Week 13 CSA Newsletter (August 30 – Sept 4, 2021)
CSA Newsletter Week 13
August 30 – Sept 4, 2021 | “A” Week
Bulk tomatoes are now for sale – a 25 lb. crate for $1/lb. Order in the online store. Supply limited to 20 crates per week for both Roma and globes.
What’s in the Veggie Box this Week?
DRAGON TONGUE BEANS (just shy of a pound) – We didn’t get quite enough for everyone to get a pound, so we are going to split up all we have equally among all our members. These beans have a fuzzy texture and a yellowish color with purple streaks. Store in a plastic bag in the fridge for about 5-7 days. I like to cut the tips off with a knife and then steam them for 3-5 minutes — to your ideal “crunch” style. Then toss in a chive butter.
GOLDEN ROMA TOMATOES (6) –– These will be a golden orange color. They are a “paste” tomato, meaning they lack a lot of juice inside and are best used for making sauce or salsa! Store on the counter and use within 5 days. If you see them starting to ripen too fast, throw them in the fridge, although this may alter the flavor.
CHERRY TOMATOES (1 PINT) –– Store on the counter and use within 3-5 days. If you see them starting to ripen too fast, throw them in the fridge, although this may alter the flavor.
HEIRLOOM TOMATO –– Highly perishable! Use within 2 days. Technically you should store them on the counter for their best flavor. But if they are starting to crack, put them in the fridge to get another day off of them. These are known for their flavor burst! So enjoy them on a sandwich or wherever you want powerhouse flavor.
BRUSSELS SPROUT LEAVES/GREENS (1 bunch) — These may not be in your box, if we decide to harvest the Asian Greens instead. These are the leaves of the Brussels sprout plant. They look a lot like kale, and you can use them the same way! Store these in a Debbie Meyer Green Bag in your fridge and use within 5 days. Wash just before using. Cut out the stem and compost. Try grilling these in a grill pan! You can also blanch and freeze this item for later use in the winter.
ASIAN GREENS/ARUGULA SALAD MIX (almost a pound?) – Perishable. Depending on how the temperatures affect our greens this weekend, you may be getting some Asian Greens mixed with a spray of peppery arugula instead of the Brussels Sprout greens. Store this in a bag in your fridge, and use within 3-4 days.
ONIONS, YELLOW – These onions are cured, so they should be stored on the counter (not next to the potatoes though!) Use them within 3-4 weeks. Or chop and freeze in a Ziplock bag for later use in the winter.
GARLIC – Cured. 1.75 size (medium grade). Store on your counter or in a cool, dark place. Should last about 8 weeks.
RED BEETS (QUART) — sourced from Wayward Seed Farm. No tops. Store in your fridge in a bag. They will hold up to 8 weeks. Remove the tips and the top, as well as the skin before eating with a vegetable peeler or knife. You can eat them raw, shredded in a salad. Or try them roasted in some vinegar/olive oil. I also love them pickled!
PARSLEY — sourced from Wayward Seed Farm. Store these in your fridge in a plastic baggie. Use within a week.
SWEET FRYING PEPPERS, ORANGE OR RED (4) — These will be a mix of orange and red. They are all sweet, so use them like a sweet 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. Then chop to size. Peppers can also be frozen whole or chopped using the “Ziplock bag and freeze” method. These are great for grilling!
Danielle Kuhl strikes again with a fennel blueberry cocktail! Check the Facebook group for the recipe.
THIS WEEK’S ADD-ON SHARES:
It’s “A” week (for all our bi-weekly shares)
Fruit Share: red seedless watermelon (Bench Farms), Golden Gala apples (Quarry Hill), Bartlett Pears
Maddie & Bella Coffee: Guatemala Antigua (aromatic, sweet, smokey)
Cheese: mBossie Cheddar & Charloe from Canal Junction Creamery… and honey chevre goat cheese from Turkeyfoot Creek Creamery.
Bread (Sylvania, Week 4/4): Semolina Sourdough
Knueven Ice Cream: Chocolate Peanut Butter
Pre-Order Your Tomato Canners
If you want to order bulk tomatoes for canning this year, it’s now time to do so.
Because there are so many tomato orders coming at us, we will be doling out the bulk tomatoes in waves over the next few weeks in our online store.
Quick! I recommend going to the store RIGHT NOW to place your order, as these will sell out FAST. Don’t worry, we’ll restock if we can throughout the week, and we’ll definitely restock next weekend with another round. If the store is sold out, don’t panic. Just bide your time.
This year, when you place your order, it’s a guaranteed “pre-order.” Our store will send out the usual “confirmation email” of your order. We’ll also send out another email the day before your pickup to once again confirm that we had enough product to fill it that week.
We’re only stocking the store with 20 of each of our tomato varieties per week for now. If we end up getting more yields this week, we’ll add more in! So keep checking the store!
