We have a lot of tomatillos available this week.

Bulk List
Drying tomatoes: $4.00/qt
Tomatillos: $2.00/lb
Salsa Packs: $2.50/pack
Basil bunch (large pesto size): $4/bunch

And now for some CSA fun. The Fair Share Farm Art Project is online. The time has come for all you members and friends of the farm to let us know what you think about food. Express your thoughts in the way that only art can capture.

We have set the stage. The idea, the website, the team, the judges, the opening venue. All that we need now is the art. Go to http://www.fairsharefarmart.com/ to learn the details. The submissions are coming in, so check back often.

All made possible through the generous work of the following:
Stacey Cook, Director—it’s only the beginning, eh?
Bobby and Christina Hubbard, web design—awsome job folks
Heather Murphy—inspiring logo Heather
Farmer Rebecca—the stabilizing force

A thanks also to our competition judges: Laura Berman, Dean Kube, Pete Dulin and Pam Taylor. More on them at the Judges link soon. Suffice it to say, the local art community is pumped to help out with the project.

You’ve know about this since March, but time is running down with only about 8 weeks until the submission deadline. The peak of summer is a great time to reflect on food. Can’t wait to hear from everyone.

Get your dehydraters working. We have Principe Borghese drying tomatoes available for sale. These small tomatoes are made to be split open and dried. A great raw food. You can eat them like candy, or rehyrate them for your favorite recipe.

We also have an abundance of tomatillos if you would like to buy them by the pound, instead of purchasing a salsa pack.

Bulk List
Drying tomatoes: $4.00/qt
Tomatillos: $2.00/lb
Salsa Packs: $2.50/pack
Jalapenos: $2.50/pint
Pepperoncinis: $4.00/quart
Basil bunch (large pesto size): $4/bunch
Summer squash/cucumbers-lg $1.25 ea
Summer sq/cucumbers-med $0.75 ea
Summer sq-small $3.25/qt

TOMATOES (F/P) The heat is ripening them fast right now and the dry weather is concentrating their flavor.

POTATOES (F/P) Mainly Kennebec but we’ll be filling in with some Desiree. The links take you to our supplier of potato seed.

WALLA WALLA ONIONS (F/P) Not many more sweeties, but we think enough for everyone this week.

SALSA PACK (F) Last year’s survey prompted us to grow more salsa fixins and they just keep on coming.

HOT PEPPERS OR EGGPLANT (F) See Tom’s post for more info on the different types of hot peppers that we grow.

CUCUMBERS AND SWEET PEPPERS (F) One of each

SUMMER SQUASH (F) More sweet little pattypans

RATTLESNAKE POLE BEANS (F/P) Our favorite beans, so tender and with real bean flavor.

CANTALOUPE (P) Keep these out of your fridge until completely ripe and sweet. The cantaloupe go to the partial shares in KC this week, since they didn’t receive any last week. Partial shares on Saturday will get salsa packs instead.

HERB CHOICE (F/P) Basil, Summer savory, Garlic chives or a dried herb.

ALSO THIS WEEK: Bread of Life Bakery shares

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, summer squash, beans, eggplant, peppers and salsa. Perhaps the first watermelons. More carrots and garlic.

We know what you are all wondering. Yes, it is hot even for us seasoned, acclimated-to-the-outdoors farmers. The good news is the crops so far seem to be taking it in stride more than the humans who are tending them. It helps that we have a big pond of irrigation water and that most of our summer crops have either a thick layer of mulch or have a vining habit that creates it’s own shade. Our biggest challenge is caring for the newly-planted fall crops. Yesterday I cultivated our baby fall cauliflower, brussel sprouts and broccoli with our electric Allis Chalmers G.

While the tractor gets alot of the weeds, we still need to come through with hoes for the weeds in row and any others that survived. That took the rest of the afternoon, but by the end they were weed-free and getting a good dose of water.

Harvesting takes up the majority of our time at the moment. It is a pretty enjoyable task, especially when the crop is good. And when you have a great crew to help.

Here are the Saturday bean pickers after a hot slog through 400 ft. of pole beans … and still smiling.

Harvesting requires close inspection of each plant and often leads to discoveries beyond the crop itself. As with this perfect little bird nest amongst the drying tomatoes.

(yes, we grow tomatoes suited for dehydrating. Check the bulk list for more info.)

Harvesting also rewards us with big dose of all natural color therapy. Working our way through the squash patch we are cheered by their many sunny flowers.

And there’s one of “our” honeybees working to feed her community and also increasing our crops in the process. Thank you honeybees!

