Welcome to the 14th share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2025 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

• Lettuce Mix – A mix of 4 lettuce varieties.
• Broccoli
• Basil – Don’t forget that basil doesn’t like cold temps. We like to keep it in a glass of water on our kitchen counter, like flowers.
• Huckleberry Gold Potatoes – Purple outside and gold inside, these are great for mashing, frying, roasting etc. Heads up, we’re giving these out unwashed.
• Yellow Onions
• Garlic
• Sweet Corn
• Mixed Snap Beans
• Cucumbers – Mixed green and silver slicers and a handful of lemons too. Shoutout to CSA member Coral R. who shared their go-to refrigerator pickle recipe with us a couple of weeks back and we agree it’s a keeper. The recipe says kirby cucumbers only but we used small-medium slicers and have been eating up the crisp pickles on everything. Check it out here and get some cukes pickling. You won’t regret it.
• 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.
• Sweet Peppers – Mixed bell and Italian roasting peppers of varying colors. Most this week ripen to red.
• Eggplant
• Mixed Tomatoes – Pints of cherries plus all the slicers this week. 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!
• Asian Pears – Crisper than other pears, these hold up well to cooking but are also great raw. They ripen to yellow.

We’re three months into this Summer CSA season with three months to go. We sure hope you’ve been enjoying the super seasonal produce that’s been coming your way and are excited for what the season still holds. We’ve been feeling the faintest hint of fall in the air the past week or so. Perhaps it’s the cooler overnight temps, the morning cloud cover, the ripening of the pears. We’ve made it to September!

We plan to extend the summery goodness as long as possible. The tomatoes will keep coming. The sweet peppers are just beginning to ripen to red. The zucchini and cumbers continue pump out the fruits. You’ll see some continued transitions though too. We’re into some beautiful early fall broccoli with cauliflower not too far behind. Pears are making their annual appearance. The kale and chard and collards are looking very tasty.

We wrapped up August with the big onion harvest this past weekend. After many, many years of marginal onion harvests we feel like we’ve finally cracked part of the code. From growing healthier starts and finding varieties that grow well here and store longer to dialing in the irrigation, we’ve managed to grow some real beauts. We’re still working on the cultivation and weeding, but aren’t we always?

In the week ahead we’ll be continuing our endeavor to get the winter carrots weeded, harvest more pears, clear out the spring pea/carrot greenhouse for flipping to fall greens, get to some mowing, cultivate many things, transplant the winter kale, direct sow some fall greens into a recently cleared greenhouse, etc. etc. And we’ll be opening the Winter CSA sign-ups on Friday September 5th for current/past members who would like to join us for the upcoming Winter season. Watch for an email later this week!

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:

Di San Xian (Stir-Fried Eggplant, Potato & Bell Pepper)

• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 2 medium potatoes
• 1/2 medium green bell pepper
• 1/2 medium red bell pepper
• 1 medium Japanese or Chinese eggplant
• Neutral oil, for deep-frying
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 scallions, ends trimmed and roughly chopped
• Cooked rice, for serving

Step 1 In a medium bowl, whisk the soy sauces, sugar, and ¾ cup of water until the sugar is dissolved. In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water until combined.

Step 2 Scrub and peel the potatoes (or leave the skin on), then cut into 1-inch chunks. Cut the bell peppers into 1-inch chunks. Trim the ends from the eggplant, then roll-cut into 1-inch pieces (I like to cut the eggplant right before frying to prevent it from oxidizing).

Step 3 Fill a large wok or saucepan with enough oil for frying (1 to 2 inches deep) and heat to 350°F. Meanwhile, set a wire rack on top of a sheet pan next to the stove. Fry the potatoes until golden brown, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Use a sieve to transfer the potatoes to the wire rack to drain excess oil. Using the same oil with the same heat, flash-fry the eggplant for about 45 seconds. After 30 seconds, add the bell peppers, too. Transfer the eggplant and peppers to the wire rack.

Step 4 Carefully pour the oil into a heatproof vessel (you can reserve and reuse it for other dishes), leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pan.

Step 5 Over medium heat, sauté the garlic and scallion until aromatic, about 1 minute. Add the soy-sugar mixture and bring to a boil.

Step 6 Add the potatoes, eggplant, and bell pepper and toss to combine. Cook until nicely coated and the potatoes are fork-tender, less than 2 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning accordingly. Add the slurry and simmer until thickened. Serve immediately with a bowl of rice.