You can choose from these two tomato canner products:
ROMA TOMATOES — you’ll get 25 lbs of these classic, oval-shaped, paste tomatoes. These are best used for sauce and salsa, since they have a lower water content.
GLOBE TOMATOES – you’ll get 25 lbs. of the classic round tomato. These are best used for canning whole tomatoes. This will be enough to can 7-8 quarts (or 16 pints) in your canner.
Each product will come packed in a black plastic crate this year, for easier transport on our truck. You can take the crate home with you, but we do ask you to return it the following week.
If you’d like a special order of Golden Romas, please contact us directly via email.
The red watermelons have been getting a lot of rave reviews this year. Incredibly sweet and juicy.
HOW WE PICK MELONS
And How to Tell If A Watermelon Is Ripe
Ever wondered: how many people does it take to pick melons at our farm?
Answer: 4 to 5
- 1 Tractor driver
- 1 Melon catcher
- 2-3 Melon harvesters
Watch this video below to see how we do it. (Note: this video was filmed about 8 years ago!)
There are usually 2-3 people walking the actual melon patch — one person per bed row — scouting their section for ripe melons. These harvesters bend over and snap off the vine, then toss the melon down the line to a person standing on a moving wagon. This person needs to be good at catching. If they miss, we lose that melon.
We fill giant cardboard bins full of melons. You can see just how large they are in the video. We also have one person driving the tractor. They need to be good at driving clutch, because it’s a lot of slow start-and-stop driving to keep the catcher from losing his/her balance.
Being able to spot a ripe watermelon is a little bit of an art. (This is not something we can delegate to volunteers.) Oddly enough, it has nothing to do with the color of the stripes. (That simply tells you what color of melon it is).
There are a few factors we look for to see if a watermelon is ripe.
- Does the vine easily pop off cleanly? (It should).
- Is it big enough size? (This is a sign it’s probably close)
- Does it have a deep sound when you thump it? (If yes, it’s ready)
Yes, my friends, that last one gets me every time too. The “thumb tap” test is something you just pick up after sampling a LOT of melons. I’m proud to say that my two farm boys now know how to properly thump a watermelon.
I, however, do not.
That’s okay. That means I’ll never “get to” pick watermelons for 3 hours in the blazing heat…
-Written by Farmer Corinna
Kurt shows off one of our storage radishes. We have 4 different varieties that we can pull from in our final weeks.
FARMER KURT’S FIELD NOTES
Howdy everyone.
Wow, this has been our hottest week all summer. I want to thank my customers who brought my team some cold drinks last week at the pickup sites. I really need to get myself a tent with some shade for my station, so it was really appreciated. I tell Corinna all the time that we have such a supportive farm community. So thank you.
Site host Tanya toasts the camera with her cold water bottle. Thank you to everyone who helped us cool off at our sites this week. It was a hot one!
Well this week has been pretty much tomato harvest week. Every day, our crew has been out in the tomato patch, pulling all kinds of tomatoes. The heirlooms and cherry tomatoes came on first. Now it’s the romas and globes that are starting to take off. My Roma and globe plants are gonna do a fast burn here — I can already see the plants beginning to die back. So we will be harvesting everything we can off them for the next 2-3 weeks!
I’m gonna do my best to get as many canning tomatoes out to you as possible! I know this is always a stressful thing for some of you… if you’re nervous that there won’t be enough, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to take care of everyone eventually. You can always go shop my mom’s roadside stand in Curtice — those are my tomatoes too — and you’ll be indirectly supporting our farm that way as well.
Here’s Amanda picking tomatoes. My crew has pretty much been harvesting tomatoes all week in their spare time. There are SO many.
I seeded a new batch of carrots and radishes this week for my early winter high tunnel crop. Of course it’s crazy-a$$ hot so I’m not sure they’ll germinate either. If they do, I’ll then move my portable high tunnel over the top of them in a couple weeks. I’ve had a devil of a time with my summer carrot germination rate this year. (I’m not alone… carrots are hard to come by as I’ve been searching for farms to buy them in from).
If you recall, I had to disk under our last carrot crop because the germination was so spotty, and then all those rains made the weeds get out of control when the plants were still first getting started. (Have you ever tried to weed a carrot patch when the carrot greens are only an inch high? It’s a beast). This is why you haven’t seen carrots a whole lot this season. I had planned to have them 7-8 times this season. It’s so frustrating.
Our popular carrots were one of our biggest summer casualties in 2021. I’m trying one more planting this week for a winter crop.
I took Corinna for a “field walk” this Friday on the Gator. This is when we look at all the crops to see how things are doing and attempt to forecast what will be coming down the pike in the weeks to come. We were able to map out our final 6 weeks of boxes, and I have to say, they look pretty good.
This process reassured me that we’re in a good spot, and it helped me organize my thoughts and see what I need to focus on to end the season strong. I’ve got a TON of fun radishes coming in the mix over the next few weeks — I can’t wait to show them to you — especially the watermelon radishes! Winter squashes begin next week!
