A Butternut Ending

Get it? Kind of like bittersweet but butternut. Stretching it too far? Maybe. At any rate we've so enjoyed this CSA season and we're just a bit sad it's coming to an end - but the end of one thing means the beginning of the next!

We'll still be at market and we're excited to gear up for our fall/winter CSA season and all the good things that will happen with that.

We'll be harvesting tomatoes, peppers, okra, cow peas, summer squash, butternut squash, delicata squash, baby greens, onions, and basil for CSA boxes and market this Saturday. 

And back to the butternut squash - this delicate yet hearty squash is a harbinger of what's to come in the fall - and a really simple way to prepare it is to roast it!

Peel the squash with a vegetable peeler and take off the stem, then with a sharp knife and steady surface, carefully cut it in half. Scoop the seeds out, then cut the squash into 1" cubes. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the squash with olive oil, salt, and pepper and transfer it to a large baking sheet in one even layer.

Roast at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes, until it's fork tender and golden brown. Let it cool...then eat it! You can drizzle it in butter and sauteed sage and eat it, smush it up it to make ravioli, blend up a delicious bisque, or make a yummy salad. 

Enjoy!  

A Recipe Round-Up

Hi there, friend! This week we've decided to do a little recipe round-up. With each item on our harvest list this week, you'll find a link to a recipe idea(s). Use the recipe itself or as in inspiration, enjoy yourself with these yummy summer gems from our garden to your table!

photo: floatingkitchen.net

This week on the harvest list:

• tomatoes - a rustic French-style tomato tart
• potatoes - a gallery full of comforting tater recipes
• fresh black eyed peas - shell these and use them in a stir-fry or the salad in the link
• onions - caramelized onions, mmmm
• sweet peppers - how bout these hearty, yummy stuffed sweet peppers for dinner?
• cucumbers - a refreshing Asian cucumber salad
• fresh basil pesto - dancing in our seats, 28 delicious ways to use fresh pesto!!
• okra - homemade fried okra with fresh okra from the garden is uh-may-zing

See you soon everybody, let us know what you're going to cook first!

Pesto Pesto, Read All About It!

Can we talk about fresh, homemade pesto for a minute? It's delicious and amazing, and it's on our minds with the abundance of basil from the garden. The even better news is, it's simple to make! 

Just take 2 cups of fresh basil, 3 cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup of pine nuts (you can sub walnuts), 1/2 cup fresh parmesan (grated or in chunks), and a generous pinch of salt and pepper and put them in a food processor. Pulse it all until it's combined. 

Next, while the motor's running on the food processor, drizzle 1/3 - 1/2 cup of olive oil in the top - you can use more or less depending on how thick you like the pesto. Keep blending until it reaches a consistency you like. 

That's it! Really! You might be wondering if it's okay to use a blender instead of a food processor - you can, but it might be a bit soupy. A food processor seems to yield the best texture. 

You can put this homemade pesto over your favorite pasta, spread it on fresh bread, sauce up a sandwich, drizzle it over your favorite fish or chicken or beef. It's the sauce of summer, friends!

Enjoy :)

We'll be at market this week with:

• Watermelon
• Potatoes
• Onions
• Garlic
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Summer squash
• Green beans
• Sweet peppers
• Basil
• Okra

and fresh bread! Hope to see you soon!

Summery Tomato Basil Pasta

We love simple, easy meals with ingredients straight out of our garden - meals like this tomato basil pasta. It hardly takes take any time at all but the finished dish will have you feeling like you're at a little bistro somewhere living large and eating well.

You'll need a package of spaghetti or angel hair noodles, cooked according to the package instructions. Adding a large glug of olive oil and a generous pinch of salt in the boiling water before cooking the noodles helps things out makes things better.

Then dice up 3-4 ripe tomatoes, mince 2 cloves of fresh garlic and dice up half an onion. Chiffonade (<---added a video to show you how) some fresh basil and set aside, about a 1/2 cup of it. 

In a large skillet or saucepan, pour enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan and heat it up over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and saute until it's fragrant and the onion has softened. Then add the tomatoes and toss them around, cooking them down a bit for 3-4 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and remove it from the heat.

