8-15-08

n your box today: sweet corn, cucumbers, onions, zucchini, carrots, peppers, yellow squash (for half shares), tomatoes, eggplant (for half shares), green beans, yellow beans, lettuce, beets with tops (for full shares), cilantro (for full shares)

Next week: leeks, swiss chard, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn?, beans, basil

Soon: peppers and eggplant are starting to dribble in. Melons are still a few weeks away.

Vegetable tidbits: Today's lettuce mix includes a bunch of mildly spicy greens, including arugula, red kale, and an assortment of Asian greens (mizuna, tatsoi, etc.). We will occasionally be adding these, and perhaps some other non-lettuce greens (including baby spinach, beets and swiss chard) to give the mix a little variety of taste, texture, and appearance. It's disappointing to see our first (of four) corn planting, which was disturbed by the flooding this spring, not be able to form decent ears to give out this week. Usually we would be distributing corn by now. The plants had showed some promise, in rebounding from the stress of the excess water in the fields, but didn't quite get all their 'gears' in order to come up with something worth harvesting and adding to your box. Later plantings, which begin as early as next week, look pretty strong, so we expect corn soon

Recipe: Mock Apple Crisp from Subscriber Sarah Kohls

Filling: In a medium saucepan, simmer 8 c. of peeled and sliced zucchini with 1 c. lemon juice until the zucchini is tender. Add: 1 c. sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp nutmeg. Let cool at least 15 - 20 minutes.

For the crust: With a pastry blender, mix together 4 c. flour, 1 1/2 c. margarine, 2/3 c. white sugar and 1 c. brown sugar.

Pat 1/2 of crust mixture in a 9 X 13 pan. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Spoon cooled zucchini mixture over crust and sprinkle the remaining crust mixture on top. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with whipped topping or ice cream for a special treat.

Note: This recipe makes a lot of crust - you can reduce the crust portion by about 1/3 if you prefer less crust.

Fall outlook: Looks like it will be a good brussels sprouts year this year; the plants look quite healthy, and there are a lot of them! Much less cabbage, which will please some of you who repeatedly ask us to cut down on the number of times we give out cabbage. Fall broccoli and cauliflower look good as well. The crops that love the hot weather (such as eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and corn) have definitely been slow developing this year, so we need to continue to be patient to let these crops mature at their own speed.;

Peach ordering: Watch out for an announcement about peaches coming soon. We will be heading out to make a rendezvous with a Michigan grower who produces (unfortunately again not organic) luscious peaches that are picked tree-ripe, and can bring back additional boxes, like we did with the cherries, for those who would be interested in ordering some.

Have a great week!

The Seelys