This Week’s Share:

Eggplant: Orient Express, Orient Charm, Nadia

Carrots: Nelson

Mini Onions: Purplette

Basil: Genovese

Green Beans: Foremost, Jade

Cucumber: Marketmore

Corn: Xtra-tender 272A

Salad Mix: All Lettuce Mix

Potatoes: Red Gold

Sneak peak for next week:

Sweet fresh onions

Shooting

STAR

CSA

Mark your calendars because Saturday, July 25^th is our next open house! The farm really has grown up since our last open house, and we are eager to show it off. There will be fun and games for the kids as well as the grown ups. Come see where your food comes from! Plenty more details to come, stay tuned.

Today we seeded some of our fall crops in the greenhouse. Farming has really pushed us to think a couple of months ahead of time, planning what is going to be in those September, October and November boxes. We can’t believe our eyes as the corn gets taller and the season flies by. Farming is so easy (ha ha)!

On a personal note, I wanted to address the fact that our corn variety is named Xtra-tender 272A. I used to plant open pollinated grains for seed trials that had funny names as well, and I realized that the plant has no idea that its last name is a number, and we better not let it know. In honor of this delicious Organic corn I will name the next animal I come into contact with Dog 124CBX. So the moral of the story is that there is nothing wrong with having a number in your name, even if it is in the triple digits. Matt

Crop Notes:

Potatoes: This is a new variety, Red Gold,  you haven’t yet seen this season. Our seed catalog says: “beautiful reddish orange skin with creamy, golden-yellow, semi-moist flesh. Excellent for baking, frying, mashing, steaming or roasting.” Well that about covers it. We hope you love potatoes as much as we do.

Corn: Our early, bi-color corn is ready. We planted an early, mid season and late corn all at the same time to have corn for a good chunk of the summer. Watch out for the corn earworm, who loves to live right at the tip of the ear of corn. If you’re lucky enough to get one just cut the tip of the corn ear off and enjoy the rest. It’s so early in the season we haven’t seen any yet, but within a few weeks you’ll know who we’re talking about. All organic corn has these worms, and many see it a sign that they can trust no pesticides were applied to it.

Green Beans: These are little buggers to pick. Five of us were out there for three hours yesterday, we sure did run out of comfortable picking positions before the beans were all picked. But they are so tasty. I love to blanch them for 2-3 minutes in boiling water, and then toss with salad dressing and some onion (see below for recipe).

Basil: More pesto quantities! If you have any leftover parsley from last week, we’ve been told it goes great mixed in with your basil pesto.     

Recipes:

Green Bean Salad with Onion Vinaigrette

(adapted from this months issue of Gourmet magazine)

2-3 Purplette onions, minced

1 Tbs red wine vinegar

1 Tbs Dijon mustard

1 tsp honey

1 lb green beans, trimmed

2 Tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Stir together onion, vinegar, mustard, honey, and oil in a large bowl, let sit 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cook beans in boiling water until tender, about 6 minutes (I say 3 minutes if you like them crunchy). Drain and rinse with cold water. Toss with dressing, season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle some fresh chopped basil or dill on top if you like.

Moroccan Carrot Salad

(adapted from The Greens Cook Book by Deborah Madison)

1 pound carrots, grated

2 Tbs lemon juice

1 Tbs olive oil

1 Tbs honey salt to taste

optional: raisins and chopped walnuts

Mix together lemon juice, olive oil, and honey. Pour over carrots and toss, adding raisins and walnuts (if using). Add salt to taste.

Shooting Star CSA    PO Box 3087    Fairfield, CA 94533        shootingstarcsa@gmail.com

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