Welcome to the 10th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2024 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Lettuce Mix
• Mixed Cauliflower
• Broccoli
• Dill
• German Butterball Potatoes – FYI – These are freshly dug potatoes and we’re sending them to you unwashed.
• Bunching Onions
• Storage Onions – We accidentally grew some jumbo overwintered onions this year. Whoa!
• Mixed Cucumbers – Green and yellow slicers and a handful of lemons too.
• Zucchini – Lots of green zucchini and handful of yellow summer squash and yellow zucchini too.
• Sweet Corn
• Poblano Peppers – The classic stuffing pepper, also good for flavoring any dish that is asking for a mild chile kick.
• Bell Peppers – A mix of green and purple bells this week while we wait for the other sweet peppers to color up. Note, these purple peppers are equivalent to green peppers for this variety.
• Tomatillos – A little like green tomatoes, tomatillos make excellent salsa verde and enchilada sauce.
• Mixed Cherry Tomatoes & Slicer Tomatoes – We’re using a lot of the pint boxes for tomatoes and would appreciate it if you could leave them behind or return them for another go around. Thanks!
• Mixed Melons – Including Tirreno Tuscan cantaloupes, Honey Orange honeydews, and Lambkin piel de sapo melons.
• Yellow Transparent Apples – A delicate and soft early ripening apple best used for applesauce or baking projects.

It was a big day here at the farm yesterday. It was solar installation day! Thanks to a generous 50% matching grant through the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program that helps farms finance energy improvement projects we were able to work with a local solar installer to place 32 solar panels on the roof of our barn. The energy projections suggest these could cover half our summer electricity use for the farm. Exciting!

While the panels and inverter were installed yesterday there are still a few more steps before we’re officially up and running. Mostly we’ll be waiting on inspections from the county and power company before we can turn the system on for real. So far it’s been a 10 month journey of lining up the grant money and then getting on the solar installer’s work schedule. It’s kind of been a “I’ll believe it when I see it” sort of project but yesterday was a big step toward believing it’s happening.

The solar installation project has been a unique one for us here at the farm. Most of the work here gets done by us. As in, we make a plan to grow vegetables for members and we grow the vegetables. We decide another greenhouse would help with winter crops, so we buy and build a greenhouse. Need a shop for tractor and tool storage? Get a pole barn kit and build it. We knew we needed help with the solar project, and the grant specifies that the work needs to be done by a licensed contractor, so it’s been a different sort of project than we’re used to.

We worked with a really helpful organization called Spark Northwest to get the ball rolling on the grant application. They helped to gather the needed materials and fill in the gaps with help from our solar installer. As you can imagine the federal grant application is involved and we really appreciate having the help of Spark Northwest to get through that process. After submitting the application in December there was some back and forth with the USDA Rural Development folks to update forms and then we waited while the USDA worked through the backlog of applications. The grant was officially awarded in June and then we waited to get on the contractor’s work schedule.

Other than paperwork, it’s been a lot waiting on our end. But then we got the call last week that things were moving ahead this week. After a flurry of work yesterday by the installing crew and a little more this morning we’re back to the waiting game until inspections get scheduled. Luckily we’ve got plenty of farm work to keep us busy in the meantime.

In the week ahead we’ll hopefully make one of the final big transplant pushes of the season. It’s time to get the fall and winter brassicas planted, as well as the last beets and cucumbers of the season. There’s also plenty of weeding, and tomato wrangling, and mowing, and cultivating to get to as well. This time of year we plant a variety of broccoli called Marathon for fall, and it always feels true to type when we’re getting it in the ground.

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:

French Onion Soup (Slow Cooker Version)

• 3 large white onions sliced
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 64 ounces beef broth (I use reduced sodium)
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 clove garlic minced
• ⅓ cup dry sherry
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 8 slices dry French bread
• ¾ cup Gruyere cheese shredded
• ½ cup Emmental cheese shredded
• 6 tablespoons fresh Parmesan cheese shredded

• In a large non-stick pan, cook onions, butter, and brown sugar over medium-low heat until golden and caramelized. (About 20 minutes).
• Once golden, add to the slow cooker along with the remaining ingredients except for bread and cheese.
• Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
• Remove and discard bay leaf and ladle the soup into bowls. Top with dry bread slices and cheeses. Broil 2-3 minutes or until cheese is melted and browned.

