Welcome to the 16th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2023 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Lettuce Mix – A mix of four lettuces.
• Cilantro – It’s hard to keep up with cilantro before it begins to flower, but it’s still great for flavor.
• Red Onion
• Kohlrabi – Check out the kohlrabi and apple salad recipe down below if you’re looking for some kohlrabi inspiration.
• German Butterball Potatoes – The last of our early greenhouse potatoes coming at you. Once again, we’re letting you wash them for longer storage.
• Sweet Corn – We’ve moved on to the second variety of the fourth succession and unfortunately noticed a handful of corn earworms again. Keep an eye out.
• 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 are sweet with no heat.
• Aji Marchant Hot Peppers – These peppers have an intriguing history that you can read about here. Though spicy when yellow and under-ripe they get hotter as they mature to red.
• Tomatillos – A little like green tomatoes, tomatillos make excellent salsa verde and enchilada sauce.
• Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
• Gravenstein Apples – Gravensteins are good for fresh eating or cooking.
• Mixed Melons – Including Tirreno Tuscan cantaloupes, Honey Orange honeydews, and Lambkin piel de sapo melons.

We’re eeking out the last of the summer goodness before fall takes over for real. We’ll likely be seeing the last of this season’s melons this week and the waiting game commences to see how much corn will mature in the final succession. I guess all good things must come to an end sooner or later.

As we continually attempt to extend the growing season we’re now beginning to focus on filling our greenhouses with fall and winter greens and roots. This past week we sowed kale, radishes, arugula, mustards, and mizuna that will likely show up in November CSA shares. And it’s time to fill the coolers with apples and pears and potatoes and beets and more for fall and winter eating. Just like the squirrels gathering acorns in our neighbor’s woods, we’re beginning the stockpile for the seasons ahead.

The days are getting noticeably shorter as we head deeper into this season. We’re up with the sun at 6:30am these days rather than 5:30am and we lose the light again closer to 7:30pm rather than 9pm. The shorter days seem to match our energy levels. After months of pushing ourselves to keep doing all the things we’re welcoming the excuse to sleep in a little later and call it quits a little sooner each day. Of course we have plenty of doing left to be done in the next couple of months before the dark winter descends for real.

As happens, Jeff had a birthday on Sunday and after a morning harvesting we headed to the hills for an afternoon of exploring and hiking. It was a real adventure that involved back roads, a vague idea of the destination on the map, interrupting a stranger’s camp, nearly getting stung by wild bees, a little taste of rock climbing, and views of Mt. Jefferson to the east and Marys Peak to the west. Not bad for a Sunday afternoon.

In the week ahead we’ll be back to the grindstone. It’s harvest time and we’ve got walk-in coolers and other storage spaces to fill up.

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

Your farmers,
Carri Heisler & Jeff Bramlett

.

Here are a few recipes to get you inspired:

Chilaquiles Verdes

• 3 pounds tomatillos in the husk
• 1 large red onion cut in 1/2-inch slices
• 2 jalapeños (or aji marchant hot pepper)
• 8 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
• 1 handful of cilantro leaves
• 1 lime
• 1 heaping spoonful of crema or sour cream
• 1 quart chicken stock (preferably homemade)
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 12 corn tortillas
• 1 cup (or more if you like) queso fresco in large crumbles (1/2- to 1-inch pieces), or shredded monterrey jack
• ¹/₂ cup crumbled cotija cheese
• Cilantro leaves, for garnish
• Salt and olive oil, as needed

Lay tomatillos, onions, jalapeños, and garlic on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Place the baking sheet under the broiler, until the veggies are wilted and blistered, about 10 minutes (time will vary based on the heat of your broiler). Remove the veggies and let them cool until you are able to handle them.

Remove the husks from the tomatillos, squeeze the garlic from the cloves, and remove the stem from the jalapeños. Throw the roasted veggies into a blender, along with any juices that accumulated on the baking tray. Add the cilantro leaves, the juice of the lime, and the crema. Purée until the mixture is very smooth. Taste and make any needed adjustments (more salt, acid, etc).

While the veggies are still in the oven, bring the chicken broth to a gentle simmer in a dutch oven. Add the chicken breasts and allow them to simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Move the chicken to a cutting board and use two forks to shred it. Return the chicken and any juices to the pot.

Add the tomatillo purée to the chicken broth, taste for seasoning (note the sauce should be tangy, almost sour, so add another squeeze of lime if necessary), and bring to a simmer. Cover and let the mixture simmer for about 20 minutes.

Cut the tortillas into quarters. If your tortillas are fresh, dry them out in the oven or toaster oven. If they’re stale and dried out, add them right to the pot. Stir the mixture and let simmer for another 10 minutes. The tortillas will cause the sauce to thicken.

Uncover and stir in the queso fresco or sprinkle with the monterrey jack. Cover the pot again, allowing the cheese to melt. Uncover, sprinkle with cotija and cilantro, and serve.

Note: The chilaquiles are just as good — maybe better — the next day. A fried egg on top wouldn’t hurt either!

From Food52.com by Lisina, https://food52.com/recipes/21285-chilaquiles-verdes

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 (or aji marchant hot pepper maybe?)
• 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

BBQ Vegetable and Beef Salad

• 2 pounds beef flank steak
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 red onions, cut into thick slices
• 3 fresh ears of yellow corn
• 3 small zucchini, sliced lenthwise
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• large bunch of cilantro
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 ¹/₂ teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Heat up the BBQ.
2. Brush all the vegetables with garlic and olive oil that have been mixed together.
3. Brush the garlic and olive oil on the meat.
4. Grill the vegetables on a hot BBQ until striped but not overcooked. The vegetables should remain crispy.
5. Grill the meat to rare/medium rare. Remember that the meat will keep cooking after it is removed from the grill.
6. To make the salad dressing, put the cilantro leaves, mustard, 1 cup olive oil, lemon juice and cumin in a blender and blend until smooth.
7. To assemble: Pull off the tops of the peppers, seed and cut into strips.
8. With a sharp knife, cut the kernels off the corn cob.
9. Slice the zucchini into 1 inch segments.
10. Pull the onions into circles and cut in half if they are too large.
11. Slice the meat into very thin strips. For flank steak cut the meat against the grain.
12. Drizzle dressing all over the meat and vegetables.
13. You can serve this over a bed of lettuce. Serve at room temperature or cold.

From Food52.com by Dymnyno, https://food52.com/recipes/11396-bbq-vegetable-and-beef-salad