Things change quickly around here. Summer is official and the vegetable shift begins. The beginnings of the potato crop hits the shares, as do the carrots and summer squash.

The potatoes especially are looking good and tasting great right now. To get a feel for the quality of this year’s crop we cooked them by themselves, with only olive oil, salt and pepper. They proved to be quite satisfying in taste and texture.

To assure crispiness and an even texture potatoes are often pre-cooked before frying/browning. To minimize cleanup I like to do both steps in the same pan.

Use a steamer and steam your potato pieces for 10 minutes. Using the lid, drain the pan and then pull out the steamer. Pour oil or fat in and cook the potatoes over medium heat until browned.

Another place to look for recipes is our closed group Facebook page. Andrea Newman has suggestions for kohlrabi, carrots, potatoes, peas and scapes.

Lastly, a hearty combination of the share’s two main items, cabbage and potatoes, is colcannon. We have a recipe in our newsletter archive that was submitted by a member way back in 2005. The sidebar discusses the weather and climate ten years ago.