CSA Newsletter for Week 11

Farm Update

It's tomato season!  These lovely tomatoes were
waiting to be brought to Midland for Thursday's
drop-off, then from there to people's kitchens to
become dinner!

Hi everyone!  It's been a pretty eventful week at the farm!  Most of our employees (who I call our farm kiddos, even though they're pretty much all taller than me) are headed back to school, so now we're down to just Fred, Carson, and Nolan.  A huge thanks so much to Mary, Max, and Brayden for all your hard work this season!  So naturally, between our farm kiddos leaving and Carson taking a much-deserved fishing trip for a few days, it was definitely a hurry-up offense to get all the necessary harvesting, washing, packing, seeding, planting, and irrigating done this week, but we made it through.  We were also kind of biting our nails about having the Midland drop-off at a different location, thinking about everything that could go wrong.  (What if everyone forgets about the change?  What if there's no shade and the veggies wilt?  Etc...) But it went off without a hitch, so we breathed a huge sigh of relief when that was over.  And here we are, officially entering the second half of the season!  

We're kind of on the edge between summer and fall right now.  We still have many of our late summer veggies (cherry tomatoes, green beans, and bell peppers), but there is definitely a chill in the morning air, and we're starting to ease into more fall veggies, like cabbage and beets.  The change in the air feels like a subtle reminder to can tomato sauce from the leftover bits of tomatoes, and freeze the stray green beans.  Because as they say, winter is coming.  So let's fully enjoy these last few weeks of summer, and then we'll relish fall when it rolls around in its turn.  :-)

What to Expect in This Week's Share

If you are picking up at one of our traditional style drop-offs (Alma, Mt. Pleasant, and Midland), here’s what the options will be at the different stations.  If you have a half share, you’ll choose one item at each station, and if you have a full share, you choose two items at each station!

• Cherry tomatoes
• Romaine or spring mix
• Green beans or beets
• Carrots or potatoes
• Kale, microgreens, cabbage, or basil
• 2 tomatoes or 2 green peppers
• Onion, garlic, or shallot

If you have a prepacked share (Midland hospital, St. Johns, Lansing, Okemos, or home delivery), here are your options.  If you have a half share, you’ll choose either share A, B, or C, and if you have a full share, you can choose two of them.  So just email me by lunchtime the day before your drop-off to let me know which share you want for this week!  If I don't hear from you, I'll just choose for you. :-)

Share A: Cherry tomatoes, romaine, green beans, carrots, basil, 2 slicing tomatoes, and garlic.

Share B:  Cherry tomatoes, spring mix, green beans, potatoes, microgreens, 2 green peppers, and an onion.

Share C:  Cherry tomatoes, romaine, beets, carrots, kale, 1 green pepper, 1 slicing tomato, and a shallot.

             

Recipes

Chef John's Stuffed Peppers

Every week I completely geek out about whatever new thing we have coming out of the field or coldframes, and this week is no different!  Right now, I am mega excited about green peppers!  There are so many things you can do with green peppers, so if you're stuck for ideas, here are a few!  There are Chef John's Stuffed Peppers (and if you're ever on allrecipes.com and you see anything by Chef John, you know it's going to be fantastic.  He just has really great recipes).  Or you could try out these Bell Pepper Egg Rings, which are really good on toast with a little cheese sprinkled on top.  Or if you have a bunch of veggies in the fridge you need to use up, there are few things better than a stir-fry to use a ton of veggies at once, and green peppers are amazing in stir-fry.  The possibilities are endless!