CSA Harvest Week 14: Chinese
Red Noodle Beans!
The garden is glowing with
healthy and happy colors. We haven’t had
any 4-5 inch rainstorms to saturate the vegetable roots and cause plant health
problems! We’ve been preparing the soil
with the tractors and soil implements to make beautiful garden beds to plant
seeds and small transplants. We’ve
planted radishes, hakerai salad turnips, and arugula from seeds. Small plants like scallions, dill, kale,
collards, Swiss chard, cabbage, broccoli, and lettuce are all happily growing
fresh roots and leaves in the garden beds.
Yesterday we planted around 1500 Swiss Chard, kale, and collard
plants! They look so healthy. More seeds like beets and carrots are on the
list for tomorrow.
Look for a few of these crops (lettuce, radishes, arugula, kale) to be ready in the last weeks of September (and the last CSA boxes.) The last week for your full season CSA is September 25. Most of the fall crops will be producing for the Fall CSA, which starts October 2nd and goes for 8 weeks until November 20th. We still have a few spaces available...
Farm Fresh Harvest
Beans, Chinese Red Noodle Beans- These long meaty beans
cook just like green beans. They grow on
a pole or trellis and the beans hang down like red noodles! The Greek Style Green Beans are a great
recipe for these tasty beans. Or you can sauté them in olive oil with some
garlic and onion for about 10 minutes.
Then I add a splash of lemon juice and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
Bell peppers- Crunchy!
Bell
peppers start out a rich green color and then ripen to a red, yellow, or orange
color. We’ve got to hope that the plants
cooperate and start to ripen soon. They
ripen with sunshine in late August and September!
Tomatoes- The tomatoes have full ripe flavors since we grow them
under the hoophouse, which keeps the rain from watering the flavor down.
Cherry tomatoes- Little gems of sunshine!
Basil- Store your basil in a little glass of
water on the kitchen counter. Basil does
not like to be refrigerated. Make sure
to rinse it well before using- the rains are splashing sand on the leaves. Chop it up and sprinkle it over your summer
dishes that include peppers, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers. The flavor is so fresh and aromatic.
Summer squash and Zucchini- More tasty squash and zucchini. We have some healthy looking plants that
have producing well lately. The green
and yellow squashes are called Zephyr and they have a nutty flavor that is
somewhere between squash and zucchini.
Zephyr is well known for its unusual appearance and its great taste.
Cucumbers- Cucumbers come in all shapes and sizes. We grow little mini cucumbers, large crisp
American slicers, and delicate slender European cucumbers.
Potatoes- These are the last of the potatoes from the
garden. Enjoy! These are waxy potatoes- perfect for
roasting, boiling, or mashing for hearty mashed potatoes.
No Eggplant- Last
week
I put eggplant on the CSA list, but we ended up not having enough eggplant. The weather is a bit too cool and wet for it
to produce well. Look for small
quantities of eggplant for sale at the Farmers’ Market and on Wednesdays at the
farm. We hope to have some for CSA
boxes in the coming weeks.
Recipes
Sweet Basil, Tomato, and Summer Peach Salsa
1.
Mix equal parts chopped slicing tomatoes and
chopped fresh peaches in non-reactive bowl. (no metal bowls, they can make it
taste funny)
2.
Finely chop approximately 4 big leaves of
basil or 8 small leaves of basil for every peach that you use.
3. Measure out
approximately ½ teaspoon lime juice for every peach that you use.
4. Sprinkle basil and lime juice over tomatoes and
peaches. Add salt to taste. Let salsa
rest for at least 15 minutes before serving.
Keeps about 2 days in the fridge.
Greek
Style Green Beans
This recipe is a new favorite here at the
farm. The dish does take a while to
cook, but requires hardly any attention.
Grilled Summer Vegetable Pasta Salad (from From Asparagus to Zucchini: A guide to
Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce)
This great pasta salad recipe can be made with a variety of
summer vegetables. It is easy to mix and
match ingredients based on seasonal availability.
1 zucchini
1 yellow
squash
1 eggplant
4 tomatoes
4 portobello
mushrooms
1 red bell
pepper
Olive oil
spray
2 cloves
garlic, minced
Salt and
pepper to taste
1 pound
penne, cooked, rinsed, and cooled
4 oz.
mozzarella, sliced
3
tablespoons toasted pine nuts
3
tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Approximately
1 cup vinaigrette made with balsamic vinegar
Heat/prepare
an outdoor grill. Slice zucchini,
squash, and eggplant into long ½ inch thick “planks.” Cut tomatoes in half. Remove stems from mushrooms. Cut pepper into quarters; discard core and
seeds. Spray veggies with light coating
of oil. Sprinkle with minced garlic;
season with salt and pepper. Grill until
lightly charred and barely tender. Chop
and place in large bowl with pasta, cheese, nuts, and basil. Toss with vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper. 6-8 servings.
Late Summer
Bruschetta
(from From
Asparagus to Zucchini: A guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce)
2-3 large
tomatoes
1 crunchy
sweet pepper
1 medium
sweet onion
2-3 cloves
garlic, minced
Olive oil
Small
handful fresh basil, chopped (optional)
Crusty bread
(like baguette)
Shredded
mozzarella or grated parmesan (optional)
Chop the
vegetables into a midsize dice. Combine
with garlic 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, and optional basil. Slice baguette down the middle and lay the
two sides cut side up. Brush with
additional 1-2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle on cheese, if using. Broil bread for several minutes until bread
or cheese browns a bit. Top the sections
(you may cut them smaller, if desired) with some of the vegetable mixture. Makes 4 servings
Mediterranean
Salsa
Fresh flavor! This is a great salsa, salad or pita
stuffing.
1 medium cucumber, diced
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced, remove as much of the
spicy ribs and seeds as needed
1 bell pepper, diced
1 bunch parsley, finely diced
2/3 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup pitted kalamata olives
Juice from 1-2 fresh lemons
Combine all ingredients and toss well. Let marinate at room temperature for at least
15 minutes.
How about some green
bean recipe ideas? You can use the
Chinese Red Noodle Beans in place of any green bean. Martha Stewart provides inspiration again…
Healthy
Green Bean Recipes
Three
Bean Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
If you don’t have watercress or mache on hand (and you won’t, because
mache doesn’t grow here when green beans grow), you can use arugula, lettuce,
or any other salad green,
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