WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
carrots
cabbage
zucchini
snap peas
snow peas
green onions
beets or chard
dill or cilantro
romaine or French crisp lettuce

ELABORATIONS:
PEA ID: We grow 3 different types of peas. (see photo below) This week you will get snow and snap. Both are sweet and juicy and can be eaten pod and all, cooked or raw. The shell peas should be ready by next week. You will need to break those open and just eat the peas inside. The shells themselves are pretty tough. Pea season might be super short this year. Peas do not like heat and it’s looking like Sunday might top out at 107 degrees!
CABBAGE: These cute little guys were a surprise for me this week. Some little instinct told me I should check on them. Fresh cabbage is so sweet and flavorful. Add it to your salad, make a refreshing summer slaw with some of your dill (see recipe). Or make a quick slaw for tacos by adding lime juice and salt to a mix of shredded cabbage, carrots, and cilantro.
CHARD: Chard is underrated. Check out these recipes or substitute it for spinach in recipes that call for that. The stuffed chard leaf recipe is a regular dish in our dinner rotation. You can make a deconstructed version by adding chopped chard to the mixture and bake it as a casserole, rather than stuffiing the leaves. In general, chard pairs well with feta cheese.
ZUCCHINI: I was excited to see so much come in out of the field! Zucchini is ridiculously versatile. The flavor is so subtle that you can add it to just about anything. You can shred it, dice it, spiralize it, cube it, coin it, juggle it…. We grow 3 other types of squash as well and they should be ready soon.

HEAT WAVE! I keep checking my weather app to see if they made a mistake or perhaps someone is playing a little joke on us wimpy Washingtonians. As mentioned above, it is supposed to get up to 107 on Sunday and 102 on Saturday. Yikes! Friday will be rather warm as well. We will have to abandon any plans of weeding and just focus on irrigation, harvest and CSA packing. Our current weekday work schedule is 6:00 -2:30 (ish), so the crew should be wrapping up before it gets too uncomfortable and thankfully no one works weekends except market folks. We will no doubt be irrigating like crazy, watering the greenhouses at least twice a day, hiding in the house and/or hanging out by the river. I hope you all have a cool place to escape to. Luckily most of your box contents can be eaten raw, so you can use it all with minimal cooking.

That’s all for this week.

-Jen

CSA Newsletter - Summer - Week 2 - 2021