While most are not really excited about gaining weight, when the box gains weight I am delighted!.  That means we are moving on from the season of leaves to things a bit more substantial.  Today’s CSA share has some familiar faces…Onions, Lettuce,Arugula, Garlic Scapes Golden & Chioggia Beets, Sugar Snap Peas and Snow Peas.  The box also contains a few newcomers including Potatoes, Green Beans,  Kale and Cabbage.

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As you head out to prepare for the 4th of July, hopefully amidst hot dogs and s’mores you can find some interesting ways to use up this weeks box.  Cabbage is great in slaw, but really sweetens up when cooked or braised a bit.  It can be wrapped in foil with butter and grilled, boiled on the stove or attempt this great oven roasted version with bacon.

You were provided with a pretty generous bag of Sugar Snap Peas with this box.  Of course eating them raw is always a treat. But steaming or sauteing them also really brings out the sweetness. You may notice a few pods have white splotches, that is thanks inpart to the brief hail we had earlier in the week.  It doesn’t hut them in the long haul; it is just cosmetic.

The lettuce has moved on from leaves to full blown heads.  Speckled Trout is the variety of choice this week.   It was not really washed as that extra water held in the heads only shortens the shelf life so it will need to be washed well before using.

I am glad for these long days this time of the year as it helps in getting all the various chores done.  We have been butchering chickens, hatching new layers, prepping goats for show, baling hay, planting some later crops and weeding, weeding weeding.  Luckily we have not needed to water much.

The melons and cucumbers are making vines and flowering well.  Late cabbage is forming nice heads and we are near the time to harvest the garlic!

Hopefully this weekend I will find some quiet time to dive into the three new reads I picked up.  The Grafter’s Handbook is all about grafting which I might actually save fore winter reading.  I am hoping the Art of Natural Cheesemaking by David Asher spawns some creative ways to use some excess goat milk and maybe I will pick up a new trick or two from Will Bonsail’s Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening.

I hope you enjoy this weeks share and Happy 4th of July!