CSA News, Week 14

In Your Share . . .
Items may vary in your share depending on share size and your harvest day. Each share may not have every item listed below.

White Half Runner Green Beans – organic
This most popular of all of the string beans, your half runner beans offer the most “beany” flavor, but come with a price. You do need to remove the string from each bean and then break into bite-sized pieces before cooking. Start by break-ing the end and pulling down the length of the bean until the string is removed at the other end. Repeat the process up the otherside of the bean. Then, when breaking into pieces, remove any string piece that you might have missed the first time. A little time now will result in a delicious result later on. Refrigerate.

Sweet Corn
Though we thought last week was your last corn for a while, we had a few more of the smaller ears available for today. You may recall these are the second ear off of the plant and will not be as long or as full as the earlier harvest. However, you’ve told us you would rather have the small ears than no corn at all! Enjoy this extra surprise in today’s shares.

Eggplant

Sweet Onion – organic

Italian Sweet Pepper – organic
Your cone shaped green pepper is sweet, similar in flavor to a mild red or green bell pepper. Use as you would any sweet pepper, or mix with the hot in making a salsa.

Assorted Hot Peppers – organic
Find just a handful of hot peppers including jalapeno and hot banana. Use caution when cutting, remembering the seeds and interior membrane is the hottest. Refrigerate.

Raspberries – organic

Tomatoes, Heirloom and Slicing - organic

Tomatoes, Heirloom Salad – organic
Today’s shares contain the Garden Peach (light yellow skin with peach-like texture), Black Plum, and the popular Sungold.

Watermelon

Garlic – organic

Leeks - organic

Okra - organic

Recipes to Enjoy . . .
For several years we have had someone at the farm in charge of feeding all of us a nutritious home-cooked meal each day at noon. Several people have held this position, and you have seen many of their recipes in your newsletters over the seasons – including the tried and true selections included today!

Tomato Salsa
1 ½ lbs ripe tomato
2-3 fresh jalapeno chilies, stemmed
½ small onion
4 cloves garlic
¼ C water
1/3 C cilantro
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp cider vinegar

Heat broiler. Lay whole tomatoes and jalapenos out on broiler pan and broil for about 6 minutes. Flip over and do other side. May develop char spots. Set aside and cool.
Turn oven down to 425. Separate onions into rings and place on baking sheet with whole peeled cloves of garlic. Roast in oven until browned and wilted. 15 minutes.
Place in a food processor and pulse to right consistency. Add cilantro, salt, and vinegar.

Fruit Salsa

1 C diced cantaloupe
1C diced watermelon
1 C peeled, seeded, and diced cucumber
4 large tomatoes, seeded and diced
½ C chopped red onion
¼ C fresh lime juice
3 TBS chopped fresh cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1-1 ½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground black pepper

Stir together in a bowl; cover and chill for 1 hour. Eat on tortilla chips.

Green Bean Salad

1½ lbs green beans
A handful of Sungold tomatoes
1 small sweet or red onion chopped
½ C lemon vinaigrette
Feta cheese

Cook green beans in boiling salted water for about 8 minutes if using snap beans, longer if using half-runner beans – just make sure tender. Drain and plunge into ice water to stop cooking process. Drain and pat dry. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. Add chopped onion, tomatoes, vinaigrette and top with feta cheese.

Lemon Vinaigrette
3 TBS fresh lemon juice
3 TBS white wine vinegar
1 TBS Dijon mustard
½ tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground pepper
½ C olive oil

Cajun Succotash

Sauté diced onion and minced garlic. Add corn cut off the cob and okra sliced in bite-sized pieces. Finish with diced tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. To freeze, cut all fresh ingredients (except tomatoes) and put in plastic bag. Add tomatoes when ready to cook later.

Eggplant Casserole

1 eggplant, peeled and chopped
4 slices bread, torn
1 (5 oz) can evaporated milk
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup butter, melted
2 large eggs, separated
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cover eggplant with water in saucepan. Cook egg-plant in boiling water for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain well. Mash eggplant and set aside.

Combine bread and milk. Let stand 10 minutes.
Cook onion and garlic in butter in a large skillet over
medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until tender. Add eggplant, egg yolks, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold into eggplant mixture. Pour into well-greased 1 ½-quart baking dish and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until set. Serve immediately.

Classic Southern-Style Green Beans
This recipe is from Ronni Lundy’s Butter Beans to
Blackberries. In her narrative, she says” I’ll wager
just about anything that slow-cooked is the only
way we’ll be asking for them in heaven, with a pan
of cornbread, a platter of fresh sliced garden –warm
tomatoes, and a chilled bowl of cucumbers and
onions on the side.”

2 pounds beans
water
¼ pound salt pork
salt

Snap beans into pieces about 1 inch long. Discard any with blemishes. Rinse in very cold water and drain. Put beans in a large, heavy pot with a lid, and just cover with water. Add the salt pork, using your hand to bury it down in the beans. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover, turn down the heat, and simmer for 1 hour.

After the hour, add salt if needed (depending on how briny the pork is). Half-cover and simmer for another hour or so, until the beans are very tender and saturated with the seasoning, and the water has boiled down to a bit of rich pot likker. These beans are even better warmed up the second day. Don’t let the water boil completely boil away, so add more if needed during your preparation.