Weekly Abundance, Vol 12-09

Weekly Harvest

Beets – Golden, Pacemaker and Chioggia

Lettuce Leaf Basil

Tomatoes – Dry farmed Early Girls, and several Heirloom Varieties

Melons and Watermelon – Honey Pearl Honey Dews, Maverick Muskmelon, Haoggen dessert melon, Moon Beam watermelon.

Sweet Peppers – Jimmy Nordello, and a classic bell pepper

Hot Peppers – Hungarian Wax and Aci Sivri

Summer Squash and Zucchini

Onions – Siskiyou Sweet

Lettuce – Simpson Black Seeded, Butterking, and Fireball

Farm Life

The weather has cooled considerably in the last two weeks.  Some days it feels like fall.  You can see this weather change in the production of the tomatoes.  They are now ripening much more slowly.  Not to worry, there are still many, many tomatoes on the vine.   When the weather warms up again, the tomatoes will ripen quickly.

After the next heat spell, we will have quantities of paste tomatoes available.   This year, we are growing Stripped Romans.  In my opinion they are, by far, the best tomato for making sauces and ketchup.

The new item this week is peppers.  We have ripe, red Jimmy Nordello’s. This pepper is thin skinned, and curly and is best used for cooking.  It looks like it should be a hot pepper but is actually quite sweet.  We also have the first harvest of our Sunset Orange peppers.  As the season progresses these peppers will turn a beautiful glowing orange

Our hot peppers include  Aci Sivri and Hungarian Wax.  Both are Eastern European peppers that are more suited to our relatively cool growing environment than are the classic chilis and other peppers originating in Central and South America.  The Aci Sivri is a deep red and the Hungarian Wax are yellow to red.  Both can range widely in their heat qualities.  Some years they will be much hotter than others.

The next event on the calendar is our Potato Gathering and Harvest Party on Sunday, Sept. 20.  The event begins in the afternoon, followed by at Potluck Party.  Our friends at North Valley Farm will join us.  Christianne will have her wonderful sausage available and will also be taking orders for lamb.

Veggie of the Week

Are you still struggling to include the USDA recommended five to seven fruits and vegetables in your daily diet?   Fortunately for you, squash is a mild flavored vegetable that combines well with almost anything.  Try it for breakfast in a frittata using our wonderful eggs.  The best thing about this dish is that you can make it in the evening then re-heat it the next morning.  Serve it with a piece of whole wheat toast and a small slice of melon and you have a healthy breakfast that includes one serving of a whole grain and two servings of vegetables/fruit.

Recently, my spouse and I had a fabulous dinner, and everything but the cheese came from the farm.  The menu included Oven Fried Chicken; mashed  Yellow Finn potatoes;  baked tomatoes, peppers and squash ; and a green salad.

To bake the vegetables, I used onion, garlic, sliced Jimmy Nordello peppers, Golden Zucchini sliced thinly lengthwise,  Taxi tomatoes, basil and parsley.  I sautéed the  onions and garlic until translucent then added the peppers, tomatoes, basil and parsley and left this to simmer until the tomatoes began to release their juices.  I then removed them from the pan and set them aside.  Next, I sautéed the squash until it was soft but not falling apart.  I layered the squash in a baking dish, poured the onion/pepper/tomato/herb mixture on top then sprinkled with grated Parmesan Cheese.  I baked it in a 325 oven until the cheese browned.  It tasted great and the combination of the red pepper, yellow squash and tomatoes, and green herbs made a great presentation.

Another great idea for squash is to slice it thinly and substitute it for the noodles in your favorite lasagna recipe.  If you have family members that think they don’t care for squash, this is a great way to disguise it.

The Oregonian recently included a recipe for Linguine with Zucchini, Garlic and Capers that looks quite tasty.  At this writing, the recipe is still available in the FOODday section of their web site at OregonLive.com.

Tender, baby Crookneck Squash

Note: The Oregonion recipe and many others assume that you have large, overly mature zucchini that you are trying to find a use for.  At Artisan Organics, we harvest our squash seven days a week in order to provide you with tender, gourmet quality vegetables.  We prefer to incur the expense of harvesting it, even if we donate it to the food pantry, than let it stay on the vine and become overly mature.  Please keep this in mind when you review squash recipes.