This week you’ll find in your share:
Tomatoes
Beans
Onions
Sweet Peppers
Swiss Chard
Edamame*
Potatoes
Coriander
Next week you might find in your share:
• Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Chard or Collard
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Peppers
• Garlic
• Beans
• Herb or Cut Flower
From Your Farmers…
First off, huge thanks to Randy and Whitney for getting shares out without me. I’ll be heading out Thursday for a visit to the fam and the Shawnee Forest. Now for the good stuff…
New to everyone:
Coriander (cilantro seed)- used for seasoning, often found in Indian dishes, like chicken tikka masala. Yes, we grew the coriander ourselves from our earliest planting of cilantro, and just let it grow until the seed was ready. The seed tastes quite unlike the leaf, it is lemony and is much more of a savory tone.
Edamame: This is a fresh soybean, great in Asian dishes, or as a snack. Edamame also makes a great appetizer. I like it raw, as is. Most lightly boil in heavily salted water and enjoy. See recipe options below.
Collard greens: are tasty. Some leaves are giant. We suggest treating them as a cooking green, or using them as a wrap. Option: lay out a big collard leaf, top with some hummus, sliced sweet pepper, diced tomato, shelled edamame, and a drizzle of yogurt. Roll it up. MMhhmmm.
We will REUSE the cherry tomato boxes. Please return them with your share bags.
Food For Thought…Fall Gardening
It seems to me that when people think of having a garden, they think of planting in late spring and tending through the summer. And then the garden is done. Sure, summer crops are delicious, but summer can be a pretty miserable time to be outside. Hot, dry, sunburn, mosquitoes. I’m a fan of the fall growing season. Summer crops can still be enjoyed without the spring risks, and the bounty and variety are endless…tomatoes may end but broccoli begins. Leaves and roots come back to us, and a quiet September evening calm is a place I could live day. So if you keep a garden, consider a fall, or even winter grow. Cool weather crops are a joy to grow in the fall because you can let them grow and pick them when you want, rather than race the heat of late spring. But it all starts now.
The bulk of this week was spent getting ready for fall…and we’re a few weeks behind schedule. Last week we started seeds for transplanting, this week was the sowing of carrots, beets, peas, and loads of other deliciousness. We’re looking forward to the season of jacket mornings, t shirt afternoons, and butternut bisque and sage evenings.
Recipes of the Week:
What to do with coriander: Store it as you would any other herb, in a sealed glass jar out of sunlight. The seeds can be ground and used in combination with white or black pepper, or any mix of seasonings. Combined with white pepper it makes a great seasoning on eggs or most any veggie dish. For a nice bean veggie dip, try one cup of cooked pinto beans, one cup of spicy salsa, tablespoon of cumin, two tablespoons of ground coriander, one chopped jalapeno, salt and white pepper. Some seeds could be kept around for some nice fall dishes, or used now in some oven fries as recommended by epicurious.com.
Oven Fries with Coriander
Nonstick vegetable spray
2 lbs potatoes (the amount in your share), , cut lengthwise into ½ thick sticks
2 tbsp olive oil
1 ½ tsp coriander seeds, cracked
1 tsp dried thyme
Coarse kosher salt
Preheat oven to 450. Spray large rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Toss potatoes with olive oil, coriander seeds, and thyme in large bowl. Transfer to prepared sheet, spreading in single layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in top third of oven and bake until golden, occasionally turning with spatula, about 40 minutes. Season to taste with coarse salt and serve.
Upcoming Events:
Saturday, August 10 Whitney will be hosting our second Open House. Come have a tour of the farm, help your food along, and have some delicious farm fresh goods before you go. The Open House is very casual, just come when you can, leave when you need to- no previous experience is necessary. This month’s theme: reclaim. RSVP to me at 566.8643 or Whitney at WSewell@caastlc.org.
CAASTLC's Seeds of Hope Farm 