Good Eats Weekly Newsletter - August 22, 2018

This week in your share:

Everyday Large (Orange bags)

Spinach, Basil, Garlic, Wax Beans, Red Cabbage, Bell Peppers, Broccoli, Red Norland Potatoes,
OUT OF THE BAG
1 Watermelon
6 ears Sweet Corn

Everyday Standard (Yellow bags)

Spinach, Basil, Bell Peppers, Pac Choi, Zucchini, Red Norland Potatoes
OUT OF THE BAG
1 Bag Tomatoes
4 ears Sweet Corn

Fancy/ Localvore

(Purple bags)

Spinach, Pac choi, Bell Peppers, Wax Beans, Cippolini Onions, Carrots, Red Norland Potatoes,
OUT OF THE BAG
1 Watermelon
4 ears Sweet Corn

Lean & Green

(Green bags)

Spinach, Leeks, Broccoli,
OUT OF THE BAG
1 Bag of Tomatoes



Around the Farm

What a week! It's been busy around here - Saturday's Open Farm Day was an exciting day full of great food and tours! Pete led a few groups (one picture is below) and Sunday headed out for a week hiking with his family.
We have a lot of great stuff coming in; you'll find watermelons again this week and I'm hopeful we'll have cantaloupe soon. We're starting to harvest onions, potatoes, and carrots for the fall and getting greenhouse beds ready to turn over into fall planting. The garlic is all harvested and currrently curing for storage. The sweet corn is still coming in strong and looking much better - much less wormy. Sadly, our blueberries are done for the season. The stormy weather late last week took what was left of them. So long until next year!
Today I gave a tour to folks from the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, who are looking to grant Salvation Farms with funding to continue organizational capacity development; a fancy way of saying they'll give money to help the organization strategize into the future. Fun to show folks around our wash house on such a busy day. Tuesdays we pack out our wholesale orders and CSA orders. Wednesday we deliver all over northern Vermont and our produce goes down into NYC, too. It's our biggest day on the farm. All the crops come through our wash house where they're washed, prepped, packed, and staged for delivery. We harvest the greens in the morning and things are still coming in as late as 6:30! I've been working in the wash house with our crew so this newsletter is a little late, but I wanted to make sure to get you all the most current and correct info!
~Taylar

Going out of town?
Need to skip a delivery? We can donate your share to the food shelf, send it the next week, or credit your account for a future share. Please notify us by Monday, 8 am, at the latest for any changes to that week's delivery.
Every week we'll send you snapshots of veggies in your share. You can always find more recipes and storage info on our blog and website.
Spinach:  A mix of tender baby spinach and hearty full spinach! Spinach is so wonderful as a salad or when sauteed. There are so many ways to eat it and it's so good for you, too! Packed full of iron.
Mixed Beans: Store in your fridge wrapped in plastic for up to 5 days. Try them braised, roasted, or grilled. Beans pair well with garlic, balsamic, and parmesan. You'll receive green, purple, or a mix!
Cippolini Onions:  Cippolini onions are a small flattened Italian onion with a sweet, mild flavor. Cippolinis are traditionally served roasted or baked, but also work well on kebabs or eaten fresh. If you have never eaten a roasted cippolini you must, as you will never think of onions the same way. The advantage of the cippolini is its mild flavor that when roasted caramelizes quickly into sweet, flavorful goodness! Their shape lends them well to roasting. Cippolini onions do not store as well as your typical onion. For short term storage keep in a cool, dry place or in the butter compartment of your fridge.
Red Norland Potatoes: These have a red outer skin and crisp white flesh inside. These are our summertime "new" potatoes. The best way to cook a Red Norland is to boil, steam or roast them. They make a great red potato salad with skin on, or toss with olive oil, garlic and herbs or go for it and smother them with good old butter (yum). They won't store well. We recommend keeping them in the fridge.
Basil: This marvelous herb is a member of the mint family. It is a staple in Mediterranean cooking as well as Thai, Vietnamese, and Laotian. The herb is highly aromatic, or put another way, the oils in basil are highly volatile. Thus, it is best to add the herb near the end of the cooking process so it will retain its maximum essence and flavor. Basil should be kept in a plastic bag or kept stem-down in a glass of water with plastic over the leaves, for about a week with regular water changing. Keep your basil out of extreme cold as it could damage the fragile leaves.
Watermelon for Orange, Purple, and Green shares this week. Sweet and so yummy! Please take one and use within a couple days.

