We are in the thick of summer tomatoes and heat these days but the start of the winter squash harvest makes it feel like fall is just around the corner! The kickoff for fall for us each year is the annual Ag Day Farmers Market! This year it will take place on September 8th 10am-2pm on Main Street in Concord Center. Stop by and say hello to us and our fellow Concord farmers! We will be there selling vegetables and flowers, and in addition there will be kids activities and music. We hear that Concord farmer Bill Kenney might be coming by with his green bean picking machine so we can all check it out!
In the meantime, we are busy cultivating our fall brassicas and lettuce plantings, clipping and binning up winter squash as it ripens, and continuing to weed the carrots. Right now we are experiencing a break in the carrot harvest with the end of the spring carrots and a delayed harvest for fall (our first couple of plantings got scorched by the midsummer heat and then washed out in the rainstorms) but we are continuing to enjoy a bountiful tomato harvest, just brought in a great crop of spaghetti squash, and are excited to be distributing the first of the cured garlic harvest this week!
This week in the CSA:
- Spaghetti squash - Cut in half and bake. To serve, use a fork to scrape out the "spaghetti" inside and top with your favorite sauce! These are ripe when the outside is bright yellow.
- Garlic - This garlic has been cured so it can be kept outside the fridge. Store in a cool dark place.
- Kale - Our fall crop is now ready!
- Yukina savoy - A tasty salad green. It can also be lightly cooked.
- Salanova Lettuce Mix - a farmfavorite is back for the fall!
- Colored sweet peppers
- Green and purple bell peppers
- Slicing tomatoes - Mountain Merit (red), Damsel (pink) and Chef's Choice Orange (orange of course!).
- Heirloom tomatoes - Pruden's Purple, Striped German, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green and Carbon. These have been sprayed with organic copper to prevent late blight, so be sure to wash them before eating.
- Fresh onions - Transitional.
- Eggplant
- Summer squash - Transitional.
- Zucchini - Transitional.
CSA Pick-your-own
- Cherry tomatoes - all are ripe. Also the cocktail size tomatoes (Mountain Magic and Wapsipinicon Peach) are ripe.
- Husk cherries
- Hot peppers - jalapeño and serrano.
- Cilantro, basil, sage, mint, oregano or thyme.
In the farm store:
We will have most of the veggies listed in the CSA available, as well as bulk paste tomatoes for making sauce. We'll also have organic raspberries from Silferleaf Farm in Concord (just down the road from us!) corn from Verrill, honey from Double B honey (produced by bees right here on the property!), and eggs from Pete and Jen's Backyard Birds.
PYO Flowers:
You don't have to be a Flower CSA member to pick - just talk to a shopkeeper about purchasing a bouquet a la carte. Flowers in bloom right now include zinnias, calendula, amaranth, orlaya, Sweet Annie, bachelors button, celosia, statice, scabiosa, verbena, cosmos, strawflower, craspedia, gomphrena, ammi, torch, and more.
Quick Fresh Tomato Sauce
DAVID TANIS
- YIELD About 2 1/2 cups
- TIME 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS
- 5 pounds tomatoes
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 garlic clove, halved
- 1 basil sprig
- 1 bay leaf
PREPARATION
- Cut tomatoes in half horizontally. Squeeze out the seeds and discard, if you wish. Press the cut side of tomato against the large holes of a box grater and grate tomato flesh into a bowl. Discard skins. You should have about 4 cups.
- Put tomato pulp in a low wide saucepan over high heat. Add salt, olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, basil and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a brisk simmer.
- Reduce the sauce by almost half, stirring occasionally, to produce about 2 1/2 cups medium-thick sauce, 10 to 15 minutes. Taste and adjust salt. It will keep up to 5 days in the refrigerator or may be frozen.
Salsa Fresca
MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN
- YIELD 2 cups
- TIME 10 minutes
- ¼ small white or red onion, minced
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1 pound fresh, ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1 to 3 jalapeño or serrano chiles, to taste, minced (and seeded, if you would like a milder salsa)
- 4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, more to taste
- 1 to 3 teaspoons fresh lime juice(optional)
- Salt to tast
PREPARATION
- Place minced onion in a bowl and cover with cold water. Add vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes or longer. Drain and rinse with cold water.
- In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients and stir in onions. (If your tomatoes are full of flavor, you won’t need lime juice.) Ideally, let stand at room temperature for 15 to 30 minutes before eating so that flavors will blend and ripen.