Serve over pasta, with the fresh basil and good parmesan sprinkled (generously) over the top. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. 

We'll be at market this week and the CSA boxes will have nearly everything you need to make this pasta! Here's what we'll have: 

• potatoes
• onions
• tomatoes
• green tomatoes
• summer squash
• peppers
• green beans
• basil 
• freshly baked bread

*See you soon!*

Easy Homemade Dill Pickles

Have you ever thought about being fancy and handy and making your own pickles? What with all the cucumbers coming off the vine recently we thought we'd share an easy pickle recipe - but you don't have to share the simple factor with your friends...let them be duly impressed!

You'll need:

• about 4 cups of cucumbers, washed well and cut into spears or slices (your preference!)
• 3.5 cups water
• 1.25 cups white vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp sea salt
• 2 cloves whole garlic, peeled
• 2 heads of fresh dill

Combine the water, vinegar, sugar, and sea salt in a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil. Remove it from the heat and let it cool completely - pour it into another container and stick it in the fridge to speed the process up.

Put the cucumbers, garlic, and dill in a large glass container (or several if they don't fit into one) and pour the vinegar mixture over them until they're immersed. Seal the containers with a lid and refrigerate for at least 3 days.

Enjoy with whatever you like to eat pickles with! 

In other news, we'll be at the market this week with green beans, Lebanese summer squash, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, and peppers. Plus...fresh bread of course! We hope to see you there. 

Plus don't forget - Fall CSA spots are now available - we are excited for all of the beautiful fall veggies. Just let us know if you're interested and we'll get you signed up. 

Potato Salad and Fall CSAs

Helllloooo!! First, this guy wanted to say hello from the farm:

Moving on...you might have noticed that potatoes are plentiful this harvest season - good thing they are versatile and enjoyable to eat! A good, fresh potato salad is a gem for the summer cook-out season. Here's a recipe adapted from the memoir/cookbook A Homemade Life that uses fresh dill (mmmmmm) and ranch dressing to differentiate itself. You'll need:

• 1.5 lbs potatoes, well-scrubbed
• 4 hard-boiled eggs
• 1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup ranch dressing
• 2 tbsp finely chopped dill
• salt and pepper to taste

Put the potatoes in a large pot and cover them with water and a generous pinch of salt. Bring them to a boil and boil until they are fork tender, about 15-20 minutes. 

Drain the potatoes and rinse with cold water, then set them aside to cool completely. You can put them in the refrigerator to speed up the cooling process - you'll want the potatoes to be completely cool before you dress them. 

While they are cooling, coarsely chop the hard-boiled eggs and mix together the mayo, ranch, and dill until it's well-combined and smooth. 

Cut the potatoes into 1" cubes and put them in a big bowl; add the eggs, green onion, and dressing until it's all mixed together nicely. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed. You can serve immediately but it'll taste best if you cover it and let it marinate together in the refrigerator overnight. 

Enjoy!!

We'll be at market this week with:

• tomatoes
• potatoes
• onions
• cucumbers
• Lebanese summer squash ( makes really good stuffed squash or squash fritters) 
• green peppers 
• carrots
• bouquet of flowers 
• squash blossoms 
• fresh bread!

Also, good news! You can sign up for the Fall CSA season now - it goes from October 7th through December 16th and will include goodies like pumpkin, sweet potatoes, a variety of radishes (like watermelon and purple daikon!), autumn squash, and greens like kale and bok choy. 

It's $275 for the season ($25/week) and if you pay for the whole season upfront we'll take $25 off - the equivalent of a free box of veggies - just to say we appreciate you. Sign up with us at the market or on the website!

That's all folks, hope to see you Saturday.

The Easiest Summer Appetizer

Are you ready for the most refreshingly simple appetizer/snack ever? It's two ingredients - cucumbers and Italian dressing! Just peel cucumbers and cut them into thin slices and put them in a shallow dish.

