CSA Week 10 August 15, 2012
Week 10 brings a few new things to your share, bell peppers and watermelon. Growing up we never grew melons. Mother always said it wouldn’t grow in our heavy soils. A few years ago I tried melons and had great luck with a great little green melon called Edens Gem. It was like candy; A great green melon about the size of a softball. Ever since I have tried to grow melons buy only had moderate success. This year looks to be a different story. After a little bit of a battle against cucumber beetles, the vines took off in our hot wet conditions and there are a respectable number of melons out in the patch. This week it was an old heirloom watermelon variety called Chelsea. We also had super long Moon and Stars, but kept that for ourselves. The only downfall with not growing melons is I never really learned when to know they are ripe. I think they could have been picked sooner, hence the cracking in some, but they are still tasty. Also new are a few peppers, a green bell names California Wonder and a purple bell, Lilac. Along with the newbies, you will find 2 small heads of garlic, a mix of Yukon Gold and All Red Potatoes, some Marketmore 76 cucumbers, a bunch of lettuce leaf basil, Cour Di Bue cabbage, a mix of Chioggia, Bulls Blood and Detroit Beets, some yellow crooked neck and patty pan squash, and a mixed bag of tomatoes. Usually I have early tomatoes compared to others, but this year mine are later than most. The cherries are a mix of Mexico Midget (little Red), Green Grape (big yellowish green), Lemon Drop (light yellow), Blondkopfchen (dark yellow), Riesentraube (larger Red), Brown Berry (ehh, brownish), a few Cream Sausage (long creamy colored) and Wapsipinicon Peach(larger round and fuzzy). I also had a few bigger tomatoes. You could have received, Cherokee Purple, Dr Wyches orange, Master (red) or Purple Russian (elongated fat purple). They all taste so unique it is crazy. Depending on the growing conditions each year they also taste different, but my favorites are consistently Mexico Midget, Green Grapes, and Purple Russians.
Ideas for the week:
Tomato Basil Bruschetta:
A simple way to use tomatoes is to make a simple bruschetta. Dice tomatoes, a few leaves of basil, season with salt and pepper and marinate in balsamic vinegar. Eat them as they are or on a piece of crusty bread. So simple, yet so great. Firm dry tomatoes like the cream sausage work the best but any will do.
We love cabbage. Baked, boiled, slawed, fermented, braised and creamed we love it all ways. It must be our Polish Roots. Creamed cabbage is kind of an old fashion thing. You don’t come across it too often but it is nice, different, and tasty.
Creamed Cabbage
- 1 lb cabbage, chopped
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 1 2/3 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste
Boil cabbage until tender, approximately 30 minutes and drain well.
Make a roux from the butter, flour and milk stirring constantly until it turns a light brown. Add bouillon and stir to combine.
Add cabbage, salt, pepper and nutmeg and stir to mix together.
Serve.
Have a Great Week!
chathampreservationfarm 