Welcome to the 13th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2023 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Head Lettuce – Butterheads all around, and then choose from red leaf and romaine.
• Broccoli
• Cilantro
• Sweet Onions
• Garlic
• German Butterball Potatoes – We’re finding these early potatoes are storing longer unwashed, so once again you’ll have to do the washing.
• Sweet Corn – We’ve moved on to the first variety of the third succession and didn’t see a corn earworm in sight, though hopefully we didn’t just miss them.
• Purple Striped Romano Beans – Use like other fresh or green beans.
• Mixed Cucumbers – Including green and yellow slicers and lemon cucumbers.
• Mixed Zucchini & Summer Squash – Choose from green, yellow, and light green Mexican zucchinis.
• Mixed Sweet Peppers – Mixed Bell and elongated/pointy Italian Frying Peppers, different shapes but similar in taste and use. Some with more color than others (these varieties ripen to red and yellow) but all sweet with no heat.
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Mixed Cherry Tomatoes & Slicer Tomatoes
• Mixed Melons – Including Tirreno Tuscan cantaloupes, Honey Orange honeydews, and Lambkin piel de sapo melons.

And just like that, we’ve made it to the halfway mark of the 2023 Summer CSA! Summer may be waning but fall is just around the corner and that means fall vegetables will be headed your way soon. But let’s enjoy the height of summer first. We’ve still got melons, peppers, tomatoes, and more summer goodness to squeeze out of this season before the seasonal shift.

We hope everyone made it through last week’s heatwave unscathed. It was a doozy! We’re happy to be on the other side of it and haven’t seen any serious repercussions here on the farm, though we’ll see how the tomatoes held up soon enough as I’m writing this before we begin harvesting them.

At some point in August every year things tend to go a little off the rails. It’s the culmination of needing to do all the things (planting, harvesting, weeding, cultivating, irrigating, seed sowing) and needing to prioritize, or triage really, because there’s never enough time to actually do all the things in August. The things that fall to the bottom of the list often get more difficult the longer they remain undone. Weeds take over the parsnip bed, or the first round of corn stalks dry out and take longer to work back into the soil making those beds un-plantable for a longer time. These individual tasks add up, and enough of them can shift the balance of the farm from mostly controlled to uncontrolled.

At some point in the past couple of weeks we hit that shift. Though it’s not the worst state we’ve found ourselves in for August, we’ll also admit that August has taken its toll. Thankfully we’re passing the halfway mark of the summer CSA season and it’s all downhill from here, right? Well, not quite, but the shorter days and cooler weather will help us get a handle on things sooner or later.

This past week we recovered from the heat while sowing the overwintering onions, cultivating all sorts of things, weed whacking (and avoiding yellowjackets), transplanting chicories and lettuce and direct sowing fall radishes and turnips, mowing finished crops, making fall greenhouse planting plans, and generally just trying to keep up.

In the week ahead we’ll transplant some cilantro and maybe a little spinach and the second round of chicories, sow some fall greens, continue on the mowing and weed whacking front, and cultivate, cultivate, cultivate. It’s also time to bring in the onions for drying down ahead of storage. Sounds like enough to keep us busy.

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:

Summer Corn Chowder

• 6 medium ears of corn
• 6 strips of bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 medium poblano, finely chopped
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 small celery rib, finely chopped
• 3 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
• 2 medium boiling potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and cubed
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ¹/₈ teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 pinch granulated sugar
• 1 dry bay leaf
• 2 cups half-and-half, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Working over a bowl, cut the corn kernels from the cobs at about half their depth. Then, using the back of the knife, scrape the cobs over the bowl to release all the corn milk.

In a large saucepan, fry the bacon over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 10 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel–lined plate or wire rack to drain.

Discard all but 3 tablespoons of the bacon drippings from the pan. Add the onion and cook over medium heat until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the poblano, jalapeño, and celery and cook until slightly softened, about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Now stir in the tomatoes, potatoes, salt, allspice, sugar, bay leaf, and the reserved corn kernels and their milk. Cook over medium heat until the mixture begins to sizzle.

Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, 35 to 45 minutes. Stir in the cream and milk and bring just to a boil. Remove from heat and season with black pepper to taste. Ladle the chowder into bowls. Crumble the cooled bacon and sprinkle that on top, along with the parsley.

