Week 11 CSA Newsletter (Aug 15-21, 2021)
CSA Newsletter Week 11
August 15-21, 2021 | “A” Week
What’s in the Box this Week?
GREEN TOMATOES (2) –– We are still waiting for all our tomatoes to turn red! So this week, we’re giving you some green ones! Store them on your countertop. Use them in a green salsa or try your hand at fried green tomatoes!
EGGPLANT (Specialty) — This eggplant will likely be a cool purple shading — either lavender or swirl. Store in the fridge in a plastic bag and use within a week. Peel the skin before use. The inside will begin to change color as it oxidizes. That’s okay! (You can try putting lemon juice on the eggplant to prevent this). Some people say you can pull the bitterness out of eggplant by salting it first and letting the moisture come out. Rinse and dry. Try making baba ganoush dip, roasting or grilling slices, adding to pasta or making eggplant parmesan!
ASIAN GREENS — Half-pound portion. These will come in a plastic baggie. They can be used in a salad or in braising greens. Might have a little bit of spice to them. Store these in a Debbie Meyer Green Bag in your fridge and use within 5 days. Wash just before using.
SWEET CORN (bi-color), 6 EARS — Sweet corn should remain in its husk until you’re ready to eat it. Shuck the outer leaves and remove the silks/threads, as well as any wormy tip. You can cut the kernels off with a sharp knife or you can boil the corn in hot water for 6 minutes and eat it off the cob. Sweet corn should be stored in the fridge. Its sugars turn to starch in a few days, so the sooner you eat it, the sweeter it will taste! I like to try and eat it within 3 days, but it will last up to 8 days.
GARLIC — Hard neck variety. These are well cured. Store on the counter top and use as needed. You can also freeze garlic whole as cloves in a Ziploc bag in the skins!
SCALLIONS — Store in a Mason jar filled with an inch of water. Cover the stems with a Ziploc bag, and put in the fridge. Pull the scallions out as needed. Change the water every couple days. You can freeze scallions, chopped. Even the tops can be chopped into one inch sections and frozen to be put into a soup later.
BASIL (1 bunch) — If these come with stems, store them on the counter in a glass jar of water. Otherwise, wrap them in a paper towel and leave on the counter top. Use within 3 days.
JALAPENO PEPPER — Store in a plastic bag in your fridge and use within 7 days. To use, wash and then chop off the top stem. Remove the seed bank from inside, as well as the ribs — you may need to wear gloves or wash your hands immediately afterwards. Then chop to size. Peppers can also be frozen whole or chopped using the “Ziploc bag and freeze” method.
GREEN BELL PEPPERS (2) — Store in a plastic bag in your fridge and use within 7 days. To use, wash and then chop off the top stem. Remove the seed bank from inside, as well as the ribs. Then chop to size. Peppers can also be frozen whole or chopped using the “Ziploc bag and freeze” method.
THIS WEEK’S ADD-ON SHARES:
It’s “A” week (for all our bi-weekly shares)
Fruit Share: pint of blackberries (Niese Farms), personal size watermelon (Bench Farms), peaches (Quarry Hill Orchard)
Coffee: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe
Cheese: Lots of cheese curds this week — (we didn’t coordinate with the two cheese vendors very well.) Quark and cheese curds from Urban Stead Cheese. Goat Cheese curds from Turkeyfoot Creek Creamery!
Pain Neuf Bread share (week 2/4, Sylvania site): Walnut Sourdough
Knueven Ice Cream Share: Sweet corn blueberry
Ann Black shaved some fennel in with her pasta!
Grilling Challenge
Dates: August 16-28
It’s time for this summer’s big Challenge! This year’s theme is the “Grilling Challenge.” SO many veggies shine when cooked on the grill, and yet for many of us (myself included), the grill intimidates us! So this 2-week challenge is designed to get us experimenting with our grills and finding new meals we can incorporate into our repertoire.
The dates for the Contest are August 16-28. To be eligible to win a prize, you must…
- Enter at least TWO meals in the 2 week period. That’s only once per week, so I know you can do it! Post your picture in the Facebook group. Or if you’re not on Facebook, you can email them to me.
- Use the hashtag @SLFGrillingChallenge in your post, so that I can find it.
I will choose 3 winners on Sunday, August 29th and announce them in the Facebook group. I am looking for innovative ideas, but also pretty photos. Winners will get a pretty sweet prize package — so it’s totally worth it to play.