Then, pour your favorite Italian dressing (the Olive Garden signature dressing is lovely, or if you prefer homemade here's a recipe you can try) over the cukes until they are immersed and put them covered in the refrigerator to marinate for awhile. They'll keep for up to a week, and you can keep adding fresh cucumbers to the dressing until it's all soaked up. 

These crisp, tangy little cucumbers are delightful as a snack, an appetizer by itself or as part of a larger veggie arrangement, or you could try them layered in a sandwich for crunch and flavor. 

Let us know how it turns out.

We'll be at market this week with: tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, cucumbers, beets, carrots, summer squash, green beans, fresh dill, and handmade wood-fired bread.

PLUS: CSA members will get a jar of roasted tomatillo salsa! 

See you guys soon!

Oh Joy, Tomatoes!!

One of the quintessential flavors of summer: a tomato fresh off the vine, bursting with tomato-ey flavor. Off the vine this week we have big beef and yellow persimmon varieties...we can eat an embarrassing amount of them, bite into them just like an apple or slice them up and sprinkle them with a little bit of salt. They don't need much embellishment. 

A few notes on how to store tomatoes - if you plan on using them within a day or two, just leave them in a single layer (they can be delicate) at room temperature. You might also think about covering them with a light dish towel to keep the fruit flies away.

If you aren't using them right away and they are at the max-desired ripeness you can place them in a single layer in the refrigerator - if you are not cooking them allow them to come to room temperature before enjoying them to get the full deliciousness of the tomato's flavor!

What will you do with your first tomatoes of the season? The possibilities are endless - click here for a few simple ideas to get you started, and we'll share ideas and recipes as they come along. 

See you at market this Saturday - we'll have fresh bread, carrots, beets, summer squash, tomatoes, onions, garlic, potatoes, and cucumbers. 

Garlic Parmesan Summer Squash

The first summer squash harvest is always exciting. We grow two-toned Zephyr squash as well as it's shorter, slightly pot-bellied cousin the cousa squash. Both are tasty and sweet, trademarks of healthy summer produce. 

An easy and delicious way to prepare summer squash is to wash and dry them well, then trim and slice into 1/4" slices. Toss the squash slices in a mixing bowl with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic (garlic powder if you don't have fresh) and then top each slice with a generous sprinkling of real parmesan. 

Lay them side by side in one layer on a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet and pop them into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Turn the oven on broil and let the cheese bubble and brown on the top shelf for 3 minutes. 

Remove from the oven and serve hot. This dish would also be delicious with a drizzling of marinara sauce!

Enjoy friends - we'll be back at the market this Saturday. The harvest report this week: beets, carrots, onions, potatoes, garlic, broccoli, cabbage, summer squash, cucumbers, and kale. Come say hi and see if any of our fresh veggies and wood-fired bread can be added onto your menu for the week. 

Miso Turnips

Turnips are kind of mysterious, not usually on the general rotation of vegetables for most folks. The variety we grow at Shiloh are a Hakurei, or Tokyo turnip - known for its crisp, delicate flavor. It doesn't need to be cooked like other turnip varieties, and is lovely raw, grated or sliced for salad or dipping. 

If you want to forego eating them raw and try something a little bit different, here's a tasty and easy idea from the cookbook "It's All Easy," a collection of recipes designed for the busy weekday cook. 

First, preheat your oven to 425 fahrenheit. Wash about 1 pound of turnips well, then trim and peel them, removing the greens.

Leave the small ones whole and cut the bigger ones in half. They should be in 1" pieces. You can leave a little of the top, they look cool when you cook them. 

Toss the turnips in some olive oil, salt, and pepper and put them in the oven to roast for 15-20 minutes, until they are tender.

Meanwhile mix 1 tbsp miso paste (you can buy in the Asian section at Kroger), 1 tbsp maple syrup, and 1 tbsp butter in a small skillet and whisk gently over medium heat until totally combined. Remove from heat and set aside. 

When the turnips come out of the oven, toss them in the miso mixture and return to the oven to broil for 3-5 minutes. Watch them carefully, the miso mixture can burn quickly. The turnips are done when they have a nice glaze and look browned and deliciously blistered. 

Enjoy this side dish fresh and hot, it doesn't reheat well.