CSA Week 5

In Your share week 5:

Carrots or Beets
Baby Turnips
Cauliflower
Onion
Zucchini
Dill
Cilantro
Tomatoes or Cherry Tomatoes
Cabbage or Baby Bok Choy

[spacer height=”20px”]Full shares only:

Green onion
Sugar Snap Peas
Kale
Cucumber

[spacer height=”20px”]The farm is fully into high gear now!  We had our biggest harvest ever of zucchini: Maria picked 108 pounds today, just edging out our 107 pounds of cauliflower.  The zucchini are a bit on the big side but they are gorgeous and delicious.  I like them large, I usually grill or roast slabs and the larger zucchini make for less cutting and easier flipping.  Cauliflower are also on the big side, with some heads approaching 6 pounds!  Since it’s one of my favorite veggies, I was pretty excited to harvest those.

[spacer height=”20px”]Since we have so many zucchini, so do you.  If you’re not sure what to do with them, you can try making zucchini noodles or try the zucchini dessert bar recipe below.  They also freeze well.  You can freeze them shredded or sliced raw, but I prefer them roasted or grilled about halfway and then frozen.  I find they are much tastier once they’re thawed, maybe because the roasting removes some of the water and they hold up better in the freezer.  Lots more coming your way: zucchini are a bit hit or miss for us and this year they are ON.

[spacer height=”20px”]This is the first week we have some kind of tomato for everyone, which I know most of you will be excited about.  You may have gotten cherry tomatoes, which are like candy and so yummy just to snack on.  Or else you got some of our first slicers, mostly a Siberian heirloom called Aurora.  These are a rich flavored, small sized red tomato that I love.  We sell a lot of them as plants because they are the earliest, hardiest tomato we’ve found and tend to do well even in cool coastal gardens.  They are great for snacking, sandwiches, or tossed with pasta, and I used some to make a nectarine salsa for tuna tacos this weekend.

[spacer height=”20px”]Another new item is a gorgeous fresh onion.  Yours might be red or it might be yellow, both can be used the same.  Especially if you are new to the CSA, you may have never seen onions at this stage before.  They start off growing the leafy greens, and then the stem begins to swell.  As the season progresses, the greens will die back, the outer layers will turn dry and papery, and they will become the onions we are all familiar with.  I love them harvested young like this, they have a wonderful fresh flavor, they don’t need to be peeled, and I love to use onion greens.  I find they aren’t quite as pungent at this stage.  Keep your onion in a bag in the fridge and be sure to use the greens, I prefer them cooked and use them the same way I use the bulbs.

[spacer height=”20px”]Everybody gets double herbs today, with fresh bunches of cilantro and dill.  Dill is a new crop for us.  It’s not an herb I use much in my kitchen, but I’ve been so taken with its heady aroma when I harvest it that I’ve started to cook with it more and more.  Dill is typically used in salad dressings, potato salad, and to season salmon.  I’ve also been using it to make a kind of salsa verde, blending it up with parsley and a little cilantro, olive oil, lemon, and garlic.  Dill is also a classic pickle seasoning, but typically people use the seed heads rather than the fresh herb.  Store it in a bag in the fridge, and use the whole bunch: stems, leaves and all.

[spacer height=”20px”]Our peas are already slowing down, we’ll get a few more small picks but we won’t see much more of them.  We love them so much, and we’re always sad the season is so short.  The warm weather this year condensed the harvest, causing the plants to die back earlier than usual.  We’ll have green beans coming on soon to take their place.

[spacer height=”20px”]I finally have beets for half shares, and cabbage for those who didn’t get it the first time.  The CSA does even out, sometimes it just takes me a few weeks to get around to everyone!  Check back to earlier share notes if you’re not sure how to use these delicious vegetables.  And make sure to eat your beet and turnip greens, they are both so yummy and extra nutritious.

Zucchini Dessert Bars

My friend Linda at Winter Green Farm used to make these. She got the recipe from Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables. I didn’t believe her the first time she told me it was made with zucchini: I would have sworn the topping was made with spiced apples. But zucchini they are. This is a similar recipe I found on the internet: enjoy!

Crust:

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups cold butter

Filling:

8 to 10 cups zucchini, sliced paper thin

2/3 cup lemon juice

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly; reserve 3 cups. Pat remaining crumb mixture into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake at 375° for 12 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the filling. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine zucchini and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 6-8 minutes or until zucchini is crisp-tender. Stir in the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; cover and simmer for 5 minutes (mixture will be thin).

Spoon the zucchini mixture over the crust; sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture. Bake at 375° for 40-45 minutes or until golden. Yield: 16-20 servings.

Lemon Roasted Cauliflower With Dill

From Genius Kitchen.

1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (or more to taste)

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 lemons, juice of

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 -2 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

Fresh ground black pepper

• Preheat oven to 400°F Place cauliflower florets in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, combine all other ingredients to make a sauce, whisking until blended. Include generous amounts of fresh ground black pepper.
• Pour marinade over the cauliflower and toss until coated. Spread on baking sheet. Drizzle any remaining marinade over the cauliflower.
• Bake for 30-45 minutes or until tender but not mushy. Toss once, if desired, halfway through cooking. The cauliflower should have some browning around the edges.