In Your Share (Aug 5th edition)

TomatoIt’s TOMATO time!!  We always start the season with Stupice tomatoes. Over the years we’ve tried many early varieties and hands down Stupice is the best. It ripens weeks ahead of the heirlooms and has great flavor. Bred originally in Czechoslovakia, it has small fruit and is adapted to grow well in our cool spring seasons. Like many of our favorite heirlooms ie. Brandywine and Pruden’s Purple, the Stupice is a potato leaf type. Perhaps more important, it is an indeterminante producer which means that it will keep flowering and keep cranking out the fruit all season. They’ll make a super salsa with the cilantro & sweet onions!

There are some great ideas for the fresh beans and a world tour of recipes from German Zwiebelkuchen to curry in your packet HERE.

This week your share may include…

  • Basil: Beautiful bunches of Italian Genovese green basil. Smells like summer!
  • Yellow & Purple Pole Beans: The dark purple color of the stringless Violet Podded variety is beautiful when the beans are fresh, but then fades to green when cooked. At their peak of ripeness these beans hardly need cooking so you can enjoy them either way. There may also be some heirloom Italian yellow wax beans this week. The variety is Marvel of Venice, and the beans are long and flat similar to a romano bean – yum!
  • Cabbage: Time to make some summer slaw. 
  • Carrots: We’ve had a great run of  sweet summer carrots. Enjoy them while they last – we’ll probably have a few weeks before the next planing is ready.
  • Cilantro: Salsa anyone?
  • Corn: Wow!!
  • Cucumbers: You’ll see a few different varieties in the share this week. Of the classic green cucumbers we’re growing two different kinds – Marketmore 76 is long, slender and slightly knobby while Diva is shorter, fatter and has a smooth skin. Both have great flavor.  There will also be some heirloom Lemon cucumbers in the mix – they have the round shape and yellow color of a lemon but taste like a cucumber.
  • Lettuce: This week we have two beautiful varieties of leaf lettuce. The green is Tropicana and the red is Magenta. Both have ruffled leaves that are sweet and crunchy – perfect for summer salads.
  • Sweet Onions: These Walla Walla style sweet onions are super juicy and good right now!
  • Yellow Potatoes:  These are a very versatile potato – tasty boiled, roasted or mashed.
  • Summer Squash: A nice mix of small tender squash in a variety of different shapes and colors including patty pan, crookneck and zucchini.
  • Stupice Tomatoes: Very exciting!

Coming soon… Eggplant!