Welcome to the 23rd share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2023 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Arugula
• Tatsoi – Mild Asian greens related to bok choy, good in salads, tossed in soups and pasta to wilt, or lightly sauteed.
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower – We’re pushing the cold weather boundaries here as this cauliflower went through multiple freezes this week. The heads seemed to have made it through okay but we suggest eating them as soon as possible.
• Yellow Onion
• Garlic
• Hakurei Salad Turnips – Mild turnips for fresh eating or roasting, and you can eat the greens too.
• Long Beets – Cylindrical red beets that make for easy processing.
• Black Futzu Winter Squash – Related to butternut, these Japanese heirlooms are good for soup, roasting, pie, and thinly sliced raw into salads.
• 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.
• Poblano Peppers – The classic stuffing pepper, also good for flavoring any dish that is asking for a mild chile kick.
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Pie Pumpkin
• Farm Apples – Same type as last week, tasty for fresh eating and cooking.

We’ve made it through the first freezes of the season! After a push to harvest peppers and sweet potatoes ahead of the cold snap, we’ve made it to the other side generally unscathed. As we move through the growing season from spring, to summer, then fall, there are a few standard happenings. The days always lengthen and warm, then slowly get shorter and eventually cooler. This impacts our planting and harvest schedule. It’s the underlying rhythm of the season. But we’re also always working from the last frost in the spring toward the first frost in the fall. They move around on the calendar depending on the weather that season, but those frosts are game changers.

Overnight the farm shifts after that first frost or freeze. The lingering colorful zinnias and cosmos are snuffed out. The remaining pepper plants, eggplants, snap beans, cucumbers, are all killed. Even the annual heat loving weeds like deadly nightshade melt back to the ground, unable to withstand the cold. We’re left with an altered landscape of freeze tolerant plants. The kale and collards revel in their frost sweetened hardiness. The leeks and celeriac look a bit more vibrant. It’s a new season and we’re here for it.

Now that the race to the end of summer weather is behind us our attention will shift this week to the remaining apples in the trees and the potatoes in the ground. With a whole lot of rain in the forecast it will be touch and go as we decide which projects to tackle when, but the goal will be getting more food into the coolers for enjoying over the remaining weeks of the Summer CSA and into the Winter CSA season. It’s going to be a wet one, but at least there are no more freezing temps in the current 10-day forecast.

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:

Squash Panzanella with Bagna Cauda

• Squash Panzanella
• 3 pounds root vegetables (such as carrots, beets, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and rutabaga)
• 2 pounds squash (such as delicata, acorn, butternut, kuri, and kabocha)
• 1 loaf crusty bread or 2 baguettes, torn into bite-sized pieces
• Olive oil and salt, for roasting

• Bagna Cauda
• ¹/₂ cup olive oil
• 1 sprig rosemary
• ¹/₄ teaspoon chile flakes
• 5 anchovy fillets
• 4 to 6 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, zested
• ¹/₄ cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 3 ounces arugula (or 1 handful per person)

Heat the oven to 400°F.

Cut all of the root vegetables and squash into 1-inch chunks. Transfer to a bowl and coat with a hefty glug of olive oil and a couple big pinches of salt.

Transfer to a parchment- or foil-lined sheet pan and roast until tender on the inside and caramelized on the outside, about 40 minutes.

When the veg are just about done, toss the bread with another glug of olive oil and pinch of salt, and add to the vegetable roasting tray. Return to the oven to crisp and lightly brown the croutons while you make the bagna cauda.

In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil over low to medium heat. Add the rosemary sprig and chili flakes to fry lightly, about 30 seconds. Add the anchovies and garlic with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until the garlic is soft, lowering the heat as needed so it doesn’t brown. Remove and discard the rosemary sprig, then add the lemon zest and butter, and stir to combine.

When the vegetables and bread are finished roasting (after about 10 minutes), remove from the oven and transfer to a large, heat-proof mixing bowl. Pour the bagna cauda on top, then add the vinegar and arugula. Toss to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Eat warm or at room temperature.

From Food52.com by Abraberens, https://food52.com/recipes/84407-squash-panzanella-with-bagna-cauda-recipe

Roasted Squash & Cauliflower Salad with Tahini Dressing

• 1 small cauliflower, cut into small florets (about 6 cups)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon each cumin, coriander
• ¹/₂ teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• ¹/₂ cup each fresh mint & cilantro, lightly packed
• 1 cup pomegranate seeds

• Tahini Dressing
• ¹/₄ cup tahini
• ¹/₄ cup Hellmann’s Organic Mayonnaise
• 1/4-1/3 cups water
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ¹/₂ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Divide squash and cauliflower pieces between two baking trays. Drizzle with olive oil and toss with spices and seasoning. Place in the oven until golden brown and tender, 20 to 25 minutes.

While vegetables are roasting, make the dressing. Blend together tahini, mayonnaise, 1/4 cup water, lemon juice, garlic and salt until smooth. If dressing seems a bit thick, add a bit more water.

Put roasted vegetables on a large serving platter. Toss with chickpeas, mint, cilantro and pomegranate seeds. Drizzle with dressing and toss to combine.

From Food52.com by Miranda Keyes, https://food52.com/recipes/71691-roasted-squash-cauliflower-salad-with-tahini-dressing

Sheet-Pan Mac & Cheese with Pumpkin & Brown Butter

2 teaspoons salt, plus more for pasta water
1 pound cavatappi (or other twisty pasta shape with lots of nooks for cheese to nestle into)
6 tablespoons butter, plus more to grease the pan
¹/₂ teaspoon white pepper (you can substitute black or rainbow if you prefer)
1 pound sharp cheddar, grated, roughly divided into about three-quarters (12 ounces) and one-quarter (four ounces)
4 ounces Pecorino Romano, grated
1 cup whole milk
1 ¹/₄ cups pumpkin puree (you could use other winter squashes here too)
1 ¹/₄ cups plain panko
¹/₂ cup shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas), raw

Heat oven to 475°F. Grease a 11×17-inch sheet pan with rimmed edges.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook for only 4 to 5 minutes, so they’re quite al dente—just soft enough that if you taste one, there’s no audible crunch. Reserve 1/2 cup of cooking water and drain the pot of pasta.

In the same pot you used for the noodles, brown 6 tablespoons of butter: Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until it foams. The foam will recede, and the butter will be golden-tan. (If your pot is dark, you’ll know it’s ready when it starts to give off a deeply appealing rich, nutty scent.) Turn the heat down to low, add back the noodles, and immediately toss so your butter doesn’t stay on the bottom and burn. Drizzle in a few tablespoons of the hot reserved cooking water. Add the salt, pepper, three-quarters of the cheddar (about 12 ounces), Pecorino, and milk, and stir until you have a homogenous, creamy sauce. Mix in the pumpkin puree, adding a little more reserved water if needed to thin slightly. Turn off the heat.

Transfer to the sheet pan, and sprinkle the remaining 4 ounces of cheddar, the panko, and the pumpkin seeds over the top. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the panko is nice and toasted, and some of the cheesy noodles sticking out around the edges are tinged with amber spots.

From Food52.com by Ella Quittner, https://food52.com/recipes/78110-sheet-pan-mac-cheese-with-pumpkin-brown-butter