(CSA Newsletter: Main Season Week 7)
Meet this week’s vegetables:
Fava beans — One of our favorite early summer vegetables, fava beans are a more work intensive veggie to eat but they’re worth it. Make sure you read the extended information and cooking instructions in this newsletter before eating!!!!!
Basil — The absolute epitome of summer flavor.
Cabbage — Beautiful summer cabbages, suitable for making tasty cole slaw.
Beets — Your choice from any of the four kinds of beets we grow: Red Ace (a standard red beet), Bull’s Blood (a darker red root with purple leaves), Chioggia (orange-red on the outside with candy stripes inside), or Golden (orange/yellow roots). We’re getting beets to you later than we intended. Our first large planting was completely overwhelmed by grass (we planted too quickly into poorly prepped ground). Beet lovers, have no fear — we have lots of beets now! I’ve included some preparation tips and recipes for those of you who haven’t yet fallen in love with this delicious root vegetable.
Summer squash & zucchini — The first harvest from these abundant summer crops. This week’s share includes either dark green zucchini (a classic for grilling or in zucchini bread) or ‘Magda,’ a delicious lighter green zucchini.
Carrots — Yum!
Peas — As we had feared, this year’s late on-set pea planting is too quickly succumbing to the steady summer heat (peas don’t like sustained heat). We will hopefully have one more big bag of peas for you next week, but we’re approaching the end. Enjoy!
Lettuce — Another head of ‘Winter Density’ lettuce.
Small Walla Walla onions — A handful of small Walla Walla onions that never sized up this spring for various reasons. They’re still quite tasty, and we’ll return to big onions again next week.
We have been struck this week by the beauty of the farm. Living and working here is a constant pleasure, but on busy days we often find ourselves overlooking the place itself as we focus on our work.
Something about this week has bypassed all our numbing filters and truly struck home how amazing it is to spend our lives outside in the fields. Perhaps it was the lifting of the California smoke that had filled the valley for several days. Perhaps the thunderstorms Wednesday night cleared our heads and re-sparked our attention. Or, maybe, after a stressful Monday, we were given a deliciously easy Tuesday and found our calmness clarifying.
We hope that you enjoy your portion of the teeming abundance this week: an especially heavy share of vegetables featuring a few tasty new items.
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
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Openings in the late season! (For current members only right now)
If you are currently participating in the ‘main’ summer CSA season but not yet signed up for fall ‘late’ season, we wanted you to know that we have room for you this year.
The season runs from October 14 through December 16 and costs $200 ($20/week, same as during summer). The fall is delicious — we warm our bellies during the cold weather with tasty crops from the field and our storage rooms: winter squash, onions, kale, chard, potatoes, roots, and much more.
If you would like to participate, please let Katie know by the end of July to hold your place. Questions? Ask Katie at pick-up or call us: 503-474-7661.