Featured Recipes

Sauteed Onions
Coarse salt
1 1/2 pounds cipollini onions, peeled
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
Bring 6 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan; add salt. Boil onions until softened, about 4 minutes. Drain, and pat dry. Set aside.
Heat butter and oil in a large saute pan over high heat, stirring to combine, until butter melts. Add onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low; add thyme, and season with salt. Cover, and cook until onions are tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Serve warm.Coarse salt
1 1/2 pounds cipollini onions or small shallots, peeled
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
Bring 6 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan; add salt. Boil onions until softened, about 4 minutes. Drain, and pat dry. Set aside.
Heat butter and oil in a large saute pan over high heat, stirring to combine, until butter melts. Add onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low; add thyme, and season with salt. Cover, and cook until onions are tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Serve warm.
Tangy Potato Salad with Scallions
This is a great basic potato salad recipe. If you have any fresh herbs on hand they would be amazing added in.  
Coarse salt and ground pepper
3 pounds potatoes, scrubbed, halved, and sliced 1/2 inch thick
1/2 cup white-wine vinegar
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup olive oil
Set a steamer basket in a large pot. Fill with enough salted water to come just below basket. Bring to a boil; place potatoes in basket, and reduce heat to medium. Cover, and steam, gently tossing occasionally, until crisp-tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
Step 2
Meanwhile, combine vinegar and scallions in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper. When potatoes are cooked, transfer to bowl with vinegar mixture. Toss to combine; let cool, tossing occasionally.
Step 3
When potato mixture is cool, mix in oil; season potato salad with salt and pepper.
Curried Zucchini & Couscous
This quick, easy side dish is a great accompaniment to grilled meats. For a little sweetness throw in a handful of raisins with the carrots. From Eating Well, August 2013.
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 medium zucchini, diced
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup water
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup whole-wheat couscous, or barley!
1 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add zucchini and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until starting to soften, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
Add water, lime juice, curry, cumin, salt and pepper to the pan and bring to a boil. Stir in couscous. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Add the couscous and carrot to the bowl with the zucchini; stir to combine. Serve topped with almonds.

 

Pantry Lore 

This week we have fresh pasta from Vermont Fresh Pasta, our own Sweet Basil Pesto, and fresh mozzarella from Maplebrook Farm! VT Fresh Pasta makes fresh pasta with organic, local flour. If you're not going to use within a week, please put in your freezer. Pete's Greens Pesto is made with our own organic basil, plus sunflower seeds, olive oil, salt, lemon juice, and two kinds of cheese. It's coming frozen; use fresh or put back into your freezer. Some ribbons of fresh basil atop your bowl of pasta adds a nice decoration. Maplebrook mozzarella is perfect for a Caprese salad! Just slice and layer tomatoes and mozzarella. Sprinkle some fresh basil and drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt & pepper. So simple but so delicious!

Fresh Mozz, Pesto, and Tomato Pizza

This is the quickest pizza ever. You could make it more zesty by adding some minced garlic aloing with the pesto. You could dress it up by topping it with some mesclun greens dressed in a simple vinaigrette. Or saute some zucchini or eggplant and peppers and onions in a pan for a while and add those too. You can't go wrong, there's just too many good things to put on top!

Olive oil

Pesto

a couple fresh tomatoes

torn fresh mozzarella

a little salt and pepper 
Optional - fresh garlic, minced
Brush your crust with the oil for the flavor. Place thin slices of tomatoes on the crust, and place dabs of pesto all about the crust on top of and around the tomatoes here and there. Some folks like to take the seeds out of their tomatoes so there's less tomato juice on the pizza. Then top with thin slices of the fresh mozz & tomatoes scattered about. I like a bit of salt and pepper on mine and sometimes I drizzle on a bit of really good balsamic. Bake until the cheese is bubbling and the crust is done. Simple and delicious.

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