From Food52.com by Woonheng Chia, https://food52.com/recipes/87908-di-san-xian-recipe

Crispy Salmon with Corn, Blackberry, & Shishito Salad

• 2 ears corn, shucked
• 6 ounce blackberries
• Kosher salt, to taste
• 6 teaspoon canola oil, divided
• 4 ounce shishito peppers
• 2 (1/2-pound) salmon fillets
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice, plus more to taste
• 2 lime cheeks, for serving

Step 1 Take 1 ear of corn and use a very sharp knife to cut the kernels off the cob. Add those to a bowl. Halve the larger blackberries lengthwise, but leave the smaller ones as they are. Add all the blackberries to the bowl with the corn. Season with a pinch of salt and toss.

Step 2 Heat a large cast-iron over medium heat. While that heats up, de-kernel the remaining ear of corn. When the pan is hot, add 2 teaspoons canola oil. Swirl the oil around, then add the just-cut corn (not the corn with the blackberries! We want that to stay raw). Season with a pinch of salt, stir, then leave the corn alone to cook for about 6 minutes, stirring maybe once or twice, until it’s golden-brown and starting to char. Push aside the corn-blackberry mixture so half of the bowl is empty, then dump the crispy corn there to cool.

Step 3 With the pan still over medium heat, add another 2 teaspoons canola oil, then the shishitos and another pinch of salt. Cook in the same way—mostly leaving alone—for 6 minutes, until charred and deflated. Dump onto a cutting board to cool a bit and turn off the heat.

Step 4 Wipe out the skillet. Dry the salmon all over (this will encourage better browning), then season it generously with salt and black pepper. Turn the heat under the skillet on again, this time to medium-high. When the pan is hot, add the remaining 2 teaspoons canola oil. When the oil is shimmering, carefully add the salmon, skin side-down—it should loudly sizzle. Immediately lower the heat to medium-low and press down the salmon with a fish spatula, to prevent the skin from curling. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, pressing down with the spatula occasionally, until the skin is deeply browned and crispy, and the flesh is nearly at the temperature you’d want to eat it at (I aim for 125°F for medium-rare). Flip the salmon and cook for another minute, then turn off the heat and remove it from the pan.

Step 5 While the salmon is cooking, chop the shishitos into smaller pieces (figure into thirds or fourths depending on the size of the pepper). Add these shishitos to the bowl with the corn and blackberries. Dress with the olive oil and lime juice. Toss and taste. Adjust with more olive oil, lime juice, and salt as needed.

Step 6 Serve the salmon with the salad on top or alongside, with a lime cheek to squeeze on top of the fish.

From Food52.com by Emma Laperruque, https://food52.com/recipes/81770-salmon-salad-recipe

Broccoli Salad with Pesto, Apples, & Walnuts

• 1 1/3 cup tightly packed, cleaned and dried basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled (the newer/fresher, the better)
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoon lemon juice, plus more as needed
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
• 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts, divided into 2/3 cup and 1/3 cup (raw)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 small head of broccoli
• 1 large Honeycrisp apple (or similar), rinsed but not peeled

Step 1 Make the pesto: In a food processor, combine basil, garlic, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and 2/3 cup walnuts. Pulse until everything is the size of small grains, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. Then, run the motor as you stream in the oil until a smooth, creamy pesto forms. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed with more salt and lemon juice to balance—it should be very flavorful and zingy. Add to a large bowl.

Step 2 Take your head of broccoli and cut off the florets with about 2-inches of stem attached to each, then slice them as thinly as you can until you have about 3 heaping cups of thinly sliced broccoli and pieces. It’s fine if some stalk gets in there, but it should be mostly floret/stem (and the stuff that falls off the florets as you’re slicing). Add the 3 heaping cups of broccoli to the bowl with the pesto, and give it a stir to coat.

Step 3 Slice the apple into 1/4-inch thick half-moon pieces (avoiding the seeds and stem), as if you’re making apple slices for a snack (but much thinner). Then, cut those in half horizontally so you have twice as many, half-as-tall slices. Add those to the bowl, along with the remaining 1/3 cup crushed walnuts. Stir all to combine and serve immediately, or cover and keep in fridge up to 3 days.

From Food52.com by Ella Quittner, https://food52.com/recipes/78432-broccoli-salad-with-pesto-apples-walnuts