Hot Peppers
They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. This week we say, when life is stifling hot, give the members hot peppers.

Our crop of these spicy solanaceous plants is doing better this year than any other. We have more than we need right now for salsa packs, pickling and the swap box, and so we are making them a choice for the shares.

We only grow a limited amount, as they are something that we know not everyone cares for. But we hope that you are daring enough add them to your favorite dish, or otherwise enjoy their spiciness. There are 4 types to choose from this week.

Left to right:
NuMex Joe E. Parker (Anaheim type)–This variety is the mildest of the four. We like it raw in salads as an alternative to green sweet peppers. It is best though, when roasted and peeled. Cut off the top/stem, slice in half, remove the seeds, and place skin side up on a baking sheet. Roast at 450 deg F or broil for about 10 minutes, until charred. Place in a glass bowl and cover with a plate. This helps to steam off the skins. Then, when cool to touch (10 to 20 minutes), simply peel the skin off and you have a flavorful, tangy pepper.

Volcano (Hungarian wax pepper)–These plants are from some free seeds we got last year. The plants produce well and the peppers are nice and hot, but with a fire that doesn’t last in your mouth too long. They turn orange and then red when mature. These are good raw added to your favorite salad, or grilled with your favorite veggies.

El Jefe (Jalapeno)–Quite hot. Just one in your salsa pack can provide just the right amount of spiciness. Two will make it firey hot. There are hundreds of ways to enjoy jalapenos; fresh, pickled, roasted, smoked, deep fried, jellied…the list goes on. Use the power of the web to explore the possibilities.

Use caution when handling these peppers, as they can make your fingers burn. And be sure not to rub your eyes or other extremities after handlings them.

Italian and Greek pepperoncini–You may be familiar with these as some pizza parlors garnish their dishes with them. Moderatley hot, they are traditionally pickled, but we also like to eat them raw. A simple recipe is to chop up one medium tomato, one medium cucumber, half a sweet onion, and about 3 to 4 pepperoncinis and dress this salad with balsamic vinegarette or some other Italian dressing.

TOMATOES (F/P) See below for some photo i.d. on a few of our favorite heirloom varities. Full shares also get a choice of romas or cherry tomatoes.

COLORFUL CARROTS (F/P)

CANTALOUPE (F) We are just a few short of filling the full shares at the BadSeed tomorrow. If we don’t get you one tomorrow, you’ll get one soon. Many more are ripening on the vine.

MIX-N-MATCH: CUCUMBERS AND SQUASH (F/P) Take your pick of whatever combination.

EGGPLANT (F)

SALSA PACK (F/P) For those new to the salsa packs, just chop the whole bag of goodies and add a tomato and a little vinegar. For a real treat roast your salsa like Tom did last season.

GARLIC (F) Fresh and juicy but fully cured now.

GREEN BEANS (F) Some will get the first pickings from the Rattlesnake pole beans with the purple striping.

HERB CHOICE (F/P) Basil, Parsley, Summer savory.

ALSO THIS WEEK: Parker Farms delivery

NEXT WEEK: More tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and salsa. Potatoes and onions return. Cantaloupe and maybe the first watermelons.

The summer harvest is in full swing. The farm crew now harvests all day Tuesday and Friday in preparation for the CSA-assisted harvests on Wednesday and Saturday. When not juggling the fruits of our labor, we squeeze in time to tend to the fall crops. Carrots, beets, turnips, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower have been planted so far.

And when the day is done, we admire the fruits of our labor and then we eat them. Here’s some of our favorites.

Brandywine – luscious, the belle of the heirloom court.

Goldie – a variety going back as far as 150 years. An oldie but a goodie.

Nyagous – small but packs a punch of smokey flavor

Aunt Ruby’s German Green – ripe when bright green and oh, so good.

Cherokee Purple – full-flavored like the finest steak.

Here at the halfway point of the season it is all summer. The perfect time, as they say, for gazpacho. This cold soup of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onion and bread is hearty, raw, vegan and delicious.

There are many, many recipes for this traditional dish from Adalusia, Spain. Our most recent try was from Cook’s Illustrated’s July 2010 edition. A thank you goes out to my brother Bill for the gift of the subscription, and to Rebecca for finding the article.

The CI recipe is a little complicated, but produces a creamy, fine restaurant quality soup. The article focuses on the need to add salt to grocery store tomatoes to release any flavor they may have. You will not have that problem.

