able to fairly efficiently get the tractor split, install the new clutch parts, re-unite the two tractor halves, and make the clutch adjustments in a day. Not great timing to deal with this repair in August, but he was a champ and got it done! Thankfully he was back to cultivating the next morning.

In addition to weeding and cultivating and the clutch repair, we also managed to get the last of the broccoli and cauliflower transplanted this past week. We’ve got lettuce, bunching onions, dill and cilantro on deck for this week. The planting goes on.

On Thursday we’re scheduled to have our annual organic inspection. The past couple of years we’ve had inspections over Zoom, but this year we’ll be returning to an in-person inspection. Most of the inspection is spent reviewing records to ensure our inputs and methods all match our organic plan and the federal organic standards. We’ll also tour the inspector around the farm. It generally takes 3-4 hours in all. It will be nice to mark that one off the To Do list for this season. We’ll let you know the highlights next week.

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

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

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Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Minted Summer Succotash

• ¹/₂ pound green beans (both haricot verts or Romano work well), trimmed and snapped in halves or thirds
• 2 tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar, or more to taste
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or more to taste
• 8 ounces dried Christmas lima beans, cooked according to package instructions (regular lima beans can be substituted)
• 1 ¹/₂ cups cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 cups fresh corn kernels (from about 3 ears)
• 1 tablespoon fresh chives, coarsely chopped
• 3 tablespoons fresh mint, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup goat cheese, crumbled
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Lime wedges, for serving

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. Add a generous amount of kosher salt, then the beans. Cook until tender but still slightly crisp in the middle (about 2 to 3 minutes for haricot verts and slightly longer for Romano beans). Transfer to the ice bath to stop the cooking and lock in the color. Drain and set aside.

Place vinegar in a small bowl, then gradually whisk in oil.

In a large bowl, combine green beans, Christmas limas, cherry tomatoes, corn, chives, mint, and 3/4 cup goat cheese. Pour dressing over salad, a little at a time, tasting as you go. Toss to coat. Season with kosher salt and pepper. Garnish with remaining 1/4 cup goat cheese. Serve at room temperature, with lime wedges on the side.

From Food52.com by EmilyC, https://food52.com/recipes/12800-minted-summer-succotash

Kohlrabi Salad

1 head kohlrabi
¹/₂ apple, such as Gala
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
¹/₂ bird’s eye chili
1 pinch cumin
¹/₂ teaspoon fish sauce
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

With a sharp knife, cut off the “branches” of the kohlrabi. Peel it with a vegetable peeler.

Cut the kohlrabi into matchsticks either using a sharp knife of a mandolin (I used the latter). Do the same with the apple.

Toss the kohlrabi and the apple with the remaining ingredients and chill before eating.

From Food52.com by SassyRadish, https://food52.com/recipes/8689-kohlrabi-salad

Summer Bounty Frittata

2 tablespoons olive oil
¹/₂ red onion, finely chopped
¹/₄ cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped into 1/8 inch-thick rounds
1 ear of corn, kernels removed
A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
A couple basil leaves, thinly sliced
6 large eggs
Salt and pepper

In a medium (around 9-inch) oven-safe skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat until it is shimmering. Stir in the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until they have softened and browned, around 5 minutes.

Stir in the zucchini rounds and corn kernels and cook until softening, about 3 minutes. Add the cherry tomatoes and basil leaves plus a couple pinches of salt and pepper and give a stir.

Turn the heat down to medium-low and let the veggies hang out until the tomatoes just start to soften, a minute or two. During that time, in a medium bowl, whisk the eggs with a few pinches of salt and pepper and turn your oven broiler on.

Pour the eggs over the vegetables and let the frittata cook until it is most of the way set, but the top is still uncooked, then transfer the frittata to the oven and broil just until the top is cooked. Remove from the oven. This frittata can be served warm, room temperature, or cold. It’s good with a salad and really yummy sandwiched between pieces of bread, especially with some pesto.

From Food52.com by FiveAndSpice, https://food52.com/recipes/30719-summer-bounty-frittata