Summer CSA Share #22

Welcome to the 22nd share of the Pitchfork & Crow 2025 Summer CSA! Here’s what’s in the share this week:

Lettuce Mix – A mix of four lettuces.
Arugula
Napa Cabbage
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Parsley
Beets – Check out the Beet Butter recipe down below for a new take on how to use up some beets.
Bunching Onions
Garlic
Low-Heat Habanero Peppers – A new-to-us variety of no-heat habanero peppers. These have all the flavor of a habanero without the heat!
Poblano Peppers – The classic stuffing pepper, also good for flavoring any dish that is asking for a mild chile kick.
Sweet Peppers – Mixed bell and Italian roasting peppers of varying colors. Most this week ripen to red.
Green Tomatoes –We’re wrapping up the tomato season with a harvest of all the remaining unripe fruit. You can try to ripen any fruit with some coloring by leaving it out in your kitchen. Unripe fruit can be used for recipes like fried green tomatoes and green tomato cake. However you decide to use them, we suggest removing them from the plastic bag sooner than later.
Pie Pumpkin

^{Farm scenes including a sunrise (left) and post-storm rainbow (right).}

The past week was very much about working around the incoming weather. With lots of rain and wind headed our way Friday and Saturday it was time to prioritize things to make sure we made some progress. Somehow I didn’t snap photos of most of it, but progress was indeed made.

We flagged out the area where we hope to build a new small equipment shed this winter and Jeff worked on moving some dirt to make accessing the site easier. We cleared out the cherry tomato house of trellising twine, t-posts, and plants to make room for some transplants that will hopefully finally get planted this coming week. We harvested the green tomatoes because the end of tomato season has arrived. We dug another bed of potatoes ahead of the rain for storage. And then the rain and wind blew in.

^{Luckily we had a new roll of greenhouse plastic when Saturday’s windstorm came through.}

We’d noticed a few rips that were too big to tape up on one of our big 30ft x 96ft greenhouses earlier this summer and knew it was time to replace the plastic, preferably on a clear day with little wind. We even made it to the greenhouse supply dealer and bought a couple of rolls of plastic. Well, best laid plans and all, we hadn’t made it a priority and the windstorm forced the issue. Saturday we had to resort to cutting the upper flapping plastic to make sure it didn’t break off and fly away. Then things calmed down just enough Sunday evening for us to unzip the remaining plastic and pull the new plastic into place.

It often seems like there’s a point in replacing greenhouse plastic that you begin questioning your life choices. This moment came for me this time when I was crawling along the side of the house in the mud trying to get the plastic taught with one hand and manipulating the wire that locks the plastic into place with the other hand and it began to rain, a lot, and water began streaming off the new plastic directly onto me and my muddy, fumbling hands. As always seems to happen, we persevered, eventually the sun came out, and the plastic was fully secured in place. At least that project got marked off the To Do list. Let’s see what shenanigans we can into this week.

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:

Cauliflower Steaks with Green Harissa

For the Cauliflower

1 large head cauliflower
1/4 cup (60 ml) vegetable oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Green Harissa

2 tomatillos, husked and rinsed (perhaps substitute in green tomatoes?)
1/2 onion, halved through the root
1 or 2 serrano chiles, as desired for heat
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 cup (40 g) fresh cilantro (leaves and tender stems)
2 cup (40 g) fresh parsley (leaves and tender stems)
Large handful each of arugula and spinach
2 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup (120 ml) olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Flaky salt

Step 1 Remove the leaves and trim the stem of the cauliflower, leaving the core intact. Place the cauliflower core-side down on a work surface. Starting in the center of the head, slice from top to bottom into four 1-inch (2.5 cm) steaks. Place steaks on a rimmed baking sheet and any florets that break loose in a bowl. Drizzle the oil over the steaks and florets and generously season with kosher salt and pepper.

Step 2 Prepare a charcoal grill for two-zone cooking and build a medium-high fire, or heat a gas grill to high. Carefully wipe the preheated grates with a lightly oiled paper towel. Using a grill brush, scrape the grill grates clean, then carefully wipe with a lightly oiled towel again. Allow a small cast iron skillet or grill basket to heat for 5 minutes before cooking.

Step 3 To make the harissa, blister the tomatillos, onion, chiles, and garlic in the preheated small cast-iron skillet or grill basket over direct heat, until charred and softened on all sides, 4 to 5 minutes for the tomatillos and chiles, a bit longer for the onion and garlic. Set aside to cool.

Step 4 Stem and seed the chiles, peel the garlic, and place them both in a food processor. Add the tomatillos, cilantro, parsley, arugula and spinach, vinegar, lemon zest, and olive oil and puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 5 Grill the cauliflower steaks (in a grill basket, if desired) over direct heat, rotating them around the fire as needed to prevent them from blackening before they’re cooked, until deeply charred on the exterior and just tender at the core, 8 to 10 minutes per side. Grill any loose florets in a grill basket, tossing often, until browned and crispy, 5 to 7 minutes.

Step 6 Serve the warm steaks on a pool of harissa and garnish with the crispy bits of florets and a sprinkle of flaky salt.

From Food52.com by Paula Disbrowe, https://food52.com/recipes/75102-cauliflower-steaks-with-green-harissa

Beet Butter

This recipe is an alternate of one shared by a member recently who thought others might enjoy it too. Her recipe used walnuts and included a couple of cloves of garlic and half a cup of parsley, which would make it a bit more savory. I couldn’t find that recipe on the internet to link to but thought it was a good suggestion nonetheless. Thanks for sharing Liz S.!

3 beets, scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch chunks (about 1 1/4 pounds)
1 cup macadamia nuts
2 tablespoon walnut oil (or a natural-tasting vegetable oil)
2 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 pinch fine sea salt

Step 1 Bring a medium-sized pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the chopped beets, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until they are fork-tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain the beets and set them aside to cool for a few minutes.

Step 2 In the bowl of a food processor combine the macadamia nuts, oil, maple syrup, and vanilla. Process until smooth. Add the cooked beets and salt. Continue to process until the beet butter is completely smooth, scraping down the sides of the food processor as needed. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

Step 3 Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature before serving. Enjoy it with crackers, toast, as a sandwich spread, or as a dip for vegetables.

Step 4 Beet butter can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.

From Food52.com by Andrea, https://food52.com/recipes/69303-beet-butter

Sheet-Pan Mac & Cheese with Pumpkin & Brown Butter

2 teaspoon salt, plus more for pasta water
1 pound cavatappi (or other twisty pasta shape with lots of nooks for cheese to nestle into)
6 tablespoon 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 ounce Pecorino Romano, grated
1 cup whole milk
1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cup plain panko
1/2 cup shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas), raw

Step 1 Heat oven to 475°F. Grease a 11×17-inch sheet pan with rimmed edges.

Step 2 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.

Step 3 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.

Step 4 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