CSA Week 11 and update!

Hi all! 

Hope everyone is well! 

We are! And also very busy getting ground prepped for fall planting! Also harvest 4 days a week for you all, markets and restaurants! 

No big news to report except that I (Lizzie) will be out of the country in Berlin from july 22nd until July 31st visiting my brother, his wife, Kelly and my incredible niece and nephew. I wouldn't leave in the middle of the season for just anything. I haven't seen these guys in more than a year and a half! I can't wait! 

Know that our crew will be short handed next week. So if anyone decides they want to come volunteer, your help would be greatly appreciated. Email me if you're interested. 

I will not be available via phone. But can answer any questions through this email address. It may be at odd hours, but I will do my best to respond as soon as possible. 

As far as the CSA break goes, I am leaning more towards the 2nd and 3rd weeks of August now as we had quite good production last week. This week will be very telling and we will have dates Thanks for your patience. And just a reminder, this break does not apply to Vanderbilt CSA members. 

We had a pretty uneventful week except for last Saturday at the Richland Park Farmers Market during which it stormed most of the time. In fact, we left our tents during a particularly rough part of the thunderstorm. Lightning was flashing all around us closely followed by claps of thunder. It occurred to us after a few minutes that perhaps our tent wasn't the safest as our back tent is broken and was exposing a metal rod jutting straight out of the center and towards the sky. My worse case scenario brain invented all sorts of situations in which our tent is struck by lightning and our interns and the surrounding vendors all pass out from the blast. So we took a little break under some fellow vendors' tents and had a jolly little mid market social hour.

Despite the scary lightning we actually had a really fun time at market, although we didn't sell nearly as much as we could have. We came home with more tomatoes than we know what to do with and will be loading up the Monday CSA members and probably doing some canning this week. 

Speaking of canning, if anyone would like to purchase tomatoes in bulk, I am doing a special for CSA members: a half bushel, 25 lbs for $50. This is the week! Or next week. So let us know ASAP. 

Without further ado, Here is the CSA for this week: 

Peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, potatoes, celery, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, parsley, holy basil, tomatoes, onions, garlic, Hungarian hot wax peppers. If we are low on any item during the week we may replace it with green beans. This most likely won't happen, just want to prepare you in case you have certain plans for a meal. 

Got lots of good stuff for you this week! Potatoes are in and they are amazing! Those combined with celery would be a great potato salad. The parsley would also be a great addition. 

Hungarian hot wax peppers look like banana peppers but are definitely more spicy. If you're not sure what to do with your hot peppers I recommend you hang them and dry them. I have a coffee grinder just for spices and I have ground dried hot peppers and put them in kimchi, put them on pizza, and added spice to other items. Excellent way to use the peppers long term! 

When I lived in Costa Rica, I met two Russian women who taught me the beauty of parsley. We had them over for dinner and they made the most delicious dish: Sliced tomatoes, finely chopped garlic, and finely chopped parsley with olive oil salt and pepper. It was very simple, but I'd never had parsley featured in a dish in such a way. The acid of the tomatoes and bite of the garlic was almost subdued and assuaged by the parsley. Really lovely. 

Parsley also makes a good pesto. 

We highly recommend using the holy basil as a tea. We love it iced. You can also dry it and save it to drink this winter. 

Those are all of the recommendations I have for this week! 

Please let us know if you would like more recipe ideas! 

Thanks again for your support. We're very grateful for you all! 

Love, your farmers, 

Lizzie, Jesse, Turner, Rachel, Tony, Regan, Erin, Winnie, Stormy, Sheep, and Cows!