From Food52.com by Nancy Jo, https://food52.com/recipes/142-summer-corn-chowder

A California Breakfast Burrito

• Perfect Roasted Potatoes + Pico de Gallo
• 4 pounds (1.8 to 2.3 kg) Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch (12-mm) cubes (about 4 or 5 large potatoes)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 ¹/₂ teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ³/₄ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 ¹/₂ pounds 680 g) ripe tomatoes, cut into ¼- to ½-inch (6- to 12-mm) dice
• ¹/₂ large white onion, finely diced (about ¾ cup/95 g)
• 1 to 2 jalapeño chiles, finely diced (seeds and membranes removed for a milder salsa
• ¹/₂ cup (20 g) finely chopped cilantro leaves
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

• The Burrito
• 4 strips bacon (or cooked chorizo or sausage)
• 8 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter or olive oil
• 4 large flour tortillas
• 1 cup (115 g) grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup (165 g) Pico de Gallo
• 2 cups (280 g) Perfect Roasted Potatoes
• 2 ripe avocados, pitted, peeled, and sliced
• 1 splash Chipotle salsa

Perfect Roasted Potatoes + Pico de Gallo

To make the pico de gallo, In a large bowl combine the tomatoes, onion, jalapeño, cilantro, and lime juice. Gently toss to combine. Season with salt to taste.

To make the potatoes, preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the potatoes onto the prepared baking sheet. Toss the potatoes with the oil, paprika, garlic salt, kosher salt, and pepper until the seasonings are evenly combined.

Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and toss the potatoes with tongs. Put the baking sheet back in the oven and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove the baking sheet, give the potatoes a final toss, place them back in the oven, and roast until they are golden and crispy, 10 to 15 minutes more. Remove from the oven, adjust the salt if needed, and serve.

The Burrito

Cook the bacon in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high to a plate to cool, then crumble into small pieces.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk until smooth.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the eggs and softly scramble them. Season with salt and pepper.

Warm each tortilla over an open flame to make them as pliable as possible. Alternatively, if you have an electric stove, warm the tortillas in a microwave in 30-second bursts until warmed through. To assemble, lay the tortillas on a clean, flat surface. Divide the cooked eggs equally over each tortilla in a line, followed by the bacon, cheese, pico de gallo, roasted potatoes, and sliced avocado (it’s important that everything is evenly distributed so when you roll them up you get all the flavors in each bite).

Fold the ends of the tortillas in and roll the burritos up. Serve immediately with the salsa alongside.

From Food52.com by Food52, https://food52.com/recipes/76719-a-perfect-california-breakfast-burrito

Goat Cheese Caesar Salad with Roasted Tomatoes and Parmesan Crisp

• For the Caesar dressing
• ¹/₃ cup buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• 1 ¹/₂ tablespoons lemon juice
• ¹/₂ teaspoon anchovy paste
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 1 pinch salt and pepper, plus more to taste

• For the salad
• ³/₄ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 10 cherry tomatoes
• ¹/₂ tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 heads of romaine lettuce (or how ever many you are serving)
• 4 ounces good goat cheese
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream

Mix all of dressing ingredients together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place in refrigerator until ready to use.

Take goat cheese out of refrigerator to soften. Grate garlic and mix with oregano and cream. Mix softened goat cheese with herb cream mixture and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375° F. Toss cherry tomatoes with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Roast in oven for about 20 minutes or until tomatoes burst and brown in a few spots. Take out of oven and set aside.

Raise oven temperature to 400° F.

Pour a heaping tablespoon of parmesan on a silicone or parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with 1/2 cup parmesan cheese spacing cheese at least 1/2 inch apart. Reserve 1/4 cup parmesan for serving. Bake for about 5 minutes until crisp and golden brown. Cool.

Clean romaine lettuce and trim. Place between damp paper towels and place in refrigerator until ready to use.

Pipe a portion of goat cheese mousse on bottom of one salad plate (depending on how much goat cheese you like). I use a ziploc bag with the corner cut off to make a pretty design or you can always spoon on the bottom. Repeat with remaining salad plates.

Toss romaine very lightly with dressing (be very sparse as I always put a little dressing on top of finished salad). Divide lettuce between salad plates.

Divide roasted tomatoes on top of salad. Drizzle about a tablespoon of dressing on lettuce and sprinkle with parmesan. Add parmesan crisp and serve.

From Food52.com by Plum Pie, https://food52.com/recipes/4560-goat-cheese-caesar-salad-with-roasted-tomatoes-and-parmesan-crisp