Gazpacho Theory
Gazpacho was originally a mish mash of leftovers that Spanish field hands ate. After Columbus landed in the Americas, and tomatoes made their way to Europe, they became it’s main ingredient.

On the surface, gazpacho is just a big bowl of salsa, containing most all of the same ingredients (except bread and olive oil). So how do you make something that is different than salsa? The way I see it, the difference is in the “broth.”

Gazpacho is at it’s base a savory cold broth with some chopped vegetables. You can make the broth several ways. One is to use tomato or vegetable juice and olive oil. This is a simple and favorite way for me, as tomato juice is readily available during canning season.

A finer way to do it is to puree some of the vegetables along with bread and olive oil to make an incredibly creamy soup. The recipe below is a simplified version of the CI recipe.

A big advantage of gazpacho is that you don’t have to turn on your stove or oven. This not only keeps things cool, but simplifies your efforts. To make things even simpler, you only need a knife, a food processor and one big bowl to complete this recipe.

Creamy Gazpacho
The porportion of vegetables in this dish is not all that important. Simply use a good quantity of the vegetables that you like. This recipe made a somewhat thick soup, with the addition of the summer squash. More tomatoes will thin it out.

3 to 4 medium tomatoes
1 cucumber, seeds removed
1 summer squash, seeds removed (optional)
1 onion
1 green or purple pepper , seeds removed
1 hot pepper, seeds removed
2 cloves of garlic
1 large slice of bakery bread, cut into 1 inch squares
1-1/2 tsp kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar
2 tbsp freshly chopped parsley, dill, chives or basil
Ground black pepper to taste

To make the broth:
Take half of the vegetables, chop in quarters and add to your main serving bowl with 1 tsp salt and the bread. Mix until the bread softens. If you have 15 minutes or so, let them sit so that the flavor will develop. Add to the food processor. While running the food processor, slowly add the 1/2 cup olive oil. Process for 1 to 2 minutes, or until mixture is creamy.

To make the garnish:
Take the other half of the vegetables and cut into a dice. Add 1/2 tsp salt and mix.

To make the soup:
Combine broth, garnish, vinegar and herb in your serving bowl. Season with plenty of cracked black pepper and let sit in the fridge for at least a half hour for flavors to develop.

We have stopped picking the pickling cucumbers, even though there are some left on the vine. A limited amount are still for sale. LAST CHANCE. If you want to see what it takes to pick pickling cucumbers, you can come out and pick your own for free between now and Sunday.

Bulk List

Salsa Packs: $2.50/pack
Jalapenos: $2.50/pint
Pepperoncinis: $4.00/quart
Basil bunch (large pesto size): $4/bunch
Summer squash/cucumbers-lg $1.25 ea
Summer sq/cucumbers-med $0.75 ea
Summer sq-small $3.25/qt

Pickling Packs:
Pickling packs are available in a limited quantity this week. We have lots of cucumbers perfect for spears and chips. When placing your order, be sure to specify what types of aromatics you want.

Choices are:
cornichon (tarragon, thyme, garlic, onion, hot peppers, grape leaves)
dill (dill flowers, onion, hot peppers, grape leaves)
garlic (garlic, hot peppers, grape leaves)

Pickle pack (medium cukes): $13/pack
Pickle pack (large cukes): $11/pack

We are bursting with cucumbers and squash right now, the truest sign of summer. We try growing a variety of squash shapes, sizes and colors. Right now the flying saucers and round ones are in peak harvest.

These squash are the best for grilling. Just cut a big “patty”, marinate it in your favoarite grilling marinade, and grill. They are easiest vegetable out there to grill.

Just a note that we still have pickle packs available. They are a chore to pick, but they ain’t done fruiting yet. They will soon though, so place an order if you want some and we will fill it as possible.

Pickling Items:
We have some hot peppers available this week in a limited quantity.

Jalapenos: $2.50/pint
Pepperoncinis: $4.00/quart

Pickling Packs:
Pickling packs are available in a limited quantity this week. We have lots of cucumbers perfect for spears and chips.

When placing your order, be sure to specify what types of aromatics you want. Choices are:
cornichon (tarragon, thyme, garlic, onion, hot peppers, grape leaves)
dill (dill flowers, onion, hot peppers, grape leaves)
garlic (garlic, hot peppers, grape leaves)

Pickle pack (medium cukes): $13/pack
Pickle pack (large cukes): $11/pack

Other Items:
Basil bunch (large pesto size): $4/bunch
Summer squash/cucumbers-lg $1.25 ea
Summer sq/cucumbers-med $0.75 ea
Summer sq-small $3.25/qt