Good Afternoon CSA Members!
We have been picking through the full gamut of weather today, which is starting to feel typical around here. A dark morning brought in some heavy downpours around noonjust after we finished harvesting basil and tomatoes, neither of which love to be wet. Then came some sun and humidity, followed by a distinct change in temperature and back to ominous clouds on the horizon. With night time lows of 8 degrees in upcoming days, it is beginning to feel like the fall weather creeping in, despite some warmer than usual days of late.
The share this week is feeling equally diverse as we begin to see our peppers and eggplants amping up, while our cucumber and zucchini harvests begin to trail off. We were finally able to time both our tomatoes and basil in a share together, and hope this can inspire some delicious ratatouille or a simple tomato basil salad if that suits your fancy! This comes not a moment too soon, as this damp, cooler weather can sometimes be problematic for both of these.
A note on peppers-this week we were able to get just enough Shishito (Sweet) Peppers for the medium shares, and a handful of mildly spicy Serrano and Jalapeño peppers for all of our shares. The peppers and all hot crops are maturing and ripening slowly this season, but we hope to have many more weeks of sweet and hot peppers to come. We are eagerly awaiting various types of melon as we watch as well to see our winter squash varieties come of age.
For little and big kids alike, might I recommend a nutritious take on a comforting classic. Cauliflower Mac and Cheese is a great way to get some veggies into an otherwise indulgent meal, and it tastes so great! I have fooled many a child in the after school program I’ve worked in, by slipping in this “Mystery Ingredient”, and always nice finished with a surprise Chocolate Beet Cake to top it off. The recipe I used was akin to this one: https://vanillaandbean.com/
Just discovered this delicious and simple recipe utilising tomato, basil, and eggplant from our friends at Ferme Cooperative Tourne-Sol near Montreal: https://www.
All Shares this week consist of:
-Eggplant
-Tomato
-Basil
-Lettuce
-Parsley
-Cauliflower
-Hakurai Turnips
-Red Onions
-Hot peppers-Serrano or Jalapeño
Each Medium Share also contains:
-Kale
-Cabbage
-Cilantro
-Shishito Pepper(sweet)****Please note-these are sweet, though they have a distinct appearance of a hot pepper
John has also started plowing down our pungent fields of buckwheat this week in preparation for planting vegetables across the creek next season. We’ve included a photo of this impressive green manure in our email today. Enjoy all of your vegetables this week, and we look forward to sharing the new flavours of fall in coming weeks!
