WHATS IN YOUR BOX THIS WEEK AND HOW TO USE IT

FRESH CANDY ONIONS (red and white) - Store in the refrigerator crisper drawer for up to one week. You can peel off layers that become dry or slimy if used after one week. These won’t be quite as large as the goliaths we have sent previously. $1.50 x 2 (red

NEW POTATOES - Keep in a cool, dry place away from light, like a dark corner of the kitchen or in a cabinet. Also keep well ventilated. Do not store in a plastic bag but you can store in a basket or paper bag. $5 (1.75 Pounds)

CHERRY TOMATOES - Store tomatoes at room temperature for best taste. If tomatoes are refrigerated, remove them from refrigeration about 30 minutes prior to serving to regain some of their original flavor. $4

TOMATOES- The best way to keep summer tomatoes fresh and full of flavor, store them on the kitchen counter at room temperature and turn them shoulders-down. 60 to 65° is an ideal temperature for storing and we recommend placing your tomatoes out of direct sunlight. 1.25lb $5

ZUCCHINI - Storing zucchini in the fridge is a quick and simple way to keep zucchini fresh. Keep the zucchini whole until you're prepared to use it, avoid washing zucchini prior to storage. $1.50

GARLIC (small) - Store on your counter in a cool, dry place with indirect sunlight. Will store for months this way. $1.50

FAILURE TO LAUNCH CARROTS - Store carrots in the refrigerator in a plastic bag or container. They can store for several weeks and sometimes even months $5

BAGGED “BABY” BEETS - Store the beet roots in a bag in your refrigerator. Before use wash your beets. You can peel them with a knife or peeler, or you can roast them in foil or boil them, and the peels will come right off. $5

VEGGIE OF THE WEEK

ZUCCHINI

This is one of our staple summer vegetables that is versatile in use and deserves more credit than it is given. In normal summers there seems to be a plethora of zucchini and it can get sort of a bad rap as the gift you can’t get rid of. It seems like every neighbor and grandma can produce loads of zucchini and they like to drop it at every doorstep in the county. Those zucchinis are normally oversized and limited to its uses. This summer however, finding zucchini at the local farmers market seem to be difficult. The rain, disease or bugs seem to be the culprit and have made it harder to find.

Zucchini are a great low-calorie addition to any recipe. One cup of raw zucchini is about 18 calories. They are a great source of Vitamins B2, B6, and C, fiber and potassium. Zucchini can be added to a sweet bread, quiche, muffins, used as a replacement for lasagna noodles, spaghetti noodles, breaded and friend, or sauteed. I prefer the smaller, younger zucchini due to the high-water content, which is about 95%, the smaller one’s fry and sauté better. I do like the medium size ones for replacement lasagna, manicotti noodles or stuffed boats The occasional ones that hide and get overlooked until they are huge, for zucchini muffins or bread.

I TRIED to give everyone smaller to medium size zucchini. You can try these boats even with smaller zucchini.

Stuffed Zucchini Boats Recipe - Love and Lemons - this is great for those medium sized zucchini. This is a vegetarian recipe but, you could sub in taco meat and then stuff with all of the taco fixings such as salsa, sour cream, lettuce, cheese and more. YUM!

Stuffed Zucchini Boats - Dinner at the Zoo - this one is full of marinara, Italian sausage, bread crumps, mozzarella! Makes me hungry just typing those ingredients out!

Best Sautéed Zucchini Recipe - How To Make Sautéed Zucchini (delish.com) - this is an easy recipe to throw together on a busy night. When zucchini is in season this is a go to. I love to use a well seasoned cast iron pan to make this! I don’t normally add onion because I have semi-picky kids but, you can!

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread - Sally's Baking Addiction (sallysbakingaddiction.com) - DON”T FORGET DESSERT! Sally’s Baking Addiction is my go-to for desserts!

A few others to try:

Garlic Herb Tortelloni — Triple H Family Farms, LLC - I actually made this tonight and it was yummy! Uses zucchini and cherry tomatoes.

Roasted Baby Beets - Recipe Girl - this one uses Rosemary in case you have any left that you preserved from previous weeks.

Week 11

Welcome to week 11. We hope that you enjoyed your bag last week and that you were able to utilize all the items we packed for you.

This week we have been seeding/transplanting for fall. Carrots, beets, celery, lettuce, cucumbers, brussel sprouts, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and more. This also means we have been prepping beds, moving silage tarps and adding amendments as needed. In between that time the kids, Matt and I went to the local rodeo. Our middle son is in 4h and it was our job to run the cook shack as part of our group. Matt and I signed up for the popcorn shack. He worked and I wrangled kids.

Matt and I also harvested honey this week. The first of the year. Thankfully it went without any serious mishaps which is appreciated. Matt did however get stung once, by a dead bee that was in a piece of honeycomb he ate and didn’t see the bee, stinger up as he bit into it. To be honest, I laughed more than I should have. After thousands of been flying around, separating them from their honey and none of them got a single sting in. In the end it was the one dead bee in the honeycomb he ate. LOL! He had a fat lip for a day which made me laugh every time I looked at him.

This week we are trying to keep cool. Today was brutal but, thankfully we were up early and able to get enough done prior to the heat wave. I ended up in our walk-in cooler for a few minutes desperate for a cool down. Thankfully, the rest of the week has normalized and should allow us, rain pending, to get the rest of our fall crops in and settled before we leave for vacation in two weeks!

Also, as a REMINDER, if you haven’t done the end of summer CSA survey please do so! It was emailed last week. You will get a special treat in your last bag, which is NEXT week, if you fill it out for us. It is hard to believe next week is our last week. This season is absolutely flying by.

IF ALL ELSE FAILS

If your week has been crazy and you haven’t had time to do a thing with items in your bag, focus on these tasks:

You can freeze onions. I love to chop them up and store in portions of zip lock bags. Perfect for winter soups, stews and etc. After freezing, the texture changes somewhat and they are softer so not great for fresh eating.
Freezing tomatoes is the easiest way to keep ripe tomatoes until you're ready to use them. You don't have to peel them first—in fact, the act of freezing them itself makes the tomatoes very easy to peel and you can freeze as many or as few at a time as you like. Visit this link for directions on how to do this, How to Preserve Tomatoes to Enjoy All Year
Garlic can store on your counter without issue. You can also pop it it in the fridge if you prefer.
Greens such as carrot tops or other veggie scraps can be saved and used for homemade vegetable broth. Try this recipe: How to Make Vegetable Broth Using Saved Kitchen Scraps ~ Homestead and Chill
Cherry tomatoes, if you have these left, I’m not sure what to say because they are delicious! Just eat them like candy but if you must, try doing a small batch of sun-dried tomatoes. Oven "Sun-Dried" Tomatoes - Gimme Some Oven
Carrots and beets will store well in your crisper drawer with their tops off.
Zucchini can be shredded and frozen if you are unable to use it this week. How to Freeze Shredded Zucchini | Cooking School | Food Network

NEXT WEEK’S POSSIBILITY’S

Your bag next week will include 6-7 of the following depending on availability and if it’s ready to harvest.

Carrots
Herbs
Tomatoes
Fresh large candy onions
Fresh red candy onions
Cherry Tomatoes
Cucumber
Fairytale Eggplant
Potatoes
Onions
Heirloom tomatoes (planning on this!)
Zucchini

Wishing you a fantastic week ahead, see you next week!

Summer CSA Newsletter: Week 11