From SpendWithPennies.com, https://www.spendwithpennies.com/slow-cooker-french-onion-soup/

Enchiladas Suizas

1 medium white or yellow onion
4 large or 6 small tomatillos
2 poblano chiles (or 1 can of whole green chiles)
3 to 4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1 ¹/₂ cups chicken stock
1 handful cilantro leaves and stems, plus more leaves for garnish
¹/₂ teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican
1 pinch ground allspice or clove
1 teaspoon cumin, ground
Zest and juice of one lime
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1 jalapeño chile, seeds removed (optional)
2 cups boneless cooked chicken, shredded, sliced or diced
8 corn tortillas
2 cups shredded jack or mild cheddar cheese
¹/₂ cup sour cream, crème fraîche, or Mexican crema

1. Heat the broiler. Peel and quarter onion. Remove papery husks and wash tomatillos. Cut poblanos in half lengthwise and remove stems and seeds. On a foil-lined sheet pan, place onion, tomatillos, unpeeled garlic cloves and poblanos skin side up. Broil vegetables until mildly charred, turning the onion pieces and tomatillos over after a few minutes to expose other sides to the heat source. Take care that the garlic doesn’t get too burnt.
2. Scrape blackened skin from the poblanos, peel the garlic and put vegetables into a blender; include any juices from the baking sheet. (Drain and add canned green chiles, if using.) Add chicken stock, cilantro, spices, lime juice and zest, and salt and blend until completely puréed. Taste, and if you want it to be spicier, add the jalapeño and purée again until completely smooth.
3. Pour contents of blender into a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until slightly reduced. Taste and add more salt, if needed. If salsa is too thick, add a little bit of water to it. Lower oven temperature to 350° F.
4. Make the enchiladas one at a time: Dip a tortilla in the salsa until just softened. Lay out on a plate, put some chicken across the middle of the tortilla and roll it up. Place in a baking dish or directly on an oven-safe dinner plate. When all of the tortillas have been made, ladle the salsa generously over them, sprinkle the cheese over the top, and place the baking dish or plates into the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, until chicken filling is heated through and cheese has melted. Serve with generous dollop of sour cream on top, and some chopped fresh cilantro.

From Food52.com by ZORA, https://food52.com/recipes/26577-enchiladas-suizas

Smashed Indian Potatoes with Lazy Raita

• Lazy Raita
• 1 cup Plain Yogurt (I used non-fat Greek Yogurt)
• ¹/₂ Cucumber, peeled, seeded, and minced
• a few sprigs of cilantro, chopped small
• ¹/₂ teaspoon cumin seeds
• black pepper to taste

• Smashed Indian Potatoes
• 2 large russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1″ chunks
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small yellow onion, diced small
• 2 cups cauliflower, broken into small florets
• 1 ¹/₂ cups frozen peas
• about 5 tablespoons or so of olive oil
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, finely grated
• 2 teaspoons garam masala spice blend
• 2 teaspoons ground fenugreek seed
• 2 teaspoons ground turmeric root
• 2 teaspoons whole yellow mustard seed
• 2 teaspoons whole cumin seed
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 handful fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
• juice of one lemon
• salt and pepper to taste

Boil potatoes until tender. Drain and set aside.

In a large skillet, cook olive oil, garlic, onions, cauliflower, garam masala, fenugreek, turmeric, mustard seeds, cumin seed, red pepper flakes, and fresh ginger over medium heat. Stir until seasonings are well distributed. Salt and Pepper to taste. Cook until onions are translucent and cauliflower is almost tender. Add peas and cook for five more minutes. You may need to add a little more olive oil if things start to look dry.

Add the vegetables and potatoes to a big bowl and stir until well combined. I stir quite vigorously, so that the potatoes get all smashed up.

Add the chopped cilantro and lemon juice last and stir again. Salt and Pepper to taste and serve!

To make the Lazy Raita: Combine ingredients and stir until well combined. Serve alongside or atop the potatoes and enjoy!

From Food52.com by HelenTheNanny, https://food52.com/recipes/2946-smashed-indian-potatoes-with-lazy-raita