Cadie and I will be sharing ideas and prompts in the Facebook group for the next two weeks. But we want your help! Let’s use this contest to share our knowledge and help make everyone better. (I’m talking to YOU, Brian Hammer! LOL).
Jed shows the before and after of an onion heading for the topper.
Meet the Scary-Looking Onion Topper
This week, Farmer Kurt unveiled a new “toy” (aka piece of equipment) that he recently purchased from a farmer at Driftless Organics — the onion topper.
We grow a LOT of onions every year for the CSA, as well as wholesale and restaurant accounts. Onions are a lot of work to “process” once they’ve been harvested. First, they need to cure on drying racks or large bins. Then the tops must be removed and prettied up. Then we need to cut the roots off by hand.
We used to have to trim the tops off one by one with shears — and this was a major time hurdle. This onion topper allows us to automate this step. We simply dump a bin of cured onions with those ugly dangling tops onto the machine, and POOF! The onions are removed.
Here’s a youTube video of the machine in action:
When I first watched this topper in action, my “mommy instincts” set off an alarm. All I could think about is what could go wrong. I could imagine my son tripping and falling into the machine. I suddenly wondered where my dog was, and thought, “Dear God, if Harley sees this, she will jump right in for fun!” Horrible images of farm accidents went spinning through my mind.
It’s a good reminder that farming is dangerous. And we always have to think about safety. Still… this machine is an accident waiting to happen — no question.
Turns out, Farmer Kurt always had a plan to make this machine safe. Glen is currently working on a casing for the gears as well as a cover plating for the top. Soon, we’ll have a MUCH safer version of this machine — one that I’ll be comfortable allowing my children to use with supervision.
It was a hot one this week. I had to take a few cat naps to cool off when I could find them.
FARMER KURT’S FIELD NOTES
Well, we hired two new folks, who started this week. I think I mentioned this last week, but they started officially on Monday. Gage is a local from Oak Harbor — grew up on a cattle operation, so he knows farm work and how to use equipment. John Sawvel is a long-time CSA member who “wowed” Catalina last week when he outworked everyone on the team. “You need to hire him,” she told me. So I threw out the offer and John accepted.
Clara Eckel volunteered last week to harvest on Monday morning. It was HOT and muggy.
I feel like this week’s Field Notes are going to be filled with a lot of shout-outs to the many hands who came out this week to get the jobs done. Thanks to the large crew of volunteers who came out on Monday and Wednesday to harvest for the CSA, I feel like I am now mostly caught up. My brother-in-law Derek and his friend Rabbit came 3 days in a row (and worked all day) in the hottest part of the week — I am deeply grateful for them as well. And I even found a couple “custom hire” folks who helped me tie tomatoes this week — that want to come back whenever we need them. I will likely have them coming out to pick tomatoes when needed.
Mike Metzger volunteered to do some tractor work for me this week. Mike used to work for our farm long ago.
Thanks to Mr. Mike for taking care of some tractor work for me. Thanks to Stephanie Saba, Kristi Kennelly, Elizabeth Tore, Peggy Daly, Judy McKenna and so many more I can’t remember for coming out to process garlic. I still have more to do — so this will be an ongoing gig for anyone who wants to while away some time here on the farm.
Although I have one more “big group job” where I may call upon CSA members for aid (harvesting another acre of onions) — I feel like I have a plan to get to the end of the season. So a big thank you to everyone for seeing us through a tough patch there. I feel like we are now out of the woods.
We pulled a lot of melons this week. Miles Jambor apparently had one for a quick juicy snack right after pickup!
It was incredibly hot and muggy this week — the worst so far this year! Between the heat index and the thunderstorms, it was challenging to get out into the fields to do much of anything. And when we did, it wasn’t fun. I am pulling a LOT of corn and melons right now. This is prime season for both, and it just sucks the life out of ya!
Jed stepped in to pull corn with me for 2 hours this Friday in the hot muggy weather. This is the first time he has ever been an “official” corn puller. He did great.
I was short staffed on Friday for corn pullers, since I gave my crew the day off, so I asked Jed to step in for the first time. Although he’s pulled a bushel for me here and there, he’s never “manned the line” and pulled 4 bins of corn for 2 hours. With my dad driving the tractor, it was 3 generations of Benches pulling sweet corn that day! Jed did well. Maybe it’s time to make him part of my regular corn pulling crew?… I remember that being one of my chores every day for years. I didn’t love it at the time, and yet now, looking back, I’m grateful for it.
