Sweet little ground cherries in their adorable paper wrappers. Pack ’em as is for a snack!Tomatillos in there cute paper husks make one lean green salsa or addition to almost any Mexican food.
Hello from the farm! I am loving August, as I stepped out into the field and these 2 beauties (ground cherries and tomatillos) surprised me with how fast they literally were exploding from their skins. These are both from the tomato family and grow on vines. The tomatillos are green and ready when then burst their husks. The ground cherries turn an orangey colour and have a fruity flavour. Finally, here’s the link that shows us how tomatoes are a fruit!
The other item that has me totally stoked is the potatoes. We sent you 2 lbs as we figured most of you could make those tasty tubers disappear pretty fast. Here’s an item where I really do taste the organic difference.
Our society craves conveience and ease, especially with food, and consequently now w e find we must wean ourselves off of those items that go through a lengthy manufacturing process while ending up something entirely different than its original form. It’s no surprise then with something like watermelon, that people don’t want to have to bother with seeds. Seeds however propagate life. A seedless melon is one incapable of reproducing, like when the first curious scientist bred a lion and a tiger, which yielded a seemingly healthy but sterile liger. I think part of what makes a plant or animal fully healthy is its ability to reproduce, so I’ll keep the seeds in my watermelon thank you very much! Producing these sterile plants means taking away the ability of the grower to replant the way the amazing cycle was designed and puts all the power in the hands of those ever-popular bioengineering companies, like Monsanto. I think you can see the trouble of the world’s food supply being controlled by corporate giants. So I say, take those seeds and with each one you spit out, spit it in the direction of injustice of our food being controlled by just a few. Ok- off the soap box now.
Half Shares
carrots
rainbow beets (red & golden)
burgundy beans or snow peas
cucumber-Tomato
spaghetti squash (see recipe from last week)
yellow doll melon (yes, the inside should be yellow)
field tomatoes (if they look a tad underripe, find a sunny spot on the counter and they will be looking very tempting in an extra couple days)
rainbow turnip greens (light green & purpley red- let these spicy greens wake up your salads)
green leaf lettuce
campari tomatoes
grape tomatoes
fennel
sugar snap peas
baby red romaine (that adorable, dark and gorgeous salad green)
red kale
green peppers
green onions
Meal-worthy Ratatouille
I made this hearty soup for a weekend meal with tons of veggies. A nice crusty loaf of bread would pair nicely. This should help if still have zucchini and/or eggplant from your last box. I left all skins on the veggies and did not regret it.
Ingredients
1lb. Pork loin, cut into 1 in. pieces (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. butter
2 medium zucchini, washed and chopped
1 medium eggplant, washed and chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
½ cup white cooking wine
1 carton chicken broth
½ tsp. Dried basil
2 bay leaves
pepper to taste
1 tsp. Salt (or to taste)
Directions
Heat butter in large pot and add pork loin. Brown on all sides and add garlic when almost done (2 mins or so).
Add wine, chicken stock and spices and bring to a boil. Add veggies and bring back to a boil. Turn heat down and let it simmer for 40 mins or until veggies are very tender.
Makes great leftovers! This recipe yielded about 7 bowls.
Well this week marks the beginning of the second half of Farm Share. Take a minute to think of your experience so far. Did you try something new, discover a new favourite or decide a certain veggie just isn’t for you?
Perhaps you have had to throw away some things that never made it in a meal. May I just encourage you to make deciding to eat better easier on yourself. I recommend washing, drying, and sometimes even chopping off your produce right away so they are quick to grab. You will likely eat what is available and easy, especially when you are tired, so if you have already done the prep work, then that’s one more healthy eating victory you are likely to have.
Please feel free to offer your feedback on this blog, facebook or via email.
This week I am excited to include corn (a first for Zephyr Organics) and cabbage, a fall (gasp!) staple. It seems wrong to even think about the fall right now, but indeed there is an abundance of great produce coming your way soon. Unfortunately the broccoli is not going to win any beauty contests this week (the heat has discoloured it a little) but it still tastes good and you will find that there are 11 items in the half share this week. Zucchini and cucumbers are likely done for the season, so savour them.
The nights sure have been cooling down lately and we can feel that we are getting to the end of summer. On the farm right now all of the seeding and planting is done – our focus now is on weeding the crops (much of which has to be done by hand) and harvesting the produce.
I have been trying to get you all some melons for your boxes but so far we are losing much of our crop to animals like groundhogs. That’s the difficult thing with organics – the animals find our food good to eat also! We will try our best to keep what we can and hopefully we will have a lot more next week.
Something we do have new this week is celery, which is just ready in the fields right now. I have tried to keep you informed about seasonal veggies by what I place in your box and by letting you know about things that are ready early because of the greenhouses. Most if not all of the leafy green vegetables are ready for almost the entire growing season in the fields.
Thanks again for your support of the farm and bon appetit!
Jennifer
(Quick note from Heather: I added in a few recipes that you might want to try, I made the spinach puffs and also the maple glazed carrots, they were both great! Also, I found a fantastic website that lets you add in what you have on hand and it gives you a selection of recipes you can make — visit supercook.com to check it out!)