…well we’ve been due. The watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, okra and quite a few others are going to appreciate the 90 degree days and 70 degree evenings. We might end up losing the lettuce mix to this heat next week, but it’s been a nice run. We will plant again for a September thru October crop.
A couple new items this week, Shell Peas and Fava Beans. Each will be needed to be shelled, husked, or shucked…. whichever you prefer (they are all the same btw!) Fava beans are a new crop for us. I’ve been sampling them in the garden and trying to determine when to harvest them as there seems to be many opinions out there as to when it is best. There are three stages to pick a fava bean. Picked early enough, you can eat the entire bean (shell and all). If you wait a bit longer you need to husk the beans from their pods and discard the pod, eating just the bean. If you wait even longer, you need to husk the beans from their pods, then you need to extract the bean from it’s waxy outer coating by boiling them for 30 seconds. We are picking our beans somewhere in the vicinity of stage 2-3! I’ll let you decide whether or not the beans need to be removed from the waxy coating… me personally, I was popping them right in my mouth the way they are. The shell peas are much less of a guessing game. They need to be shelled as their name implies! Have Fun!
With Kale being one of our rugularly featured items in the CSA box we hope you are all enjoying it. Kale is packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, and is an anti-inflammatory. It’s often thought of as a “superfood”. We combined it with another “superfood” , quinoa, and included the recipe on a recipe page. Hope you enjoy! We also added a recipe using snow peas, carrots, and scallions/garlic scapes, in case you are looking for a quick meal that uses alot of the items in the CSA box. Pictured Below
So, the box for this week will be:
Lettuce Mix
Broccoli
Shell Peas
Fava Beans
Scallions
Kale or Swiss Chard
Carrots
Red Beets
Have a great week!
Greg, Heather, and Jonas