Welcome to the 9th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2025 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Butter Lettuce Heads – These didn’t head up as much as we’d generally like due to some competition from weeds. It’s still tasty though.
• Lettuce Mix
• Broccoli or Cauliflower
• Celery
• Dill
• Carrots
• Bunching Onions
• Garlic
• Sweet Corn – The first small but tasty sweet corn of the season!
• Romano Snap Beans – The pods are larger and flatter but you can use them like any other snap beans. This particular variety is called Marvel of Piedmont, but can easily be mistaken for Dragon Tongue beans.
• Cucumbers – Mixed green and silver slicers plus a few lemons too.
• Zucchini & Summer Squash
• Shishito Peppers – Known as a roulette pepper, 1 in 10 might be hot. They’re great with eggs, or anything else really, but traditionally blistered in hot oil and eaten with a little salt.
• Mixed Tomatoes – We’ve got tomatoes! Pints of cherries plus lots of big slicers this week.
• Farm Apples – Perhaps Jeff’s favorite of the various mystery varieties of apples we’ve got growing here at the farm.

I managed to get the drone up for a short flight on Sunday evening and got some shots of the farm in all it’s end-of-July glory. This is definitely the time of year that the work of the farm overwhelms our plans for order. The weeds have established themselves beyond the usefulness of the cultivating tractor in a few crops and it’s time for hand weeding. There are decisions to be made about giving up on a succession of carrots in favor of a better succession. The whole sunk cost fallacy concept comes to mind. Luckily we do get to clean the slate of some earlier, already harvested, successions with the mower and there’s perpetually renewed hope that the next rounds of crops will be wrangled back into order.

We’ve got spotty internet today so I’m going to try to be brief in hopes that we can get this thing posted. I had planned on talking about tomatoes given that we seem to have made it to tomato season. We grow 12-ish different varieties of slicer tomatoes and 6-ish varieties of cherries/plum varieties. This year they’re growing in two greenhouses for adequate space. We plant most of our tomatoes in April to get you early tomatoes, before you’re overwhelmed with garden tomatoes.

If you’re currently feeling overwhelmed by CSA tomatoes I suggest preserving some for the future, when we aren’t sending you home with quite so many. If you’re not into canning whole tomatoes or tomato sauce, freezing them is also a good option. We like to roast them in the oven with olive oil/salt/pepper/garlic and then freeze that tasty concoction for winter pasta dishes.

The past week was very much about cleaning up the place a little. There was hand weeding, tractor cultivating, and mowing. We also transplanted on Saturday including lettuce, corn, cucumbers, dill, and cilantro. The planting push continues for fall vegetables. This next week will look much the same, though there’s some propagation on deck too. Is it August yet?

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:

Grilled Zucchini Pizza

1 large zucchini
½ cup butter, melted
3 cloves crushed garlic
½ cup mozzarella cheese
14 oz pizza sauce

1. Slice the Zucchini into thick rounds. Combine the melted butter and crushed garlic in a small bowl. set aside.
2. When the coals on your barbeque are almost burned down, lay your zucchini slices on the grill. Let cook for three minutes then turn over and brush the butter/garlic mixture on each slice. Cook for three more minutes and turn over again and brush the other side with the garlic and butter.
3. Cover the slices with pizza sauce and cheese and let cook until the cheese begins to melt.

From allrecipes.com, http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/grilled-zucchini-pizza/Detail.aspx

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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

Grilled Summer Salad with Tonnato Verde

• Salad
• 1 pound romano, wax, or green beans (or a mix)
• 1 pound small escarole and/or little Gem heads, halved lengthwise through the core (Or how about Butter Lettuce)
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ¹/₂ baguette, halved lengthwise
• 1 ear fresh corn, husked
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (from about 1 medium lemon)
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 2 tablespoons drained capers

• Tonnato Verde
• 2 (7-ounce) cans high-quality water-or oil-packed tuna, drained
• 4 ounces soft tofu
• 3 salt-or oil-packed anchovy fillets, drained
• 2 whole garlic cloves
• ¹/₂ cup (packed) Italian parsley leaves
• ¹/₄ cup chopped chives, plus more for garnish
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (from about 1 medium lemon)
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1 tablespoon drained capers
• ¹/₂ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Make the salad: Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat. Lightly grease the grates.

Toss beans and lettuce with 2 tablespoons of the oil and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the cut side of the baguette with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Grill the lettuce, beans, bread, and corn, turning occasionally, until lettuce is wilted, bread is toasted, and beans and corn are nicely charred and tender—this will take about 2 minutes for the lettuce and bread, about 5 minutes for the beans, and 10 to 12 minutes for the corn. Once cooked, transfer vegetables and bread to a cutting board to cool. Coarsely chop the cooled lettuce and bread, cut the corn kernels off of the cob, and set aside. Leave the beans whole.

Meanwhile, make the tonnato verde: In a food processor, add 2 ounces of the tuna, tofu, anchovies, garlic, parsley, chives, lemon juice, Parmesan, and capers. Pulse a few times to combine. With the machine on, slowly drizzle in the oil until the mixture is well emulsified. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To a large bowl, add the grilled lettuce and beans; season with the 2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus salt and pepper to taste, and toss to combine. Divide this mixture on 4 plates, then follow with the croutons, corn, tomatoes, capers and the remaining tuna, divided for each serving. Drizzle one-quarter of the dressing over each salad, then garnish with chives and more black pepper.

From Food52.com by Kay Chun, https://food52.com/recipes/86186-grilled-salad-recipe-with-tonnato-herb-sauce