Greetings!   

This week we have quite a colorful bag.  We have tasty sweet corn from Maize Valley Farm in Hartville, rainbow swiss chard and yukon gold potatoes and heirloom tomatoes from Homerville, and yellow wax beans from Middlefield.  

The center of the plate item this week is our chicken bratwursts.  These have become customer favorites over the last year as they are quite versatile and work well on sandwiches, served cold, in pasta dishes, and more. They are made from the same meat as the pasture raised chickens that we featured a few weeks back.

For those not familiar with heirloom tomatoes, they are extremely funky colored, funky shaped, and ultra tasty tomatoes.  There will be tomatoes that are green, yellow, red with black stripes, and all kinds of weird shapes.  They will be ripe despite the color.  They are also very fragile.  Please be careful with your heirlooms and be sure to treat them special.  Use them to make a special salad, serve them with a salt shaker, or with a drizzle of olive oil and some fresh herbs and cheese.  

About half of the route will get heirloom tomatoes this week and the other half will get mixed color cherry tomatoes, including some heirloom varieties in there.  We'll switch that next week.

As for the term heirloom, it simply means a very old seed variety that isn't traditionally grown for market.  These are seeds that have been saved and passed down for centuries.  Specialty producers grow them for their flavor.  You'll rarely see them at grocery stores as they are so difficult to transport and they are very perishable.  

For the large customers this week, you get a special treat.  We'll feature pork spareribs with a jar of Pope's BBQ Sauce.  For those who have come to my pig roasts or bought the sauce before, you know how good it is.  Clark made this sauce specifically for Fresh Fork after I tasted it at a fundraiser at his house last year.  It has since become one of our best selling value-added products.  It is based 100% on tomatoes with no corn syrup and it is a bit tangy, with some crushed red pepper included in it.   

Below is this week's full package:

Summer Week 8: 

1 pint blueberries

6 ears sweet corn

3 lb yukon gold potatoes

1 bunch rainbow swiss chard

1 bunch collard greens

2 ct cucumbers

1 pint cherry tomatoes or approx 1.5 lbs heirloom tomatoes (about 3 depending on size)

1 package chicken bratwursts 

1 lb yellow wax beans

2 ct green peppers

Large CSA Share Small contents above plus:

1 canteloupe 

1 package pork spare ribs 

1 jar Pope's BBQ sauce  

Vegetarian Share

In place of chicken brats

1 piece Mayfield Road Creamery gouda

1 canteloupe 

Vegan Share

Small contents plus vegetarian items, minus cheese

2 lb bag of Red Cranberry Beans