Hi All,
We are a little late getting to the newsletter this week, and many of you are likely opening up your shares as we speak! The harvest has been bountiful in the past couple of weeks, with the start of our eggplant ripening this week, with tomatoes and peppers just around the corner. We have been busily harvesting our mounds of garlic this week as well. Today with a particular rush to get our harvest in from the field in advance of the thunderstorms forecast in our ares this afternoon. The carp garlic festival approaches on August 12th and 13th so we hope to have some lovely garlic on display at the market that weekend, and also in your shares for the rest of the season.
The sunshine has been welcome in what it is doing for our ripening fruit, however it is always a little more important to keep covered from the sun and stay hydrated as we work away at tasks that wait for no one. Harvesting the eggplants yesterday was quite exciting. The variation in the plants and fruit is wonderful to see, and it is so satisfying to pull a whopping fruit off of this plant when they finally are ripe. Our sweet potatoes, melons, and winter squash are looking healthy and we hope they will all bring abundant harvest for fall and winter crops.
Hopefully in the next few weeks we can throw in all the ingredients needed for a good ratatouille, once the trifecta of summer squash, eggplant and tomatoes begin to overlap. We have nice bushy basil sizing up and waiting for it’s tomato counterparts. Looking forward also to abundant tomato sandwiches once these juicy tomatoes start to pile up.
We have local honey available for upcoming share deliveries. John’s brother in-law is harvesting the honey from his hives near Manotick and is making it available to our CSA members. If you wish to purchase honey for an upcoming weekly share delivery, please inquire directly. It will be available in 500mL and 1L jars starting next week.
As follows are a few recipes that hopefully inspire if you wish, or please share some of your own favourites. We look forward to sharing with you in the excitement of things to come from Waratah Downs Organic Farm. Enjoy this week’s share!
-The Waratah Downs Organic Farm Team
This looks like a straightforward recipe for one of my faves, eggplant parmesan. It will be even better when we can make a sauce out of our own tomatoes as well! http://www.epicurious.
Of course grilling eggplants and zucchini is a great accompaniment to any summer meal. I have a soft spot for grilled, thinly sliced eggplant and zucchini on a sandwich with nice garlicky pesto and goat cheese. The flavours are all quiet complimentary, and the sweetness of the vegetables really shines in this simple sandwich that I often make with the leftovers from my BBQ(if there are any).
Also found a super easy Warm Potato Salad recipe. It is reminiscent of one I tried a few years back at my work in a kitchen, and it was delightful. Also a good one for those of us too impatient or ill prepared to boil our potatoes well enough in advance to cool properly!
All shares this week include:
Zucchini
Garlic
Beets
Carrots
Lettuce
Parsley
potatoes
Peas
Eggplant
The medium shares also include:
Patty pan summer squash
Extra garlic
Extra eggplant
Red Salanova lettuce
Cucumbers
Redbor Kale