We lost two tents this past week in the thunderstorms at the home farm. Even though they were staked down, those high winds just tore up the tent poles. It also knocked some sweet corn down flat — making harvest hard in some places. But over all, we fared pretty well in the mid-week wind storm. Got plenty of rain – won’t need to irrigate for a few days.
Those tomatoes are holding on to their green color. I’ve never had to wait this long!
The tomatoes are still not turning as fast as I’d like. You guys are being so patient. Even my mom is breathing down my neck LOL – since my tomatoes are the ones she sells at her roadside stand. And everyone is asking for them. I learned a trick though from my buddy and plant expert Mike Netz about how to make them come on faster next year. In the meantime, just know that the plants are loaded with fruit. I’m giving out some green tomatoes this week, just to clear the vines a bit. Hopefully I can get enough cherry tomatoes this week too, to add those into the box.
Hoping to get away today to my friend Cole’s place in Bucyrus again for a day at the pond. Always things to do.
~Your Farmer, Kurt
We pull 2 bins of sweet corn for each of our two harvest nights to satisfy the CSA pack night.
HOW TO FREEZE SWEET CORN
August is the time of year to order sweet corn in bulk. Why is that? Because it’s the month when the ears are the biggest. Due to long hours of sunlight, our ears are able to bulk up. Since you’re paying by the bushel count (65 ears), you’ll get more volume of corn if you buy now.
In case you’re not sure how to blanch and freeze corn, here is a YouTube video from a few years ago:
WEEK 11 ANNOUNCEMENTS
- ORDER YOUR BULK CANNING PEACHES NOW. Cost is $35 for a half bushel box from Eshleman Orchard (approximately 25 lbs). You can place your order in the online store. This is the final week we will be offering this service.
- The 14 Day Grilling Challenge begins Monday, Sept. 16 and runs through the 28th. This is a contest with some cool prizes. So read the announcement above in this blog post to see the rules for entering. You must enter at least TWICE to be eligible to win.
- Only 8 tickets left for the Sept. 17th Field to Table Farm Dinner. Price is $75 per ticket. Arrive at 6 PM, and dinner will begin around 6:30 PM. This event is limited to 75 people, and we will set up tables in a giant horseshoe in the field near the pack shed, with a beautiful view. 5 course meal provided by Chef Joseph Jacobsen of Cork and Knife Provision (formerly the head chef of Degage Restaurant). To reserve your spot, head to this Google Sheet link to place your reservation. Payment is made via check or cash (to Shared Legacy Farms). If you can’t make the link work, then email Corinna at sharedlegacyfarms@gmail.com.
Helen Grubb made another fancy galette this week – this one had eggplant in it!
- Want to volunteer for a couple hours? If you’d like to help out during a CSA Pack night (Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-8 PM), or help us harvest on a Monday or Wednesday morning (8 am to noon), please email me at sharedlegacyfarms@gmail.com.
- You can order additional items from the Shared Legacy Farms online store. This week we have: bulk sweet corn (by the bushel, 65 ears), bicolor sweet corn (by the half dozen), bulk canning peaches ($35), rye flour, aronia berries, sweet and hot banana peppers, peaches by the quart, watermelon, blackberries, curly and dinosaur kale, frying peppers, red onions, yellow onions, B-grade soft garlic, bell peppers, jalapenos, and cantaloupe. Our store link is super easy to remember: www.sharedlegacyfarms.com/store. We reload and open the store inventory on Saturdays, around 6 PM. Just be sure to select the right pickup site that coincides with your pickup location. If the pickup option is greyed out or not available, it means you missed the window to order. You need to place your order 2 days before your site, because we harvest the product early on Monday and Wednesday mornings.
Eggs in Purgatory submitted by Brian Hammer
WEEK 11 CSA RECIPES
Members: You can download these recipes as a PDF here. These recipes are designed to inspire you to use your box this week! Please check inside our private Facebook group to find your fellow members sharing ideas for what to make with their box! Share a photo and you might be featured in next week’s newsletter!
- Simple Almond Chicken, Chickpea and Eggplant Curry
- Flourless Eggplant Pizza
- Wonton Meatballs
- Creamy Scallion Dressing
- Seared Scallions with Poached Eggs
- Bacon, Lettuce and Fried Green Tomato
- Green Tomato Pickles
- Slow Cooked Stuffed Pepper Stew
- Bell Pepper Salsa
- Jalapeno Popper Creamed Corn
- Bell Pepper Egg in a Hole
- Watermelon Feta Salad
- Watermelon Strawberry Smoothie
- Fresh Peach Crumb Bars