This week you’ll find in your share:
Lots of Arugula !!!
Asian Greens*
Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers
Zucchini or Squash
Cucumbers
Cherry Tomatoes
Okra
Garlic
Next week you might find in your share:
• Less Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Greens
• Potatoes
• Peppers
• Garlic
• Chives
• Radishes?
From Your Farmers…
Thanks to our friends (in particular Melissa Mobley) at Operation Food Search for another great dinner and cooking class. This was good, good stuff. Check out the recipe below, compliments of Operation Food Search.
The dinners are a great way to get creative with the food that is currently going into the shares. The last few have been really fun. We hope to see you there October 24.
Thanks also to those who attended the dinner, and have been giving feedback about the produce, newsletter, and recipes. We really appreciate it, as all interactions help us to better serve you and all of our purposes.
Speaking of better serving you…something I hadn’t really thought about suggesting until today. We take great care in seeing that your food arrives fresh and is well packed to avoid getting smashed or toppled. Even so, produce in moving bags shifts, weight moves, things get bumped, maybe even as you get out of the car or walk into the house. So, we suggest unpacking and taking a thorough look through your share soon after picking up, prior to putting it away. That way things like potatoes don’t go in the fridge. Check to make sure no tomatoes split or smashed. If you find such a thing happened, you’ll know to use that item before it goes bad, and you won’t miss out on any of the goods.
We understand that bi-weekly members only get half of the recipes and newsletters, and to avoid repetition, we change things up every week. If you are a bi-weekly member and are seeking more recipe ideas or farm news, remember to check out our website at seedsofhopefarm.org. If you’re not an internet person, just let us know and we’d happily drop the previous week’s newsletter into your share.
Field Notes
Things are seemingly winding down. Our harvest this week was less than one third the weight of that two weeks ago. But weight is a tricky thing…a pound of winter squash is harvested quickly, a pound of lettuce or arugula is not.
In good news… our present beets and butternut squash are looking better than those of earlier this year. The other good news is strictly for ants. We have them. Lots. And we are making efforts to curb their presence via non poison, but the damage is done, and continues. This week we’ve lost nearly all of our broccoli and cabbage. Most kale is dunzo. We fear the collards are next. Who knows, from there they could move on to the mustard greens and turnips. We just don’t know. We will just keep our sugared borax traps out, and try a few other tricks as well.
We’re really sad about the shortage of greens that is undoubtedly coming, as fall is their prime time. There’s not much like a frost sweetened kale or cabbage. This isn’t to say we won’t have any, just lesser amounts and less often.
Thank you for returning the cherry tomato boxes. Please keep returning them with your share bags.
Food For Thought…
Week B members: *the Asian greens in your share this week are Yukina Savoy (similar to tatsoi) and boc choi. We harvested them young and tender, so they are great raw or cooked.
If you find your arugula too spicy raw, cook it down a little, it curbs the heat.
**See Week 19 online or call for recipes with Asian greens.**
This Week’s Recipe..Is from Operation Food Search
Cucumbers aren’t often my personal go to for a snack, but I’ve been wanting these again since Tuesday.
Sesame Cucumbers
Ingredients:
3 cucumbers, peeled and seeded
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 tbsp white sesame seeds
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 ½ tsp toasted sesame oil
½ tsp sugar
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1) Peel and seed cucumbers and cut on the diagonal into thin slices. Toss the cucumber pieces with kosher salt, transfer to a colander, and let drain for 1 hour.
2) Toast white sesame seeds in a dry skillet until they’re gold brown.
3) Whisk together rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil, sugar, and crushed red pepper flakes.
4) Rinse the cucumber slices thoroughly under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels.
5) Toss the cucumbers with the dressing and toasted sesame seeds and serve.
Upcoming Events:
The chicken coop build at Bel-Ridge scheduled for October 12 has been postponed. This will likely be rescheduled in November.
Farm Wish List:
– hands to help us shell beans
– bread racks, large plastic grids for table tops,
– compost (your food scraps, coffee grounds
CAASTLC's Seeds of Hope Farm 