Welcome to the 20th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2023 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Butterhead Lettuce
• Bok Choy
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Parsley
• Bunching Onions
• Huckleberry Gold Potatoes – Purple skinned, gold fleshed lunkers great for any use including french fries and mashed poptatoes, which we can vouch for personally.
• Candystick Dessert Delicata Squash
• Mixed Cucumbers – Including green and yellow slicers.
• 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.
• Matchbox Thai Hot Peppers
• 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.
• Mixed Romano Beans – Use like other fresh or green beans.
• Asian Pears

Many thanks to everyone who made it out to the farm this past Saturday for the CSA member farm visit. We lucked out with unseasonably warm weather, a good apple year, and plenty of orange pumpkins to share. Cider was pressed, pumpkins picked from the patch, and members explored the farm via the self-guided walking tour and some tractor rides. Bonus thanks to CSA member Mark D. for lending us the use of his electric apple press for the day. Overall it was a successful afternoon!

We’re always glad when members make it out here and see for themselves what we’ve got going on. Let us know if you couldn’t make it Saturday but would like to see the farm. We’re happy to set up a time to show you around.

Once we’d cleaned up from Saturday’s festivities it was back to work on Sunday. We finally got a start on the potato harvest, just ahead of this week’s rain, and then got a head start by harvesting the beans for the share, a notoriously slow crop to harvest.

In the week ahead we’ll be harvesting more potatoes during the gaps in the rain, cracking garlic seed stock heads for planting soon, harvesting apples for winter drying, clearing out the tomato greenhouse for winter greens, and bulk harvesting roots for future shares. We’re making our way to the end of this growing season but there’s still lots of work to be done out there.

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:

Roasted Squash with Maple-Ginger Glaze

• 2 ¹/₂ pounds acorn, delicata, or butternut squash, seeded and cut into long 1/2 inch thick pieces
• olive oil
• Kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ¹/₄ cup maple syrup
• Juice and zest of one small lemon
• 2 inches ginger, grated
• 2-3 tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 425° F.

Arrange squash pieces on a baking dish in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle a generous amount of salt and pepper on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes, flipping halfway through, until squash is nicely browned and tender.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Let butter brown a little, then add maple syrup, lemon zest, and ginger. Mix well. Stir in water, one tablespoon at a time, until the sauce loosens a little. Remove from heat and add lemon juice.

You can puree the glaze if desired for a smoother consistency, or leave with lemon zest and ginger threads for texture.

Serve squash with a drizzle of glaze on top.

From Food52.com by Vicky | Things I Made Today, https://food52.com/recipes/31801-roasted-squash-with-maple-ginger-glaze

Crispy Parmesan Cauliflower Tots

• 1 pound cauliflower florets
• ¹/₂ cup breadcrumbs
• ¹/₄ cup grated Parmesan
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons chopped, fresh parsley
• ¹/₄ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¹/₄ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing

Preheat the oven to 400ᵒF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and brush with olive oil; set aside.

While the oven is pre-heating, steam the cauliflower until tender, and cool to room temperature.

Place the cauliflower on a clean dishtowel or piece of cheesecloth, roll up and wring to extract as much moisture from the cauliflower as you can.

Transfer the cauliflower to a large bowl and break florets apart with your hands. Add the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, egg, parsley, garlic powder and pepper, and, using your hands, mix until mixture holds together.

Using a tablespoon, scoop the cauliflower mixture onto prepared baking sheet. Use your hands to roll each scoop into an oval-shaped tot. Brush the tots with olive oil.

Bake for 15 minutes, remove from oven, turn the tots over and brush with olive oil, and bake for another 15 minutes to crisp the other side. Serve warm.

From Food52.com, https://food52.com/recipes/63748-crispy-parmesan-cauliflower-tots

Melissa Clark’s Seared broccoli & Potato Soup

• ¹/₂ cup olive oil, plus more as needed
• 2 pounds (2 heads) broccoli, separated into small florets, stems peeled and diced
• 2 ¹/₂ teaspoons kosher salt, more to taste
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large Spanish onion, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• ¹/₂ teaspoon black pepper, more for finishing
• ¹/₄ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ¹/₂ pound potatoes, peeled, and thinly sliced
• ¹/₄ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1 ¹/₂ tablespoons fresh lemon juice, more to taste
• Grated or shaved Parmesan, to finish (optional)
• Flaky sea salt, to finish

In a large soup pot, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over high heat. Add about a third of the broccoli, just enough so that it covers the bottom of the pan in a single layer without overcrowding. Cook broccoli without moving it for about 3 to 4 minutes, or until dark brown on 1 side only (leave the other side bright green). Transfer to a big bowl and repeat with remaining broccoli and more oil. When all the broccoli has been browned, season with 1 teaspoon salt and set aside.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Add butter and remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to pan. Add onions and garlic, black and red peppers, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook onion-garlic mixture until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add potato to the pot with 1 quart water and remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a simmer, cover pot and cook until potato is just tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Add broccoli, cover again and cook until tender, another 5 to 10 minutes.

Add lemon zest and roughly purée soup with an immersion or regular blender, leaving some small chunks for texture. Stir in lemon juice. Finish with grated Parmesan, a drizzle of olive oil, black pepper and flaky sea salt.

From Food52.com by Genius Recipes, https://food52.com/recipes/38899-melissa-clark-s-seared-broccoli-and-potato-soup