Corn is in between patches right now, so we’re taking one week off here so I can funnel the little we do have to my mom. We do multiple succession plantings so that in theory, we never “run out” of corn. Wouldn’t you know it, that right at Labor Day weekend, we’ve got a gap! The ears are beginning to get a little smaller now, and we’re starting to run into more insect damage on the tips. If you see a worm, be gracious — you can cut that part off and the rest of the ear is still perfectly fine.
I think we’ve got most of the melons picked now. I may have to go out one more time. But our boys and the crew spent about 3 hours yesterday picking 5 large bins. Lots of water damage from all those rains that cracked the melons — such a shame. FYI, I almost lost my dad out there! He was really showing some signs of heat exhaustion and we had to take him off melon duty.
Both my parents are slowing down more and more these days. (Can you relate?) My siblings and I are slowly doing more and more to help them transition into the next phase of their business/retirement. (Although my mom says she will never stop working, and she’ll die in the greenhouse).
Mom is getting both her knees replaced in a couple weeks — a good thing too. She can barely walk anymore, although she’ll never show how much pain she’s in. If you know how integral my mom is to the Bench Farms stand operation, you can imagine how having her out of commission is going to be a big deal. Hopefully we can get all the bases covered to try and keep things running for them.
It’s melon season!! Lots and lots of melons are coming off the fields. We pick them into “bins” — which as you can see are pretty large. So when we say, “I picked 6 bins of melons,” this is what we mean.
We got our house and barn roof painted last week. Wouldn’t you know it, the guy shows up on the HOTTEST day ever to do the job. I’ve got a metal roof, so I felt so sorry for this guy up there with the sun reflecting off his face. It must have felt like 120 degrees up there. This job costs me about $1500, but it’s well worth it, because as my dad told me years ago “If you just keep that roof well-painted, you’ll never have to replace it in your lifetime.” So about every 5 years or so, I call in my buddy.
I was able to get away on Friday night with 2 of my guy friends to see the Old Crow Medicine Show band at Promenade Park. I saw a few of you there! I’m also trying my hardest to get off the farm today with my wife and boys to go to the beach at East Harbor. The boys start school next Tuesday! Here we go!…
Peace, out. -Farmer Kurt
Gina Kay posted this picture of celery and garden salt that she made with her veggies! Great exit strategy! You can give them away as gifts too!
WEEK 13 ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Jewish Holiday Conflict Update for Sylvania. THERE WILL BE NO CHANGE TO OUR PICKUP LOCATION AFTER ALL. Last week, we made it sound like we would have to move our pickup site on Sept. 7th. Turns out, we don’t! So proceed as usual!
- Order your Bulk Tomatoes starting this week. Cost is $1/lb. You can choose either the ROMA or GLOBE variety. They come in a black crate this year, for easier transport and stack-ability in our truck. We will continue to put more into the store each week — about 20-30 at a time for each variety.
- When do I sign up for next year’s CSA? Don’t worry. Pre-registration for next season begins October 1st at 6 AM and runs for 10 days through October 10. Anyone who is a full season member of a Sampler member will get equal access to our Early Registration Offer. Stay tuned for more info soon.
You’ll be able to sign up for next year’s CSA during our Early Bird Sign Up Period, October 1-10th. We’ll give you more details in a few weeks.
- We could still use some volunteers to help pack on Mondays and Wednesdays. This is a (roughly) 2 hour job for one person. If you’d like to help out during a CSA Pack night (Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-8 PM), please email me at sharedlegacyfarms@gmail.com.
- You can order additional items from the Shared Legacy Farms online store. This week we have: bulk Roma tomatoes, bulk globe tomatoes, bicolor sweet corn (by the half dozen), rye flour, peaches by the quart, red seedless watermelons, curly kale, red onions, yellow onions, B-grade soft garlic, Round of Hungary peppers, sweet banana peppers, all types of eggplant, cherry tomatoes, Gingergold apples, golden Roma tomatoes, red bell peppers, red snacking sweet peppers.
- Our store link is super easy to remember: www.sharedlegacyfarms.com/store. We reload and open the store inventory on Saturdays, around 5 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.
Jim Hertzfeld submitted this grilled kale entry into our Grilling Challenge. The Grill Challenge winners will be announced on Sunday.
WEEK 13 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!
Dragon Tongue Beans
Steamed Chive Green Beans
Summer Bean Salad
Sautéed Brussel Sprout Greens
Broccoli Greens Dip (sub Brussels)
Broiled Top Blade Steak with Herb-Flecked Tomato Salad
Roasted Beet Hummus
Chicken Fajita Freezer Meal
Easy Tabbouleh
Classic Italian Gremolata
Classic Fresh Salsa (Pico de Gallo)
Stuffed Italian Frying Peppers
Apple Muffins
Apple Peanut Butter Overnight Oats
Minty Watermelon Cucumber Salad
Apple Pear Puff Pancake